[07-Aug-2007] Robert DeGaetano is a money hungry theif and a liar. I explained to him that I wanted to leave the apartment I was renting from him because I wanted to downsize. I explained to him that my room mate had moved out without notice and I told him that I would be use my last month's rent that I had paid earlier and be out by the end of the month with no security refund since I was breaking the lease. He strongly disagreed and insisted that I not be "put out on the street" and that I pay half a month's rent and he would pay me back my security payment and that my last month's rent would not be paid back since I was breaking the lease. This never made sense to me and I questioned him SEVERAL TIMES, but he gave me "his word and stupid me, I beleive him and do as he says, thinking that he is an ethical person and would not BLATENTLY LIE to me and go out of his way to make this false promise to keep my money. Months go by, no check. I call him to ask where the money is and he put me off, not answering my calls and finally he told me that he was "going to put it in the mail tomorrow." Tomorrow never came. Then he tells me that he "talked to his lawyer" and that I was not going to be getting my security back and my last month's rent wasn't useful because I broke the lease. He is a famous wealthy concert pianist and he owns numerous properties all over the country and I am a young girl without a lot of money to spare and he knew that and he BLATENTLY LIED to me so he could keep the extra money for himself. Then he ALSO claims that I "damaged" the apartment, when infact I spent a FORTUNE repairing the apartment. All the doorknobs fell off, the garbage disposal stopped working, the faucet came out of the countertop and the cabinets were falling off the hinges so I called a repairman (recommended by Robert, who later told me that Robert owed him money also) and he told me that "everything was falling apart due to POOR CRAFTMANSHIP," he showed me where the cabinets were coming off the hinges, how there were 2 screws for the hinges and only one hole in the wall and how a lot of the other malfunctioning items were shoddy materials. The blinds for the glass door leading out to the balcony were NEVER THE RIGHT SIZE. I complained when I moved in and they were never fixed, so my boyfriend had to get down on his hands and knees and trim each blind so that the blinds would open and close, which didn't work either since the blinds ended up falling off and getting stuck anyways. The apartment was under construction with no use of the balcony/parking spot and saws going off at 7 am for half the time I was living there, I was not compensated for that. He would show up (unannounced) at 11 at night to "get some phonebooks out of the closet" and I KNOW he would enter the apartment when I wasn't home. I am extremely angry with this situation and warn everybody who considers to rent from Robert DeGaetano that he makes him money by making false claims of damages on his cheaply put together apartment and will do anything in his power to make everything seem like it is your fault so he can squeeze as much money out of you as possible. I offered to let him keep the security deposit in the first place since I was clearly breaking the lease and that seemed fair to me, but that wasn't good enough, he had to manipulate me into giving him a month and a half's worth of rent on top of that when he knew that he was going to keep the security and last month's rent the whole time. He TRICKED me in a way that he knew I could never get any legal recourse and played on my trust in him that he was a person of some integrity, so I caution anybody who is reading this considering to rent from Robert DeGaetano, don't beleive a word he says, change the locks as soon as you move in the apartment, and definitely be prepared to lose your entire security deposit to the endless "repairs" of his thrown together apartment, if he doesn't TRICK you into losing the money all together.
MISCELLANY
This landlord's information has been viewed 638 times since 08/07/2007.
