TLDR: Do not rent from any property managed by Ray Roberts Realty. They charged us for an extra four days of rent after we moved out. Their remodeled units look great, sure, but keep in mind with that you will get extremely poorly management who does not care at all about renters, only owners since those are their Clients. Think about it, this is a management company whose clients are the OWNERS, not the renters. Guess whose side they will take during disputes? Guess who's paying Ray Roberts' paychecks?
Full story: We rented an apartment through Ray Roberts and prior to our move out date of the 24th, we chose to have the pre move out inspection that was offered. When the Ray Roberts agent Daniel came, we asked him what the move-out policy was and whether we needed to drop the keys off to the Ray Roberts office. Daniel said no, just leave the keys in the unit because they have a master key to enter the unit and retrieve the keys afterwards. I asked Daniel if anything else was required, and he said nope, just leave the keys and you're good to go.
We vacated the unit and left the keys on the 24th as agreed upon.
Four days later on the 28th I get a call from Ray Roberts asking if we had vacated the unit. I said yes we vacated on the 24th as agreed upon. The agent on the phone said something along the lines of "Well you never sent us an email or gave us a call that you had vacated the unit, so we did not know." I explained the situation that Daniel said all we had to do was leave the keys and we would be done, apologized for the issue, and told her that I did not want to be charged for the extra days since Daniel did not inform us of the correct policy to send an email or call. The agent said ok that is fine, no extra charge. I should have put it in writing but to be honest, they never respond to a single email, so it probably would have "gotten lost" or they would have denied agreeing to no extra charge anyways.
Anyways, three weeks later, we get our security deposit refund check and guess what, there is a charge for an extra 4 days of rent. After four days of calling the manager Rebecca and sending multiple emails, without a single response from her in the meantime, I finally get a call back. She claims she had to make a few calls before she could respond to me (yeah ok, sure..)...I explain the situation and she tells me she needs to speak to Daniel. So after those "calls" she had to make, she didn't speak to Daniel yet?
The next day I get a call from Rebecca and she says that Daniel told us we had to send an email or give a call. What a surprise, denying that they told us in the incorrect move-out instructions.
I try to reason with her again that no, he did not say that. Rebecca responds and tries to give a BS excuse that "the unit is not considered vacant until management receives the keys". I say ok, I understand, but I asked Daniel if I had to return the keys to the office, and he said no. She then repeats herself a couple more times as if I didn't understand her. I explain that yes, I would have gladly driven out to the Ray Roberts office and returned the keys, and OBVIOUSLY we have to return the keys in order to complete the move out, but Daniel said WE DID NOT HAVE TO. She then resorts back to her first excuse, "you have to send an email or call notifying us that you had vacated the unit per our policy."
I then explain to her that the lease agreement and acknowledgement to vacate say NOTHING about this. They only says key must be returned. Bottom line, their WRITTEN policy only says that keys must be returned to vacate the unit. It says absolutely nowhere in writing that email/call is required.
Rebecca then goes back to "we did not receive the keys until the 28th so you were not considered vacated until the 28th". I explain again...Daniel said we did not have to, so why would we drive out to the Ray Roberts office to return the keys if we were instructed not to?
And let me be clear, she never denied that Daniel said we could leave the keys in the unit and not return them to the office. She just played the word game and kept repeating herself that "management must get the keys".
Rebecca then goes "you can take this matter to small claims court if you want". What great customer service! Ray Roberts must screw over their renters often in order for them to threaten you to take the matter to court instead of trying to resolve it. I mean, read the reviews. They speak for themselves.
Bottom line, do not rent from them. They really went through this length to steal an extra four days of rent from us because their UNWRITTEN policy has requirements that we renters wouldn't know about because guess what, their own employees don't even tell us when we ask. They must be hurting during this pandemic to scam us.
Thank god we moved out and don't have to give them another cent of our money.
Do not rent from them. read more