[11-Aug-2016] I rented 1036 Groby Rd after I sold my house on the first day and very quickly did only a 5 minute walk through because I needed a rental fast! I paid a $500 deposit and 3 months rent ($875/month) upfront before I even moved in. I have always paid a month ahead of time and have paid both electric and heating bills ahead of time. As most landlords would see it, I am an ideal tenant to rent to, which is why I expect what I am paying for to work properly.
Mary Ann Drake, the owner/landlord has been nothing but an uncooperative and unreasonable landlord. Within a week of moving into the property, the ac went out on a hot St. Louis day. I have a 5 year old daughter and two dogs. My daughter was sweating in the house and the dogs were panting. Of course it happened to be a Sunday, and the day before Memorial Day. She refused to have someone come that day to fix the situation. Instead, she came over to see for herself that it wasn't working as I stated to her over the phone. She told me that I was crazy for not wanting to wait 3 days til Tuesday for someone to come look at the problem. We all know what that means. 3 days to look at it and who knows how long til it's fixed. She proceeded to tell my friend that was with me that I was unreasonable bc I demanded that an ac service come out that night to do something about the problem. After hours of not accepting 3+ days of no ac, and calling an ac service company myself, she finally okayed the company coming out for around $150 dollar free. Turns out it was an easy fix. She hadn't changed the air filter in months and it was so dirty that the condensor froze and just needed to unthaw and a new filter out it. Problem solved... By me, not her.
After this situation, she refused to have any contact with me and told me I needed to contact some chick named Celeste and gave me her number because I was sooooo unreasonable. The funny thing is that after just living there a week I noticed the following issues that I didn't even asked to be fixed: the stove was not working. I had a friend come fix the pilot light. No charge to her. The side door handle has a gap that u can see through, that definitely does not secure the house and the top lock does not even work with the key. She never fixed that. Ants were all over the bathroom from day one; ant killer was not brought to me to fix the situation til june 19th. I moved in April 26th. Since we are on the bathroom, I will continue to dicuss the problems with that. The toilet is not properly secured. Every time u sit down it slams down and makes a loud noise; even when my 45 lb daughter sits on it. Secondly, the handle does not work like it should. I notified them about it and they didn't even respond til I messaged them 3 weeks later. Can u imagine not using the only toilet in your house for a month?!?! This Celest chick came to "fix" it. By fix it she said "your friend put the paper clip holding the bar that attaches to the handle works fine". Holding down a handle for 10 seconds is apparently normal to
These slum lords. Third... The metal strip from the carpet to the tile in the bathroom is not secured and sharp screws dig into u if you accidentally step on it in the middle of the night on the dark. Again... That's normal to them.
Additional problems in the house:
Bedroom ceiling fan severely shakes and makes so much noise you cannot even use it.
The washer or dryer (didn't want to risk ruining more clothes) leaves yellow stains on whites.
The basement pools water.
The kitchen flooring (fake wood) is cracked and looks crappy and slides out of place.
The front of the driveway has such a large bump that it scrapes every car so you better have a SUV with large clearance or it will drape the front end of your vehicle. I have a mid size SUV and it's still scrapes.
The neighbors right behind have 5 dogs that they leave outside ALL day and night, that constantly bark.
The only GOOD thing I can say about the property is that the lawn people r included in rent.
So on top of all of these issues, I received a certified letter saying get out. The postal service did not take the slips saying deliver it, and I had to call the post office after signing two slips and leaving them for the post office, before they finally delivered it on August 10. The letter says it was sent July 19th, and even though I didn't get the letter til August 10th they expected me out August 26th. I texted the Celest chick that day and she didn't respond. I had to text Mary and Celeste again the next day (today, August 11th) each saying I have proof of all of these problems over text messages before they would even respond.
I had a contact saying I could stay the 3 months I paid for and if I needed longer til I found a new place that it was fine to stay as long as I wanted.
Don't believe anything these landlords say. They will not address any issues and if they do it will not be promptly and it will be with lots of attitude.
Mary Ann and Celeste have no idea how to manage a property and if you don't accept their crappy service, even when you a prompt paying renter, they will just get rid of you and cost you double the moving expenses and just think YOU are the problem! Don't give these SLUM LORDS a penny of your hard earned money.
I will be attaching pics of the additional stated issues, texts from them, and the eviction notice so EVERYONE can see for themselves!!!
I have no opinion about final inspection and deposit bc they have not occurred yet; I'm assuming there will be problems.
MISCELLANY
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