Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  09/09/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Upon moving in 8/9 there was food stuck to the cabinets, the refrigerator was filthy with food residue and hair particles in the door seal, and there was trash scattered in the yard. I have had to submit multiple maintenance requests for issues including broken cabinets, broken fans, and a leaky toilet. Most concerning is a broken air conditioner. Despite paying for a two-bathroom rental, there was no mention of a rent discount during the period one bathroom was unusable. I notified Habitation Realty on 9/3/24 that the air conditioner was not working properly. They did send someone from a local HVAC company to assess the situation. The technician informed me that the air filter had likely not been changed by the previous tenant, a known issue due to the vent's location in the home. The technician removed ice blocks from the unit and assured me it should work fine. The unit could not cool the house below 79°F, and the following day 9/4/24, I was instructed to turn the AC off until further notice. I was informed that the earliest someone could come out would be 9/5/24. Habitation Realty offered me a temporary window unit, which was concerning due to the increased electricity costs and the lack of compensation for this added expense. Additionally, I was informed that the window unit would only cool one room. Over the past several days, the temperature inside the house has been 92°F, preventing me from cooking meals, which has added to the financial burden of this situation. Habitation Realty offered to reimburse me $78.95 for a hotel room, but I found it challenging to secure a quality hotel in a safe area for that rate. Additionally, I would have had to cover the cost out-of-pocket shortly after paying a full month’s rent. Eventually, I was informed the HVAC company had to order a part that will not arrive until Tuesday or Wednesday (9/10-9/11), at best. This means that for nearly a week, I have been forced to stay elsewhere and have been unable to cook.

  Business response

  09/11/2024

  We have reviewed the request, and are willing to offer the tenant a penalty free lease break, along with 30 days from today for time to move and locate a new residence.  We will also be contacting the tenant directly to facitllaite breaking her lease.  

  Customer response

  09/17/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 22262398, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
  
  Regards,
  
  Sarah Behshad
  
   
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/24/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I previously lived at *** ** ***** ****** for 7months, I was supposed to be leased until 2024. I discovered there was MOLD in the residence which was making myself and my dog extremely ill. I brought it to the attention of the renters; after requesting that they fix the issue and send a licensed professional out, they sent someone out to confirmed it was infact mold in my residence. Upon my lease break offer, they stated the issue was going to take way too long to remediate with me there. They offered/paid me to leave, told me they were going to fix the mold issue, but it would take too long with me occupying the residence., THEY HAVE FAILED TO FIX THE MOLD INSIDE THE RESIDENCE, as the neighbors have been watching. They ARE SHOWING THE unit, attempting to RENT THE RESIDENCE TO ANOTHER UNSUSPECTING FAMILY. Complete MALISE for human life TO POTENITALLY make another person ill for money. These people need to be stopped!

  Business response

  03/27/2023

  In response to the above complaint, there was never a determination made that there was mold present in the house.  The professional remediation company that visited the house while the tenant was there recommended we have a mold test done, but was not equipped to do one themselves.  After the tenant moved out, we kept the property off the market for a month, and had all of the surfaces cleaned, painted, and checked the property multiple times for any signs of moisture.  The spots shown in the photos were determined to be dust build up and cobwebs.  To be safe, we are having a mold test completed before any new tenant moves into the house, and the availability date is set far enough in the future to wait for the test results.  If any mold is found in the house, we will not move a new tenant in until it is remediated.  

• Initial Complaint

  08/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In July, my partner and I viewed a home managed by Habitation Realty (HR). We were told that all necessary repairs, cleaning, & landscaping would be done prior to moving in & we agreed to move forward. We were told the lease agreement would be emailed shortly. Hours went by so we reached out & were told that the lease had already been signed by someone else. That was eventually an error but the team was rude & unprofessional when we questioned that info. We knew we had to view the home before we could sign & we were at the top of the list. This was the first issue we encounter with HR. Looking back, we wonder if this was a ploy to get us to rush into signing the lease. Originally we were told we could move in on 8/7 but that was moved to 8/15 so they could complete landscaping, cleaning, & repairs. When we arrived on 8/15 it was clear that none of these things has been addressed or were done with very poor workmanship. Yard has trash, broken glass, weeds, & a car battery in it. Termite damage to the roof. Damage to small shed. Many items/trash were left for us to deal with. The condition of the home is awful & cleaning seems non-existent. Mismatched paint, poor drywall repairs, filthy/water damaged baseboards, broken/rotting interior doors, screen door falling off & ripped, black filth in fridge water/ice dispenser, black mold in both bathrooms (shower, walls, & toilets). Hall toilet is not secured to the ground & is actively leaking waste water onto the floor. We notified them of this health hazard on 8/16 & were ignored and treated poorly by team & maintenance person when trying to schedule fix. Toilet was "repaired" by them 8/22, but it was done with little skill & the problems remain. After much hassle another person came 8/25 & was unable to fix. HR refuse to call us & will not reply to email chains even after asking them to do so. The move in checklist took hours & all areas had issues that need repairs. They did not acknowledge our checklist at all.

