Open House Property Management

Hi ***, Thanks so much for the positive feedback! We value your opinion and we are very pleased that you are satisfied with your experience.

To whom it may concern,

Since our response is going to be longer we decided to send an email to you.
Please see below.

And what we could offer them is going to be the following;

1. Provide a microwave to them AND/OR
2. Provide a cart to put a microwave in the kitchen area

We are sorry that they had to have these negative experiences at time of their move in but numerous vendors and we have tried hard to cooperate with them to get these issues resolved.

Thank you,

*The blue ink in the below is our comment.
==============================================================================================================
This property management company has not held up to the contracted service expectations in our lease agreement, nor most email & verbal remidiations.
The property rented has been a problem since day 1.
Lease documents were not accurate and on move in day we received revised lease that was still not as discussed and foced to sign or not move in.
Items were to be written in an email to cover the discussed items not represented in the lease and some were while others were not.
They were asking us to revise the lease we have however we are using the one created by Texas Association Realtors(TAR) so we did not revise anything.
That is what they are talking about in the above we assume. This lease is legally used in Texas.
House was not move in ready when we arrive and many items were to be completed well after our move in date without us knowing.
It was not really move in ready. And we apologize for that. That is why we have been above and beyond.
Lease signed in January 2019 and here in September 2019 we still have open items and any new ones have been months before they complete.
The only thing we currently have is a microwave. I asked them about their availability to take measurements on 10/7 and we are waiting on them to give us an answer as of 10/11.
This company offers no recourse for not adhering to their part of the agreement.
I have paid rent on time but do not get the enjoyment of the property as expected and there is no means to remedy it with them unless you go to court.
They are banking on you not putting the level of effort and threaten you if you even think of holding on rent until repairs are completed.
The property manager is a bully and escalation has provided little improvement towards any attention to the issues.

House had safety issues at move in they dismissed until a vendor told them it was a hazard.
Vendor is not instructed to say directly to residents about something like the above. We need to know who told them and what the issue was.
We have corrected anything that might have been considered a hazard.

Squirrels in the attic took months to remedy as the varmint ran about our bedrooms daily and all through the night.
According to our vendor, on their first or second trip out, they closed all open holes around home where they could have gotten in. If there was any new hole they would not know.

Bathtub resurfaces over top of filth causing chards of hard resurfacing material on the surface of the tub and tiles.
Resurface over hair! Ick They attempted to resurface it 3 times and still not improvement, then stated that it is to their satisfaction and no more would be done.
This is what our vendor told us "We did not resurface the tub the first or second time.
This was not originally one of our properties. We were called in to remedy the situation. He had to strip the tub twice and resurface.
He still could not get all of the nibs out from the first resurface, but it was 90% better when we finished with it, but she still was not happy."
The vendor we used for this job was fired and we used this vendor to remedy this issue.
We as Property Management company visited this house and touch the surface.
We considered it our standard.

Microwave venting into cabinet causing it to shut off as it overheats.
Shuts off at will ...this has being going on for months and they dilly dally over fixing it.
Their first claim was the door of the microwave does not open all the way.
That was the original complaint, the shutting off of the microwave came after the initial complaint.
There are numerous other items like the bedroom closets falling apart and gutters damaged and spewing water over front door.
They do not respond within reasonable time frames, do not realized hazards and hide behind ambiguous language in their lease agreement.
I contacted the real estate broker on their lease agreement and received not response as well.
*** was contacted and his assistant was supposed inquire and respond.
No response and this was months ago.
I have many emails with communications and pointing out the length of time to remedy.
The list of items from move in was provided to them and they sent someone to capture and report on all the open items.

Here are some comments we have to address here.

1Work Order
She stated the following at 10:02am on 9/26/19
"I put in a service request for the lease to be added to my account because it is not in out documents and the go and close it without a response or adding it to the portal.
What is that ? Why would you close a service request without completing the service requested? AND then no explanation in the close stating it will be added or any communications.
This is another example of the horrible way your company handles customers. Why is this?"

