Complaint Review: Carol Reynolds Province Consulting Group Inc.

Carol Reynolds owns a rental apartment in midtown Atlanta at 375 6^th Street NE., Apt. 3. She collected a security deposit of $1100 on this apartment, which I rented for a year. When I gave notice that I was moving and tried to schedule an inspection before leaving Atlanta, she was “tied up” and would not meet. She instructed me to tape the key under the stairs to the apartment, and having packed all of my furniture and family, I had little choice but to leave the key.

I took pictures of each room in the apartment and had several people cleaning who could attest to its condition when I left. As I began the process to seek a return of my deposit, she first claimed I had not paid a deposit, and when I submitted proof of payment, she stated the property had been left in “really good shape” and that she would return the deposit in two weeks. Much later, she came up with a list of problems she had identified, including a complaint about the quality of the paint job where matching paint had been used to repair small holes from pictures. She still promised to return a portion of the deposit.

This occurred more than 3 years ago. I contacted an attorney who explained in a letter to this landlady that she was in violation of Georgia law, and that she had wrongfully retained the deposit. She did not respond. I recently contacted her and tried to appeal to her sense of ethics and honesty, hoping that as time passed she would have reconsidered her actions, but she did not respond to that appeal either.

Since 3 years have passed, I can only conclude that this landlord is one who regularly abuses the law and unlawfully retains deposits. She has no explanation as to why she has not returned a penny of the $1100 I paid as deposit to date. I am reporting this in hopes that I can spare someone else this same experience. Renters should look for other properties to rent in Midtown Atlanta, withhold their last month’s rent and consider the deposit as rent payment, or accept the fact that this landlady, no matter how one tries to appeal to her, will keep the deposit.