Complaint Review: CTA Title Services LLC

We Rented a property which my girlfriend and I found advertised on Craigslist. I called and spoke to the Landlord which was first interaction with Steven S. Poole. After a few days of deliberation and looking at other properties, we decided to choose the property which was offered by Mr. Poole. I went to his 3rd floor office in Brick and sat with him discussing the lease which I was about to sign.

No here is where it gets interesting. The man kept running from the office to correct things on the lease which he had made errors on. Our rent was only $1,200 per month and initially the lease read $1,350. Upon catching it, he immediately apologized and ran out AGAIN to correct it. Once I had given him a check which was for the first month rent as one and a half months security, I thought all was well. Actually... Very excited to move into our new rental with my girlfriend.

We moved in on April 1, and the second day we were there, there was a water leak from the kitchen sink. I have some plumbing experience so I patched it up and put in a flow valve. A $200 repair. I spoke with the landlord... He advised me to sub it off next months rent. So I did, and two more months passed. Then one saturday morning I was greeted by knock on the front door. I was Toms River Township Code Enforcement. The lady was actually very pleasent and advised me that there had been no certificate of occupancy obtained on the house before we had moved in. She told me that it was the landlords responsibility and that I should get in contact with him ASAP. I called Steven Poole that afternoon and he told me that it would be taken care of by the end of the week. This was the last I heard from Steven S. Poole.

Over the next three months we emailed, called and sent certified mail to Steven Poole, CTA Title Services and Brick Police to try and reach him. All were unsuccessful, and Toms River township at this point was threatening that they were going to force us to leave because of the lack of C/O. My Girlfriend and I couldn't afford an attorney so we called NJ Legal Aid. The guy from Legal Aid was practically useless but did make a surprising statement. He advised that we could cease paying rent until the problem was rectified because it voided out lease when he failed to obtain a C/O. So that is what we did.

Another almost two months went by and one day after coming home from work, I was greeted by an especially angry girlfriend, who had just found out eviction papers taped to the door a few hours prior. When we went to court, Steven Poole did not show up and the judge dismissed the eviction. A few days later I received a call from Steven Poole who began yelling and swearing at me on the phone about my action of not paying rent. He told me it was my fault that he incurred fines from Toms River Twp and that he wanted my family and I "out of his house". I told him that he would resume getting paid when the home had a C/O. He hung up on my.

Three weeks later, he sent more eviction papers to the house. Finally we hired an attorney and have since been forced to moved out by Toms River Township, but we are now persuing Steven Poole, CTA Title Services and everyone who works for that office. They are a bunch of scan artists who are unprofessional, and greedy. They forced my family and I out of our home and now I've coo responded with a bunch of other families who are now coming forward against them!