However we did replied to her at 9:40am on 9/26 saying that "Hello, I have forwarded to our leasing department."
And our leasing department sent an email to her at 10:16 am saying that we're still in the process of getting everything transferred over. It will be updated soon though."

As you can see we took actions in a timely manner.
That is an unreasonable complaint.

2Lease Agreement
We switched a system to another system due to our company's decision.

And she stated "This is not acceptable that you expect us to pay a processing fee to pay the rent online. This is not something you can make a decision on as company to change a system which imposes fees to tenants.
You cannot simply expect to pass on the charges to tenants. That is not in our lease agreement."

However, it is in our lease (Texas Association Realtors) of 5 D. Method of Payment (3) stating that "Landlord may charge a reasonable fee to process or accept payment by electronic payment."

The reason why we are bringing this up here is because she gave the below email to us right before she signed our lease.
The below is all the questions she asked us before signing the lease and it was signed by her.
That is another unreasonable complaint considering that she read through it.

Reading the lease agreement and not favorable about paying rent in money order or cashier check, that costs money and time to go get and then mail/deliver. Electronic payments are the most common practice currently.
5A says one thing and 5 D say another. Would you please confirm that electronic monthly rent payments will be accepted by the owner?

5E states the landlord may increase the rent when the lease goes to month to month with 30 days notice. I feel we need to have a reasonable expectation for what it may be and if we are not in agreement, then the 60 day termination period would have to start then and be at the same lease rate as contracted. 30 day notice for it to take effect but then we could put in our 60 day termination notice if the increase is not acceptable and we are going to move out. This 60 day period would be expected to be at the original rent amount.

9 NO PETS

10A We plan on providing these electronically tomorrow

10B ummm...is that legal in this state? You are holding our money as a security deposit to have funds in case of any damage or missed payments, and that is money we could hold in an account to earn interest. Any interest on held funds that are not used to satisfy damages or payments in the rears would be expected to be returned with the funds and interest beared to the tenants at term. Security is just that, peace of mind that you have readily available funds held to cover any unforeseen occurrences. It is not very ethical to hold someone's money and expect to make money from the interest it bears, it is not the landlord's money, it is secured funds.

12b What are the covenants referenced in this section?

14 It would be expected that there would be some reasonable time frame for notice before entry to courteously coordinate schedules.

17A3 Are these provided by the landlord? If not, we need to know the expense associated with this expectation. A5 same. A9 What is the history of extermination expenses at this property? I would like to make sure we are not inheriting a critter issue. A10 Please provide any history of standing water issues, when, where, what and the expense to remedy? The yard had signs of possible drainage issues on the lawn near the cement patio, French drains would likely be the solution but if routine water builds up there it could result in a pesky mosquito problem.

17B Does this home have an installed lawn sprinkler system?

18A Heating and cooling at certain temperatures should be an emergency event. Below freezing will cause pipes to freeze and high temperatures, over 100 degrees will cause devices to over heat and potentially a fire hazard. This needs to be a written at some reasonable terms.

26 Remulching? I need to get a history of expenses...that can be costly. What are the HOA "ameneties" which would incur fees, and what are the fees? We plan to exercise the agreement of the admin fees waived if we pay the deposits by tomorrow; however, some of these items need to be answered for us to move forward. We have the funds readily available; not a problem.

31 Not sure which areas cover the Move in Fee Schedule and Info and the Landlord's Rules and Regulations in these selection. Please point out which specific items these reference.

3Gutter
There were a lot of leaves but we cleaned the gutter twice with the same company.
The first time was around the end of February after they moved in, which we do not normally do 30 days after their move in.
But we did it for them simply to recover their experience for their move in.
We did what we had to do as far as fixing the gutters is concerned.
We did confirm it with our vendor to see if it is correctly installed.
Here are the email threads in the below.

On Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 4:03 PM JCM wrote:
Another rent payment and our issue still goes dismissed without resolution. I gather when the microphone catches on fire you will attempt to make it the tenants fault. You have had more than reasonable time to fix the problem.

