Strano & Associates Real Estate

The owner has agreed to drop the $charge that is the tenant's responsibility due to the fact that they do not want to spend any more time on this matter since he is active duty military as well and is out of state Owner is not admitting fault nor is Strano The tenant sent many unwarranted emails and text messages to owner and the would like tenant to stop communicating with them The owner paid this bill directly to the vendor in January of immediately after work was completed Strano has completed all work order requests that were a legitimate issue and also responded in a very timely manner, as is shown by our work order history In months, the tenant has had active work order requests.Strano will continue to do scheduled walk-throughs of the property and [redacted] , Department Manager, will be handling all requests made by the tenant and owner until the end of their tenancy

The Transaction history for Ms [redacted] is attached aboveThe security deposit check was mailed out on 7/which was in compliance with the refund regulations Andrea did speak with Ms [redacted] and stated a second check would have to be mailed if the check did not clear Strano does not have the capability of sending the tenants a direct deposit and we do not have their personal checking information Strano will send another check to the same forwarding address today 9/8/ Strano will also pay to have the first check # [redacted] stopped at our banking facility

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: An attempt verbally was made to clarify, I explained there was a email explaining my plans regarding and directed to the excessive balance of this service(s) with the agencyI have clarified with the agent an understanding of other balances that did not beed to be included with the one utility and extra lawn care fee in this matter in regards to any monthly feesTherefore, feel nothing but the matter regarding the lawn and utilty service be clearedI am willing to come to a situable understanding, if its fair, but I feel it need be cleared and understood we did NOT abandon, understanding we were in a time crunch to find suitable housing; regarding our contract, we had services open until our contract, and again, that I came to service the lawn (23-April) prior to departing Sincerely, [redacted] ***

To the Revdex.com and ***, Attached is a detailed complaint made against [redacted] & Associates I have filled out the online complaint form for the Revdex.com, and noted that I would email additional information directly The attached PDF is the [redacted] form, but please note that the explanation blocks refer back to the word document attached This word document in turn has a wide variety of imbedded emails, contracts, etcFor Ms [redacted] , until today I have been refused your contact information I was able to get it from a desk clerk today by simply refusing to talk directly with your property management division or identifying who I was or why I needed it Surprisingly, the desk clerk provided the info You have my apologies for not otherwise reaching out directly earlier, as I was previous denied your contact email I'm sorry it's come to this as wellv/r [redacted] , Colonel, USAF retired

Strano does not agree that we incorrectly charged the owner for the past tenants' expense The owner must pay the expense until such time we are able to retrieve the funds from the tenant Strano is still actively pursuing this tenant on behalf of the owner for the funds to pay the plumbing bill The past tenant did damage the spiket but it was not found damaged until after the tenant left Strano does not pay bills for tenants.2.The Lease Agreement is between The Owner and the TenantStrano represents the Owner in the contract and works on their behalfWe do not pay mortgages or pay for damages, as those are the responsibility of the owner; Unless it is found to be negligent on Strano's behalf which this was notThe outdoor pond which the Owner is referring is part of the landscape which is the owner's responsibility The owner is responsible for cleaning and maintaining the pond just as they are responsible for replacing any damaged landscape and cleaning gutters This is not tenant expense, as it is part of the structure of the home The pond was not cleaned when they moved in and it was becoming a mosquito infested hazard We do take it upon ourselves as managers to maintain a healthy and clean environment for our tenants The owner claims she does not and has not received any emails regarding this work, yet there are multiple phone calls which are all recorded, and multiple emails showing that we have answered her concerns We can provide the recorded phone calls if necessary A handful of emails regarding much of the above has been attached for your reference The owner does keep $in the owner reserve that we have the right to spend in order to keep the property in good condition This is stated in the Management Agreement Strano did not spend more than the permissible $on this repair, which is stated in the Management Agreement The bill is attached for your review.We have ended Management with Ms [redacted] as noted in the emails attached The tenants have been contacted and we have forwarded them all Move In Condition reports for their records.Strano is not responsible for the invoices work that has been completed at this property, as we were acting on behalf of the owner and the best interests of both parties in order to maintain a safe condition of the property

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meI continue to dispute the claim that the bill was tenants expense, but have accepted the owners voluntary withdrawal of the bill

***, It has been more than two weeks since your last reply I take it should have been more than adequate time to "review" the communications with ***, even though you were CCed on all the activity I fail to see how you managed to find work complete, over months after our business has concluded, even with your attorney going through all the documents Your response was quick, but no time frames of the work or any detail The thing I don't understand if that you have been in the correspondence with ***, and you act like you don't know the situation I have plenty of direct e-mails to you, where I have questions, you failed to answer them, and ignored them The issue appears to be transparency I was hoping that *** was the main reason my questions were not answered, but now I see that we are at the same en pass I look forward towards mediation with the Revdex.com, however, I do believe you are not the right person to mediate on the behalf of Strano As stated previously with ***, I don't expect correspondence from you from this point on as it seems that you are unable to answer for the actions of your company Please escalate this issue according up your supervisory chainRespectfully, *** ** ***

