I subleased a house in South Park from an employee of Ondo Rentals, Robert Severt. Worst rental…read more(and sublease) experience *ever*.
Admittedly, some of this was probably my fault. See, I spent the last seven years in Texas, where a property with a non-programmable thermostat is all but unheard of, and the electric company advises you to install your own; so I installed a Nest in the Ondos' house, which Phil did not like one bit.
Here is a chronological list of relevant experiences, good and bad:
- Robert told me the house would be available in May, at the end of his lease term, before I signed his sublease. Subsequently, I found out that the Ondos specifically told him it would not be. Robert also told me the house contained an air conditioner (turned out to be a window unit, located uselessly on the basement floor).
- Candi and Phil knew Robert was consistently lying to them, and also to a tenant, and expressed remorse. They were actually very kind about it, tried to find me another place to live. Candi then denied that Robert was an employee.
- The house was very cool, but in terrible shape. Screen doors were ripped, the floors gouged and in need of refinishing, bathroom smelled of urine, the bedroom carpet was *disgusting*, paint was peeling in the bedroom closets, etc. Positives: house was huge, kitchen was relatively nice (updated), and furnace was new. The price was about right, but utilities were expensive.
- Other houses the Ondos showed me were in *worse* condition and cost more money.
- Once, I came home and the back door was wide open. Turns out my roommate was responsible, but I asked Candi if Phil had been over to fix something -- mainly because I wanted to know if someone had broken in. They took this as me accusing them of breaking into the house, and claimed that Phil never enters without calling the tenant first.
- Eventually, Phil made me take out my Nest. He paid a company $174.90+ to put a non-programmable thermostat back in the house (where do you even get one these days?). Charging me $175 out of my deposit was somewhat reasonable, since I modified his house without permission, though it could have been handled better (like by allowing me to put the thermostat back the way it was myself).
- In March or April, my roommate called in a service request on the dryer, which was turning but not heating. Phil came and looked at it (I was in Texas), claimed it was heating, and left. I returned from Austin to find it still not working, called Phil and left a message, and asked him to call me back and explain what he had done to make the dryer heat.
- Phil entered the house without calling me back (contrary to Candi's claims that he always called before entering), again evaluated the dryer, made no repairs, and left.
- Not realizing Phil had been there already, I called him again. He was more rude than usual, and then accused me of messing with the thermostat he had charged me to install (seriously?). He seemed to think I'd ripped out his replacement and put in a new non-programmable stat in its place (I had not). Every time I tried to explain it to him, calmly, he cut me off. He accused me of trying to screw with him by claiming things were broken that weren't (do people here really do that?). The conversation culminated with him calling me a moron.
- The Ondos threatened to withhold my deposit until the start of next heating season (illegal under WV law) in case I'd broken the furnace. The heater was working perfectly at this point, and was likely going to be out of warranty by the next heating season, so I was skeptical.
- I cleaned the crap out of that house before moving out. I didn't think I'd be seeing much of my deposit again at this point, between Phil the verbally abusive landlord and Robert the compulsively lying lease-holder, but I believe in leaving things better than I found them.
- Actually, nearly all of the deposit was returned (minus the thermostat, of course). They charged me $10 for "three false service calls." For something I didn't do, $10 was pretty reasonable. They charged me $3.75 for forgetting to clean under the stovetop, also extremely reasonable. They also didn't charge me for pre-existing damage likely caused by Robert, except for the fridge shelf ($9.49 + $7 for gas).
- The deposit return came through Robert, and so I asked Robert to also return me the $16.49 for the fridge shelf. That day I got a very angry call from Robert's girlfriend/fiancee, who said that they were going to give me the money but only because I was being difficult and they didn't want to deal with me anymore.
To summarize, living in this house was miserable. Ondo Rentals employs a compulsive liar. Phil Ondo is verbally abusive and misanthropic. If you have to deal with them, deal with Candi, or with their daughter (who is amazingly really kind).
If you don't mind verbal abuse and living in a slum, definitely rent from these people. And whatever you do, don't install a Nest.
