tenants have rights, solving security deposit problems is your right...
Every day, tenants like you, turn to the RPA to quickly get deposits refunded & unfair charges dropped.Filing a Complaint with the RPA is the fastest and most effective way to get your deposit refunded and unfair deductions dropped. - even attorneys rely on the RPA to help solve dispute problems for their clients. As a tenant you have rights to fight for your every penny of your deposit. Yes, the RPA fight to get your deposit back.
What Security Deposit Problems Can the RPA solve?
Did you know... the RPA accepts all deposit complaints, but these are the most common complaints resolved by our organization:
Security Deposit Refunds
Getting your security deposit back promptly.
Charges to Security Deposit
Unfair, False, Unreasonable, or other types of deductions
TIP: On the complaint form you can request that your landlord reimburse you for the $35 complaint filing fee. (that's the only required fee to file a complaint)
Rent Problems Are Frustrating; but you're not alone: Thousands of tenants rely on RPA to solve problems
repair issues not taking this serious | Case#**-*481
Cleveland,
Ohio -
44111
Well I called my landlord about the main water pipe busting I had water everywhere I called him for two days no answer I called and his wife came the next morning and saw how bad it was she said she will have someone over to look at the problem. All she did was shut off the main water pipe and no one came it got even colder in my house, then that night his wife drops off a heater. Knowing everything thats going on, therefore I called Michael my landlord told him this is ridiculous its getting colder in the house you have to eighter get me a room to stay at or give the money to go get a room well after I yelled he came the nxt night with a gentleman to look at the problem handed me $100 at 10pm to go get a room but the next morning the fixed the pipe now they still didnt fix the drywall they just got my carpet in along side of that they told me someone would be coming out Tuesday at 1pm for the measurements this was on the 17th and No one showed at all then Thursday they'll come do the carpet on Thursday I told them no one will be home before my fiance mike went to work he woke with the carpet people in the house while I was at work no one told me anything. I really don't think thats suppose to happen... the from all the water I had damages the stuff that was in my closet from my table my couch two end tables got messed up my fiance hurt his back because for two days we had to clean up the water cut out the carpet because we didnt want anything else damaged
Infestation and Repair Issues | Case#**-*198
LOUISVILLE,
KY -
40203 2741
House was never cleaned (were told carpet cleaners were coming the Monday after moving in, they never came at all), downstairs toilet backing up for a month, upstairs tub leaking, infested with bugs, possible raccoon or possum living in wall/ceiling for over 2 months, shelving broken in fridge, no handle on stove, not properly insulated, gas and electric in excess of $400 a month, doors do not latch, insecure fence, leaking roof twice in 5 months into tenants bedroom
Unprofessional Management And Deposit Problems | Case#**-*210
Houston ,
Texas -
77042
I currently went to the Aberdeen ash ford apartments to inquire about residence there . I met Yolanda one of the Leasing ladies. She talked to me helped me out. And then took me to see the property. The unit Yolanda took me too was INFESTED WITH ROACHES . They were coming out of the doors cracks . Wall sockets everything. I was so disgusted and it was like Yolanda didnt care about the roaches or as if she didn’t see them. So during the tour I told her that they had a roach problem and I won’t move into something like that. It was filthy. So Yolanda kept saying don’t worry we will clean this place out . Get it treated and everything she even let me talk to the manager about the situation . So after talking to the manager about everything I said ok I will do the application. So I did the application . Paid. $345. That was for 1st months rent trash and app fee. Once I left a couple days later Yolanda called me and told me about that BEcause I had no rental history I would have to pay &175. And I was still like man they don’t waive this fee due to what I was about to move into. But I told her ok I will pay it. But the. Something told me to check the reviews online and the reviews are horrible!!! I can’t believe this place is still up and running. And I will also contact the HAA on this property because of the filthiness and lack of great management ! After reading all these reviews and also spoke with a resident that currently lease there and she told me real quickly not to move in and how management is horrible and that her ceiling caved in and she had roaches and rats that they never came to fix. And etc. and after hearing that I immediately wanted a refund. I never paid the deposit of $175 and I never signed a lease . I went to get what I did payed them and Yolanda quickly said NO YOU CANT GET THAT MONEY back and I knew it was a lie. I know the only money I don’t get back is the application fee. So then the bookkeeper chimed in and said yea I Remeber and they told me it takes a 2 weeks for the Check to arrive. I applied on the the 1st of this month. And it is now the 27th. Everytime I call Alejandro (which is so rude,he has no customer service skills and clearly is incompetent) I ask for frank which is the property manager and he always says he’s in a meeting. He never stopped talking to actually hear me out . He talked over me and was not sympathetic at all. And now I have to contact the management to actually get some answers ! I do not want to talk or deal with Alejandro at all. And also we can pull up phone calls I’m sure the lines are recorded of how he was talking to me. I just want to get my funds back. Now their stopping me and my kids to be able to move at all. Holding my funds! And I will make sure I give a review about how horrible and incompetent the staff is!
