Unfortunately after having Lee out to two of our rentals, we are having to file a police report for vandalism and trespassing. He performed unauthorized work at one without giving us an estimate first. At this property the only thing we authorized was the inspection/trip charge. We didn't know any work had been fine or have the opportunity to decide our course of action until he charged us $650 for freon we can't be sure we'd needed. Note: Evergreen AC inspected our unit 3 weeks prior and two weeks after and said there weren't any leaks or issues with our unit at all and the that freon is never needed unless they're is one. Additionally, what he did did not resolve our issue. We ended up needing old ducts wrapped/replaced. We felt scammed about the freon, but didn't pursue anything further with the company.
Our second rental experienced a clogged line and leak. We called a few companies and reluctantly agreed to have Lee out to inspect this one because he was the only one who could come out first thing the next day. To be safe, we group texted and emailed with him and our property manager confirming the scheduled inspection and that no work was to be done that was not authorized. He didn't end up going to our property for four days and was unresponsive to texts. At this point we scheduled to have Evergreen come back, but then Lee showed up. We are remote owners and our property manager allowed him access to our property. This second property is two stories and has two units. He gave us a quote for adding $950 worth of freon to both and said he'd need to cut into the wall to better access one unit. Suspicious due to the information regarding freon we'd learned since he came out to the first property, we decided to do more research and get a second opinion before deciding what to do. The next day our property manager arrived at the house to find Lee inside again. This time he was unauthorized and was trespassing. She'd noticed someone was there on the security camera and called into the house to see who it was at which point he came running downstairs unable to give an explanation about why he was there. This made her feel unsafe. After he left, she went upstairs to find a he partially cut into our wall! We did not authorize any work or return visit! Additionally a large AC duct was cut and almost completely severed from the unit. Later that day Evergreen AC came out and did an inspection. They informed us that neither unit needed freon. This seems to confirm that we were scammed by Lee at the first property and he was attempting to scam us at the second. Evergreen also confirmed that the duct could not have broken like that on its own. We had a duct company come out to repair/replace the duct. They said wire cutters or a similar tool would have to have been used to cut the duct and it was apparent that it was an act of vandalism. Unfortunately Lee did not respond to emails or texts or requests for compensation. The total cost to us at the second property was $621 for the duct, $200 for the wall repair, $100 for the clean up (since it's a rental property and we're remote, we have a housekeeping team,) and $158 for having to have two more companies come out to assess damages. We also requested a $650 refund for the unauthorized freon he said he added to the first property. This is a total of $1721 in unauthorized work and vandalism assessment and repair not to mention significant delay in our AC repairs and concern for our safety. He did agree to come do repairs for free when a police report was mentioned which we declined because we did trust him at this point and did not feel safe. I wish Lee had listened and communicated better and we could consider it a big misunderstanding, but his avoidance of our attempts to reach out, the quotes and inspections of other companies contradicting his diagnosis and the fact that he entered our property assuming no one would be there and started cutting into our wall and equipment is willful trespassing and vandalism. The information in this review will be submitted to our police report. read more
