Asheville City Real Estate operates on a business model of promising maintenance and cleanup services to be performed on new rentals, then refusing to get the work done. They are scammers who take advantage of Asheville's tight real estate market to place duress on renters at the time of renting. Their MO is to pretend that they are unable to get approval from the property owner, in the hopes that dragging out a bad situation will result in the tenant's performing the necessary work.
They always say that the tenant is not authorized to perform any work whatsoever. So, if something breaks that has to be repaired, they say that as the tenant didn't have the right to proceed with the work, they are not obligated to pay.
A smashed window? Over a year to replace.
A stuck garage door? 16 days.
The first tip-off came when City's promise to provide a washer and dryer was abandoned. Kay Smith, who will look a person in the eye and lie with amazing skill, said, "Oh, you wouldn't have wanted those anyway."
Hunh?
I rented a house that had extensive damage that they promised to repair. Previous tenants were so angry that they seemed to want to take revenge on someone.
City Real Estate claimed that there was something wrong with the printer, resulting in their not being able to provide a lease for signing prior to the morning of the move. With my furniture on a truck with a moving crew waiting, which CRE knew, as I had to schedule the move-in with them, they presented a lease that had a typed rider that allowed them to terminate the lease at any time. They had previously lied that the lease was all pre-printed boilerplate.
City Real Estate agent Toni Truett hid, by claiming that the light fixture was broken (the only on ein the house that wasn't) the condition of the bathroom in the main bedroom, disguising the fact that it was entirely destroyed, soaked in urine.
City Real Estate promised to have what turned out to be over 60 bags of leaves cleared from the property prior to move-in. That work was never done.
Cty Real Estate promised to have over 2000 lbs of branches that had fallen removed. Eventually they sent someone to haul the branches, after I had to gather and stack them.
One of the smashed windows was to be replaced with a new window, as were all the other windows in the basement, which showed signs of intense and prolonged leakage. City promised the windows in two weeks, cvlaiming that the order was palced. Needless to say, the windows qwere never installed. It took City over a year to replace the smashed window.
All neighbors of the property I rented say they hate - hate is the word used - City Real Estate and the owner of the house I live in. They have allowed numerous dangerous conditions to exist. A dead tree over 70 feet tall was allowed to teeter on the brink of crushing a neighbor's house for more than two years.
The property borders a well-kept street, blighted by years of overgrowth and piled garbage. City promised to have all that cleared, then of course refused to do so.
Sity Real Estate represents slumlords and enforces for them. They are slumlords themselves.
As one of the workers who was sent here to repair the light fixtures and missing doors said when they came after two months, "Anyi job for City we put at the bottom of the list, because when they pay, they pay the least."
So, if you're an Asheville slumlord and need ruthless property management, get City Real Estate.
If you're a tenant, don't believe a word these unprincipled people ever tell you.