Summer Place Apartments

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 17, 2016/07/12) */
***Document Attached***
My apologies for the delayed responsewe are attempting to contact the agent that would have been responsible for claiming that this was the cleanest apt they'd ever seenThat agent is no longer employed by the
companyI would question the customer as to exactly what charges he disagrees with except all of themI can speak intelligently to specific invoice (we sent him copies of each bill) charges, but not to blanket statementsAgain, we are always happy to discuss the charges individually shold the customer choose to contact us a the property level
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 19, 2016/07/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Business failed to mention anything but basic wear and tear during the pre and post move out inspectionsHad anything else been mentioned, I had the entire day to clean wherever I may have missedBusiness refused to give me a copy of the post move out inspection that day and assured me it was clean and not to worryRegardless of whether or not that employee still works there, her failure to note the items I would be charged for is the only reason I left the apartment in the condition the business later found to be unacceptableIt was her job to note these thingsI would never ask for pre and post move out inspections and hire a professional to help clean (I have a $receipt for this) only to leave the apartment in a condition unacceptable to the business, encouraging them to keep all $of my deposit and to send me to collections for another $
Business is asking for specifics when I was not informed of anything that would need to be done aside from some touch up painting (which should done by the business for each new occupant anyway)Business is now claiming that I am making blanket statements when I cited two examples which account for over half of what was kept (light fixture and carpet)
Business can cite invoices if they wantDoesn't change the fact that the necessary cleaning or repairs were never noted by the business, the business would not give me a copy of the reports on the spot and that someone other than the move out inspector added items to the list when it was too late for me to do anything about themPerhaps business should spend more time inspecting and not rely on security deposits to make up for their negligence and questionable business practices

Review: We thoroughly cleaned the apartment before we left. In fact it was cleaner than 3 years ago when we first moved in.

Charged us $175 for Curry odor.

After living there for 3 years we did not expect the apartment management to come up with such a pathetic excuse to take our deposit away. Before we moved out, we took our 3-4 days of our time to clean up every spot and corner of the apartment. In fact it looked cleaner than 3 years ago when we first moved in. 3 years ago, the patio was full of leaves and dirt and spider webs; the electric-oven had black spots all over; carpet looked really old with very little fiber left in most places (near doors and sinks); Toilet bowl had brown hard-water stain which we were never able to remove it in our entire 3 years' time. In 3 years the landlord raised our rent twice and now they are taking away our deposit.

There was not a single damage anywhere when we moved out. California law specifies that landlords can use tenants' deposit only for repair of damages caused by the tenants; Landlords CAN NOT use tenants' deposit to take care of any other normal wear and tear. Summer Place Apartment has charged us $175 to remove "Curry" odor. Yes we ate Indian food most of the times. Our contract with Summer Place did not say that we should eat American food during our stay there. We sprayed odor eliminator every day and before we moved out.

Summer Place Apartment has charged us $100 for paint job. There was not a single dot of paint scratched when we moved out.

We have rented apartments before many times but no apartments have ever charged us like this to take away our security deposit from us. We wiped clean every spot and vacuumed the apartment before we left and we were not supposed to be treated like this. Yes, it's true we ate Indian food and we always left the windows open when we cooked. We don't always eat American food. If curry smell bothers the landlord then they should stop renting their property to Indians or write that in the lease contract that there would be a charge if a little bit of curry smell is detected when tenants move out.Desired Settlement: Charging for curry odor is ridiculous. We would like to have our full deposit refunded to us as soon as possible.

Business

Response:

This is Summer Place Apartment's response to Case# [redacted]. We had the tenants carpets cleaned and touchup painting completed upon the tenants vacating. However, there was till strong odor left in the apartment. We made every attempt to remove the odor, including airing out the apartment and applying special deodorizer on the carpets to no avail. We had the carpet company install an ozone machine. The machine ran for three days and removed the odor. I have attached copies of the corresponding bills for your reference. The tenants failed to do a walk through upon vacating the apartment. The apartment did not contain the odor when the tenants moved in and we would be unable to rent it in the future with it having the odor.