DISQUS

Consumerism Commentary: The Story of the $300 Deposit, or: Looking for Apartments, Update 6

  • D · 3 years ago
    I think the check will clear, you are one of the lucky ones. I have heard much worse from people dealing with Inland in my area (Chicago, IL). They don't have a good reputation and yet they continue to profit and manage a huge chunk of our areas real estate rentals.

    There are laws about this sort of thing. In Illinois I believe there is a 45 day turn around for the money used as security. I am not sure what New Jersey is. The way the courts work if a landlord does not follow the rules and can be found at fault (which is easy - they don't expect the tenants to know the law, only the landlords) the tenants attorney and fees would be the responsibility of the landlord.

    It is very easy to win as a tenant in Illinois and I would believe this is the case in other states. This is probably the main reason they moved after you said attorney.

    Anyway, glad it worked out.
  • ib · 3 years ago
    deposit it quickly!!!
  • Flexo · 3 years ago
    I deposited the check after banking hours today. I am hoping this saga is over.
  • Noumenon · 3 years ago
    You should edit this post to include the word "sucks" and "scam" because those are the words I Google when I'm trying to check out the reputation of a company.
  • John · 3 years ago
    When I find myself getting lost in a telephone maze, I consider switching to faxes. It's hilarious and feels good to document these kinds of scams via fax. As people let you down, their name, date, and promises enter the trail of failures. Faxing each worsening step to everyone involved has a lot of power, too. Nobody wants to show up in the snowball. And faxes are easy to send to long lists of machines, including upper-management. The more machines the better. It becomes much harder for people to blow you off as they can do verbally.
  • savvy saver · 3 years ago
    This post reminded me of a website I read about two years ago about making money as a landlord. One of their suggestions is to list one apartment below market value and charge non-refundable application deposits (because the apartment is undervalue you will have a lot of applicants). Then you were supposed to upsell them to other apartments or just deny their application. Either way, sounded pretty shady to me.