Is this ethical? (moved from Los Angeles forum) (lease, tenants, renter)
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My wife and I recently were thinking of renting a duplex and she went on Craig’s list and found a nice property in a nice neighborhood. She called the phone number in the ad and the agent gave her the address so she could drive by and see it from the outside. He said if she was interested, she could call the office on Monday. When she drove by the property on Saturday, the tenants were out in the driveway and let her take a peek inside. On Monday sje called the office and spoke to the Office Receptionist and told her she had seen the duplex, but I hadn’t yet, but we were interested in renting the duplex. The Office Receptionist then told her she could download the rental application online to save her a 50 mile roundtrip just to pick up the credit application, fill it out, and only make one trip up to their office to drop it off. Then she said they would run our credit and decide if we were approved or not which usually took a couple of days. After my wife did all that, a couple of days later the Office Receptionist called her and told her we were approved. She was told we had 24 hours in which to bring in a cashier’s check of $875 in order to hold the property as a security deposit. At NO time did the Office Receptionist offer to have a Property Manager show the property to us officially even though she knew I had never seen inside it yet. My wife did as she asked and drove another 50 mile roundtrip up to their office and dropped off the cashier’s check for $875. Then she was told the property might be ready by the 20th of the next month, give or take a few days, and the Office Receptionist would call my wife 5 days or so prior to our official appointment to come back to the office again and sign the 1 year lease so I could put in for the time off from my employer which would cost me a loss in my salary as their office only saw prospective tenants from 9:00 – 4:00. My wife thought that would be a good time for me to see the duplex because it would be vacant and we could see if they were painting or replacing any of the carpet, etc., and perhaps request they do so, if we felt it needed it. Well, to our dismay, we did not get a call until late Friday afternoon when the Office Receptionist left a message on our cell phone informing us we were to come into their office for our FINAL appt. Monday, July 20th, at 1:30 – knowing my wife had explained I would need the latest appt. (3:30) as every hour cost me money out of my pocket! When we checked our cell phone and got the message, the office was closed for the weekend and it was entirely too late to ask my employer for the time off 5 days in advance as it was originally planned! To our shock they apparently expected us to just show up Monday at 1:30 pm to sign papers -- still with NO offer to let me view the property before taking possession!!!. Over the weekend I called and left a message that I wanted to OFFICIALLY see the property and that it was too late a notice for me to come in Monday at 1:30pm. On Monday I called the Office and told them I couldn’t possible come in that day with such a short notice to my employer and I requested that a Property Management Agent show me the duplex inside so I could make my final decision as to whether or not the duplex was acceptable to me. At that time a male Property Manager who took my call said that since my wife had already paid $875 that I had to come in and sign the 1 year lease which had already gone into effect that day, July 20th!!! Still no offer to show me the property! We hung up. The Office Receptionist called me back and rescheduled our appointment for Tuesday at 3:30. The next day, my wife and I went in and DEMANDED that we be allowed to see the property before we signed a 1 year lease and gave them another cashier’s check for $875 that they were demanding. Then the Head Office Manager (unknown to us) came out and she informed us that ONLY ONE renter had to see the property – knowing neither one of us had received an OFFICIAL showing of the property by a licensed Property Manager! She informed us that we could see the duplex on Wednesday at 9:00 but we would have to drive all the way back up to their office afterwards to sign the paperwork - that the Property Management Agent could NOT take the paperwork OUT of the office and save us time off work, etc. Also, that she could NOT guarantee WHEN she would be available to meet with us the next day. When my wife asked her WHY she didn't know her schedule, she said because HER APPOINTMENT BOOK WAS AT HOME and she turned and left!!! Is this legal -- or at best – ethical? Thank you D&K Y
Last edited by D&KYoung; 07-22-2009 at 02:48 AM..
Reason: Forgot a couple of details
They had what they wanted the MONEY. That left the ball in their
court to do things however they wanted. No one would have gotten
my money sight unseen. Period.
These are the same ppl who will be your property manager, how do
you think they'll respond to maintanence issues?
I'd put a stop on the checks if still possible, if not, contact an attorney.
Last edited by virgode; 07-22-2009 at 10:00 AM..
Reason: pghing
One more thing, from what I could understand, I'm not sure why you gave them any money (other than the application fee). I've never given money until the lease signing.
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