I have a similar horror story with this company.
My wife and I also happened to find an apartment listed with Rent Charleston that had a tenant living inside that wanted to terminate their lease early.
We signed a one year lease and moved in without incident. Signing the lease was pretty easy and straight forward, although there was some confusion about our dogs, whether or not the unit had a washer/dryer, etc. We got it all cleared up in the end and we moved in.
I have rented around ten other places, mostly during/after college, so I had been burned by property management companies before - one company used a small hole I made in the carpet as justification for using my security deposit to upgrade the carpet to bamboo flooring. I did get my money back, though, because I took a LOT of pictures when I moved in and when I moved out.
Of course, I did the same for the apartment I rented from Rent Charleston.
I took about 100 pictures of all the trash in the cabinets, stains on the walls/counters, filthy fridge, water damaged cabinets, stains/tears in the carpet, large holes in the back yard, damaged blinds, holes in the dry wall from paintings/pictures, trash in the front yard, toilet that constantly was running, damaged dry wall around the shower, stained tub/shower, etc. The apartment was filthy, the walls were damaged - it was nowhere near move-in condition.
But we were under a time crunch, so we moved in anyways. Rent Charleston had a few days to complete the cleaning/repairs but did nothing. We were very surprised when we arrived with our furniture/belongings to see that nothing had been done.
They did offer to send a cleaning lady to 'wipe down the counters' but since our apartment was full of boxes and filled floor to ceiling with furniture, we didn't see how a cleaning lady would be able to actually CLEAN anything, so we said no thanks.
Fast forward 11 months: Rent Charleston did address some of our issues: the filled the holes in the back yard, replaced light bulbs that were missing/broken, and they moved pretty quick when our dryer died. They never cleaned our place, never fixed the shower or the running toilet, never replaced the water damaged cabinets.
We just moved out at the end of February. We were able to terminate our lease a month early because Rent Charleston did help us find new tenants very quickly. I didn't have any issue with scheduling the showing other than the agent said he had 'one showing' at 530, but it turned out he was showing it to about 20 people. If he had communicated that fact clearly, there would have been no issue but I ended up sitting in my car with my dogs for over an hour while he putzed around inside waiting for people to show up.
My real issue with this company is their sad and thinly veiled attempt to make a profit off of my security deposit.
First of all, my wife and I cleaned that place top to bottom. We removed the shelves/drawers from the fridge and SCRUBBED that thing. We swept and mopped the floors. We scrubbed stains out of the sink. We trimmed about 15' off the top of the bushes in the backyard, installed a brick planting area and laid down mulch (it was just a mess of weeds and dog crap when we moved in). We had the carpets professionally cleaned. We dusted EVERYTHING. We cleaned the tub as best we could, but that thing was stained from before we moved in.
When they conducted the move out inspection, they said the water in one of the toilets was yellowish and therefore they had to pay $150 for a cleaning lady to come through.
That was also the justification for charging us a $200 'administration fee.' When I asked Emerson what that fee was for, he said, "we have to pick up the phone and call the cleaning lady. That's why we charge you $200." Simply unacceptable. That is nothing short of fraud and extortion.
They also charged another $200 to fix ONE hole in the drywall, about the size of a tennis ball.
There was paint and primer in the storage shed from the last time the unit was painted, but that didn't stop Rent Charleston from charging me even more to buy brand new paint and primer.
I also got another charge for cutting the grass. There was no grass ANYWHERE on that property.
I will not hesitate to clearly state that Rent Charleston quite clearly took advantage of my wife and I. I took well over a hundred photos combined from when I moved in and when I moved out, and I have submitted a formal complaint to the SC Consumer Affairs Division regarding this matter.
Unfortunately, Rent Charleston has a HUGE share of the Charleston rental market, so you may not be able to avoid doing business with them if you are a renter. Heed my warning: Take as many photos as you can when you move in. Note every single crack/hole in the wall, every stain in the carpet on the move in report. Don't let them steal your money too.
Avoid at all costs if you are able!!!! read more