We have had numerous email correspondence with Mr *** about the fireplace cleaningThe lease does state that, if used, they have to professionally clean the fireplaceMr*** was not at the move out walkthrough to represent himself or answer any questions that may have come upWhen we went to
the walkthrough, there was not any receipts left for the fireplace or carpet cleaning, which are both requirements per the leaseSince we had no prior communication with him that he had either done per the lease, we got the carpets and fireplace professionally cleanedHe did not dispute the carpets but has been disputing the fireplace through many emailsHe stated that he had a conversation with one of our agents, ***, to let her know it was not used however I cannot duplicateIf we know a tenant is not going to be at the move out, we always ask them to put it in writing so we have documentation on why we are not requiring it to cleanI reviewed our recorded calls and cannot duplicate the call, which I explained to Mr***He did say he did not send us the info in writing eitherSince we found the house without carpets cleaned, it also made sense that the fireplace was not done eitherActing on the condition that we found it in and proof left for us at the move out inspection which he was not at, and complying with the lease, we are not able to waive the fireplace cleaningI did even ask the owner and explained the situation, however, he is not willing to reimburse the money since it is coming to light after the fact of the bill already being incurredPlease let me know if any questions or concerns

The Management Agreement and Lease Agreement have been attached for reference. Strano does stand by the fact that the ponds, lakes, water fountains, large landscape items, trees, ornate bushes, and other extravagant yard items are the responsibility of the tenant. These are to be cleaned by the owner and yearly maintenance is also their responsibility. Tenants must maintain them if they are in working condition. Some tenants choose to not have them in working order. This pond is the responsibility of the owner and it was a mosquito breeding ground. We do keep $in reserve and use that toward maintenance issues for the home. The frozen pipe was damaged and diagnosed by a professional. This was forwarded to the owner and told that we would contact the prior tenant and request funds for the owner and forward them to her as soon as they were received. There was no way for us to know this was damaged prior to this diagnosis. These funds will be forwarded to the owner when received from the past tenant as the bill has already been paid in our recordsStrano does inform all tenants in writing every October reminding them to disconnect all exterior spigot attachments in order to prevent plumbing issues. Strano does stay on top of our maintenance for all homes but does not assume liability for the damage that a tenant does to the home. Strano does inform the owners of maintenance needed for the home and does take the responsibility of ordering the work to be completed if we deem necessary. We did everything according to our contract and have been managing the home effectively in order to keep a safe and desirable property for the tenants yet also protecting the structural and aesthetic integrity of the home for the owner

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Sincerely,
*** ***

On Thursday 9/25/17 at 9:50pm an online maintenance request was submitted by Ms*** for the AC not cooling. Friday 5/26/at 9:09am a maintenance request was submitted to *** HVAC for the HVAC unit. That afternoon, we were advised the AC could not
be fixed due to a hole in the line and the Freon was leaking out at such a rate it could not be refilled. *** submitted an estimate to us and we immediately sent it to the owner at 12:15pm 5/26/17, and a phone call was made to her as well. The owner did not respond immediately, as she is out of state. At 2:45pm 5/26/17, we still did not have an approval from the owner for a replacement. Since this is an expense of 2,687.00, I cannot approve this without permission. I did receive a phone call from the owner after 5pm on Friday 5/26/and she refused to allow us to replace the unit. I did alert her of the age of her tenant and the temperature here and suggested that she replace the unit. Per our contract, I cannot approve a work order with this amount without authority. The weather on Thursday was 78H/55L, Friday 87H/63L, Saturday 84H/66L. We were attempting to accommodate the tenant as quickly as possible and I did suggest that the tenant open her windows for air flow in order to keep the air moving inside.On Saturday, I received a message from *** that they were messaged with permission to proceed. *** did replace the entire unit and had AC for the tenant by the early afternoon. The tenant was without air conditioning for approximately hours

