Fidelity Management Services Inc

From the start we were told by friends to NOT rent from Geoff Bayliss & Fidelity Property Management. We had been looking for a house to rent for almost 6 months by the time we found this cute house in a neighborhood that was perfect for us (at that time). Unfortunately for us, it was only available through Fidelity. We decided to risk it. We put in all of our information and were granted the rental. And the problems started. With approval FROM THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE, we did some small remodeling on the basement. Geoff was furious that we contacted the owner and not him. The owner was the one who said we could contact him at any time (when we signed for the house) or for any house related issues! In the spring/summer/fall, Geoff would drive by on a weekly basis and call us from his cell phone if he thought the grass wasn't cut right, the leaves weren't done properly, or the bushes trimmed. Geoff also called us after 6 months for a home inspection to see how we were caring for the house. THERE WAS NOTHING ABOUT THIS LISTED IN OUR RENTAL CONTRACT AT ALL. So we didn't say anything and planned on being home at the time he did his walk-through. He didn't say anything negative about how we kept our house until he walked in the kitchen and told us how PROUD our mothers would be if we had actually done our dishes!!! We had just finished breakfast before he showed up!! Regardless of dishes in the sink of my kitchen, our house was clean and kept tidy. A few months later, we went skiing for the day at a ski area 150 miles or so from our house. Our water was having issues and we had called Geoff the day before to talk to him about it and left him a message. On our drive to the ski area, he called and said he needed to get in the house right NOW. I told him that we were on our way out of town and that we could turn around or we could do it tomorrow. He wanted us to come back NOW. My then fiance (now my husband) told him that we could get to it tomorrow, but that we were not turning around since it was not a dire emergency that needed to happen right away. Geoff huffed around, and finally consented to the next day. We made sure our house was clean and presentable that night and the next day when Geoff came over, he was upset about a lock on a door. We had never heard EVER that this door could not be locked. We acquiesced and thought the problem was solved. But no. We heard about it the rest of the time that Geoff was there looking at the water main. After a year of this man and his not listed, not-in-the-contract problems & policies, we moved out. No one could bear to even deal with the man but me. So I did the final walk-through with Geoff. He checked off on our check-out sheet until we got to the basement stairs. Some tenant before us had ripped the stair rail out of the wall to move something down there before and had stuck it back to the wall with JB Weld or some similar product. After we moved in, my then fiance was going down the stairs and slipped on the painted stair surfaces and reached for the stair rail and it came off in his hands and he went down the stairs on his back. I had previously explained this to Geoff when he came for 6 month inspection. I again reminded him of this when he asked about it. He said he understood and okay-ed it being off the wall and made a note that it was alright on our checkout sheet. I asked him about our rental deposit that we gave him when we first moved in. He said we should get at least half back. The weirdest thing about my final walk-through with this man? He had a contractor/architect walking through with us because he was planning a small remodel of the basement. We would drive by later and see some form of construction on the basement (even if it was a construction truck in the driveway). A few months later and we get a letter in the mail saying that our $800.00 deposit was not enough and that we owe him an additional $200.00! He listed where all the money had gone in the letter. He claimed the railing and at least 3 or 4 other things he checked off as ok on our checkout sheet!! He took us to collections. We refused and disagreed with the charges. In the end, we ended up paying the collections account because we could not afford an attorney at the time and because after all was said and done, we had been dealing with this for 2 years after we had moved out! To this day I still cannot believe that he swindled us out of money that he had said we were going to get back and that he said one thing and did something else afterward. I have heard from multiple other people I have met, that he has done something similar to them or to people they know. Rent from him at your own risk.