ComplaintsforAshman Associates, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  05/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was supposed to move into ***************************************************************** on 6/1. I did my walk through on 5/27 with ****** **********************. During that, I saw a ***** in the dishwasher and he agreed they would run the first treatment of pest contorl. On 5/28 I went to ********** and bought ***** bombs and place them 6 of them in the house. I returned on 5/29 to find there were dead and live small german c*** roaches in the home and the appliances was full of roaches inside of them and behind them. I contacted ****** right away and he stated my two options would be to not move into the home on 6/1 and they would treat the property and make sure the probelm does not exist before they could rent it to me and provide me with a refund of my $1800 security depost and $1800 rent or I could move in and accept the property as is. I chose to move. His brother, **** ********************** also agreed by text to provide me a full refund but claimed they were both out of town and this would have to take place after next week. When I kept demanding for the issue to be resolved, **** then stated that after speaking to ****** he will not refund my security deposit and only my rent due to some reservation hold. Which reservation hold states if tenant does not move due to landlord failure to perfomr. ****** said the house has been vacant for 2 months and they only sent contractors but never went into the home and they were not aware of the infestation. I would say that is ********************************************* failure to perform as they were responsible to check the home and ensure it was clean, pest free, and all repairs made prior to even having the home availabile for showings. I am asking for my $1800.00 to be refunded to me immedialty. The keys were already returned to *******.

  Business response

  06/15/2022

  The situation with the prospective tenant has been resolved and a full refund was provided. The prospective tenant was given approval to move in to the home after screening of her application. We scheduled the move in inspection and collected one months rent as a reservation deposit. At the move in it was found that there was an active pest control issue in the home that we had been previously unaware. There was no mention of bugs of any kind from affiliated vendors performing maintenance or cleaners at any point during the vacancy period. The home had been thoroughly cleaned by our professional cleaners just prior to the move in inspection and the home was suitable for occupancy. We offered to commence with pest control services until the problem was fully resolved and indicated that this could take some time given the nature of the issue. In so doing the Landlord's obligations to perform had been met and no failure to perform by the landlord occurred. ******* did offer to refund monies if the prospective tenant declined to proceed. Unfortunately this was in direct conflict with the requirements of the Lease Agreement. The reservation deposit is to be forfeit if the tenant does not move into the home for any reason other than the Landlords failure to perform. This unfortunately was unacceptable to the prospective tenant and threats of legal action against the landlord and firm were made. As required by the Lease when threats of legal action are made, we brought the matter to the Landlord for review. Only the Landlord has the authority to alter the Lease and refund the reservation deposit. The Landlord agreed to do this and the prospective tenant was notified. Both staff members with the authority and ability to process the refund were out of town on vacation and the prospective tenant was notified the refund would be processed as soon as they returned. Upon return, the refund was processed and mailed to the tenant as indicated. As of today June 15, it has been reported by our pest control vendor that the issue in the home has been fully resolved.

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