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/11/16) */
Per our records, Mrs*** reported smelling and seeing mold on October 14th at 2:per this email: I am not trying to start a new issue just because we are trying to work out payments; however, we opened up an access panel to the crawl space
due to the smell and found moldLots of itI had thought it was just in the closet when we checked it after the animals were in the crawl space earlier this year and had cleaned itWe hadn't really used that closet sincePlease let me know how you want me to proceed with this and our payment arrangementsThank you
***
Sent from Mail for Windows
We responded to her email on 10/14/at 3:07pm and the first maintenance visit to the home on this issue was on the 15thThrough the process of doing air testing, we found that the house tested positive per mold
Upon finding this out and after discussing with the owner and our attorney, the house was deemed uninhabitable and a notice to vacate was given to the tenants as stated in the leaseWe recommended days (from October 28th notification) and they chose to do November 20th
The November rent was waived per previous emails and statements with Mrs***It was waived as of November 1st but we can date it to October 28th if they like since that rent has not been paid yet anyways
Per the attached lease and mold disclosure available upon request (I could only attach one document here or would of provided), the owner (Or Strano) is not responsible for damages from mold (among other items) as referenced in the lease
Per the advice of our attorney, we sent the lease termination letter from our office as well as a letter to validate from the *** *** *** *** to Mrs*** and the other tenants directlyOur attorney advised that those are the only documents we need to send them at this time
Mrs*** has targeted Strano negatively on Facebook, emailed the owner directly saying Strano was ignoring the problem and "throwing him under the bus"Strano is the Property Manager for the owner and are operating per the lease guidelines as well as the advice of our attorneyWe definitely are not ignoring the problem, as us and our vendors had to make several attempts via phone and email to even get the initial testing and repairs scheduledWith the findings, lease and disclosure terms and difficulty scheduling - including not being allowed to access two bedrooms in the house when doing the testing - the outcome remains that the owner denies liability for their personal items and is terminating the lease
We have acted with immediate attention from the start of her email inquiry on the 14th of October

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/21) */
Mr*** contacted us for clarification on the $landscape clean up charge for his security depositWe provided him the pictures from our move out inspectionHe then asked for more information from us on a detailed invoiceWe contacted
*** (who performed the work) and they provided before and after pictures along with the # of hours and men that were at the propertyMr*** kept coming back asking for a "detailed invoice" which we asked for clarification on what further information he was askingHe would never give details on that except to say that he suspects he was charged for owner made improvements to the landscaping rather than clean upWe confirmed, along with *** that he was not charged for replacement bushes/improvements as he is suspectingTo confirm this, we supplied the original invoice, man and hour details along with two sets of before pictures and one set of after pictures showing with they didBesides that, we told him that Strano or *** were not involved in the owner improvements to even cross the bills over to apply to his tenant deposit
We supplied the closing statement and bill copy within days of vacating as we do with security deposit refundsWe also engaged with Mr*** on several occasions via emails replaying the above information numerous timesFinally when he again said that he feels he was charged for owner made improvements, we told him we would not be able to engage on this manner anymore as the information is/has not changed on how/why he was billed for trimming landscaping

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  per the agreement between strano and the owner it states that the owner will be notified in advance of repairs needed and that the owner must approve repairs that are paid for in advance.  I was not informed of the cleaning of the pond until Dec when the money was deducted from the rent monies by strano.  The clean,g of the pond was done in July,  5 months later I was notified.  There was never any email (which was stranos normal way of contacting me) sent to be about the work to the pond.  The contract between owner and tenant paragraph 7 states verbatim. "The tenant has no authority to incur any debt or make any charge against the landlord or create any lien upon the leased property for any work done or materials furnished without the expressed consent of the landlord in writing"  I was never notified and therefore did not give consent in writing for the work to be done.  The yard is in fact part of the property as the land is included in the mortgage.  Paragraph 8 of tenant landlord agreement states "tenant agrees to keep the premises clean an. In sanitary Condition.  Change of light bulbs and furnace filters which strano did not ensure was happening.  Item 27 B state. Again verbatim. "Tenant agrees to maintain the property and grounds in the same condition the grounds were in at the beginning of this lease.  This includes but not limited to mowing mulching.  Lastly the plumbin. Leaks happened after the winter of 2016 the past tenants were out of the house in Oct 2016 which means the present tenants are responsible for the damaget for the plumbing leaks not the past tenants who were in the home from Nov 2015 to Oct 2016.  I have reason to believe that strano is lying about who is responsible however that being said strano IS responsible since they didn'tensure that the tenants winterized correctly.  The only telephone call in reference to the pond charges came in Dec and there were no emails either.  Strano clearly Hasn't been managing my home according to contract and I will be happy to provide A full copy of the landlord tenant agreement Which I have read three times and have not found anywhere where it states that landlord is responsible for the pond.  There is only generalize information about the Pond.  Furthermore the tenant landlord agreement specifically states in paragraph 21 Except as require. By Illinois statute the landlord shall not be liable for any damage occasioned by failure to keep premises in repair and shall not be liable for any damage done by or in the form of plumbing gas water or mold steam or other pipes sewage or the bursting leaking or running of a cistern tank, washstand watercloset or waste pipe in above upon or about the premises (the premises meaning inside and outside to include the yard.)  The landlord never agreed to keep the maintenance up on the yard pond as this would make no sense for the landlord to do as landlord cannot be responsible for improper care of the pond by the tenant.  Please let me know how I can email the landlord tenant agreement to Revdex.com.  Strain IS responsible for damages to the pipes one area which I was informed that strano never had fixed and strano could have obtained the money for these damages from the present tenant whom strano was managing.  Lastly and again there is nothing in the landlord tenant agreement to show that the pond was landlords responsibility
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi, We received a complaint letter today in the mail but no link to log in and respond, so hopefully this email gets to the right person. It is in response to Tony [redacted]'s complaint for [redacted]. Mr. and Mrs [redacted] rented this home for a couple years as shown on...

