Heritage Properties of St Louis

I hired this property management company last year. In the first weeks I needed a new refrigerator, and they were not there two weeks in a row for delivery of it, and then they charged me $50 to drop off a small frig for the tenant to use while they tried to remember to be there for the delivery of the new one I purchased.

I called and asked why was no one there to receive delivery? That is one of the things I pay for in property management. As soon as the old frig stopped working, I had a new one ordered in a day, so the tenant only had to go 2 days without a refrigerator. I got no answer to my question.

This was the first sign. My tenant left after a month. However, their answer when asked about this by the BBB of St. Louis was: "there was a mix up with the tenant," which is a complete lie.

I hired them so my tenant would not be bothered with staying home for an appliance drop off, and the property manager has keys to the unit. Unreal. The next tenants arrived in OCT 2019 and left JAN 2020. Some water damage was discovered on a wooden entryway, which was noted as a deficiency by the city inspector on the conservation inspection.

Heritage said I had to rebuild the whole thing, which I knew was not necessary, too expensive, and would take too long. I said just get a carpenter over there and replace the rotten wood pieces. Nothing got done for a month, and then the city put a condemned sign on the house. Next, the inspector told them just replace the 2 rotten steps while you wait for a permit; like I told them to do much earlier.

This contributed to the tenants wanting to break their lease, in JAN after a skylight leaked in some rain water. I agreed to let them break the lease, but I would keep the deposit in exchange. Then the tenants threatened a lawsuit over rain water damage to something if they did not get the deposit back. I told Heritage to show me the pictures of what was damaged, since the skylight was over a stairwell, since no one puts furniture on a staircase.

The partner I talked to, had no answer, and got irritated with my instance. He said to me: "This is a lot of work." Never before in over 20 years of renting have had I ever heard a property manager complain that his job is a lot of work. Work I am paying for. He said the threat of lawsuit came from an attorney, and his own attorney said it was best sign a release.

I told him so what if the tenant's attorney sent them a threat of lawsuit? Just get a release from the tenants directly, I am not hiring your lawyer. I told him twice I was not paying for legal services, when none are needed. He disregarded what I told him, and had his attorney do some sort of release he should have gotten directly from the tenants, and then billed me $391 for his attorney.

He took it out of the reserve of my money that is only for repairs, and without my authorization. This in my opinion, is very underhanded and unethical. For all I know, the tenants were lying about the alleged water damage, and got away with nonsense they could never prove in a court. It cost me a deposit plus and additional $391.

After the tenants left, I found out they had never paid their gas bill the entire three months they were in the house; leaving me with a $245 gas bill, which has yet to be sorted out. I paid for property management services which is a manager who ensures tenants comply with the terms of their lease. Heritage Properties failed to ensure they took over the utility when they moved in. Failed to make sure they were compliant each month paying utilities, and then failed to ensure they had paid in full the utilities used when they departed the property.

I have asked Heritage Properties to pay for what they are responsible for, but no resolution yet. Lastly, they took a $96 fee for February, also out of this repair reserve, when no rent was collected in the month of February, since the unit was vacant. The contract I have with Heritage stipulates they receive an 8% fee on RENTS collected ONLY. This is what happened to me SEP 2019MAR 2020 with Heritage Properties.

$893 in losses plus loss of a $1500 deposit. I stopped renting the property in March 2020.