  Business response

  08/30/2022

  Hello, thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond and hopefully address these issues.  We had a landscaper come out and trim the weeds that had grown prior to your move in.  We also are sending a plumber to further address the issues with the toilets, and have also sent a cleaner out to take care of any trouble spots.  If these solutions are not acceptable, we would be willing to negotiate an early end to your lease, with a return of your security deposit.  

  Business response

  09/23/2022

  Hello, thank you for giving us the opportunity to correct the issues with your property.  We have been in touch with the owner of the house, and have been working with them to get approval for as many items as possible.  At this point, they have agreed to have the mildew in the bathrooms corrected, which would include treating the surfaces and painting as needed.  They have also approved the proper repair of both interior doors, but want us to repair the existing doors and not replace them completely. The dishwasher rack is also being replaced. 

  In regards to the screen door, this was in good condition prior to move in, with no rips or damage noted in the inspection report and pictures.  

  The owner has also given us permission to cancel the lease with a full refund of deposits if you do not want to remain at the property.  You would only be charged pro-rated rent for the remaining days you stay at the house.  If you would like to cancel the lease, we would need to be notified within 7 days of your intentions.  

  Please be aware that our company manages this property for the owner, but that we do not own it ourselves.  We a trying to work with the owner to get as many items addressed as possible, and appreciate your patience during this process.  We also completely understand if this house is not right for you, and are willing to terminate the lease without penalty if you choose to do so.

  Customer response

  09/27/2022

  Hello,
  I have attached a sequence of emails that have occurred since this complaint was initiated. As well as photos of the condition of the screen door from our move in.
  I am aware that Habitation Realty does not own this home. You did however facilitate the lease and when we viewed the house with your employee Emmitt, he specifically told us that things were going to be done in the house that needed repairs, along with the cleaning and landscaping. We would not have agreed to the lease if we were told the truth (which is that nothing would be done at all). Habitation Realty has continually not answered our questions or offered any explanation for this, because you are just as responsible as the homeowner who has ignored issues that need repair in the house as well as direct health concerns from the mold and mildew throughout the house. It has been over 6 weeks since you were notified of these issues, and very little has been done, and most of what has been done has not been quality work. Not only has this been a huge time sink for us that we don’t need, but it has also cost us significantly more from having to work around these issues and there has been clear violations of the responsibility of the landlord. We already had to take time off work to move-in to this place since our move-in date was moved back from Aug 7 to Aug 15th, with nothing being taken care of that we were told about. Not to mention the cost of moving our things also that we will have to now seemingly do again.
  I am also pretty concerned with the fact that you are suddenly claiming that the screen door was operational and did not have tears from your inspection report. I would like to see those pictures and report them with dates. I'll also remind you that we have over 600 combined pictures and videos of the condition of the home and an extremely detailed move-in checklist. We will not be held responsible for anything in this house because to this point we have not caused any damage to anything. The screen door, along with the bathroom doors, mold, how dirty the house was, landscaping, trash in the yard including a car battery and broken glass with other random trash just left were all things we notified Habitation Realty about on 8/16, which was the first date both primary tenets were able to look at the house after our move-in date of 8/15. The screen door was lying flat on the ground when we arrived and had multiple tears on the screen. Habitation realty also sent out two separate maintenance workers that both looked at the interior bathroom doors (attempted repairs that made one door unable to close, and BOTH told me that both doors would need to be replaced and that work orders would be submitted for this, they also told me they would send me proof of what they were submitting, and both of them did not and did not reply to my texts when asked about this) including the cascade of other issues which included the sliding screen door. Both workers that looked at it said that it was warped, or the frame for the arcadia door was warped and that it might not even be the correct type of screen. We were also told that a work order would be put in for that as well and have never had any follow up.
  I also want to address the fiasco with the dishwasher that is part of the emails attached in writing as a part of this complaint. It's clear how unorganized Habitation Realty is and how poor the communication is between you and tenets and apparently you and homeowners. We will not be held responsible in any way for the dishwasher being installed that was 100% initiated and set up by Habitation Realty.
  Regarding the most recent offer of solution, we would be willing to accept the full deposit including the non-refundable cleaning fee, along with the leasing fee, and our application fees back, however a hard deadline of Oct.15th is not acceptable. We need enough time to secure another house to rent, and time to move our things. We would be willing to pay a prorated rent and notify you as soon as we have a move-in date at another property and set a hard move-out date at that time only.
  In the meanwhile, we expect the health issues to be addressed. There is no excuse for time that has gone by without taking care of these problems in the home. 