And is this the expected completion of the solution for the gutter issue? Photos attached.

It has been over a month and no one has returned.

I want to issue a complaint about your company to the landlord. Please provide contact information. I am pursing the same to the State.

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 1:13 PM Ryosuke Takahashi Open House Texas Realty & Investments LLC wrote:
Hi ***,

I talked to the vendor who fixed the gutter issue simply to confirm the current situation.

As you can see the water is not affecting the foundation.
And the water is not coming into the house.
Thus, the gutter is doing what it needs to do and the situation would be considered safe and functional.

Would you please let me know what else we can do?

Thank you,
Ryosuke

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 2:20 PM JCM wrote:
Please address the microwave and request for landlord contact information.

I have asked repeatedly and want to complain directly about your company to the owner of the property.

4Unreasonable Requests
- Earth Worms appear when it rains.
There is almost nothing we can do about it.
This happens naturally.

- A lot of leaves in the back yard/gutters.
Leaves fall in winter. As time goes by, leaves fall and there is nothing we can do about it.
Please see the below email communications with the pictures.
We cleaned the house and the backyard as you can see.

- Asking us to resurface the bathtub 3 times.
We have worked with this vendor for a long time and we have never had complaints about resurfacing the tub. Even if we had it once, they would get that corrected for the second time.
We actually visited the property to touch the bathtub and the bathtub was fine.
The vendor will fix any issues if they think it is not safe or functional.
Additionally, their claim was "no parents would let their children take a bath with this bathtub" but considering this 2 leaseholders are adults with no children and looking safe and functional after the visit it is considered beyond reasonable.

The below is one of the email threads as an example of unreasonable request such as in red ink.
On Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 3:09 PM Ryosuke Takahashi Open House Texas Realty & Investments LLC wrote:
***,

Please see my response below.

Thank you so much for your understanding.

Ryosuke

On Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 5:21 PM JCM wrote:
***, Mike, Tom (DFW Make Ready), and Takahashi
(I do not have Tom's email address to include him in this correspondence and will rely on Robbie to forward this to him, or respond on his behalf)

2pm Conference Call

Please find the items I noted during our call. I attempted to capture everyone's input and my apologies if I missed anything.

Items discussed;

Threshold/ front door; earth worms coming into foyer when damp and it rains. Weather stripping installed on the outside of the door was not installed properly and it has been torn simply from friction with the screws/metal plate over the entry threshold when the door is opened and closed. The problem appears to be under or along side the wood of the threshold, but I am basing that on just what is noticeable from the surface.
I will have DFW Make Ready look at this when they install the cabinets and once we find a cause we will do what needs to be done right then.

Lawn, front and back yard; leaves and flower beds were not reasonably cleared of leaves and debris at move in. Backyard has debris such as broken glass, metal brackets and screws, and similar.
I attached the pictures taken on 1/8/19. Based on these pictures, I am not sure about the leaves and flower beds you are talking about so if you could just let me know what those are that would be great.
Cabinets; been ordered and finished and ready for installation. ( Blinds were not discussed, but Robbie communicated they were ready for installation as well. Please verify.)
Robbie will contact you to make an appointment with you.

Gutters/ down spouts; gutters were stated to be cleaned but no verification of downspouts. Gutter guards to be installed. Request check areas where overflow is happening during heavy rains; noticed over front door entry and outside window of bedroom 2.
We do not put gutter guards for the other tenants however since the only option we have to solve this issue is cut the trees so leaves will not fall but leaves will fall every year (It is nature thing) thus what we can do to prevent this from happening is put gutter guards.

Bathtub surface; 3 attempts to resurface the tub have resulted in what I feel is unsatisfactory results. No further options have been offered to improve upon this issue.
While I understand your concerns, we have attempted to fix it 3 times to have this issue fixed.

Microwave; refitting a smaller unit or a counter top unit is the only option. Tom will refer to his measurements and options will be proposed thereafter.
We might be able to get a smaller unit and have it on the counter top. I will talk to DFW about this.

