We are a military family and due to a deployment last year I relocated my family to the Upper Valley so my wife and 1 year old daughter could be close to her family for support. After searching all over the Upper valley we ended up renting a house in Orford from Mr. Sam Westelman/Coldwell Banker/Shelly & Co. The main reason we rented from Mr. Westelman is because he seemed very sincere about supporting the military and taking care of my family during the deployment. He told us everything we needed to hear in order to rent the house, that it was a safe place to have our dog off a leash and even though the fields surrounding the house were used for hay they were only sprayed twice a year (it turned out to be the busiest road in the area and the fields were sprayed with manure constantly). Additionally, we loved the property, a refurbished Barn and Chicken Coop - a house located in the country that met our needs.
The house was not complete or perfectly cleaned when we moved in, walls needed repainting, and a bedroom door needed to be installed along with baseboards in the kitchen. Our biggest concern was the bedroom door, which took about a month be installed - much longer than stated prior to signing the lease.
In order to assist my wife and to maintain the property I set up a professional cleaning service every two weeks and a lawn service to mow every ten days.
Once I deployed Mr. Westelman basically forgot about my family as safety concerns and issues piled up throughout the house: the chimney(creosote pouring out into the living room and onto my daughter's toys during storms ), water in the basement, doors not sealed correctly, the refrigerator handle breaking, electrical issues (that tripled the electric bill) and the lack of door separating the basement from the rest of the house, made it impossible to contain the heat, especially during such a cold winter. My wife contacted both the landlord and Mr. Westelman several times and although they fixed the fridge and electrical issue in my daughters bedroom none of the major issues were resolved. Mr. Westelman had told me not to worry about my family during the deployment but unfortunately that was not the case.
This past February I received word while deployed that I was being transferred when I returned so I gave Mr. Westelman more than a months notice that we would be vacating the property no later than the 1st of April. He requested to show the house to other realtors and to have it painted in order for it to be rented again or sold - we had no problem with the request and allowed him and a team to assess the house.
When I returned this past March, due to a short suspense, we quickly packed up and moved out of the house. I personally patched holes in the walls from baby gates we had installed but did not paint because Mr. Westelman told me that he had hired a professional to repaint the interior once we vacated. I additionally cleaned the house (I am a neat freak) and had a cleaning company come in to detail the house and polish the floors as stated in the lease. In the 23+ years I have served my Country in the military I have moved over a dozen times and I have never lost a single penny from a deposit. I take pride in the fact that I always leave the property in better condition than I found it which was the case in this situation.
Due to time constraints I was unable to complete a walk through of the house with Mr. Westelman since he was unavailable (I asked to do my walk through with one of the other 24 agents in his office but he said they were all too busy - seriously?!) so I had my mother-in-law meet him, he was extremely rude and belligerent from the moment they met up and would not discuss any of the so-called deficiencies he found around the house - stating that it was my fault since I was terminating the lease 3 months early (which by law is allowed since I was on official orders), I contacted Mr. Westelman and was able to talk to him for a few minutes and he told me there were a few minor issues with the house, one being a child lock we had installed on the chemical storage closet(an obvious safety issue), a chipped tile in the mud room, that I had not sanded the spots I patched where the baby gates had been installed, and that an old wooden paint table was missing (which was stored in the garage when I departed - not even mentioned in the lease) At that point I knew he was trying to do whatever he could to try and keep as much of the deposit as possible.
I just received the deposit and was shocked to discover that he had taken 1/3 of it. I am angry but more disappointed than anything as Mr. Westelman took advantage of a deployed Soldier and his family, especially in a community that are huge supporters of the military. I highly recommend you AVOID conducting business with him. read more