March of 2007 I answered to an advertisment by Home America. They had listed a home in the Anthem area which was conveniently located around the corner from my current residence. The house was listed as a 3-bedroom with appliances, which met my current needs.
I was placed in touch with an agent by the name of Ryan Vianetti. He claimed he could have me in the house by April 1st and approved within 24-48 hours. I received a call from Ryan about a couple days later, telling me I was approved to move in however he was not able to speak to the current tenant. Ryan assured me that the home would meet my needs, and since I was running out of time, I decided to move forward. I brought in a cachiers check for the deposit and signed the paperwork.
A couple days after I contacted Ryan and asked if they were able to reach the tenant, since it was days before my move-in. Ryan told me that they did and the house was being professionally cleaned and would be ready for an April 1st.
I received the keys, which ended up being the wrong keys. I entered the home from an open window in the back. As I was walking through, I discovered that the home did not have 3-bedrooms and no refrigerator. The house was a 2-bedroom with a den and no closet. This presented an immediate problem since I have 2 teenagers. The house was disgustly dirty, with bird droppings and feathers all over the top of the kitchen cabinets, human hair inbedded into the carpets, holes in the walls, bleach stains in the carpet and several dirt stains to name a few. I called Home America immediately, only to be put on a voice mail chase, not able to speak to anyone. I was furious and felt scammed.
The following Monday, I contacted Home AMerica requesting to speak to the owner, and was forwarded to Mark Bosworth in their Scottsdale location. After patiently waiting about 48 hours and having left several messages, Mark Bosworth finally called me. I explained my frustrations and he responded with "So why did you move in?" I couldn't beleive that I was even hearing this.... I reitterated my story again and requested some sort of resolution or my money back. Mr. Bosworth explained that I could not get my money back but would have someone call me to discuss what could be done.
It was a weeks worth of phone calls and about seven different agents, some who ended up getting terminated within a weeks time and other's who just kept passing the buck. Finally received a call form another agent, whom I don't recall his name at this time, offering me to move to another Home America property however I would have to pay an additional $450.00 dollars for administrative fees. Clearly seeing that I was not going to get of this, and do to time resrictions and traveling with my present position, I decided to remain where I was try to make it work. I spent $300.00 on a used refrigerator which I shouldn't have had to pay for and spent hundreds of dollars in cleaning supplies and carpet machines to attempt to remove the dirt.
A couple weeks into the the lease, things started to go wrong, sinks were leaking, garbage disposal was malfunctioning and the frosting on the cake was when the built in microwave caught on fire. I emailed Ron Capron as requested on the paperwork and after several emails and no response and 4 weeks later, I phoned the owner of the home and he made all the necessary repairs and asked me to contact him directly if there was a problem with the home.
In addition to the false advertising and failure to repair things, there are the many clerical errors and false billings. I have been charged late fees for no reason and claimed to be late with rent when I wasn't. After my lease expired, I went to month to month and was actively looking for a place. I received two lease renewals, month to month and annual about 3 weeks prior to the effective date reflecting a $300.00 to $350.00 increase. I was raged by this and called the Home America office. I was transferred to a Carol who when asked why such a large increase told me they can do whatever they want.
I decided that I was not going to pay that kind of money, especially for a home that was misrepresented in the first place and signed a lease on another home. I sent an email to Mindy Bosworth informing her of a 18 day notice and I would be out on June 6th. Mindy asked why and I told her about the rental increase, she looked it up and informed me that was an error. Of course having been victim to many previous errors I was not changing my mind. Mindy became very nasty as she was most of the time to begin with, and told me that I would be responsible for June as well. Two days later in retaliation I was served with eviction papers.
Recently I recevied a letter suing me and threatening wage garnishment. They are now claiming that I owe 7300.00 and come to find out are charging me for damages from the previous tenant. I have pages upon pages for late fees including everyday in June. I received a garnishment letter from my employer and now am facing almost 800.00 coming out of my check. I did contact them to make arrangments for May as I agree I did not pay and Greg Dawson informed me that they would cancel the garnishment as long as I made monthly payments to them directly. The next day I received an email from someone else stating that the garnishment would not stop until they received their first payment, which now makes it impossible to survive. Again another false promise.....
We need to put this company out of business. I know there are several of us that have paid monies that we shouldn't have or have been wrongfully accused of things we didn't do.....
Another home america victim
Gilbert, Arizona
U.S.A.