Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/16/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On June 1st of this year my lease ended according to the terms outlined in it originally. I paid to rent the apartment according to the lease, on time, every single month for the roughly 24 months that I lived there. Heating and Electricity were handled separately and paid for directly to *****, the energy provider in that area, so the amount I paid for heating and electricity did not depend on the landlord and they received no money in order for me to receive this service. When I moved out, Modern Living Rentals asked me not to terminate service with *****, because it would be less efficient for them to complete their summer renovations if they had to restart the service. They assured me that this would not incur any costs to me and that the account would immediately be put in their name so that they pay for utilities they use. Since then, I have been charged by ***** for over 148 dollars because the company continued to exploit my account for free utilities, until I personally terminated the ***** account. I only left the account unterminated because the company assured me that the fees were in error or due to my own leftover usage from my lease, and that in the circumstance that it is their usage they needed to see the billing. The ***** billing confirmed that it was from usage during months after my lease, but that I was liable because it was my name on the account (as they had not changed it) and it would be sent to debt collectors if it wasn't paid. When I told MLR about this the began ignoring my attempts at communication, and refuse to remedy this situation. I believe that this is extremely exploitative and may have happened to several tenants in the apartment I lived in, and I refuse to be siloed from communication. MLR owes me for the utilities they took from me and I would like them to find a solution for that, particularly a refund.

  Business response

  09/01/2023

  Good Morning Kevin, Repeating what was said during our phone call previously, and adding a bit more information as well. The attachments provided by the previous tenants happen to reflect the same information as which I was speaking to you about, so I will not attach anything further regarding those matters as they would be duplicates of the same information, but will address the attachments below. These tenants were told by email and MULTIPLE times from calling the direct office line that MLR had transferred ownership of the property extending to all utility accounts, specifically addressing *****. ***** had every electric and gas meter account updated on the back end of their system to reflect the ownership and billing for that of MLR, with auto-revert turned on, effective prior to the previous tenants move-out-date of 01-JUNE-2023. With the auto-revert turned on, this means tenants would just have to call *****'s "Move-in/ Move-out Department" and simply state they were moving out of the  rental unit and the services would auto-revert to that of the owner/landlord. Because this was a function already in place they would not need any landlord permissions, as is the common procedure regarding move-in/move-outs with "auto-revert to landlord" in place for every single meter on the entire property, as the previous tenants in this complaint would so claim later on. MLR has over 300 tenants where utilities (services, payment, usage, etc..) responsibilities fall directly under that of the tenant, especially starting & stopping their individual services as we do not have the time or manpower to do so for every single tenant we rent to nor do the majority of rental and property management companies. Responsibilities of utilities are highlighted and reflected in the previous tenants' grandfathered lease from the previous owner (****) as well as their lease extension, with which I will attach both of these contracts. The previous tenants attachments: 1) Inv ***********, is the bill received when tenants failed to contact *****'s move-in/move-out departments regarding their services. 2) Inv ***********, this 12 page bill is the full meter reading adjustments ***** performed after the tenants finally contacted them about their utility services. You can see ***** sent them a bill covering the entirety of their account history with ***** (*********** ** ************). You can see from *****s adjustments that they changed previous "estimated" meter readings to "accurate" meter readings and charged the previous tenants the differences, even though adjusting meters like this is inaccurate. 3) Their attachment of the email even shows myself confirming once more that auto-revert settings were in fact in place, and *****s customer service either telling the previous tenants something inaccurate OR the tenants never having actually called to transfer services as no one else that moved out of this building was told that the Landlord had to call *****. ***** is already under investigation for seedy billing practices, inaccurate meter readings-adjustments, inefficient customer service protocols, and much more. The previous tenants' complaint should not be with MLR, but with ***** in regards to billing and refusal (if that really occurred) to transfer their services. This complaint is also based upon a failure in understanding procedures explained multiple times to the previous tenants due to their own ignorance & lack of understanding creating a failure to follow their responsibilities regarding utilities laid out in that of their lease. V/r, Jessica

• Initial Complaint

  09/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I am trying to receive the return of my security deposit for the apartment #* ** **** * ****** *** ****** ** I sublet from June 1st to July 31 2022. I gave notice that I vacated on July 31 to agent Lindsay H**** through text message and email. I made queries regarding the status of the return but was passed from one agent to another without a definite answer. It is now September 1st and I have lost confidence that this issue will be resolved without helpful prodding from the BBB.

  Customer response

  09/13/2022

  Better Business Bureau: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I am writing to notify that my complaint #******** with Modern Living Rentals has been satisfied by receipt of the $1085 security deposit I had wished to obtain. Thank you for helping me to resolve this issue.  Regards, ******* *****

*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. ↩