Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/05/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am renting a condo from them and they rarely if ever answer emails. I have at least 3 incidences where FiveStar Property Management was not answering emails.*********, **. ********************** ____My heater and hot water was out for a week when I first moved in with no repairs on 10/31/2022. After many calls and emails from ME it was fixed after a week._____On 11/22/2023 I sent this email with no response. I looked at my online account last month and it had a credit of ****** and now it has past due ***** . I am not sure what is owed or credited.When I moved in at the initial lease, the first month was prorated, so not sure why it is prorated again. It continues from the beginning of the month.I did notice the total increased by ***** ( benefits package increase ) with new lease, so when I saw the credit I left the automatic payments the same since I assumed that credit was enough to cover the 10 dollar difference for the 12 month lease with a credit of ******.Even if there was no credit initially, the amount owed should only be ***** since it increased that much. Where did the ***** come from ?____This is a real estate company and they are many laws as BBB knows with rentals and real estate companies. They take my money without providing a service.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/11/2023

  Dear BBB,

  I am happy to go over each issue for clarification:
  

  2022 Email Communication: I acknowledge that in late 2022 there were some email issues.  We were transferring from a traditional email to a "ticketing" system so we could better monitor communication and re-assign any stale emails/tickets.  Our team was learning a new system so there were some issues back then.  

  Heater Issue from 2022: Yes, there were delays due to the home warranty in handling the specialty water heater which also heats the air system.  They made us jump through many hoops, which we did.  We agreed with the resident and issued him a $539.33 credit in November 2022 due to the issue with the heater.  I reviewed our team phone logs and see that we spoke 6 times in 2 days regarding these issues.

  Pro-rations: We allow mid-month move-ins.  Since rent is due on the first of the month, we pro-rate the charges from the middle of the month to the end of the first month. 

  Current Charges and Credits: We do not require leases start and end on the 1st of the month.  This is to help residents move-in and out when they want, and to serve all clients best.  This makes leasing a home more accommodating with Five Star PM.  If you think about having all of your move-outs on one day, there will be a backlog.  We do not like to have wait periods for inspections, repairs, and getting a property back on the market.  Therefore, we have leases end on Mondays throughout the month.  This gives residents through the weekend to finalize their move-out and cleanup.  It seems to make most people happy.  When it comes to renewing the lease, it prorates the last months rent and then prorates any charges for the new lease.  In this circumstance, the only change was that the reimbursement to the Property Owner (for her costs of sewer, trash, and water) increased from $30 per month to $40 per month.  That caused a $1.29 proration and then an increase in this residents total bill due by $10 per month.  There is a $50 lease renewal fee that was not paid yet.  So the total of $50 + $10 + $10 + $1.29 = $71.29 was due.  The "credit" on his account was money he paid the month of the lease renewal, so the system had not charged him for the second part of the prorations, so yes on his account it looked like he had a credit of $139.80 when he checked it in the middle of the month.  I can see why he was confused.  I sent him an explanation of everything separately. 

   

  Please let us know how to help him further or if we should reach out to him in any other ways.  I am open to personally adding a credit to his account in the amount due if that would make him happy and us all be able to move forward.  Thank you for your time reviewing this matter.