Unsafe Living Conditions | Case#**-*177
MIDVALE,
UT -
84047 7572
Property is unsafe. Roof has been leaking for over a year with no resolution or investigation. Property flooded over 30 days ago. Ceiling was leaking water in downstairs bedroom, and bathroom from upstairs bathroom. Wall between downstairs bathroom and bedroom was water damaged. Carpet in bedroom, hallway, and part of basement living room damaged, wall parallel to bathroom damaged, flood reached opposite side of property. When reported, took 30 days to complete. When initial report was made, disaster crew arrived at house, black mold was found. To fix the damage, Pineapple Property sent multiple people to do repairs. Bathroom ceiling was fixed with cardboard, not Sheetrock. Back bedroom ceiling was not touched (no mold removed), wall between bathroom and bedroom was not repaired or cleaned for mold, carpet was pulled up and dried by fan one week after damage was reported and carpet was laid back down and secured with packing tape. (Carpet pad was not changed) wall parallel to bathroom was not touched. I also notified Pineapple Property that we were told about the black mold by the disaster clean up crew. Foundation is cracking. The property management also failed to supply adequate cooling for the property on more than one occasion. (AC’s would break and it would take 2 weeks or longer for repair) Property reached over 85 degrees with 4 children in the home and I had to replace the AC’s out of pocket or purchase my own. The property uses AC window units as a cooling system.
Issues With Apartment/landlord | Case#**-*847
Phoenix,
Arizona -
85022
Infested with bugs. Electricity going up. AC not working correctly. Been complaining about since moving in April 2019... Disrespected by landlords.
Refused to fix plumbing correctly. | Case#**-*922
Houston,
Texas -
77074
Refused to allow me out of lease after paying rent and sending certified, showed up at my house and threatened me to vacate in three days otherwise she would put my dog done.
Fraudulant billing | Case#**-*047
GREEN BAY,
WI -
54304 3724
in april of 2010, in order to help out a childhood friend who could not find another place to live because of his criminal background, i moved into the address listed above which I rented from prestige realty. Prestige was the only place who would rent to him as they are known for there low rate properites. 2 months after moving in my friend was again in trouble and I was left at this address by myself until april 8th 2012 when I knowingly moved out, as I had informed prestige thru conversations with them when I had moved in there was things noticeably wrong right away: The carpet had stains, the kitchen floor was stained badly and needed to be replaced, the towel rack in the bathroom was hanging off the wall, the silverware drawer didn't stay on track and constantly needed to be adjusted along with the closets in my bedroom and the windows were rotted out and needed to be replaced. At first when i contacted them about many of these things they would send people in to fix them. However in many cases they would not be fixed correctly and would be left in worse shape than before. an example of this: I was left without a silverware drawer entirely for 6 months after calling them to fix it and they took it with them to repair and when they finally brought it back it was completely unuseable!! so i was without a silverware drawer for 20 or the 24 months I lived there. In the summer of 2011 I sent them a letter detailing these things and asking to have the windows replaced as I my heat bill was over $200 every month and I was still freezing. I never even got a response until I contacted the city,and an inspector forced them to replace the windows. After this, prestige would not fix anything and when I moved out made up a bill charging me for everything they could including many of the things I asked them to repair upon moving in. On top of this I did not receive there bill until may 31st 2012 which was well after the 21 day deadline from when i moved out on april 8th 2012. Almost everything on their bill was entirely false and fabricated, and my grandmother who ran apartments for over 30 yrs attempted to reason with them. In june I left them a message stating I would send a payment, which I did along with a letter stating my position. I sent them $100 dollars which was more than they deserved and the same day they sent their bill into collection. I have many letters documenting these things and all travesties endured there and will provide them upon request.
Unlawful entry, delayed repairs, damage to property | Case#**-*681
chicago,
Illinois -
60622
The landlord failed to give me notice that he was going to enter my apartment to do renovation to the unit upstairs from mine. I would not have known about it except for the fact that some things had been moved around. Only after when i called him and confronted him did he confess to it. It was never his intention to inform me about his unlawful entry. In addition the repairs he did, cause water leak that led to damages to my property.
604 mellon street se land lord unfair to tenants 1,problem apartment 2 unfair rent increase 3 high c | Case#**-*633
washington,
District of Columbia -
20032
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
I rented the 2nd floor apartment and all i got were complaints and missery i layed carpet in my apartment and still got complaints from neighbors from down stairs,no matter how low i played the tv and radio the land lord complained so the land lord raised my rent from $650 to $800 i moved out and the land lord never refunded my security deposit and had my wages wronfully garnished for almost $2,000
Application Denied Based On Visa Status | Case#**-*568
Chevy Chase,
Maryland -
20815
I want to share my recent experience with the Keelty Home property management, Ellicott City, MD . I applied my apartment rental application and got denied on the basis of my wife\'s H4 visa status which expires in September 2018.
