Century 21 Action, Inc.

I am writing regarding a rental property which we rented from the
Century 21 franchise located at 518 Roland Avenue, Surf
City, NC 28445 from June 7, 2014 to June 14, 2014.  This is a copy of the
 email that I sent to this office and we have yet to receive a response.
We arrived at our rental property, California Dreaming, on Saturday, June 7,
after the office closed.  On Sunday, I called and spoke with Melissa to
report numerous problems with our rental house.  I called again on Monday
with additional issues.  We have rented houses at Topsail Beach, NC, for
over 35 years and have never stayed in a property with so many problems.
I have listed the issues below:
1.  TV in the living room has a distorted picture which appeared to be due
to a cable issue. (We were advised to call the cable company to troubleshoot
the problem even though I requested that they make the call.  I was advised
that if they could not fix it by troubleshooting, to call Century 21 back so
they could set up an appointment for the cable company to fix the problem.
Century 21 gave me the address and phone number of the property.  However,
when we called the cable company they could not look up the account without
the owner's name.  I then called Century 21 who would not release the name
to me but advised they would call the cable company to give them the name.)
2.  Blinds in the living room and one bedroom do not open.  These blinds
need to be open to access the beach.
3.  Toilet makes a loud whistling sound when flushed that wakes the entire
house when flushed at night.
4.  Water dripping in kitchen and bathroom sink and bathtub faucets.
5.  Plug in bathtub (to cover where previous bathtub faucet was located)
falls out leaving black (probably mold) particles in the bathtub.
6.  Numerous hanging tv and cable cords in the bedrooms. (this could be very
dangerous for children)
7.  Rusty nails on deck and railing sticking up, some 2 to 3 inches,
8.  Sharp end of nails sticking out on legs of picnic table.  My
granddaughter scratched her leg.  Thankfully, she did not break the skin or
we would have had to take her for a tetanus shot.
9.  No coat hangers in any of the closets.
10.  Hooks for shower curtains missing.
11.  Microwave handle broken.
12.  Outside shower/hose handle  broken with jagged rusty edge.
13.  Clock broken with hour hand that dangles.
14.  Foliage over deck walkway.
15.  The utensil drawer in the kitchen can only open a few inches because it
hits the oven door handle.  The oven door must be opened in order to open
the utensil drawer enough to see and remove utensils.
16.  Propane tank was empty for gas grill and we were told we would have to
refill the entire tank at our cost.  (the inside of the grill is rusty and
it may not even work).  A charcoal grill is listed in the property's
amenities but there is no charcoal grill present.
17.  Smoke detector in living room starts sounding when there are no fire or
smoke problem and continues to sound.  We had to take the battery out to
stop the noise.
In addition, a used washcloth was hanging on the bar in the bathtub lending
us to believe that the bathroom had not been cleaned properly.
I asked Melissa to have someone from Century 21 come out to see the
condition of the property.  She advised that they always inspect the
properties before the season begins and seemed to see no need for someone to
come out.  She also noted that California Dreaming is one of their best
properties.  We certainly will never rent from Century 21 again.
I am forwarding pictures since we are not able to get an agent the come to
the property (we will send a follow-up email with additional photos).  We
have also included a few photos from the realty website for comparison.  We
are sending this to Century 21's corporate office and will be posting
reviews.
I have never called a realty company to complain, only to report issues for
insurance purposes.  This has negatively impacted our use and enjoyment of
the property.  The photographs on the Century 21 website misrepresent the
condition of the property.  There is no view of the beach which is mentioned
twice on the property overview.  If we had the opportunity to view the
property in person or view an accurate depiction of it on the realty website
prior to renting, we would have never rented the property, especially at
this rate that is comparable to the rate we pay each year for far higher
quality properties.
While some of the problems have been corrected, there are still quite a few
that have not.  Because of the fraudulent misrepresentation about the
condition of the property and remaining problems that have affected our use
and enjoyment of the property, not to mention the time we have had to invest
in meeting and speaking with maintenance and cable repair workers, we
request a refund for a reasonable portion of our rental fee.
In addition to the problems listed in the above email to  Century 21, one of our keys 
would not unlock the main door and it was very difficult to open the door with the 
other key.  We learned this one evening when our party was divided and the party
returning earliest was locked out until the rest of our party returned,  Also the wood 
on the deck was in need of paint and the floor decking
had sharp pieces of damaged wood that could have caused injury if walking 
barefoot on the deck.  
While there were a few issues that we normally would have overlooked, the total 
issues were unacceptable.  We did not receive any type of response to our email from 
Century 21 and no type of refund.  I contacted the Century 21 corporate office and was 
advised that the office at Surf City, NC was a independently owned franchise and they 
would refer my email to the owner.  I have received no further contact from the owner
or the corporate Century 21 office.  
Needless to say, I will never have any deaings with Century 21 again.

Horrible. I hope nobody else has to go through this.