Reinier Properties, Lisl Howell, Thomas Howell Renting from them is a mistake!!!! They are con artists Raleigh North Carolina
Where do I begin. I signed a lease with these people, and unknowingly signed a waiver to have my documents reviewed by an attorney. As the time passed there were several things in the home that were in need of repair that went unfixed. Not to mention the A/C unit was sooo old that it didn't work the entire summer. They installed a window unit, but never fixed the A/C. I had a family with children, and this is completely unacceptable.
Before the lease was over, I lost my job and they threatened to evict me, so I willfully left without the drama of an eviction. Then they filed a suit against me saying that I never cleaned the house and charged me $4,000. And I never got my $2,000 deposit back.
They took advantage of me thinking that I was a stupid single mother without the ability to fight back. And posting my experience on this website and others will warn other people never to rent from these con artists. And I know there are other people out their whom they have ripped off. But it needs to stop. And both Thomas and Lisl claim they are Christians, give me a break.
Waiting4noone
Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
T & L Howell
Raleigh,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
What really happened
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, April 21, 2009
This person, Yonica Pimentel (owner of Atlantic HR Solutions) actually signed a lease-to-own contract with us. There was never a deposit made. She did pay an non-refundable "option fee" which was thouroughly explained to her on several occastions and even in writing (including twice in the contract). This was to go towards the purchase of the home when she purchased it. She didn't end up buying in the end because she lost her job (the 3rd in a year). We also sent Yonica a copy of the lease-to-own agreement before she signed anything. She worked for a lawyer's office at the time and we encouraged her to have them review it. This was a plain English contract without small writing. I don't understand how you unknowingly sign something. It is simple. You read it . If you agree with it then you sign it. We also met her and reviewed, paragraph by paragraph, the entire contract before she signed anything.
Yonica only called twice about issues. The first time was due to a water heater that needed to be replaced. It was replaced immediately (at 11 O'clock on a Friday night..) The second time, she called on a Wednesday and said the A/C was not working properly. We called around immediately to get a repair man to fix it, but no one was able to get over there until Friday (and that took pleading on our part because it was the hottest week of the year). We went on Wednesday night and installed a window unit until the repair man could get in there. When the repair man came he stated that the reason the A/C wasn't working properly was in part because the filters weren't being changed regularly. Part of Yonica's lease stated that she was to change these monthly, so we emphasized the need to do this and even provided several for her to use. We also had a "hard start" kit installed on the A/C system to ensure that it worked for Yonica and her family. A week later we received an e-mail from Yonica thanking us for fixing the unit. We never heard another thing about it until we asked her to move (in October). When she moved out we saw that the original replacement filters were still there, unused. We also tested the unit for an entire day to try to get rid of the odor permeating the house while we were there cleaning, it was working just fine after replacing the filters.
When we learned on October 5th that she had another job loss and wasn't able to pay yet another rent on time, we suggested she find something more affordable for her family. We told her that we would give her to the end of the month and would avoid doing an eviction. We gave her a copy of what we would look for in the house and encouraged her to clean the place to avoid any charges in addition to the rent owed. She refused to clean the home. The house was so disgustingly filthy and had such bad carpet damage, wall damage, etc. that anyone that saw the place would understand the issues. We have over 100 pictures taken after she moved out. Yonica also never paid for the last months rent or late fees. The judge agreed with us after seeing all the e-mails back and forth and the pictures of the house before and after. We received a judgement for $2000. We sued for $4000 because of all the damages and unpaid rent. After the case, we talked to a lawyer that was in the courtroom, he said that that particular judge favors the tenant so we "drew" poorly. If we had gotten a conservative judge, we probably would have won more.
If Yonica really believed the home to be in such a horrible state she wouldn't have put in an "intent to purchase" after living there for nearly a year (about a month before she moved out). It was several weeks after she gave us this that she lost her job. We would have still tried working with her if this wasn't her third job in a year (she was fired from one earlier in the year). Plus, after 7 late payments and 3 bounced checks, we realized that she was much further away from purchasing the house than even she realized. We avoided evicting her so as to not ruin her chances of finding another place. We were nothing but kind to her and this can be proven by e-mails back and forth.
If Yonica really believed there was a "deposit" then she would have been there for the final walk-through and/or provided a forwarding address to us. She did not. She knew the horrible condition she left the home in. This home had been completely remodeled with fresh paint, tile, carpet, etc.before she moved in. It was so bad that even after completely repainting the entire house, scrubbing every square inch of the home (5 hours just to clean the fridge!), getting the carpets professionally cleaned TWICE and refinishing the hardwood floors, the house still had the smell of the pungent odor she left.
If anyone looking at this has any question about anything on here, they are more than welcome to ask. We stand behind our decisions with this tenant. We have tried to work things out with her to avoid causing her further problems, but she has flat out refused to take responsibility for her actions. Now there is a judgment against her, which was completely avoidable.
The fact is, if you believe her, then please, do not rent from us. We don't want you to. It would be a mistake. We expect our tenants to pay on time and not ruin our home. We don't believe we are asking too much.