Pastore Laurel Springs Apartments    |    Kate Chalupczynski    |    Erie    ,    Pennsylvania 16506    Landlord Complaint 23-3033

I have three complaints against Pastore in Erie, PA that my roommate and I would like help in mediating. One of these is from some months ago. We’ve just now had time and money to address it. In the meantime, two other things have happened with this company so we figured we could just address them all together. Hopefully we can get to a fast and fair solution for all parties. 1) We have some questions about the totals we were charged when we moved into the apartment in May. I was moving to PA from WA state, and my roommate was moving from FL. So we were both at a great distance relying on e-mail and telephone correspondence. We were originally given a move in total of $2,005 to move in. That’s a $535 security deposit plus application fee, plus the first month’s rent of $735 and last month’s rent of $735. That seemed a little high to me, but I agreed to it. We never signed any paper, just a verbal agreement. A few weeks later we got the lease. It has a completely different set of numbers. $735 upfront, plus $367.50 for the security deposit minus the $200 we had put down for an application fee, so $167.50. As leases are written for premises and not person, that brought the amount down considerably. I also noticed that the lease says on it “This lease represents the final and complete agreement between Landlord and Tenant. Any oral or written promise or representations made by either party prior to the signing of this lease and not included in this lease are not enforceable.” So I figured that we were only owing $902.50 because that is the only amount on the lease. I even called Marje Christy, our property manager at the time, to confirm and she said that was correct. I sent in the check, and heard nothing else before I moved so I assumed it was all fine. Then, after driving 5 days across country, with about 2 hours to unload the moving van and drop it off at the rental center, I arrived at the property office to get my keys. Then, I was told by the same Marje Christy that she didn’t remember the phone call, and was “confused” by the check I sent. I told her that was what was on the lease, and tried to show her the paragraph I quoted above. She cut me off and said “we aren’t understanding each other.”. I didn’t have time to argue. She said she needed the rest of the money before she would give me my keys. So I paid it then. I would like your help in getting the balance of it, $1102.50. 2) We had some trouble with getting mail delivered. It took us three months to get any of the mail. According to the USPS, Pastore had never told Erie city that they had built new apartments here, and I ended up having to call the post office address center. I was told that tenants should NEVER have to do this. I would like some compensation for the time and and trouble. Half a month’s rent would be sufficient. 3) This last is a problem in progress. I want to get some help with it before it becomes a big problem. Due the hard financial times - and having less money in savings that we expected because of the first problem - we are living paycheck to paycheck and plan bills accordingly. The check we had planned on for rent in August was a day late. So the check bounced. It did eventually go through, according to the bank. It certainly isn’t in our bank account and the bank, Vystar, said they had a cancelled check saying it went through. They mailed that to Pastore. They also mailed out our September rent, plus the applicable late fees. Pastore is saying they received the late fees and the September rent but not the August rent. They also haven’t received the cancelled check that proves we sent it. I have sent out another $735 to cover September since they used September’s rent check to cover August’s. But I don’t have the money to also pay October’s now. Pastore should get the cancelled checks that prove it’s not us on Monday. I want to know if we are still liable because they didn’t get a check we paid, and how we can prove that we did pay August’s rent and don’t have to pay it over again. Thank you very much for your attention to these issues! Maria Heyssel 206 451 7432 lilfaerhie@hotmail.com