Complaint Review: 7rent.com - Columbus Ohio

Our experience renting from 7rent.com has been a nightmare.

To begin, I will list the issues we have had with our rental. We have only lived here for seven months.

Since August '14, we have dealt with the following:

The heater stopped working at the height of winter. After several days it was looked at (by men who worked for 7rent but did not specialize in this sort of repair) and we were told it was fixed. It was not, and we had a few more days of no heat during below freezing temps.

An ant infestation (this was also present upon move-in as the house was not thoroughly cleaned whatsoever).

A small electrical explosion due to faulty wiring, which resulted in the destruction of a laptop and a flat screen tv. (The wiring had been noted as faulty at move in, looked at by non-professional handy men the company hires for odd jobs, and we were told the sockets were fine. They were not, and the wiring has since been replaced. We had to request electricians for the repair. Our personal property was not replaced by 7rent, and it will not be.)

The refrigerator has stopped working numerous times. Again, random handymen come and "take a look" but the problem has yet to be permanently resolved. It took many days for someone to "take a look" last time and as a result we lost nearly all perishable groceries.

Several times work was done on the house without our notification. I awoke at 7am one morning to three men standing on our balcony roof directly outside of my bedroom window. As in, I opened the curtains and the only thing separating me and these three strange men was a window. They were there to tear down the chimney. We were not informed of this, and of many other instances of work done on the house. We've also had workers let themselves into our home with there own keys while we were in it. 

Anytime work was needed, the company refused to set any reasonable time. We were frequently told "Sometime tomorrow between 7 am and 7pm" only to have no one show up. 

Some items noted at our move-in still have yet to be fixed. For instance, some second floor windows will not stay open, so they can never be opened. Another is missing a screen entirely. 

We told Angel Robinson, the property manager, that we planned to get a dog upon move-in. She said no problem, and reminded us there would be a small pet rent and deposit. The "small" amount turned out to be $60 a month AND an additional $1000 deposit. The dog is a service animal, an emotional support dog for myself, as I have anxiety and PTSD due to my brother's death in Iraq. When we informed Angel that the animal was to be an emotional support animal, and that we thought the pet rent was unusually high for this area (averages run about $25-35 a month), she was incredibly nasty on the phone. Owner Robert Moazampour was the same, hung up on me several times, and even showed up at our home unannouced to discuss terms--to essentially try to force our hand and "let us" pay a smaller pet rent if we agreed then and there to sign a three year lease. Eventually we also learned that by law they were not allowed to charge us ANYTHING for an emotional support animal. They knew this and tried to anyways. 

I have lived in Colorado, in New York City, in South Korea. I have never, in my life, encountered a rental company or landlord the likes of Robert Moazampour, and his property manager, Angel Robinson. They are unprofessional and care only about the bottom line; this is perhaps the first time in my life where I can apply that old cliche without any sort of pause--Robert and Angel see dollar signs, not people. They are not only terrible at their work; they are terribly unkind and thoughtless when it comes to making people comfortable and safe in their homes.

My spouse and I are incredible tenants. We are A-type levels of clean. We take pride in our home and our property. We pay rent early. We have not had issues like this before, in any place we have ever lived. 

All of this has been immensely stressful. Most of these issues are not normal wear-and-tear; they seem more like issues that accumulated and had not been addressed over time, and may be directly related to lack of quality in prior tenants, and lack of care/addressing of issues by tenants and even 7rent.com. These issues are also deeply concerning as they involve basic living conditions. These are not aesthetic issues, but issues where our warmth and food sources and safety have been compromised. 

The lesson is brief: Do not rent from 7rent.com.