Colonial Property Management Grossly overcharges soldier

[Food For Thought]

correction... I meant living instead of leaving

[Proud military wife]

I have recently moved out of a colonial home. I moved due to their failure to fix a hole in the side on the home. I first emailed them in Jan they cane out a couple months later and put the broken piece back on with plastic on it, well then a couple months went by and I sent another message someone came out and did work for a couple days then left and left all of the old and new materials on the side of my house, so I sen another email saying that I hve had enough and was termination my lease which it states in my lease agreement that I can do upon the third notice. Well I had to deal with 8 almost 9 months of a gaping hole in the side of our home and then old and new lumber on the side of it,My son was 4 at the time is it saf to bring your 4 year old out to play with old rotted lumber and nails? No! Now they are trying to get money out of us when we followed all of the steps according to our lease agreement, and they keep changing the fees that they claim we owe them. They said we had an unlawful pet but in our lease we paid a pet deposit non-refundable. They also said they had to treat for fleas my has never and does not now have fleas. Well I suppose the collections woman checked the facts and now they changed the fees. It is unreal that they think they can get away with this

[Blessed]

first i want to say that all you are reading is true colonial charged me and my hubby 10,000 dollars after move out then one of there rep called a neighbor a black b**** while i was outside playing with my niece so i went to report her she maintained that she was only responding to the tenants inappropriate comment about her just walking in her house but that is no reson by any means to call someone such a name. Im not upset about the 10,000 dollars because we took pictures when we moved out so i do know that there statement is a lie and I plan to take them to court every dog has its day colonial you will get yours

[Colonial Customer]

I had to laugh when I read the comments stating that Colonial does everything "above board". That couldn't be further from the truth.
DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. I don't have the energy to type out everything we went through with them, but suffice to say it was ridiculous and unlawful. We most certainly would have won a court case, however, we didn't file because it wasn't worth the hassle while PCSing out of town. Colonial knows this and takes advantage.
Keep in mind, we are established adults in our late thirties with no pets and no children. We are extremely quiet and professional people who left the rental property in much better condition than we found it. However, Colonial still managed to charge us several hundred dollars for bogus cleaning fees and repairs.
Be assured, Colonial does NOT have a "good working relationship" with Fort Hood. While they may not be blacklisted yet, they are WELL KNOWN to JAG and have even been written about in the Stars and Stripes as a company that take advantage of soldiers.

[Deployed Soldier]

I am a Captain in the U.S. Army who deployed to Iraq in June 08 for the second time. I am about to portray a story that will quiet every advocate of the Colonial Real Estate Property Management Business. Let me first clarify, I am speaking of the Colonial business located next to Quizno’s in Harker Heights. My first deployment process to Iraq in 2005 was one of little to no headaches, due to Marketplace real estate management. I highly recommend them, they are equitable and just, responsive to your problems, and very friendly. My second deployment process to Iraq could not have been more contrasting to my first, due solely to the team at Colonial. The day prior to my move out date on 31 May 2008, I turned in my key to my property relinquishing possession of the property. I specifically told the woman at the counter I had lost my second key, she said that was fine and I left. A month later, after I had deployed to Iraq I received an email from Patsy Cooney, explaining that “I was still in possession of the property because I still had one key.” She told me I owed rent for the month of June (all of which I was in Iraq for), the late fees associated with not paying the rent on time, and a reletting fee despite the fact that I had submitted my deployment orders and intent to vacate notice over 30 days before my move out date, which is the law. I am a finance major, not a lawyer, but it doesn’t take a genius to know this woman was ripping me off. My sister is my Power of Attorney, received an itemized list of fees I owed shortly after Patsy’s email to me, which also included $10 for a lost key and $40 for rekeying the property. Patsy was not only double charging me for losing the key (i.e. for rent and a lost key) but also illegally charging me. It states in Texas law that upon a tenant’s move-out the property has to be rekeyed and locks changed. The bottom line is she was attempting to rip me off to the tune of about $1,200 (rent, late fees, a lost key, rekeying and numerous other ridiculous charges that I won’t even go into for the sake of brevity). I contacted my sister’s lawyer and paid him $2,500 dollars to sue her. Why you ask, would I pay a lawyer twice what she was charging me? The answer is simple, it is time to put a stop to a con artist, cheat, immoral, unethical business. Guess what happened when my lawyer filed the law suit, Colonial property management dropped everything and back peddled as fast as humaly possible. Bottom line, I didn’t pay a dime because they were afraid to go to court. Now if a business is so sure I am in the wrong, why would they be afraid to go to court against me. The answer: I am RIGHT and they are CHEATS. This is the first time in my life I ever sued anyone. I am honest, patriotic, fair, and I don’t like being ripped off. Since my law suit, I have found this website and others depicting Colonial’s scheming business practices that pray on deployed Soldiers and their families. I have one thing to say to all of those men and women who have been treated like me by Colonial, we are weak as individuals, but we can have some serious power if we unite. It is my full intent upon my redeployment from Iraq to put a stop to this. It is time to stop complaining about their practices on forums like this and start taking action. Please assist me in doing so. Start writing letters to local newspapers, contacting local news stations, and most importantly take the time to personally go into III Corps headquarters legal department on Fort Hood to file your complaint about Colonial property management. Deployments are difficult enough without having businesses like this riding on your coattails as you step on a plane to go fight a war for them. Lastly, to all you advocates of Colonial, please do not bother responding to my story, better yet, go into Colonial and ask them why they defaulted on my lawsuit if they are right and I am wrong. I think by now you already know the answer to that question.

[Tammy]

Colonial Properties is the Worst place to lease from. They do grossly overcharge people as I share many of the same experiences with others on this site. I asked them to repair an AC which was broken in 105 degree weather. I have small children. They told me I had to wait 3 days as they were backed up. I paid to fix the AC myself. Once I repaired the AC I opted for their service tech to come out and check the system. He did and it was fine. He found that the vent was dirty and they charged me 55 dollars on top of the 160 I paid out of pocket. They don't care about soldiers and are extremely rude.

[reply]

Your Mooma wrote:

As you all can see there is a lot of doubt about Colonial Property Management. Let me tell you, I have seen both sides of the fence. I have rented from Colonial, and they screwed me on the outgoing inspection...Yes they do that, CD for a crazy price, this and that for addiatioanl prices. They make sure that you will owe them when you leave, if you are a minority. If your white, your ok. But now that they rent out my house (yes military), we used them, because they are know as the Mofia. They have bragged about how they are not with the BBB, and don't care what they do. But their job is to "protect the landnord"... We'll see how that goes, because they really nit-pcik on inspections.. If you rent from them, and you are miliatry, they count on you not being able to sue them because you are no longer in state, or even country. There is a difference... And don't even expect for one minute that they have logged on here yo repair their reputation.. A bunch of vultures that Congress needs to deal with,....
<quoted text>

This is the biggest bunch of bullshit that I have EVER read. I rented from there 3 time and no issues. I guess that the people that don't follow the rules feel the need to justify their DUMBASS actions. Sad for you.

[hlw]

sounds like the property managment agent writing ads
I can tell ou this much, texas might as well be a 3rd world country, people treat people like they are illegals and they will not do anything, my suggestion is to file a complaint with everyone that will listen there are plent of government agencies and to the military family be sure to post these comments around the base to let future military people know

[Lucy]

We are property owners, and we as owners are going through the same thing except on the other end. They never took care of our property and although the renter broke the lease in several ways, we had to come to town to find out, because the rental property doesn't ever check on property they just collect your money and do nothing for it. Would never use this company again.