the attached lease and renewal. The lease terms went through April 30, 2016 and has the rent, lawn care and utility sections highlighted for you to review. As it states, they were responsible for the home until April 30, 2016 when their lease expired. The owners did not renew their lease since they decided to sell the home instead, as shown in the attached email. The [redacted]'s were given advanced notice of this so they can make plans to move. We had discussed renting to them again, however, due to many late payments that involved very minimal or no communication on their part, it was not suggested that we rent to them again. (see late payment history on ledger). They moved out early April and left the keys and remotes in the house, as well as turned utilities out of their name. We let them know that they are responsible for the rent and utilities through the end of the month. The rent was not paid and utilities were not turned on into their name again, which resulted in us billing them for having to put in our name. As far as mowing, we are not aware of any work the [redacted]'s did at the home after the time they vacated it and left the keys in the house and the utilities were turned off from their name. If he did do work by himself or a neighbor after that time, we had no way of knowing this until now. We are unable to adjust the charges to his account as they were detailed when he abandoned the home in early April and we had to get the work done to comply with his lease. I attached a copy of the move out inspection report for you to review.   Thanks for choosing Strano! [redacted] Property Manager/Managing Broker

The Transaction history for Ms. [redacted] is attached above. The security deposit check was mailed out on 7/31 which was in compliance with the refund regulations.  Andrea did speak with Ms. [redacted] and stated a second check would have to be mailed if the check did not clear.  Strano...

does not have the capability of sending the tenants a direct deposit and we do not have their personal checking information.  Strano will send another check to the same forwarding address today 9/8/17.  Strano will also pay to have the first check #[redacted] stopped at our banking facility.

Mr. [redacted] was issued a full security deposit on  6/22 in the amount of $1216.15 #[redacted] to the prior address in error.  On 7/21 in the amount of $1,216.15 #[redacted] to the Anchorage Alaska address.  The check was given 30 days for receipt.  We then stopped payment and issued another...

check in the amount of $1,216.15 #[redacted] and sent it certified on 8/24/17.    The certified number is [redacted].  We have not received receipt of service with the customer's name to date.  We did return the security deposit in a timely manner minus the last sewer utility bill in the amount of $58.58.  I spoke with Mr. [redacted] personally on 6/21 and reassured him that all funds would be returned.  I then spoke to him a second time when he addressed this issue in social media.  The security deposits were issued in a timely manner from our office and picked up by the USPS.  We have put a stop payment on two checks for this account.

This issue has been forwarded to our attorney for suit.  A ledger, emails, notes, and receipts have all been provided to the attorney for documentation.  An owner contribution was refunded to the owner by mistake in the amount of $588, and this was not accounted for in his above statement...

of facts.  There were several issues that were addressed with funds from the security deposit from the past tenant.  There was significant tenant damage that was addressed.  All invoices and work was protocol for after a tenant vacates the property for safety issues.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: An attempt verbally was made to clarify, I explained there was a email explaining my plans regarding and directed to the excessive balance of this service(s) with the agency. I have clarified with the agent an understanding of other balances that did not beed to be included with the one utility and extra lawn care fee in this matter in regards to any monthly fees. Therefore, feel nothing but the matter regarding the lawn and utilty service be cleared. I am willing to come to a situable understanding, if its fair, but I feel it need be cleared and understood we did NOT abandon, understanding we were in a time crunch to find suitable housing; regarding our contract, we had services open until our contract, and again, that I came to service the lawn (23-24 April) prior to departing. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

The owner has agreed to drop the $250 charge that is the tenant's responsibility due to the fact that they do not want to spend any more time on this matter since he is active duty military as well and is out of state.  Owner is not admitting fault nor is Strano.  The tenant sent many...

unwarranted emails and text messages to owner and the would like tenant to stop communicating with them.  The owner paid this bill directly to the vendor in January of 2017 immediately after work was completed.  Strano has completed all work order requests that were a legitimate issue and also responded in a very timely manner, as is shown by our work order history.  In 18 months, the tenant has had 15 active work order requests.Strano will continue to do scheduled walk-throughs of the property and [redacted], Department Manager, will be handling all requests made by the tenant and owner until the end of their tenancy.