Complaint Review: JMZ Management

I'm a stay @ home mom and my husband is a USAF Reservist and an Educator.  We moved here with our two young sons from Georgia 7 months ago because my husband was offered a job.  We have rented out our own home in Georgia and since we were not sure how long we would be in Michigan, we decided to rent a house.  My husband worked with a real estate agent to help with the search.  

    I have no idea if the experience I'm about to explain is typical in this state, or what, but since I have not been able to find an entity or organization where tenants can file free complaints against management companies/landlords for negligence in Michigan, I felt this was my only other option. Nonetheless, I believe that JMZ Management has been negligent, unprofessional, unresponsive, and/or slow to respond causing my family undue stress and great inconvenience and if nothing else, I want potential tenants to know how they conduct business.  If this is not the correct place to make a complaint, please connect me with the right place.  Here is my experience:

    To say that my experience with JMZ Management has been HORRIBLE would be a gross understatement.  We have had problems with them from day one and the saga continues every month.  To start, the JMZ Management website states that they "EVALUATE" properties for lease potential.  Let me say that NO ONE from this company could have possibly evaluated the property we are leasing in Southfield, at least, not with their eyes open.  This property looks half-way nice at first glance, but upon a slightly closer look, you can tell that this property was not maintained well and any "updates" to this property were not completed by reputable, licensed, professionals.  Most things have been "jimmy rigged" to work for "the time being".  It's the equivalent of "fixing" everything with a roll of dollar store duct tape. The materials used look to be old materials collected from a "Restore" or maybe even curbside (tenants must be careful to document everything so as not to be blamed for pre-existing damage).

    The following is a short list of the 60+ things indicating the condition of the property on our move in date (09/01/12): there were/are excessive nail/screw holes in the walls; a fist sized hole in the bedroom wall (stuffed with paper & trash), none of the walls had been painted; the carpet was WET and dirty; the bedroom doors don't close properly (you have to slam to close); all the phone lines were cut (except 1-had to pay $140 to fix to get land-line & DSL); the oven was broken ($254 to fix), master bath pocket door MISSING; master bath shower leaks profusely; tile around shower drain is rough, HOLE in master bath wall exposing pipes; hall bath toilet leaking (found pennies were used to stabilize); pipes underneath laundry sink completely MISSING; washer/dryer connections partially missing, insulation hanging from the ceiling in basement; bags of leaves, twigs, and debris, left in back yard; furnace filter MISSING; lawn/weeds overgrown; no key given for back door; no garage door opener given; return vent covers missing and/or not secured to walls, house numbers lying on front porch; door bell doesn't work, etc. 

   In addition to ALL of this and so much more, we get a $318 water bill from the City of Southfield (5 or 6 days after move in), indicating that the water bill had NOT been paid since May 2012!  Really?! We moved in September 1, 2012.  The owner of the house had an outstanding water bill! Really?! This should not have happened!  There should not have been ANY outstanding bills connected to this property when it was rented!  Every time I receive the water bill, I have to scan a copy for myself, pay our portion, and send the original to the management company to forward to the owner.  As of this date, the water bill is still outstanding with 2% added for the late charge.

    As I previously stated, this property was not "evaluated" or vetted well before it was listed.  As a property owner and landlord myself, I would never have rented a house with all these issues to ANYONE.  It is painfully obvious that integrity and responsibility are not traits practiced by JMZ Property Management. 

    It is also obvious that the owner of this property cannot afford to live in or be a landlord for such an old property.  The proof of this is the water bill that is still outstanding and the slow or nonexistent rate at which repairs are made.  For example, about 2 months ago, the kitchen faucet leaked so that it flooded the sink underneath and ran onto the floor.  No one was ever sent out to fix it, so my husband bought the materials and fixed it himself.  I sent over pictures and receipts to the management company.  The last time I checked my account; they still had not credited our account or refunded us for that expense.  We have also been haggling with JMZ for months regarding the $140 we paid to AT&T to have the phone lines re-connected.

    There is a section on the website where tenants are supposed to input repair requests. They may or may not respond to those repair requests. IF they do respond, rest assured that you will talk to multiple people (high turnover) who will all tell you something different.  And, if you provide them with any sort of documentation, you had better scan it for your records, because I guarantee that they will lose it more than once and ask you to resend it multiple times.  The only way to describe it is total and complete chaos.

     This company is so completely and utterly money driven that they charge tenants to pay online whether you pay early or on the due date.  They also charge fees to have rent automatically withdrawn from your bank account and there system automatically charges a $75 late fee to your account whether you pay on time or early!  This is absolutely amazing to me in light of the economic conditions of Michigan.  Month after month, I have had to call to make sure they removed that fee because we were never late. 

     Additionally, the lease agreement is as thick as "War & Peace".  They have their behinds covered for every possible scenario you could conceive of, but the service they provide to tenants is deplorable at best.

Lastly, It has been more than 30 days since we left that property (due to my husband's job) and they still have not paid us the money they OWE us yet!!!

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY save yourself a lot of frustration!