• Initial Complaint

  06/10/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We recently had a roommate move out and it was the tenants duty to find a replacement, which is fair. A new, random roommate from international study was interested in the property, so they began his application. What they did do was a back ground check and income check. However, with classes starting this individual was very pushy to get moved in as soon as possible. On the day he moved in, Habitation claims that their system was down and they could not generate a rental tenant contract. They asked our approval to allow him to move in early before signing, which since we are compassionate and understanding, we allowed with the understanding, and ASSURANCE from Habitation Realty that he would be sent the contract to sign as soon as their system was working. This NEVER happened. This man was living in our home with NO legal contract signed, NO tenant rules, and NO obligation to pay rent. Now this new roommate has left the country, three months prior to the termination of the rental contract we are all under, and thought he was as well since he was living in our home. He now refuses to pay his rent, leaving us college students scrambling trying to figure out what to do. This entire situation has been caused by HABITATION REALTY and their inability to follow the law and do their job by allowing a man to move in to a property they manage with no legal contract, a massive failure and misconduct on their part. Had we known Habitation would do this, we never would approved him moving in prior to signing the contract. Despite all of this, the firm continues to claim they did nothing wrong and it is all our responsibility, even though they never disclosed to us that this man had not signed the same contract we all had to sign before moving in. Such a terribly run firm, which should be seriously audited by the Arizona Department of Real Estate. We just ask that Habitation help resolve the problem they caused by forgiving this man’s portion of the rent for two remaining months

  Business response

  06/13/2022

  Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this complaint. As stated in the letter, we do allow tenants to replace roommates on their lease agreement, provided the new tenant is located by the tenant, and approved through our system.  We do full credit and background checks, the same as any tenant that applies to our rentals.  This was all done for this tenant, at the request of the other tenants at the property, and he was fully approved.  The problem occurred when we tried to execute a lease addendum to remove the departing tenant and add the new tenant to the existing lease.  Our software wouldn't let us do it, and since all of our leases are electronic, we were not able to create the paperwork prior to the tenant moving in.  All of the tenants at the property were pushing to have the new tenant move in as fast as possible, so we disclosed in writing that the lease addendum had in fact not been signed, and the tenants gave permission to have him move in anyway.  This notice has already been provided by the consumer, and shows that we fully disclosed the situation to all parties involved.  

  All of our properties are rented as a full space, and not by the room.  When a group of tenants sign a lease, they are all committing to the full term of the occupancy, regardless of a decrease in the number of occupants.  The roommate transfers are done as a courtesy by our company, but by no means limit the liability of the tenants for the lease term.  In this case, the new tenant was approved to occupy the property, but the original tenant was never released of his obligation to the original lease.  If any member of the tenant group defaults, the balance of rent is owed by the remaining tenants.  In group rental situations, partial payments from the remainder of a tenant group prevent us from an eviction action on any individual that may default, and this is the case regardless of whether a lease addendum is signed or not.  The new tenant in question did have permission from all parties involved to occupy the property, and did pay his rent while there.  As a property manager, we have no control over when an individual tenant leaves a group lease, and cannot be responsible for their portion of the rent.

