I take it back...at least most of it.

Remember the day that I happily posted about finding renters for our house? Do you remember how excited I was and how I thought it was the best thing that had happened to us since we put the house on the market? Yeah...I take it back. Ok, just most of it. I'm glad we had someone to help pay our mortgage payment from November up until May. As of June 1st, I've regretted every moment.

We had a lovely call from our property manager on June 9th. Up until now she hasn't exactly been wonderful. Actually, I'd call her terrible. We never knew what was going on with the house. When we called she was always in meetings. She decided to turn our sprinklers on without asking us and then charged us for it when we had our own sprinkler guy. (AKA: Rick...hehe) Eventually she said she'd refund us but I'm not sure that ever happened. Ok, I got off topic. SORRY! People who promise so much and then don't back it up make me angry. If you're not going to do something then don't say you will! OK...really, I'm done.

So the call on June 9th, right. I guess she got a letter in the mail from our renters saying they would be out of the house on June 11th. They apparently can't do math because they are supposed to give us 30 days notice if they are going to vacate any time before the lease is up. So anyway, now that they think 2 equals 30, they also decided not to pay for June. They didn't ask to be prorated, they just didn't pay. Why our property manager didn't notice that they hadn't paid until the 9th, when it clearly states that rent is late on the 4th of every month, I don't know. Again...she's awful.

Anyway, so she's trying to contact the renters with no luck. She's left messages letting them know that they breached the contract and that June rent is due. They never even set up a time to do a final walk through or to give us the keys back. They just left. I have been told, by a very trusted source, that some people like to use their security deposit as last month's rent. Would I have been OK with that if they had done the walk through, the house was in perfect condition, given us our keys back, AND asked if that was acceptable? I don't see why not. Unfortunately it's very clearly stated in the rental contract that the security deposit may not be used as last month's rent. EVER. And again, they didn't ask! Where are our keys?!? Our garage door openers?!? The carpet cleaning they are required to have done or pay for?!? We've got nothing...

On Friday the property manager (I'm just going to start calling her the PM) called again and left a notice on the door stating we would begin legal proceedings to sue them to get the last month's rent plus all other monies we are due in 3 days. That day is today and we haven't heard a peep. The PM is supposed to go in there today to make sure that the house isn't trashed and she's been trying to reach the renter's CO. (Commanding Officer...he's in the Army at Ft. Carson and you're allowed to go to their boss if they screw up on their bills.) It seems like Ft. Carson had a training holiday and everyone was off work on Friday and today so she won't be able to get in contact with anyone until tomorrow. URGH.

AND THEN...yep, there's an AND THEN. (This is going to be never ending and I will end up bald, curled up in the corner, crying my eyes out.) I called today to get our utilities changed back to us at the 1st of July. Their contract is through June 30th so there is NO WAY I'm paying their bills, not even the $12 in water that would accumulate between now and the end of the month. I mean, I know. But seriously people, you should have gone about this the right way. Now I'm going to be evil. Wow...I really am going to have to keep on subject. Sorry! So I called Colorado Springs Utilities for our electricity and gas and had no problems switching it over on the 1st. I asked if they were still turned on at the house and the guy informed me they were. I said that we had been having problems and he said, "I can see that." Uh oh...

My next call was to Security Water, which takes care of our water...duh. :) The lady was super sweet and explained to me that she would have no problems switching over the service to us as soon as the account was current. Um...what? Apparently the water bill stays with the house, not the person on the account. If we left it unpaid it would keep accruing late fees and we would either end up paying it or the next owner (if we ever sell it!) would end up paying it. The amount...$133.88. DANG! That's at least 3 months of non-payment. I'm amazed the water is still on.

I called our PM and she agreed to take a check to them today. That money came out of the security deposit so now, even if they say that we kept the deposit and that should cover the rent, they will still owe us. I did call back Colorado Springs Utilities to make sure that the bill that was unpaid with them wouldn't come back to haunt us. The lady, who kept saying "Good gravy!" (HAHAHAHAHA!) informed me we were fine and that it wouldn't negatively impact our account, ever. Whew!

Furious does not even begin to cover how I feel. Yes, they are in the military and we will eventually get repaid, either through garnishing his check or withholding bonuses. Still, they screwed us over - BIG TIME - and now we are not going to be lenient. We will have the locks changed, which is coming out of their security deposit. Who knows how many random keys they made. If there is anything at all that isn't cleaned, like the stove or fridge, we will hire a professional cleaning crew, which will also come out of the security deposit. They forfeited the right to disagree when they skipped the final inspection. We'll have pictures to back us up. The cost to clean the carpets, also coming out of that security deposit.

Usually we're nice, agreeable people. When you mess with us, our property and our money, we are not nice. This just proves to me that we are definitely not meant to have renters in that house. Now to go back to keeping our fingers crossed that it sells someday.

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Update: We called the PM to see if she had a chance to stop by and she informed us that THE KEY DIDN'T WORK!!!! Those jerks changed our locks and never told us!!! So yeah, locksmith is coming tomorrow and now I'm terrified. What else did they do to our house??? :( What did we do to them to deserve this crap? And why did our PM not call us immediately??? GEEZ!!! :(

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UPDATE, update: They didn't leave the garage door openers either. The PM has someone coming over to reprogram those. The house wasn't trashed, no damage, but it does need to be cleaned and the carpets are dirty. All of this is going on the list of things they will pay us for, including rent, late fees, and attorney fees. We're getting the paper work done to put it back on the market ASAP when the work is done, which will hopefully be done next week. Thank you to everyone who has backed me up and supported me. Just hearing that I'm not crazy (well...completely) and that this IS wrong really helps.