Progressive Property Network Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/10/22) */
As the tenant is aware, we are the property managers for the property and do not own the property. We cannot make any repairs over a certain monetary amount agreed with the owners at time of management signing. Both of these repairs that have...

been requested, were significantly higher than the allotted amount. The owner of said property had us bid the jobs with multiple different contractors as it was quite expensive and extensive. At which point he had to have the work approved by his partners as the property is part of a partnership of investors who own multiple properties and he could not make the sole decision himself. 2 weeks ago, he decided that he would be able to make the repair on the drywall which is actually already completed and they are reviewing the best options for the fireplace. When the tenant moved in, they did agree to clean and service the fireplace but upon having the chimney sweep to the property to do so, he said that the fireplace needed to be updated prior to being used. Our company, nor our owners of the properties had any idea of the extent of work to bring the fireplace up to today's chimney sweep standards. As the chimney sweep stated, the fireplace is of the era the house was built (1970's) but many things have changed since then and would require extensive and expensive updating. Owner is continuing to look into their best options to remedy the fireplace to include; having another certified chimney sweep who is certified to make those repairs to bid the job or to have a bid for a gas insert. At which point he and his partners will decide what is the best route for them to go. As much as we would love to just make the repairs on the owners behalf for the tenant, we have to seek permission from the owner to spend any of their money. But to finish up, one of the two repairs have already been completed and the owners of the property are reviewing options for the second repair.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/10/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We the tenants rented this house with a 2 car garage and a working fireplace. It was the Property Managers job to be sure that all repairs were up to date prior to leasing this house to us. It should have been disclosed to us UP FRONT that the garage was in need of repair and that a car should not be parked in there or the ceiling could fall in and cause damage, not only to the car but the washer/dryer hook up is in there which this was a safety issue as well. Yes, the garage is now fixed but it took 5 months of them dragging their feet and jerking us around. For FIVE months we were not able to park a car into our 2 car garage. I am also very confused about her statement " The owner of said property had us bid the jobs with multiple different contractors" Only one person ever came by to look at the garage in the five months we lived here and that was the person that did the repair. When did these multiple contractors see the garage for these multiple bids? It must have been prior to us moving in, so that leads me to believe they knew of this problem, and again, didn't disclose to use any of it.
There is still an issue with the fireplace that still is not working, and if they drag their feet like they did with the garage, we won't be able to use it at all this season if ever if the owner will not pay for repairs. For 2 weeks now they have been saying an additional contractor AND fireplace person will call and we still have heard not a word from anyone.
We rented this house with a WORKING fireplace, they should have made sure that it was in working order not only prior to leasing us this house but before advertising that it HAD a fireplace. If it did not work then they should have disclosed to us that it did not work and would never work. Our decision to rent this house would have been far different had we known this. We are paying more than top dollar for this house, $1250.00, this is not cheap rent for this house and for 5 months we could not park in the garage and we have no working fireplace as it was advertised. The Property Manager above states "we did not know". How can she not know this? She is a real estate broker as a living. She stated this same thing when we got this house will all the multitude of issues we had with the missing windows in the sunroom, the crumbling walls in the sunroom, the missing lights, the overgrown yard, the greasy kitchen, the 2 inches of grime in the window sills, missing trim, missing screen in the bedroom, a dirty sink with rust in it from when the sewer backed up, an old wooden toilet seat that smelled the bathroom of urine because it was missing half of the finish and was soaked with urine, a medicine cabinet without shelves to put anything on, and many more, and she told me "she didn't know". Isn't it a Property Managers job to know these things before a tenant gets the keys to house? When we viewed this house she said all of these items would be repaired by the time we moved in, they were not and now no fireplace. We are NOT getting what we paid for. Let me say again, I Rented This House With A Working Fireplace!!! It was one of the TOP reasons why I liked this house.
Additionally, I would like to add, that the man that did the maintenance on this house is a Chimney Sweep for a living. As I understand he does maintenance work for Progressive in the summertime, he spent many-many hours doing repairs to this house, not only after we moved in, but I know from talking to him that he did prior to us moving in as well. I find it very difficult to believe that he did not mention any of these safety issues with the age of this house or anything to Progressive, as this is what he does for a living. In fact, the day he came to the house, it was not to inspect the chimney, it was to "see what it's going to take to get it up and running". HIS WORDS. Why would he need to say that if he is only coming to inspect the chimney?
I totally understand what she is saying that she cannot spend the owners money for repairs. But let me say again, sorry to be a broken record, she should have disclosed to us the issues before hand, not use her all favorite excuse that "I didn't know".