Dawn Drury

My daughter saw a rental house online that looked pretty good. She drove by to look at it from the outside, and liked what she saw. It was obvious when looking from the street that the house was completely empty. She called up the phone number for the listing and made an appointment for Sunday at 3:30 PM. We had three people driving in to see this house in three different vehicles from outside of Springfield. We all waited until around 3:40, then called the agent. He stated that the house was still occupied, so he decided that we could not see it. He did not bother to call to cancel the appointment. The house had a lock box on the front door knob, and had been vacant since my daughter first drove by. The agent then stated that his next appointment was Thursday at 12:30 PM. My daughter said that she wanted the appointment. She later called to confirm the appointment, and his response was muffled; she could not understand him. She asked him to repeat what he said, and he started yelling at her. Perhaps he was busy taking a nap??? I drove by the house today to keep the 12:30 appointment. The rental sign was gone from the front yard. We never got a call from the agent. Given the agent's complete and total incompetence at customer service, I can only guess that he has no fear of being fired. What a shame. This is absolutely the worst customer service that I have ever (not) received in my life.

Because the housing market is so bad, my ex-husband and I chose to rent our property out rather than sell it. The home's value was $275,000 when we purchase it. It's now worth about $225,000 dollars. We used Drury Property Management, LLC owned by Dawn Drury to manage our property. They are in charge of finding appropriate renters, collecting the rent, and sending out service men when there is a problem with the property. In return we pay them 10% of the rent money each month. When Dawn found us clients we were told that the couple had two children. One year later a realtor called me and informed me they had eight children and one on the way. Now they have ten children. I was concerned but Dawn assured me she had been doing walk-throughs of the property and the wife was a stickler with her kids. I didn't know what else to do, as I couldn't sell the house in the current market and so I just held on to the tenants. This year the tenants started paying their rent late every month. It started in January. However, Drury Property Management could not make the tenants pay the late fees. Finally, in April I offered the house to the tenants once more. They could not purchase so I put it on the market. This is when the real problems were discovered. My realtor and I asked for a walk-through of the home. When I saw the front yard my heart sank. The lawn was un-mowed, the flower beds had not been weeded, what was once a show quality yard looked like it should suddenly land in a traler park. Upon walking up the front steps I noticed there was mud all over the front of the house. My realtor told me to prepare myself. I couldn't possibly prepare myself for what I was about to see. When one of the kids answered the door he said his mother wasn't home but we could walk through the property. There was a large dog that greeted me. It clearly stated no dogs were allowed in the home. Another dog was sitting in the corner. There was an empty cup lying against the baseboard on the living room floor. The carpet was disgusting. There were stains everywhere. A boy was lounging in a chair with his feet on the wall. When I saw the wall I noticed it was completely black from hand prints. Black. I couldn't believe it. My mouth dropped open. When we went into the first bathroom a bug crawled out of the light fixture. I think it was a roach. My stomach churned. The toilets looked as if they hadn't been cleaned in sometime. We then went into the master bedroom. We tried the lights but they were all burnt out and the bulbs had not been replaced, but other than that and a dirty toilet the master bedroom and bath were okay. I could not get into either of the children?s' rooms. They were locked and the boy that let us in said his baby sisters were sleeping. I still have yet to see these bedrooms, and will see them when we get the home back. The back deck was littered with boxes of trash and there were soil stains from the grill on the ceiling of the covered deck. The halls were covered in Black Hand prints. Again, BLACK. There was a hole in the drywall in the hallway. The attic fan had some type of mold or dirt on it. I wasn't sure what. The basement carpets were soiled as well and will probably need to be replaced along with the living room floor. I called the rental company and told them to evict the tenants ASAP. They said if the $1200 dollar deposit didn't cover the expenses, they would probably not be able to get additional money from the clients. The tenants have 30 days to vacate, but have still not paid the rent for this month. The rental company told me, "I have called the tenants and I left a message that the late fees are non negotiable. I will do my very best to collect them for you." As of yet I've not seen a penny. I really think it was the management property's job to enforce the rules, and make sure my property was kept up. Had I not paid them to do this, I would have done this myself and saved $120 dollars a month. I would have done a much better job as well. I finally hired an attorney who told me I had to fire Drury Property Management Company. She indicated the contract I signed was worthless and not even something the industry professionals would use. She said it gave them protection, but gave me none. I am now suing the tenants. If I win it will be their 5th judgement against them. I'm certain Drury Property Management will just find them another place to rent.