MIDGETT REALTY

Checking in to our rental cottage (Ocean's Edge) was the only pleasant experience renting from Midgett Realty. On check-in day, May 30, 2020 we discovered that the lift did not work. I called the maintenance dept and they informed me they were aware of the problem and that a work order had been sent to the manufacturer and they should have it repaired with-in a few days. NEVER HAPPENED! Once inside I discovered the pipes underneath the kitchen sink were leaking and a large bowl full of water was catching the water. I called maintenance again. A repair person came right out. He reduced the problem to a small leak and told me that a plumber would be sent out either the next day (Sunday) or at the latest on Monday. NEVER HAPPENED! We took turns emptying water from under the sink all week. Paint from the ceiling in one of the bathrooms is hanging down. On Monday, June 1 a representative from Midgett came to the house and talked to my Brother in law because of concerns people parking on the grass. We immediately removed the car from the grass and did not park on it again. On Wednesday the same representative from Midgett came back to the cottage and I went out to speak to him. His concerns this time was the amount of vehicles that were parked at the property. My family comes from all around the US to vacation at OBX and we have been for 28 years. I was then threatened that if I had more than 2 persons per room that we would be evicted with-in 4 hours! I had my 86 y/o mother staying in the top bedroom by herself and my 62 y/o brother occupying a room to himself. I assured this person that I was in compliance with the 2 per person per room rule. I was then informed that I would be watched and if there was any evidence that I was not in compliance that I would be evicted! Never in the 28 years of my family vacationing at the Outer Banks of North Carolina have I ever been harassed like this. My advice would be to not rent from Midgett Realty ever. There are much nicer people there to rent from i.e. Hatteras Realty, Surf or Sound. I will NEVER rent from Midgett Realty again!

This was our third trip to the Outer Banks. Our previous two trips were wonderful. The rental companies were wonderful. No issues with the rentals at all. They were clean, spacious and as advertised. This year, however, we used Midgett Realty. This was a nightmare. One that we will never relive. Upon arriving at our rental, Oh Hatteras, on Sunday, Sept 1, 2019, we saw that it looked to be an "older" unit and the outside looked to be as shown in photos. However, on the inside it was a twist and turn maze. That we could live with. Upon further inspection we found several issues as we spent our short day and a half there (2 nights). Here is the condition of the unit: 1. The kitchen chair cushions had excessive food crumbs all over them. We had to brush them all off out the patio door. 2. The kitchen table had food in the grooves on the two ends. We had to clean this with a wipe. A wipe in the groove cleaned that out. 3. In the living room, the TV had food stuck to the screen. We had to wipe that off. 4. The white couch in the living room had long human hairs on it, as well as multiple stains on it. These were rather disgusting. Some yellow, some pinkish red. We had to turn the cushions over and that didn't help much. So we had to cover it with a sheet to even sit on it. 5. In one bedroom, there was food on the floor and an open salt packet. 6. In another bedroom, the one with two twin beds (for kids) there was a half-eaten bag of candy in a dresser drawer and wrappers on the floor. 7. In that same room for kids, there were multiple romance novels (inappropriate for children) on the shelf with candy wrappers behind them. 8. In another, the lamp was in disrepair. The light was hanging by a wire, which our youngest daughter stated she "fixed". This in itself was a hazard. 9. There was also a phone handset under the bunk beds. 10. There was no room to store food supplies. We thought maybe we could put cereal and bread on the top of the refrigerator. However, it was so filthy that we decided it was too much work. 11. All of the beds had dirt in the crevices surrounding the thin mattresses. 12. While in the kitchen a 2" cockroach scurried across the floor. 13. Worst of all is the BLACK MOLD coming out of the vent over the kitchen sink and in the ceiling wall board. We tried spraying it with Lysol. 