The Village at Blacksburg

Review: As Guarantor of [redacted] lease; The Village, [redacted] for August 2O13 - August 2O14, I hearby challenge the calculation of the deposit returned to her at the end of her lease in August 2014. I am attaching a copy of the final account statement, along with the checklist sent to all tenants not renewing leases.

[redacted] surrendered her apartment keys on Saturday, July 5, as did her roommate. The previous week she requested a walk through on her move out date, but was unable to get anyone to respond to her request She had a commitment at home in Raleigh and was not able to stay through the weekend until full office hours resumed on Monday. She did request a walk through by phone.

On Monday, July 7, she held a phone conversation with one of your maintenance workers during the walk through of her apartment. During the call, she was not told that her apartment was not cleaned properly. In fact, she was told only her drip pans were not cleaned properly. She was charged for additional cleaning to her apartment and charged for her drip pans. There was no discussion on that call related damage to the countertops that she was charged for and that she believes happened after she was out of the apartment At any rate, that item was not discussed with her during the phone walk through. She was also charged for turning the electricity back on in the apartment. Again, that was not discussed during the walk through and was not an item on the move out checklist (included in the attachment to this letter). I did go back and review the lease and saw the requirement listed, so legally you are within bounds, but do you think that it is ethical to exclude that detail from the move-out check list that you send to tenants? I do not.

My daughter had several other unpleasant occurrences while a tenant, the worst of which was having a maintenance man let himself into her apartment around 8 am one morning to change out the desk chair in her bedroom. She did not hear him knock on the door and he let himself in while she was still asleep in her bed. When he found what he had done, he continued on with his business rather than apologizing profusely and immediately leaving her apartment. How would you like for this to happen to your 20 year-old daughter?

On another instance, the worker who replaced the carpet in her bedroom, made a complete mess of her room and closet and broke her shoe racks as he replaced the carpets". There were hanging items from her closet torn down, waded up and thrown on the floor. Again, would you want this man in your child's apartment? She reported this to the manager and nothing was done to try to reconcile the situation with my daughter.

All of this is on top of an apartment complex that begins charging rent on a unit two full weeks before the student can move in. This would only be acceptable in a college town, so is it really an acceptable practice? I think not.

I am copying your home office, the Blacksburg Town Council and the Revdex.com. I believe if all apartment complexes in Blacksburg are treating their tenants as you have treated my daughter, something must be done to change this behavior.

I will anxiously await a response to my challenge of the charges against my daughter's deposit.

Regards,

[redacted]Desired Settlement: See attached.

Business

Response:

On September 23, 2014, we notified Mrs. [redacted] that we will reimburse her for the extra cleaning charges that were deducted from [redacted]’s security deposit. The refund has been processed and she should’ve received the payment by now. I’ve attached a copy of the email noticed that was sent, for your records. We haven’t heard from the former resident nor Mrs. [redacted] since the refund was excepted, therefore, we considered the matter resolved.

Please feel free to contact me directly at [redacted] with additional questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

[redacted] General Manager The Village at Blacksburg

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.

Regards,

Review: This company tries to scam all the residents who live in this complex.

For starters when we moved in to our apartment they promised us we would get new hardwood floor and advertised it to us that way. Since they said were were getting new floors they left an old rug flooring with stains and burn holes. Our apartment was filthy when we moved in, things were broken and the place was a mess. It took the company over half a year to replace the floors. When they actually did, they left the garbage from the flooring boxes, and dust everywhere and made us clean. Not to mention they left the flooring materials for the boxes in our apartment taking up our space that we are leasing for over a month.

The Village also likes to charge their residents for damages just for the [redacted] of it. There has been at least two separate occasions (in which I have documented email proof) that myself and my roomates have been charged for damages to our apartment that have been removed. The damages were on our room condition form and the company expects us to have to fight every charge. They are just hoping that students don't care and will pay for whatever is on the account. We have been charged for a screen door, bent fridge bars, dents even though we didn't damage them and they were on our room condition form.

When we moved out we were charged 200 dollar fee for removing garbage from the apartment. When I asked about the charge they said there were 8 bags of trash and they cost 25 a piece to remove. When I asked for pictures of the garbage they sent me a picture of 2 video games, a controller, plastic bat, and shower curtain and said Sorry it was actually only 2 bags. Stuff like that is unacceptable because they come up with random prices for random things and try to make an extra buck off all of their residents.

They have false advertised before like I had mentioned about the new floors and about renewing and getting a 100 dollar gift card. I personally renewed my lease when I first moved in (not knowing this mess would happen) and was denied my 100 dollar gift card even though I met the criteria and got the form approved by the manager at the facility.Desired Settlement: I would like for you guys to make sure this does not happen to other residents of this leasing office. The place is such a scam and no one should have to constantly deal with arguing over damages they did not create.

I am currently in a dispute right now with someone from the corporate office about charges on my account that I have gotten reduced but not enough because there are still areas that I am being charged for that I did not do. I moved out in August and have not been to the place since.

Also they did not notify me of any charges on my account until about 60 days after I moved out which is unacceptable.

Business

Response:

All our apartments are inspected

before a new resident moves in. On move-in day we had painters, cleaners

and carpet cleaners on site in case anything that was missed. Upon check-in,

our residents are given a move-in condition form to complete and return within

72 hours. The renovations were advertised in 2013 as upcoming and our residents

received hardwood styled floors as promised. If there was a complaint at the

time, it should have been made to the management, so we could have been

addressed in a timely manner.

Regarding move out charges, our

residents are asked to return the apartment in the same condition they received

it in. A month before move-out, our residents received a letter informing them

how to leave the apartment when moving out. In this letter, items such as trash

and damages were mentioned. After move out, the apartment is inspected the same

day and its condition is notated. Questions regarding any of the charges on

your move-out statement can be answered by our Resident Services.

As for the $100 Reward Card, it

is policy that our employees not participate in any promotions. At the time you

renewed, you were an employee of The Village at Blacksburg.