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How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

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Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#151

Post by magic_beans »

tedmiston wrote: post #75
wapz wrote: post #28

>The First place we visited Altis Lakeline managed by Altman Companies was amazing, its a brand new apartment complex with cool amenities, priced at $1400 which is much lower, compare to similar places $1600–$1700, that where I missed first red flag. Plus they had amazing special — 2 months free rent — which under normal circumstances will raise suspicion, I thought it’s a brand new property with construction done a…

I felt the same way over and over again throughout. Whether or not the author's primary language is English, it feels like it was written without proofreading or editing at all.

I got the sense they weren't a native speaker. Otherwise the errors were, frankly, egregious.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#152

Post by rograndom »

hprotagonist wrote: post #12
67726e wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been burned by a major corporate rental before, and will never do that again. Moving in wasn't a problem, though the "Smart Saver" non-refundable deposit they offered should have been enough of a red flag. Once while on a week long company retreat they upgraded their payment system, which removed my payment information not only causing my rent to be late, but they then filed for eviction after only three days. T…

From me, pulling that sort of horseshit gets you a certified letter notifying you, the landlord, of your impending small claims court date. Companies that want to play that kind of game don't want to play it with me. Particularly in my state (MA), the law is vastly in my favor, and I am willing and able to spend the time proving that point. I know a lot of people can't, so i'm happy enough to exact some measure of ka…

In my state (VT), there's a section of the law that says something to the effect that if a landlord willfully withholds returning any part of the security deposit after 14 days then the tenant is automatically awarded 3x of the deposit.

I learned all about this in the last apartment I rented before buying a house. I was trying to work with the property management companies lawyer over how much it would cost to replace broken door (another long story), and the lawyer was of the mind that I owed them more than I had on deposit and I should set up a payment plan ASAP.

The 14 day limit passed and I got a summons that I was being sued for $1500 over the deposit for a couple of small things plus a empty heating oil tank (heat wasn't included). They said it was full when I moved in, but I produced a receipt that I paid for the tank to be filled on the day I moved in along with a voice mail from the actual landlord that said I didn't need to fill the tank when I moved out.

The lawyer immediately wanted to "settle" with them keeping the whole deposit, but I was happy to go to court. We were in front of the judge for less than a minute and they ended up paying almost 1/2 of the first year of my mortgage.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#153

Post by syshum »

neogodless wrote: post #111
syshum wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I consider charging an "application fee" to be slightly scamy anyway. I remember, many many many years ago, when charging such a fee was unusual and normally done by places I would not want to rent from anyway If you feel the need to run a background check on your tenants, that should be the cost of doing business Of course those times changed and one of many reasons I stopped renting...

It costs me $35 to run a background/credit check. I paid for that... once. And the prospective tenant passed, but backed out on the apartment. Since then, I've asked productive tenants to pay the $35 fee. Most are fine with that, and none have backed out from renting once they've paid that small fee. (So far all have cleared the check.)

I would only pay it if it was refundable if you refuse me later, that is a compromise I am willing to make

Places that have several hundred dollar non-refundable applications fees like the one in the story are the one I take issue with

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#154

Post by rhexs »

jessaustin wrote: post #130
rhexs wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is easy to get around. Take pictures of the apartment at move-in. Read the lease to discover standard cleaning fees before signing. Take care of the apartment. Walk through the apartment with the Landlord on move-out. If they fraudulently deduct as part of some sort of profit-center, discover the wonderful world of small claims court. Not going to be fun but you'll win.

Haha this seems like maybe you haven't rented many places. My brother used to talk like this, but on his last move-out he got totally shafted. He and his wife had meticulously scrubbed every surface, then they hired a cleaning company, and they still got none of their deposit back. The "easy" solution to this, although it does have some drawbacks, is simply not to pay the last month's rent. The only time I haven't go…

Rented plenty of places. Read my comment again. You seem to have ignored critical parts of it. Yes, if your landlord takes your deposit and do nothing except complain on hackernews they obviously aren't going to write you a check out of the goodness of their hearts.

Not paying the last months rent seems like an absolutely terrible idea (depends on local state laws I suppose, but please consult with a local renter advocate association or lawyer before trying this) and the exact sort of advice that will lead you into handing over gobs of cash to your landlord for absolutely no good reason then writing anecdotes about it till the end of time.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#155

Post by metaphorm »

are people really so naive? maybe living in NYC has made me hard and bitter, but shit, it's just a ground truth here that the landlords and the real estate agents are not your friends and you should treat EVERY transaction done with them with extreme scrutiny.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#156

Post by metaphorm »

joshuaheard wrote: post #14

Landlord here. This tenant made a mistake paying an "administrative fee" of $150, and giving the deposit ($350) without a signed lease. Though, we do charge a $50 application fee to cover the cost of the background check we run. However, if this company is indeed not intending to rent this property and only collecting the application fees, it would be fraud.

a signed lease is a legally binding contract. there's no need for a deposit at that point. are you confusing the holding fee "deposit" collected by the leasing office for the security desposit held in escrow by the landlord?

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#157

Post by metaphorm »

4ad wrote: post #92
fwefwwfe wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they made a photocopy of our ID for a file. Which again raised my suspicion, I’ve rented many apartment before and none of properties ever asked for that before signing the lease That sounds like a red flag with the article/author. What apartment place wouldn't do a background check and want ID to make sure they go the right person?

As a non-American living in Western Europe the idea of a landlord doing a "background check" on prospective tenants is terrifying. Never heard of such a thing in Europe. What the hell does "background check" even entail.

"background check" in America almost always means credit report and little besides that.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#158

Post by metaphorm »

jumpkickhit wrote: post #150

Does Medium.com not have editors or something? Some things sounded off, some didn't make any sense at all. "She just hang up on me" "Plus they had amazing special" "They provide iPad on the spot" "my wife credit score" "At this point I hate it them."

there are no editors. it's user generated content, it's not a magazine.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#159

Post by metaphorm »

debacle wrote: post #62

CoreLogic is not to blame here. They are a massive company. They would not be scamming renters out of such small amounts.

I think you should explain your reasoning in more detail here. Why is a "massive company" less likely to commit financial fraud? If they do it at a large scale, they make lots of money from it. Or perhaps it is a scam being run just by this one office and not a company-wide policy. Even if that is the case, CoreLogic is still to blame, they are responsible for their leasing offices.

Re: How I legally got scammed for $250 by an upscale apartment complex

#160

Post by hprotagonist »

rograndom wrote: post #152
hprotagonist wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From me, pulling that sort of horseshit gets you a certified letter notifying you, the landlord, of your impending small claims court date. Companies that want to play that kind of game don't want to play it with me. Particularly in my state (MA), the law is vastly in my favor, and I am willing and able to spend the time proving that point. I know a lot of people can't, so i'm happy enough to exact some measure of ka…

In my state (VT), there's a section of the law that says something to the effect that if a landlord willfully withholds returning any part of the security deposit after 14 days then the tenant is automatically awarded 3x of the deposit. I learned all about this in the last apartment I rented before buying a house. I was trying to work with the property management companies lawyer over how much it would cost to replac…

I found a really lovely blog post a few years back where something like this happened. The landlord's lawyer's face apparently visibly collapsed when the tenant replied "oh, let me check my notes" on the stand in response to questioning and pulled out 3" of paper..
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