Terrible: RENT AT YOUR OWN RISK
My roommates and I rented a 4 person house near the North East corner of East Lansing for the 2012-13 year, and experienced nothing but frustration with the CRMC leasing company.
Within our first month we received hundreds of dollars in personal item fees, which shouldn't be of their concern with their mandatory $425 cleaning fee
Throughout the year we accumulated numerous charges, some of which, we believe, were sought out illegally by their pathetic maintenance department.
Believe me when I say:
-$957 in Charges by end of school year
-$435 of these charges were personal item removal (trash bags near trash but not in can, and "non outdoor" furniture) -Ex. 9/5 -$240 6 item ($40 per) trash removal (who doesn't have extra boxes left after welcome week?!)
-$115 of the trash removal was charged during spring break, when we were unable to remove due to absence of campus...but that wont stop them from screwing you.
-$250 rear storm door repair (11/2) -One of the screens in our back door fell out, and instead of replacing a $5-10 screen, they put in a new door and charged us.
-Our security deposit only sums up to $2700 (with a 425 cleaning fee), along with a $360 charge for laundry, $75 for EZ cart trash, and $10 for winter break snow removal
-Many of the personal item fees should NOT HAVE OCCURRED AT ALL, because their leasing contract specifically states that they will only oblige to charge for liter/trash left in the FRONT lawn; however, all of our charges were from items located in the back yard, next to our garbage can.
-Also they decided to repair/replace specific items/repairs in our house without a reasonable 12 hour email notice, which they specified they would accommodate in the lease.
-They will also increase specified rent (or remove discount) if its not payed in one lump sum (check, cash or money order), which is frustrating for tenants to collect from each other in the summer months.
Their maintenance department is known for their slow response to necessary repairs, and for providing out of date appliance and service.
-The dish washer/garbage disposal was a nightmare throughout the year. Moments after starting the washer, it would start to overflow with water/suds due to a backed up g.disposal. They attempted to fix it but the problem occurred many times and was never fixed.
-Our washer machine never operated properly, and broke down multiple times. They took a few days to respond, and when they did it broke down again a week later.
-The refrigerator they provided was from 1992, and you could tell had been used by many of their past tenants due to its broken down shelves. One of the maintenance workers said they were planning to bring us a new replacement, but it was never received.
After spending hours on the phone with their reps and attorney this past week, I've noticed that they will do their best to hold the tenants liable. The conversations with them have been extremely frustrating because of their poor organization. When i called I attempted to negotiate the charges, but between the attorney, leasing agents, and maintenance department it becomes impossible to get any answers or help. In order to reduce the charges you have to speak with the head of maintenance, whom I've left two messages for within the past week...no response yet. When you talk to the leasing agents about the rent transactions, they immediately forward your phone call to their attorney...who deals with all of the financial/legal issues. He is a competent jerk who tries to oversimplify the transaction ledger by explaining things what you have signed and are already aware of. When I called a 2nd time a few days later to negotiate the charges, he became verbally hostile and angry towards me personally. I did my best to state what we wanted to reduce, but his ego stood out when he stated "You have been wasting a hell of a lot of my time with these conversations, and I'm tired of explaining it to you." He purposefully tries to use his legal knowledge/influence against me, and stated that either we can pay this with our Sec. Deposit or they will take us to court...I also found it funny when he tried to come up with a random ~$500 number that we needed to pay off by Jul. 12 because one of our tenants was late with rent. Isn't it illegal to declare an additional amount payable after the written rent agreement? Also the only thing that this payed amount would affect is a dismissed $90 late rent fee, the rest would be additional to the security deposit. So he is just asking for us to pay money that we will be getting back in a month...in order to nullify this late fee, which makes no sense to me.
Whatever you do, do not rent from the CRMC leasing company. They are worse than car salesmen and do their best to screw over 19-22 year old college students who are new to the housing market. read more