Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/05/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  **** Russo bought the property I was living on in may. Previous owners used a private water company They claimed they were going to add my water bill onto rent once accounts were switched and they never did. From May-August I was getting billed from water company but I cant pay it directly to them it goes to landlord. Im still getting water bills to this day even though I do not live there and the rest is still unpaid because they have not took control over the account since buying. I have brought the concern since they bought it and have been getting ignored and they acknowledged the problem months ago so they are aware.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/05/2024

  We took over management of this property when it was purchased in June.  The previous owner was utilizing a utility submetering company called Guardian to bill the tenants.  I believe they were able to pay Guardian directly for their water.  When we took over we let everyone know that we needed to create a new account with Guardian and once we had  it all sorted out they would just pay us their water bills instead of to Guardian.  We have an account with Guardian now, but it is not an account where you can pay them directly, which we did inform all the tenants of since it was a new system, and we asked them to be patient with us in the meantime until we could get it sorted out.  

  The new owner purchased this property with the intent that all tenants would be moving out within a few months so he could renovate each unit.  Any who wanted to stay would be able to move into one of the renovated units once they were complete.  Most tenants, including *******, chose to leave.  We sorted out all the water bills and charged them back before their deposit returns.  I have attached copies of the bills as they were send to her, as well as her ledger showing that we billed them back.  The October bill was for her September usage prior to move out, which is why it is so low.  You can see the bills match her ledger, and the deposit was applied to pay them off and her deposit return reflects this as well.  The July bill I was unable to attach as the file was corrupt.

  As you can see on the bills, it shows her name, "or current resident".  With Guardian we are unable to move tenants in and out at will, we have to put in a request to do so.  I put in the request last month, but it is still showing her as a resident.  I will reach out to Guardian to see why they have not adjusted this.  She does not owe these bills, she is not receiving these bills to her address, she has an online portal for that property and there will be bills to that property until Guardian finishes the move out.  This DOES NOT mean she owes, as she cannot pay them directly, these do not reflect on her credit, and they will go to the new resident once we move someone new in.  This is nothing to worry about in the meantime, she is paid in full.  We recommend she delete the portal access to the Guardian account, all bills are going directly to the property address and not to her.  We will continue to work on the issue of getting her moved out of Guardian's system.

  On a side note, she does have a deposit return to pick up from our office because we did not receive a forwarding address.  I apologize for the lack of communication, I see in her communication log that she was trying to get ahold of us but her messages were going to our maintenance team rather than to our property managers and the property managers were not informed.  This is a flaw in our system that the only person who gets the texts from tenants is the last person to text them.  I will be speaking to my maintenance team to make sure they do not ignore these texts as they are aware this is how the system works.

  Could she provide what phone number she was trying to call?  We have an office line, and we ask that tenants leave a message so we know to call them back.  We do have a text only line which does not receive calls.  Often when tenants do not hear back from us it is because they do not leave a message so we do not know to call them back.  If she was calling one of our property managers directly, I would like to know so that we can discuss this with them as they are supposed to respond to tenants within a day of receiving a message.
  Please let us know what else we need to provide to complete this.  Thank you,

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/05/2024

  I will be up there around 4 PM this Friday or Monday to pick up the check

  When I was living there I was reaching out to ****** about my concerns and it was always confusion on his end when returning my calls, when I moved I left a voicemail to the office to speak to the owner in SEPT, somebody called back but didnt tell me there name they fixed my rent balance and I addressed the water and I was told they were unsure about the water but figuring it out still. 
  

  when it was the old owners we werent able to pay guardian directly ever

  Thank you for letting me know that it was payed because Guardian Water also has been poor communication they told me they cant do anything its on the owners and they need nothing from me. 
  

  phone number Ive been trying to reach ***************** 

  
  I accept the business's response to resolve this complaint.
  
  Regards,
  
  ******* ****