Can a home property deny an application based on my wife\'s expiring visa? I explained to them that we will be applying for extension in next few months but they still rejected our application. They ran through credit report and rental verification which were all positive. The only reason for them to deny was a visa that expires in 7 months. I\'m waiting to get the rejection reason in writing.
I believe that it is not fair to deny an application based on visa status. I\'m living in United States for more than 10 years now and have not heard or had any such experience. I have a great credit score, I pay my taxes and I abide by the laws. But at the end none of these were critical for my rental application approval. It was based on my visa status. How can this even be included as a policy and eligibility criteria? In that case no immigrant can rent a place. This is discrimination against immigrants and denying my right to rent a place when I\'m qualified in every way to rent a place.
Also if the property has such a policy why was this criteria not communicated by the leasing staff when we took a tour of the apartment. Atleast they could have asked for visa status in the online application and could have rejected me even before I submitted the application with a fee of $100. So the property cashed out my application fee, did not mention a word about the visa policy and just denied my application in the last minute. I had planned to move on march 4, 2018.
I would really appreciate your help in sorting this out with the property. Can a property have such a policy discriminating against a legal immigrant? If they are allowed to have such a policy why is the property not communicating it to the renter before applying?
Deposit Dispute Complaint Process in 3 Simple Steps:
File Apartment Complaint: Fill out complaint form with your proposed resolution. Instantly recieve your case number.
Check Status: See the current status, respond, upload files or images, accept fair solution or purpose alternative solutions.
Landlord Public Record: Positive or Negative record is attached to landlord based upon their responses. Your (tenant) information is not made public.
Complaints Tips:
Uploading pictures / files is helpful
Try to request fair solutions
Focus on major issue, not on many
Check your status every 3 days
Avoid accusations or hostile tones
Be willing to accept alternate solution
How Does the RPA Help Me Get My Deposit Back?
As a tenant you have the right to get every penny of your deposit back. When you file a complaint through the Rental Protection Agency this starts a formal dispute resolution process in which the RPA will do everything in our power to see that your landlord promptly resolves your complaint. Landlords know that if they fail to cooperate with the RPA it can result in a negative public record that can make it hard for them to fill vacancies in the future.
Why is there a Filing Fee of $35
The $35 filing fee is the only required fee to process a complaint. The fee is required to help offset the cost of representing your complaint. The RPA complaint center is designed as a low cost legal solution for tenants and in most cases is more affordable than other legal options. Many tenants will compare the cost of filing a complaint to the cost of not filing a complaint. If you file a complaint and the problem is resolved will the solution be worth the cost of filing the complaint?
TIP: Don't forget, on the complaint form you can request that your landlord reimburse you for filing fee.
Most tenants file a complaint with the RPA to solve the problem such as getting a deposit refunded, or to get an unfair charge or deduction removed. However, some tenants file a complaint to report the landlord publicly as a warning to other tenants. When a complaint is filed against a landlord it will show up on their public record which is indexed by all major search engines. Filing a complaint is one way for tenants to stand up against bad landlords to warn future tenants about deposit problems they've had.
Does the RPA Guarantee to Solve My Deposit Refund Complaint?
We do guarantee to do everything in our power to solve each complaint that is filed. However, there are some situations where bad landlords fail to cooperate. The RPA can't force a landlord to comply if they refuse; but we can impact their public record which can make it difficult for them to find new tenants. We guarantee to represent the complaint and to create a public record against landlords that fail to resolve complaints.
Will My Name Show up Publicly?
No. After the complaint is closed and made public; your information (tenant name) is removed. During the complaint process your complaint can only be accessed through your case number and pin number. Both the landlord and tenant are assigned a pin number that is unique. The RPA protects tenant's privacy by blocking your name from the public record database. However, the record does show the landlord name.
Protection Against Landlord Retaliation
Its unlawful for your landlord to retaliate against you because you filed a complaint. Your landlord cannot evict, harass, limit access, raise rent, or treat you unfairly because you filed a complaint. As a tenant, you must still pay rent and comply with rent terms stated within your contract. Filing a complaint does not eliminate your responsibilities.
All 50 States have regulations that protect security deposits. In most cases the landlord is required to provide a refund within 30 days and must provide proof cost associated with charges or deductions against your deposit. Many states require the landlord to furnish copies of receipts for work completed. If you have a deposit refund dispute or feel your landlord is being unfair with your security deposit; you have rights. Filing a complaint is one of those rights.
