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Troy Bakker Deadbeat Landlord, slow to respond to repairs, will cheat you out of your deposit. Tempe Arizona
Troy strikes you as quite a nice guy at first. He appears pretty laid back and affable. Unfortunately, nice guys don't always make for good business.
Troy rents out several homes in the Tempe, AZ area. He owns his own business and is frequently not available when he is needed to make repairs or replacements on the properties he owns.
During our short time in one of his properties, he tore up part of the brick patio, shattered the pipes to the sprinkler system while digging out a tree stump and neglected to fix the solar water panels to the water heater when the pipes burst. None of these items were ever repaired, although I had requested that he do so. We were able to switch the water heater over to the electric back-up, but this raised our electric bill a bit as a result. Troy made no offer to help with this added expense.
I'll give credit where credit is due, when the refrigerator went out, he brought in a new one within a week. Unfortunately, when the oven blew its element on Thanksgiving Day (in the middle of prep for the whole meal...) he never replaced it. Several of the burners on the stove had stopped operating. He promised to bring in a new stove/oven as the ones we had in the house were the originals that were about 34 years old and beyond repair. From November to March, when we finally moved out, he never repaired or replaced the stove/oven. Cooking Christmas dinner on a hot plate and using a roaster was a pleasure I never want to repeat.
I should have forced the issue, replacing the stove myself and taking the costs off of the rent, as allowed by the Landlord Tenant Act. But I was still operating on the thought that Troy was a nice guy who was just slow to get things done. No Good Deed goes unpunished.
When we finally moved out, I waited for Troy to send us our deposit. After one month and no word from him, I gave him a call. He informed me that he was going to get something in the mail soon. Landlord Tenant Act requires that he get a statement and/or deposit, complete with detailed deductions for repairs in my hand within 14 business days. To date, its been almost 2 months now, and no paperwork. He also informed me that he is charging me an additional $1500 over our deposit. I can't wait to see what he has fabricated to justify these charges.
Troy may be a nice guy at times, but he's a lousy landlord. Inattentive, hestitant to invest money into his property to maintain its value. Slow to repair or replace broken items. I would advise anyone to keep looking for housing if considering renting with him. He'll end up burning you in the end.