Silverwood Realty & Investment

Review: Rented a Townhouse from Silverwood Realty([redacted]) vacated place June 1st. Was Told we would have the deposit within 14 days, and that we would be getting our whole deposit. Nothing came. Tried multiple times to get ahold of [redacted] and he began screening our calls. After practically begging for our deposit for over a month, and telling [redacted] we knew that California state law said we are supposed to have our deposit within 21 days, he finally gets us the deposit on 7/5/2013 after multiple phone calls and voicemail messages. The check was missing $75 claimed for cleaning. We were never given an itemized deduction list after moving when [redacted] was told after 21 days he forfeited the right to take any money by California state law and showing him the actual law he stated he knew the law, and did not care. That we could go to court over $75 if we wanted to. Silverwood Realty is running a scam, he broke all the laws set forth by California about security deposits and refuses to make it right. He ignored all calls we made, unless we used a different phone with different area code in which case he would answer after the 1st ring. He is extremely unprofessional, and has no regard for any regulations or laws set forth by California for landlords to abide by.

Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Refund

We want the $75 [redacted] with Silverwood Realty Illegally took out of our deposit.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

The tenant vacated the unit on June 1st but did not turn in the keys in excess of a week later, Techincally the tenancy is terminated upon the return of the keys. Upon inspection it was found that the unit had not been totally cleaned. The cleaning was completed so that the new tenants could move in, and a minimal charge was offset to the tenants deposit before refund without charging for the additonal time that the keys were not in our possession. This was completed withing a reasonable time frame and within what is set forth by law.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

None of the statement Silverwood realty provided had any truth whatsoever. We vacated and had the keys ready to do a walkthrough May 31st. We had contacted [redacted] and let him know we wanted to meet up Friday the 31st do the walkthrough and return the keys. He agreed, said he would see us there and that was it. Something came up in our work schedule and we had to reschedule to Saturday June 1st, we communicated with him and let him know and he said that would be fine. The next day (6/1/13) comes and we receive a text from [redacted] saying the walkthrough was not necessary he already had new tenants there and everything was fine, that we would get our deposit back. Never once did he mention needing to take out money for cleaning fees. We returned the keys Sunday June 2nd to the office since [redacted] had cancelled the walkthrough. We have all the texts to back this up. Now if we had the keys in excess of a week, how were there already new tenants there? And [redacted] never mentioned the keys getting there until Sunday a problem until now. Since when does one day late equal a week? Putting our vacate date as the 2nd when we returned the keys would put the maximum 21days they had to send an itemized deduction or return the deposit as June 23rd, We did not receive anything. We didn't receive a deposit until July 5th, and his idea of a itemized deduction was a joke and only done because my husband pointed out that after 21 days without the deduction Silverwood Realty, under California law forfeited the right to remove any money from our deposit. And let it be known that even though we did receive a check on 7/5/2013 we were told we could not cash it until the next day because it would BOUNCE. None of this was done within what the law says, because even [redacted] has said he knew the law and it didn't matter that basically the only way we could get our money back is if we went to court.

I would like to add that on June 1st my husband texted [redacted] to ask if we could set up a meeting to give him the keys back, and [redacted] completely ignored that text. We did not just want to drop them off at the office because there is no one ever there, and it isn't the greatest area so we were unsure about just dropping them off. Since [redacted] ignored us though and never responded we ended up dropping the keys off the next day at the office. I not only have a witness to us trying to get ahold of [redacted] and taking care of returning the keys and doing a walkthrough on the 1st but I also have the text messages to back all of this up.