McCathren Management & Real Estate Services, Inc.

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Revdex.com,
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 10794887 and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
Thank you for taking the time to respond, if the initial contact sounded toxic, it definitely was not the intention. I would offer rebuttal to the facts given however, I do apologize for mishearing the deposit amount, I wasn't there for the initial signing of the lease so it seems I'd added 50 dollars to it, which, in the grand scheme of all the charges, was rather a moot point. Now, noise complaints to the within the apartment, though they did occur, have very little bearing on the condition of the apartment. If memory served when the apartment was vacated the marks in question to the bathroom floor were all in a 2-3 inch radius, I guess since technically they had space between them, they could be construed as 6 several spots, but it seems like a bit of an overstatement. I do apologize for the two bags of trash that were left behind, I wasn't there to oversee it and I'm sure whatever charges those would have incurred would certainly have been worth mentioning. The heater in the bathroom rusting is easily solved with lime away and in the calamity of moving I did not get the chance to apply it, however, replacing the entire unit for what a scrub and thin layer of generic white paint could have solved, seems like a completely valid way to handle the situation. I know light bulbs are expensive these days and I meant to get them replaced but I had forgotten, another point worth mentioning it seems. Going forward with new tenants, I would highly suggest doing non Tuscan lighting, white light tends to give a room a more clean and uplifting feeling, and it tends to be more energy efficient as well. I had cleaned the refrigerator several times through my occupancy but I left a month prior and did not get the chance again. That being said, replacing the entire unit seems like a bit of overkill. I appreciate that we weren't charged for a full fridge over that, however. The dishwasher was complained about several times and never actually fixed, I did more hand washing of the dishes just to save time then actually loading the dishwasher. The same applies for the air conditioner, which during record heat was also reported more than once, and yet, it only got sprayed out and was left there. We had to buy an air conditioner to keep the house at a reasonable temperature because the fix that was put in place only made the air conditioner start spraying dust, dirt and roofing material into the living room. Which, if we're going to talk about conditions, having contractors work on a roof is all fine and well, however, them leaving nails, roof shrapnel and building materials strewn all over the balcony and field below was greatly unsatisfactory.  Having the washer and dryers still be paid for when they were reported to be tampered with wasn't fantastic either. I had to put makeshift signs up to warn other tenants so that they didn't waste their time or money drying clothes inefficiently. As for the charges, 1515 it what you're quoting, but 1875 was the amount quoted to [redacted] before he talked them down to 1500, which, as a collection agency would be highly unusual. When a debt is taken by a collection agency, it's essentially a bought deal to save the company using the collection agency money. This would be the first time I have ever heard of a collection agency charging more than the original total price bought off the company they took it from. And in closing, I don't ask for a lot, the contact numbers left and the addresses left to be contacted with, even prior ones, were all up to date and had not changed in 10 years. Now, if we'd like to say that the post office failed to deliver to three different parties in a timely fashion to reliable addresses, I'd say when letters came back undelivered, that cell phones, being the main medium for communication would have been a viable venue as well, or email perhaps.  And for a company that is trying to make itself seem official in a public venue, taking a few seconds to look up slander would have been helpful. In this case, were it actually a lie or misleading to besmirch the company's name, it would have been libel. Slander is spoken, and the only people spoken to audibly  about this issue were those directly involved. On top of that, there are several google reviews and other review sites quoting very similar things, I chose to go about this through a business set up specifically for this purpose, I didn't go on social media and blast your name, nor do I intend to, I merely wished to contest the charges as overkill and to have the part of the portion refunded as the initial numbers did not match up. I do await your response as I did appreciate the comprehensive breakdown of the charges. I implore you one last time to retract some of the charges given so that I can make peace with this as watching my very close people within my inner circle suffer financial turmoil with no warning did not set well with me.
Regards,
[redacted]

Please don't rent from this company. We rented an apartment from them at Lakeside Apartment Community in Medical Lake WA. We are a military couple. When we first moved in, we signed our lease with someone named [redacted]. A few months later we are getting bills cause we "have not paid our rent". We went into the office very angry, as we had not missed one payment. Turns out, the management lady took our money and wrote things on her copy of the lease that were not on our copy. Then they said she had been fired, but she had been forging checks and asked us if a signature was ours. We said no, and they won't tell us anything else. We have never received receipts for anything, nor have we received anything they have told us in written form. Every time we ask for it, they tell us that their printer is broken. They don't ever answer their phones and we wait weeks sometimes before we hear back from them. They continue to tell us different things but we can't seem to get a single thing in writing when they promise us all these things.

Review: McCathren Management took over for the last 2 months of our lease at Granite Pointe for Moland Managment. A verbal agreement was made with McCathren management company in early June concerning our situation. Due to this verbal agreement (we could vacate unit [redacted] and keep our two garages for 15 days after), we decided we could give them as much notice as possible regarding the date we would vacate. We are landlords ourselves and understand how nice it is to have a good amount of notice. Our notice was as follows:

June 16, 2014

Dear Management Staff:

Although you have treated us very well, we do intend to vacating unit [redacted] no later than July 31, 2014 as we are planning on moving across the country in order to pursue educational opportunities. Please take this as our written notice of our intention of vacate.

In addition, we had talked in person about continuing to rent garages 4 (four) and 11 (eleven) for part of August. We would still very much appreciate it if this were possible. We would vacate both garages no later than August 15, 2014. We would also like to inquire about the possibility of prorating the rent for these garages as well. Please let us know at your earliest convenience if this is a possibility and what we may do to assist in this process. Our mobile phone numbers are below.

Thanks much!