  Customer response

  06/30/2022

  As tenants we understand their lump sum policy. All parties involved came to a deal that the previous roommate who exited early would continue to pay his share, until a replacement was found and could take over the payments. Once the replacement was found, this new roommate was very pushy and eager to move in as soon as possible. Since we did not know him personally, we were unsure of the situation. Habitation Realty gave him permission to move into our home, BEFORE him signing any lease addendum, which we all had to do before moving into the property. We were assured, as you can see in the attached email, that he would be sent an addendum as soon as their system was working. With this assurance, and this assurance only, we allowed him to move in prematurely. As time went by, the roommate in question was never sent a lease addendum and never notified us of the situation. Habitation Realty also failed to notify us of this situation and the fact that he was living in our home with no legal signature to abide by tenant rules, lease term duration, and most importantly obligation to pay. Now the roommate in question has left the country and will not respond to any requests to pay his portion of the rent. Had Habitation done their job, he would have to pay, but they failed to ensure he signed the lease addendum for several months while living in a property which they manage before leaving the country abruptly. All we ask is that they adjust the billing to account for the portion which he was assigned to pay, as they have failed to do their job and have him sign the addendum which everyone else had to do prior to receiving keys to the property.

• Initial Complaint

  05/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We rented a property from Habitation realty for approximately 2 and 1/2 years. WE moved out of our house April 15th. Habitation approved the 15th as a move out date, and ignored all of our requests to confirm how much our final months rent would be. We assumed 1/2 our typical rent and paid it late after sending several messages to them asking how much the rent would be. On the final day of our lease we paid 1/2. Today we received a notice saying they were keeping our entire deposit due to late fees, unpaid rent and repairs. I have attached the email chain in the supporting documents. Some of the mentioned repairs include personal items in the home that were removed prior to move out, personal items in the basement that belong to the homeowner, and repairs to exterior fascia that is above and beyond a tenants typical responsibilities. Other issues with Habitation over the time of our residency there include them shutting off our water and being prepared to leave us over night without water. IT was thankfully turned on by Tucson Water early in the evening (Habitation was responsible for payment of the water bill not us.) Also they refused to renew our lease (leading to us moving out) and charged us $20 per month extra for being month to month despite us trying to renew. They also never answer their phone and rarely respond to emails as you can see from the various supplied email chains below.

  Business response

  05/09/2022

  We have been in touch with Mr **** several times over this issue, and have refunded all of his outstanding late fees mentioned above.  We also explained to him that several repairs were awaiting final estimates, and that all of the charges listed for non-tenant items were in fact being removed from his ledger.  This includes the personal items not owned by the tenant, fascia repairs, etc.  There is still an issue with the final months rent, and out lease clearly states that the full month rent is owed once notice is given the month prior.  The passage from the lease is included below for clarification:

  3.3 MOVE-OUT
  Expiration of lease: Upon expiration, the lease shall continue a month to month basis and a $20 month-to-month fee will be applied and be due with rent no later than the 4th day of the month, unless otherwise stated or approved by Landlord. To terminate a lease in this status, Tenant must provide Owner with written notice of intent to do so before the 1st day of the next month. Tenant must pay rent in full for the next month. If Tenant provides notice after the 1st day of the month, Tenant shall pay rent for the following month as well. For example, Tenant provides notice on Jan 29 that he/she will be terminating their month to month lease by the end of February. Tenant will pay February rent by February 1. However, if Tenant provides notice on or after February 1st, Tenant must pay March rent as well, and lease will terminate on the last day of March.

  Mr **** gave notice on March 11th, and was billed for the entire month of April.  This is in accordance with the terms of is lease, and examples are included in the lease to clearly make this point.

• Initial Complaint

  04/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Paid ($40/person so 80 for my wife and I) for an application on the 4th and have not heard ANYTHING back. They dont answer their phone, I have no other way to get a hold of them. Ill be speaking to my cc company about stopping payment on the application.

  Business response

  04/09/2022

  Hello *******  thank you for giving us the opportunity to make this right for you.  We have refunded both application fees, with our apologies.  Tell us why here...

• Initial Complaint

  03/22/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  i have a friend that lives at this address with children and she asked me to come over and see what i could do about all the mice and cockroches in her aptment so i brought 10 sticky traps and 12 roach traps and within 5 days i caught 15 mice and all the roach traps were full there are like 35 aptments in this complex i dont think hers is the only apt with these issues.as we all know mice carry all kinds of germs and with covid who knows if they are carriers.????? i tied to call habitat realty inc. left message to return my call .i was unsucessful with a response from them .so here i am . can you please help me resolve this isssue for the people that are paying hard earned $$$$$$ to live in these horrible conditions. thank you for your help with this matter. you can message me at ********** regarding this matter

  Business response

  03/25/2022

  We received the call regarding the pests at this unit, and have already sent a professional extermination company to treat.  This is the only pest issue complaint we have received for this property, but we will quickly respond to any other complaints if we receive them.Tell us why here...

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