14. The grill still had ashes in it. 15. There was a pile of beer cans and bottles along the path to the beach. Not all of these things were noticed at once. When we arrived we decided to fit in an evening at the ocean, since Dorian was on the way and we wanted to make sure we had some fun at the beach. We were notified on Monday afternoon (the next day) that there was a mandatory evacuation on Tuesday by 10 AM. So we spent most of the day at the beach once again. Two members of our family are severely allergic to the black mold (1 with asthma) and began showing reactions to it. We left on Tuesday, by the evacuation time. We even brought in the outside furniture as requested as a courtesy. We did not contact Midgett regarding these issues at the time since there was nothing they could do with the impending evacuation. It would make no sense to send a cleaning crew over to do the job that should have been done in the first place. They could not upgrade us to a nicer, clean unit, as the area was being evacuated. Upon returning home on Monday, September 9th, 2019, I attempted to email and contact Midgett realty. I did not receive a respond back until 09/17/2019. Emails were rejected and I finally had to message directly through their site. I provided the information above and requested a refund for the remaining days in the amount of $824.49 since they could not have corrected the above issues as outlined above. The unit was unacceptable. We were not requesting a refund due to being evacuated, but as stated, for an unacceptable rental. Note: Not being able to obtain a response for 9 days also tells me that the chance of Midgett Realty sending over a cleaning crew immediately to take care of the issues would not have happened. Our response, finally, came from Anthony Fletcher the "General Manager" of rentals. His response was as follows: "I am responding to your request for a refund of $825.49. I checked for notes in the reservation as to the cleaning issues to see if any were reported. I did not see any cleaning issues reported to our staff. We make every effort to provide clean homes to all of our guest but I realize we do have issues that we need to address at times. It is a rather extensive list of cleaning issues of which most or all could have been addressed. As for the cockroach, regretfully they are very common in the area, all homes are treated but they are indigenous to the area. I do not believe that the refund you are requesting is a reasonable request and there will be no refund issued." We went back and forth regarding this and I requested to speak with those above him. His response: "I am the General Manager of Midgett Realty and the owner that handles the rental division, so I am the last stop. As I stated above the $825.49 is unreasonable and I would venture is based on you not having travel insurance." It does not even matter if we did or did not have travel insurance. We would not have requested a refund, had the unit been clean and acceptable. Anthony did not even make a counter offer when he stated the $825.49 was unreasonable. So you see there is no concern for the client/renter. There is no apology for the issues we encountered. There was no concern over the health of the renters due to the black mold issue. Only excuses and blaming of the client/renter. I asked him to respond to the questions/facts below: "I want a response to the following questions: 1. Would you have sent a crew to do a full cleaning? 2. Would you have had the couch cleaned and stains removed? 3. Would you have had the black mold removed from the unit, including the vents? I think we know the answer to these questions. No. Your only option would be to move us to a cleaner unit nearby, if available. However, you would not be able to do that as well due to the pending evacuation. Your only other choice would be to refund the existing days left on our stay, which is what I am asking. This is reasonable." His only response "You have my final answer to all questions." This is rude and completely unacceptable. This is poor customer service. It's not even customer service. He takes NO RESPONSIBILITY whatsoever for the fact that they did not fully clean the unit. We researched Midgett Realty across the internet and found 20 complaint reviews (including ours) with almost identical issues and complaints. Almost "word for word". Our concerns are obviously valid. We have put these together for others to review with links to the individual reviews in a group on Facebook. Look for the group: Midgett Realty Complaints & Concerns. I would venture to say they purposefully did not clean the unit, anticipating the evacuation due to the hurricane. I do see where Midgett Realty likes to respond back to some reviews and point fingers, so I have tried to address all points so they are not able to do this. We even tried repeatedly to give them a chance to make things right. We stated that while there were issues with the unit, our review could go from what you see above to "There were some issues with cleanliness, but Midgett Realty made things right." Anthony CHOSE to not work with us at all. Decide for yourselves. Anthony likes to call that "extortion". We call it, trying to work things out. We will never again use Midgett Realty. We suggest you do not use them as well. If I were a homeowner, I would not use this company to manage my rental.