After 63 days, countless phone calls, broken promises, threats of legal action, I finally received my security deposit. However, no receipts or itemized list was provided, which is against California law. For all I know, they made up various costs and had the maintenance team do the work as cheaply as possible, to make some extra money.
We moved in April, 2017 to Pinewood Villas. We were supposed to move in at the beginning of the month, however, the apartment "was not ready." Liz asked us to give her another week. It worked out for us because we still had overlapping time paid for at our previous residence.
The inside of the apartment was not completely painted. The bathtube was not sealed, so the first 3 days we had no bath or shower because the sealant had to dry. We also did not have a second parking space when we specifically said that was something we needed when agreeing to a lease.
We told her the paint was unfinished and peeling. She assured us painters would come by within the week. We made arrangements to ensure the house was free of any pets and that someone would be home from work, in order to have the paint completed. As usual, with anything Liz promised, the painters never showed. She put on a good show, asking to come by and take "photographs" of the poor unfinished job to have the "company" come back out and paint. No company ever came. It took two months of us constantly calling her and going by in-person to see get the paint finished. The end result, was a terrible job done by maintenance (I don't blame them for the poor job, they arent trained to properly strip and reapply paint). You could tell, Pinewood Villas never had the old paint stripped, they just continued to paint over old paint year after year. After two months, we still had areas that were not painted properly, but we were tired of taking off work to be there and Liz not following through with any promise.
Two months after moving in, she finally provided us with a parking space however it was often "double" booked. How that happens, who knows, but clearly she doesnt have or use a proper system.
Our bathtube started to peel after living there for a while. She "hired" a "company" to come back out and clearly they were not professionals. They used cheap paint, rather than a proper sealant and it again started to flake and peel away after more months went by. Our shower faucet fixture was never properly installed, even after countless calls.
But you better be sure, if you didnt have rent paid on time she wanted to charge you a fine. If it involved Pinewood Villas receiving money, they were there to make sure you got it to them right away. If you needed something fixed, resolved or they owed you a security deposit you better believe they played every trick in the book to avoid it.
It took over 60 days to get our security deposit back and the entire way you could tell Liz was not being up front and truthful.
After about 30 days of being moved out, we called to check the status of our security deposit. This is a common occurrence at Pinewood Villas. I suspect they hope you forget about it and that means free money for them. We were told by Liz that the paperwork wasn't processed and it was their mistake. We would have the check within a week. A week goes by, no sign of a check. We call and she would never pickup the phone. I suspect they have caller ID and just don't answer the phone, or she is never at work. We left a few messages and would never hear back from her. We did finally get a hold of Liz and she said "you gave me the wrong mailing address." That isn't true and if you again search yelp and other review sites, they often use that excuse and I'd be willing to bet money they use that loophole to avoid legal action considering California states you have 21 days to provide a security deposit back.
We were told the check was being sent back to her and she would have it in a couple of days. We could then come pick it up from her. About a week goes by, no contact from her. We call and get no response. We literally called day after day, multiple times and left multiple messages and she would not return the calls. It was like she was purposely avoiding us. Another week goes by, no response. We finally sent an official letter from the state of California stating if we did not have our deposit back within 5 days, we would take them to small claims. I also left her a voicemail. She finally got back to us and said "well you actually owed money according to the leasing company." How on earth is that possible and why did you claim to have mailed a check previously? She tried to charge us for paint, ~$500 dollars, we lived there for 2 years. Her response was "I shouldve seen the date." They charged a $150 cleaning fee and almost $200 to seal the "wood" floors. No receipts were given to us, nor was a itemized list with the deposit which is against the law. Do not deal with these people ever! You have been warned, just look through yelp. read more