Fume Hood ; pointed out the overhang beyond the counter where we are hitting our heads above the stove top.
I can have DFW look at this but if this was rented as is we keep it as is.

The deck built around the tree in the back yard was not addressed during the call. There was communications with Robbie on this issue and some simple solutions offered to adequately repair the deck for it to remain usable. The one board replace to date was not stained to match the rest of the boards.
When I visited you on 2/22, we decided not to do anything with the deck.

We discussed having all open items remedied within 30 days.

Due to the challenges with getting resolution on the numerous issues with this house, and most started from day one, we would like to pursue a change of our lease terms. Our current lease has a termination date of January 31 2020. The circumstances we have encountered with getting services performed in a reasonable time frame lead us to request an out option if necessary; we do not want to endure this type of situation for the remainder of term . We have spent the past 3 month of our occupancy compromised and feel there is more to come due to the poor condition of this house. Mike and I love the location and the house layout works well for us, but we do not want to spend the next 9 months requesting and chasing after service as we find more and more items that need repair. We would like the option to provide 30 days notice to terminate our lease. If you take a look at the number of full days and additional hours already invested in enabling access and working around workers at the house, you will find we have been extremely accommodating and provided an extraordinary amount of time and effort towards resolution.
We will do everything we can but no one knows what kind of maintenance/repair we might have in the future thus we cannot make a decision based on that if that makes sense.

If there are any additions or revisions to the above, please respond denoting your comments. I would like to schedule a date and time as soon as possible to get these items agreed upon fully satisfied to completion, as well as address the revision to our lease agreement.

Thank you for your time and prompt attention to these items.

***

5List / Suggest Termination (This is back in February.)

We conducted the following repairs.
We were not able to do the microwave or the cabinet above the microwave at that time however she was not satisfied with what we have done.
Therefore, we kindly offered them two options.
1. Terminate their lease with no penalties.
2. Complete the repairs.

We have attempted to complete the repairs but there are some cases where we have had hard time to get those fixed such as the below red ink part.

On Tue, Feb 5, 2019, 10:14 AM Mason Leonard

We responded to the reply.
Please see attached.
Our comments are in blue.

Unfortunately this is incorrect information, the tenant contacted our maintenance department on 08/09/2019 our vendor made contact on 08/09/2019 and placed two portable units in the tenants home on 08/10/2019. The Tenant failed to report that the two portable units were placed in the home in which the vendor provided. Therefore tenant will not be reimbursed for hotel stay due to the stay being tenant choice.

Please be advised that per the Texas property code it must be at least 85 degrees inside your home to be considered an emergency, in which any tenant must allow a company a reasonable amount of time to address any maintenance concerns which was addressed with portable units. Per your lease agreement a landlord is not required to reimburse a tenant for their choosing to stay outside of the home or hiring a vendor of their own. OHT have met all state requirements.

The tenant moved out of the home on 07/01/2019. Under Texas law, you must give the landlord a forwarding address in order to receive your returned security deposit. The landlord must return your deposit -- less any amount deducted for damages -- within 30 days. If the landlord withholds part or all of your deposit, they must give you an itemized list of deductions with a description of the damages.

Please be advised that there was no communication received in regards to another renter to our leasing department the information for applying for a home should have been submitted through our leasing center and according to leasing there was no communication in regards to the home. Again, by Law any company has 30 days to provide a deposit. This complaint is invalid and falsely filed we ask that it is closed and removed from Revdex.com. This lease agreement was not completed in its entirety and the early termination requirements were not met.

Contact Name and Title: ***
Contact Email: ***@openhouse-group.com
Please be advised that Open House Texas allows all of our previous residents to dispute anything they do not agree with. In regards to their deposit disposition, w.e ask that all disputes be submitted in writing with supporting documentation. After further review OHT did not received anything in writing with supporting documentation from the previous resident.

This is inaccurate. We made 3 repairs on the tenant's HVAC system, and any delay came mostly from the tenant's scheduling constraints. The tenant asked contractors to leave the property while in the middle of a repair and every attempt was made to remedy this situation in a timely, reasonable manner.