Complaint Review: Bay Parc Plaza - Aimco Company

Bay Parc Plaza
1756 N. Bayshore Drive
Miami, FL 33132

An Aimco Company

AIMCO SELECT PROPERTIES, L.P
4582 South Ulster Street - Suite 1100
Denver, CO 80237

Subject
Formal complaint and a demand for an immediate resolution.
Bay Parc Plaza, Miami – APT 36B

Via email, fax & registered mail.
cc: CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY - 1560 Broadway, Suite 2090, Denver, CO 80202
cc: CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY - 1201 HAYS STREET, TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301-2525

Dear Sir/Madam,

My wife and I resided in your community in Bay Parc Plaza for approximately 4 years. This letter is a formal complaint and a demand for an immediate resolution of our dispute with your local office manager Maria Torres and her assistant Yvette Ortiz regarding apartment 36B. We have exhausted all means possible to resolve this with you local branch manager and her assistant in an amicable manner. This is our last attempt to resolve this matter before we seek other options to recover our losses.

On May the 10th, 2013 I met with Maria Torres, the community manager to discuss our move-out. This meeting took place after we previously indicated to the management that we will not renew our lease.

Immediately before this meeting took place, Yvette Ortiz walked in Maria’s Office and explained to her the reason of my visit and Maria pulled out my file on the computer screen. I began by explaining to Maria that we closed on a house and will be moving out. She then examined our lease, made a few trips to see the hard copies then came back to her desk. Maria informed me that corporate rules state that we would be liable for rent until June 10,2013, even thought I explained to her that we would vacate the apartment within a week. At that time, I asked Maria if we would get a break given the fact that we lived there for so long and given the fact that my car was severely damaged by the malfunctioning spikes at the gate and I never asked for damages or out of pocket expenses that I have incurred due to that incident. Maria indicated that these are corporate rules and I agreed.

Maria printed out the move-out instructions and statement and I signed all the documents. Maria also indicated that if the apartment was to be leased before June 10th, we would get refunded any extra rent monies paid for that period. The apartment was vacated a few days later.

On many occasions afterwards, we logged onto your website, which showed inventory of apartments in real time, and the apartment was never listed for rent. We called the rental office several times to see why that was the case and we could never get a reply back for weeks. We learned later that the apartment was reserved for an existing tenant.

On June 5^th, 2013, we logged into your billing system on June 5th, and paid the amount we agreed upon in the move-out statement; approximately $870. This amount included the utilities. At that time, we were very disappointed that the office did not refund us any monies as promised, since the apartment was already reserved to be rented.

On June 27, we received an unexpected email from Yvette asking us to pay another move-out statement and demanding payment on that day or else. She also indicated that the apartment was actually rented.

An exchange of emails between us and Yvette revealed that: she is not aware that we settled the account on May the 10^th prior to moving out, unaware of the date we moved out, and repeatedly ignored our request to give us either Maria’s direct contact information or accounts payable.

Furthermore, Yvette indicated that we broke the lease which never happened. Our lease expired on May 27, 2013 and we never renewed it or indicated that we would. As agreed upon in writing on May 10^th, 2013in our move-out statement, all rent due to Aimco was paid until June 10, 2013. Clearly not aware of the matter, Yvette indicated in the same exchange of emails, that we lived there in June, which is false. We physically moved to our new home on May 15, 2013.

In the following days after the initial exchange of emails, numerous phone calls were made to the office in order to speak directly with Maria and we could never get through to speak to her. It was then clear to us at that point that both Maria and Yvette are being deceitful and uncooperative.

On July 18, we received another erroneous statement from Yvette. This time, it had vague rent charges, late charges, and utilities already paid. We do not agree with any of these false charges for the following reasons:

1-      We have a written and executed move-out statement dated May 10^th, 2013 – This was paid online in full including all utilities.

2-      Maria indicated on May 10^th, 2013 that by signing the move-out documents, the apartment was to be marketed as available to the public. That never happened and the apartment was never marketed to the public. Instead, it was transferred to an existing resident who took their time to actually commit to a move-in date. This is not fair since the apartment could have rented sooner should it been made available to the public.

3-      If the apartment was in fact updated in the period between May 20 and June 10, 2013, it would not be fair for us to pay any rent while the apartment is being upgraded. This is a cost that we should never incur.

In conclusion, we demand from your corporate office that the points above be addressed, corrected and our deposit money be mailed to us as promised. In addition, we would like to formally complain to your company about the lack of service and professionalism of both the office manager and her assistant. They have been deceitful, uncooperative and unprofessional in dealing with this matter. It goes against all your company vision, ethics and public statements.

A simple search online revealed that this is not the first time it happened to tenants; by the same manager.