PARKER PROPERTIES

POTENTIAL TENANT BEWARE: I recently applied for a house to rent and got approved. I was told they couldn't draw up the lease because they were off but I needed to put a holding deposit down. Since my move in date was so soon I should make it for the full security deposit and 1st months rent. The full amount totaled $7,390. I dropped off my cashier's check and was handed a form to sign. I WAS NOT given any information or explained what this form was. I stupidly signed it without reading it because I was in a hurry and on my lunch hour. I received the lease 3 days later and could not comply (they do not use a standard residential lease nor do they list any of the many restrictions on their website that are listed on the lease). They are now charging me $120 per day until the house is rented out and are holding all of my money! Take note I never signed a lease yet I'm paying damages even though the property has not been held! This is how Parker Properties is making money. Taking advantage of innocent potential tenants not managing properties. Teri Parker does not care about people and will warn you not to waste your money suing her or getting an attorney because by her admission she's been sued on this issue and won every time. Yet continues to not present leases, disclose rules or explain the holding deposit forms! I do not recommend and don't want any other potential tenants to suffer financially like I have! It cost me 2,640.00 (22 days at $120.00 although it was not held for 22 days, it was 3 days total that the property was off market) because I signed their form without reading it or insisting on an explanation prior to signing it. Don't rent from Parker Properties!

When putting in my 30 days notice, I exercised my right to a pre-inspection on the house that I was about to vacate after living there for almost 4 never-late-on-rent years. I had my inspection on Oct 21 2011. Tricia told me everything looked good, and that I had to pay approx. $200.00 to get the house cleaned and possibly a little more for the windows (Verbal agreement...oops). I was ok with that. She also told me that the termite infested patio beam that was rotting away wouldn't be my responsibility. She also stated that legally they have 3 weeks to pay back my deposit of $1595.00. I thought that was kind of long, but didn't sweat it. I wait two weeks and call Tricia on Tuesday Nov 8th and she told me I might get my entire deposit back because the owner was thinking about selling the place, but she would have my check out to me right away. 3 days latter I receive my check for $850.00 with $745.00 taken out of my deposit. $200.00 for cleaning the carpet when there is less than 700 sqft of carpet in the house as the entire lower level is hard wood. $300.00 for general cleaning, $100.00 for a damaged door that wasn't broken by me, or mentioned in the inspection, yet came up long after I turned the keys over and $45.00 for the above mentioned termite infested patio beam Tricia claimed the owner needed to take care of. $100.00 for trash removal? The owner left a bunch of wood at the house when he re-did the drive way almost 2 years ago and never cleaned up his mess after repeated phone calls. Somehow I am responsible for that now? I was never given another inspection report of things to fix, and in fact up until the day the check was written was told everything was fine. This is a horrible way to run business. It took countless emails before I finally dealt with Terri about the situation. 4 weeks after my initial inspection (Well past the legal deadline) I was given a second refund. The excuse I was given: "We were waiting for the owner to decide if he was going to sell the house or not". Talk to any real estate attorney and they will tell you that is not an extenuating circumstance for withholding a deposit, as the law clearly states. I'm still not satisfied with my refund, but at this point its cheaper than going to court. You need to document everything when you move in, don't think that they noted it for you. Always get everything in writing. Apparently with this company you cant rely on a persons verbal word as it means nothing. If you don't document, be prepared to fight to get your deposit back. Don't turn your keys over until you receive everything in writing.