Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  06/04/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Accepting applications and fees for houses that have already been leased. They are intentionally taking applications for houses theyre aware are not available and are keeping those fees from applications submitted after it became unavailable. They are taking peoples money under false pretenses, as the applicants are paying and submitting applications for these homes that are believed to be available. Since the houses are not available, this is fraud. This is a clear case of false advertisement. They take $65 per applications, per person, and likely receive hundreds of applications from people they have no intention of approving for a home because they re already aware the home isnt available.

  Business response

  06/14/2024

  We did not accept an application or a fee for a home that had already been leased. Nor do we intentionally take applications for houses that are unavailable. The home was available when **************** applied. As the signed acknowledgement that applicants must sign to reads: "There is a $65 non-refundable application fee per applicant for reports pulled, processing, and reviewing this application. There are multiple applicants at times for properties available- you may call to check the status of a property and may be told there are currently no pending applications, and we receive an application 30 minutes later. We will process any applications received until one is approved and the rental reservation fee is paid. If your application is approvable, but not the selected application for the property in which you are applying, then you can use your application to apply for another property that we have available without paying another application fee for up to 45 days."

  **************** and his roommates applied 06/03 after close of business. Another application was received on 06/03 as well, around the same time period. *************** and his roommates applications were missing critical components to fully process. We had to reach out to all 3 applicants to request proof of income. The other application that was received was fully completed with all required information. While we were awaiting the proof of income from all 3 applicants, the other application's landlord verification came back which was the last piece we needed for that application to be fully completed and it was approved. When we reached out to **************** to let him know another application had been approved and they could place their applications towards another property without paying another fee, he became extremely upset and didn't even give me 5 minutes to respond before he began sending back to back messages that he was reporting us to the Better Business Bureau and "answer you cheat" as if it was a text message I wasn't responding to. I didn't even have the screen pulled up to respond immediately. By the time I saw his messages, it had only been from 2:14 (when we informed him of the other approved applicant) to 2:25 and he was already highly irate and I could not get him to understand that we pay for the reports as soon as they press submit- that is a hard cost to our company. We have no choice to process the credit, criminal, and eviction reports. They are automatically pulled as soon as they press submit, so our hard costs just for the reports is $30 per applicant and the other $35 is for our time processing the applications (reaching out to request documents needed/missing, reaching out to obtain landlord references, reviewing the information submitted and reports, etc.) and that is why we have the policy we do in place, and that it states one minute you could call and the property has no applications/is available, and then we receive an application 30 minutes later. We don't lie about that, but it's the truth in the moment they call and we do understand that housing is difficult to find right now and we usually receive multiple applications on popular properties, so we do turn it off once we have an approved application but that isn't fair to our clients to turn it off when there's only one application received, as who is to say it's going to be approved? **************** would not accept any of my explanations and referred to the rest of our properties as "crack houses" he wouldn't be interested in, I tried to explain that is why it's good for 45 days and if there isn't something today he wants to place his application towards, there may be tomorrow. I then offered $30 of the $65 application fees per applicant back for a total of $90 to be refunded, so that our hard costs with the reports pulled would at least be covered, and he wasn't okay with that. He stated: "Im not responsible for paying for your mistakes. 50% refund isnt good enough. Ill let the credit card company deal with you con artists. Until we all get full refunds for the money you stole, $65 each, the reviews stay up, Ill stay in contact with the BBB, and/or the credit card company will get me my money back. Im gonna get my money back either way, its up to yall to decide how much its worth to you to rip us off. Im not interested in your BS excuses."

  I responded: "Hi ****** it wasn't our mistake- it was yours in not having all required information upon submission. And waiting 2 hours to send it upon request. Meanwhile, I'm not even given an hour to respond to you before you take it further. That is fine. I will be prepared to respond to the BBB and provide copies of your behavior exhibited during the application process, as well as the signed policies and procedures that outline all of this in detail. The house WAS available when you submitted the application, and only was rented an hour ago when you were notified. That is not false advertising, fraudulent, or thief."

  After several more messages sent by ****************, I realized he would not be a good tenant fit and I would not want him to place his applications towards another property, and I agreed to refund the entire $195 ($65 per applicant.) **************** confirmed he was satisfied with this and removed his negative ****** review and said I could just let BBB know it was resolved. Per the attached conversation. Thank you. 

  Customer response

  06/17/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