We gave notice June 16th 2014. We had not received anything in writing or verbally until July 9th that they would not honor our verbal agreement or written notice. July 9, 2014 we received a phone call that they were unable to accommodate us keeping the garages after terminating our residence in [redacted]. We asked that [redacted] contact her superiors with a request to make an exception or come up with a creative alternative to let us either keep both garages through August 15th or extend our date of vacating to that date. They have not given us written notice that our intention to vacate letter was not accepted. They have already committed our unit for August first. We understand that is unfortunate for the new tenant to change their plans and we can find another place to stay for 15 days as was the original plan. What we do not have time or money for is moving all of our belongings from 2 garages over that 15 day period. Had we been given longer notice this may have been possible. We aren't asking for a handout, we are offering to continue paying for garages 4 and 11 and vacating on August 15th. We have talked to people all the way up the line to the Owner of McCathren Management ([redacted]) and have asked for him to creatively make this work for both of us. He will not compromise in any way. We would appreciate some help in this dispute. If we are truly obligated to remove our belongings from the garages then we will hire a truck and movers to do it for us. But this seems absurd that they cannot figure out a way to honor our original agreement made with plenty of time for discussion and then put us in this position with no other options given. We just want to pay for and keep the garages through August 15th 2014 as originally agreed upon.Desired Settlement: We pay for at the agreed rate and keep possession of Garages #4 and #11 through August 15th 2014.

Business

Response:

[redacted],

We at

McCathen Management understand how stressful and frustrating moving can be.

Unfortunately, When you gave us notice to vacate the unit on July 31st, 2014 we

accepted that written notice and have since,

re-rented that apartment. I

understand on your written notice you had questions about keeping the garages

until August 15th, 2014.

That request was never discussed with McCathren Management before July 9th,

2014. I wish we could have let you know about your request sooner.

Garages here at Granite Pointe are provided for current and future tenants to

rent out for the use of parking their vehicles. After the 31st of July you , unfortunately, will no

longer be a resident of Granite Pointe Apartments. Therefore, we cannot continue

to rent garages out to you after July 31st, 2014 due to the fact your lease agreement and all addendum's apart of your lease will be void. On top of that we do have current residents on our waiting list to occupy garages 4 and 11. Please have your garages turned in with your keys on or before the 31st of July.

Thank you ,

Granite Pointe Apartments

Managed by McCathren Management

Review: we were informed of charges for professional carpet cleaning at the end of our lease upon giving our 30 days notice to the resident manager [redacted]. We asked where in our lease is this mentioned for this is not been told to us when we moved in and signed to our 9 month lease. numerous times we asked where we signed that this would be necessary understanding normal wear and tearlaws. nothing mentioned professional cleaning.we have been told numerous times call corporate office and they will explain it. We have contacted the corporate office and spoke to a man by the name of [redacted]. [redacted] abruptly explained to us he manages over 3,000 apartments and this is just the way it is, I do not care if it is in the lease or not you will be charged if you do not have it professionally cleaned. This is just the way I do it he says. From my research, normal wear and tear is normal fading of shades and carpet vs. Cigarette burns. Our apartment has remained above and beyond cleanliness, however, [redacted] feels it is ok to charge ALL tenants regardless of cleanliness. Not only to mention, none of these charges are mentioned in our lease agagreement. This has all taken place all while management has changed hands within the last several months. We have been notifyed that our original walk through inspection has been lost, including our original lease. We have also been told our original lease has been archived and not available other than through the corporate office. Also an inspection walk through was placed in our file with a grading of a perfect interior of the apartment, this was signed by new management with out our consent and we did not approve of the agreement. We have provided an inspection with our honest recolection of the appearance of our residence prior to move in. Whether this information has been kept, archived or lost we did keep a copy as well as our original lease agreement.Desired Settlement: no additional charges upon home inspection of carpet cleanliness according to Idaho State law and wear and tear policies and lease agreement.

Business

Response:

In the lease, it directly states that the security deposit may be applied "in whole or in part to any obligations of the residents, including but not limited to delinquent rent, damages in excess of normal wear and tear, cleaning, breach of contract, failure to give landlord required notice of intent to vacate, and eviction."

Attached is a copy of our lease.

Review: After having moved out of this apartment complex on [redacted] since June 1st (The end of the lease being june 30th) and leaving, I come to find out that my former roommates had been called with a collections claim against them in the amount of 1875$, 375 of which they said was from "Interest". However, though all three of our names were listed with phone numbers and emails that have not changed in many years, no attempt was made to contact us. Post office changes and forwarding addresses were put into effect before the lease was even completed. After [redacted] contacted them about the debt and got them to admit that they had taken no action to reach us, which they had tried to state that they had, they retracted 375. Of the 1500, there was a 400 dollar charge for the pet deposit, however, the 250 dollar deposit which they kept was not accounted for. Considering the shady business dealing they already had trying to tack on for interest which should never have been applied, I find their estimate of very superficial damage to be absurd. The money was paid because my friend feared having his credit and all of our collect credit dinged over this entire fiasco. The laws of what damages can be considered reasonable is what's considered "normal wear and tear" and though a small hole where a chair had been moved may have been present, 1100 dollars in damages I think not. I truly believe what this business is trying to do is beyond forgivable and dare I say it, borderline illegal if not incredibly unethical at best.Desired Settlement: 1,100 dollars is a far overshoot of what would be considered reasonable charges for normal wear and tear of a carpet that was in use for at least three years without even account for a prior tenant. considering the amount of years the carpet was there, the laws regarding inflated charges, and having already caught this business with legitimately false charges in the form of undue "interest". 800 dollars of this should be removed. 550 from inflation, 250 from the un returned deposit.

Business

Response: