Trout Meadows Apartments

Trout Meadows Apartment complex gave me one of the worst experiences of my life. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. While viewing the apartments for the first time, my roommates and I were lead to believe that if we did indeed submit an application right away we would be on track to secure an apartment for May 1st, 2014, or at the the latest, May 15th, 2014. This was at the very least two weeks prior to the first of May. We did not hear a single thing from the company until May 1st at 4pm. They called with the news that we had been approved but they would not have any apartments available until JULY 15th, two months later than the latest promised date. We had called every single day the week leading up to May 1st and the secretaries knew nothing and told us that our applications were still being reviewed by management. Since we would not have even applied to the apartment complex had we known nothing would be available until July, one of my roommates and I went to the office the next day to ask for our $120 worth of application fees back. While there we spoke with the manager ([redacted]) and she informed us that it had been her mistake and there was indeed an apartment available to rent on the 15th of May. She said that it was an early termination and that the current tenants would be turning in their keys that day (May 2nd). Obviously there would not have been an apartment available had there not been this sudden early termination, however, we are reasonable people and we accepted her somewhat forced apology for the confusion and set to work on securing this opportunity. We had been approved on the condition that we give double the normal deposit amount which adds up to $2400 based solely on the fact that we had never rented from a landlord before. However, my father is an apartment developer in the Chicagoland area and happens to own his own building as well and is a landlord himself. So, from his knowledge and experience I know that in any situation asking for a double security deposit is practically unheard of. Especially when the rent is doubly secured by two capable co-signers such as it was in our particular case and when there was no previous mention in the application its-self. The manager at Trout Meadows ([redacted]) was completely unwilling to reason about this particular concern and claimed it was a policy that her management in Missoula, MT expected her to enforce. Being reasonable, I inquired about the contact information for her parent company which she then refused to give me. She said the only way to contact her parent company would be to send an email to her personal email address and she would relay the information herself. Unsatisfied with this answer I had my father call back on my behalf an hour later and request the same information. He did not succeed. He instead sent this e-mail for her to relay to her higher ups:
[redacted], per our conversation, your policy of charging a double security deposit is not fair not clearly outlined in your rental application, and is unacceptable in light of the rent being fully secured via 3rd party guarantees. Nor is this even standard practice in the rental business. I develop apartment buildings in the Chicagoland area and work with many apartment operators and this type of policy is unheard of.
Furthermore, the entire process of securing a rental from your facility was laced with burdensome demands, high application fees, late confirmation of actually having a unit available, and otherwise, not a professional experience.
Then, you break the news that you will not have a unit ready until July and decide to issue this “last minute” double charge on them without prior notification while knowing all well that the rent is fully secured by 3rd party co-signers is unacceptable. I demand that you waive this charge and can guarantee the appropriate unit is in move-in condition on 5/15 so as not to string my Daughter and her roommates along any further.
As you have indicated, this request must be passed on to upper management. I will await a response from them regarding this matter.
[redacted] About an hour after this email was sent my roommate who had visited the office earlier in the day with me received a voice mail from the manager [redacted] at Trout Meadows, "Hey [redacted], this is [redacted] at Trout Meadows, I just wanted to let you know that I did speak with my supervisor and unfortunately, due to your guy's actions this morning we are no longer willing to rent to you. So, if you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to call me at [redacted] Thanks, and have a nice day."
So apparently if you at all question their policies or even ask to speak to their supervisor, you are no longer considered a viable candidate for them to rent to. I hope my experience warns other people off this poorly managed company.