Once upon a time, in the year 2014...
My husband signed a 6 month lease with his cousin at Ashley Creek Village Apartments.
The lease was May-Oct 2014 for $960 per month.
Michael found that after the first month, his roommate (who shall remain unnamed) repeatedly came up short for his half of the rent. So Michael was paying the full amount of rent most months himself. Which he wasn't getting reimbursed for. After the second time, Mike refused to pay his roommates half, and only paid his. Come August they were still half a months behind from July, and were starting to get eviction notices. Michael still payed his half, but refused to "lend" money he would never get back to the roommate.
In September Michael told his roommate that he still owed him over $1,000 in "borrowed" money from him covering both halves of the rent. Mike told him he would not be paying rent this month because he wanted to use his money to buy an engagement ring, and said roommate would be responsible for the entire months rent to pay back his loan.
So 2 weeks later, a notice comes that rent has still not been paid. Mike decides he is going to move out since the lease is up in a couple weeks and he feels that he paid his fair share of rent. We go and collect his things while the roommate is gone.
**Side note. Because they BOTH signed the lease they are both equally responsible for the Full amount of rent due here. We realized that Michael could be accountable for the unpaid dues during the lease, but that is not the issue.
So Michael tells the office he is vacating the property, as the roommate has failed to pay up and they have an eviction notice. She says "ok" but does not inform him he needed to sign anything, or that there were further needs from the office. It was his first apartment, he didn't know that wasn't enough.
Around the end of December we hear from a family member that said roommate had still not vacated the property, or paid rent. And an officer would be forcibly removing him from the property soon. We didn't worry too much because we never heard anything from the office (and they still had all of our contact information) And the lease Michael signed was only through October, so it wasn't his problem anymore- or so we thought...
We never heard anything more about this. The office never once tried to contact us. No one called us. So we put it behind us.
In January of 2016 we received an email from the company Michael worked from informing us that starting on his next paycheck the court had ordered a Garnishment of OVER $900 per month!
We called Everyone to figure out how this could have happened!?
So Apparently Roommate was served papers and notified that Michael and him had to show up to court. (We never heard a thing about it, nor were we served papers) He easily could have contacted us, but failed to let us know.
No one showed up on the court date, the roommate totally blew it off. So the garnishment was signed with no contest for the highest amount.
Said roommate claimed bankruptcy immediately following, and due to the context of the lease "Both parties are equally responsible in full" the entire collection amount came to us.
And apparently the lease is considered valid until ALL members leave the premises. So even though the lease was up in October, and Michael was not living there anymore, and they knew he wasn't there. He was still fully responsible for the rent while roommate refused to leave. AND he was fully responsible for the eviction costs, court costs, and collection fees!
So we were expecting to pay maybe $4,000 in unpaid rent, $1,000 in damages or fixer up expenses, and maybe like $2,000 in court costs. We were pissed, but that was fair because legally he did sign a lease.
So we anticipated a $7,000-$8,000 bill. This was going to be a hard hit for us, as we were living pay check to pay check before, but it was what had to be done.
But It Gets Worse...
The total amount due was $17,150.34
PLUS 10% annual interest until it was paid!?!
I asked them How 3-4 months unpaid rent and minor repairs could Ever amount to that much? Even with court fees and I was told "In the case of eviction or improper termination of the lease an additional fine of 300% is added to Each fee."
So they multiplied every fine and dollar we owed BY 3X!
I called the rental office Demanding to know why they wouldn't call us and try to work something out before they took us to court? -They didn't care to talk to me and told me it was out of their hands now.
I called the Vertex property Management company asking to speak to Anyone, owner, manager, ect. who I could explain the situation to and work something out. I said I understood I would owe around $8,000, maybe even half the total cost, but I shouldn't be charged the 300% penalty because I had No Idea we even owed them anything and it wasn't my fault!
They put me on hold, told me no one was in. Never responded to my emails. And downright ignored me.
I emailed the following to Ashley Creek Apartments, Every Property Manager at Vertex Property Management company, and the Owner & management of Ashley Creek Apartments. Out of everyone who I sent it to, no-one responded.
(The email says $18,000 because we had already incurred interest at that point. And I was wrong about the 2X fee, it was actually 3X but it took awhile for me to get the official paperwork from the law office sent to me.)
I called lawyers and spent $$$ trying to find a violation in how they never served us papers, we were never contacted or notified, The lease term ended in October, Mike had told them he was leaving... ect. And they said there was nothing that could be done because of the context of the lease.
So here we are... Month #19 of paying a garnishment that we didn't deserve. Still waiting on an email back from a company who pretty much told us to "Get Screwed" because they couldn't care less as long as they were squeezing every possible cent from the situation.
I just wanted to put this out there so Everyone knows;
First how dangerous it is to sign a lease with someone. You can really get ripped off.
Secondly, how Ashley Creek Apartments will rip you off in any way possible just to make the most they possibly can. They wont contact you, they will just send you to court. Its more profitable for them that way.
Third, what a horrible company Vertex property Management is! (Look at their google rating) Even if they couldn't/wouldn't work with me to settle the situation, they could have at least talked to me about it. I called on different days, at different times, and was told there was no-one available. They don't care. As long as they can squeeze money from you they are going to do it.
I hope Anyone who reads this will never rent from them. Be warned. These are not the kind of people you want to give business to.
I will forever be angry about this.
I just can't believe that they can fine and take SO much, and never even try to contact you or work things out. 300% Fees is Unbelievable.
