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Report: #1080372

Complaint Review: Constance M Hoag - Lynden Washington

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  • Reported By: MoReilly — Lynden Washington
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  • Constance M Hoag 2633 Halverstick Road Lynden, Washington USA

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Connie Hoag is an infamous personality in Lynden,  WA who rents out a 5 unit property located at 2633 Halverstick Road.  She is reviled by the majority of tenant/victims for her bipolar property management style,  which includes peeping into tenant windows,  excessively intrusive micro-managing of the lives of tenants,  arbitrary and ridiculous "rules" on everything from when windows and doors may be opened,  how many dandelions are in the grass,  and imposing (and monitoring!  and attempting to enforce!)  obsessive-compulsive schedules of window washing,  lawn-mowing,  weeding,  and deck-washing. Her mental illness involves needing continual reassurance that the rental property is in the imaginary "perfect" condition it was in between tenants,  and not being able to restrain herself from having to check in on it MULTIPLE TIMES PER MONTH. Because the anxiety which rules her behaviour can only be temporarily assuaged,  she must keep finding increasingly implausible pretexts to continueintruding into the rental.  No tenant can stand living under this frequent schedule of inspections for more than a few months;  yet if you attempt to leave the oppression before the lease is up,  she is an aggressive lawsuit bringer.  Renting from her is a nightmare, and she should be avoided at all costs. 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/29/2013 11:01 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/constance-m-hoag/lynden-washington-98264/constance-m-hoag-connie-hoag-predatory-landlord-lynden-washington-1080372. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
3Consumer
2Employee/Owner

#5 Consumer Comment

A Third Tenant Confirms Original Complaint

AUTHOR: Tenant#7 - ()

POSTED: Sunday, January 11, 2015

I can't confirm what the original complaint said is valid for the original complainant,  but I can add this - I rented the house from this landlady in 2010,  and I can confirm that I had a similar experience.  The landlady was excessively intrusive.  Each individual pretext for violating the peace and serenity of the rental was apparently plausible on the face of it,  but the sheer number of unwarranted intrusions was so excessive that the "pattern of abuse" was evident.  This predatory landlord appears to be in cohoots with a specific judge at small claims court with whom the predatory landlord once served on a county commission.  She also lobbies for him at judge election time,  contributing to his campaign,  putting up lawn signs for him,  etc.   So my advice is this:  when, inevitably and routinely,  your tenancy with this predatory landlord ends in acrimony.  ask small claims court judge Matthew Elich to recuse himself.  

Another specific piece of advice:  take pictures of the condition of the grass when you move in - one of the routine practices with which this landlord games the system is to charge tenants for "reseeding the grass".   The scam works like this:  this predatory landlord knows that there are areas of the lawn under the tallest and densest trees where sunlight doesn't much penetrate,  and the grass is thin to non-existant.  It is her regular practice to claim that tenants kill the grass,  to charge them for reseeding (quite a penny), and then NOT to do the work.  THis is,  apparently,  legal in WA.  I'd also have her pull up the carpets before renting from her,  as she likes to charge for stains on the underpad,  too!  THis predatory landlord has gotten away with this fraudulent practice way too many times - because tenants never have pictures (dated and time-stamped) of the lawn and underpad to provide as evidence to the contrary. 

If you are reading this,  it is probably way too late for you to take the necessary precautions to protect yourself from this predatory landlord,  alas.  I would characterize her as a self-righteous egomaniac with delusions of infallibility.  She's very difficult to work with,  and has a string of unsatisfied tenants in her wake.   However,  I will say this - it appears,  if she takes her meds,  that she IS capable of controlling the worst excesses of her personality disorder,  and sometimes,  there can be periods of tranquility.  It's when her mental condition flares up that she creates chaos (by her attempts to control the chaos within her own mind).  THe best thing you could do for your own peace of mind and autonomy is to keep looking for another house - this one has a fatal flaw,  aka the predatory landlord attached to it.

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#4 REBUTTAL Owner of company

DEFAMATION / HOAX

AUTHOR: owner - ()

POSTED: Sunday, December 28, 2014

These accusations are false, and are defamation of character.  

The single author of all of these defamatory posts has admitted in court that these bizarre accusations were false.  The judge ordered her to cease and desist, but instead she has continued on.  See Whatcom County case #AH13-08.  The Whatcom County Sheriff's department has a warrant for her arrest.  

This was the tenant from hell.  She bounced 4 checks in a 6 month period, had dogs in the house in violation of her contract, had a dog that bit 5 people and killed 20 chickens on the property, and when I tried to evict her, began a defamation campaign against me.  I never did any of the things she claimed I did, and she admitted in court that she had made them up, but excused it as "humor."  The judge ordered her to pay court costs, but she never has.

She is using false names and pretending to be multiple tenants.  She has culled small claims court case numbers from the public record in an attempt to make her claims appear authentic.

I have been a landlord for 25 years, and have been blessed with hundreds of good tenants, and only a handful of bad ones. The bad ones don't want to pay for their damage, and a few have taken me to court.  I have won each case in court except one where the plaintiff and I were each awarded a portion of the deposit.   

 

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#3 General Comment

Response to March 28, 2014 posting

AUTHOR: past tennant - ()

POSTED: Thursday, April 03, 2014

I am responding to the March 28, 2014 posting.  I am a previous tenant and this March 28 posting makes it look like I wrote it.  I did not submit that post.  I am not the spokesperson or coordinator for this group.  I just found this website today and, upon reading the posting, realized that someone wanted it to look like I wrote and submitted it.  Although most of the March 28, 2014 posting is true in my case, I did not post it to this site.  I want to make that clear.   

The court case listed is my case from 2007.  My situation was similar to other tenant's experiences with this landlord.   Checking background is the best way to protect yourself from this happening to you.  If considering renting a place, ask for a list of previous tenants so you can contact them before you sign a rental contract/lease. Tennants need to be pro-active in seeking out information about landlord history.  

Thank you

 

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#2 Consumer Comment

I have personal knowledge of lady in question

AUTHOR: BreakingDawn - ()

POSTED: Friday, March 28, 2014

I am the coordinator of a support group of former tenants of Constance M Hoag, Constance Margaret Hoag,  aka Connie Hoag,  nee Van Dyken.  We consider ourselves  survivors of the “Nightmare on Halverstick.”  I am one of the few who have prevailed against her in court,  primarily because the judge in my case was NOT Matthew Elich.  I act as spokesperson for the group.  Any of us are available as witnesses in cases of future tenant abuse,  breach of privacy,  seizure of security deposits,  illegal lock-out,  entry without permission,  or the incessant harassment which is a consistent feature across tenancies at the properties under her management.  My case number against her was 07-2-00515-0;  I have full transcripts available should future tenants wish to avail themselves of this resource.  I lived in terror at a rental house she felt she had the right to enter without permission multiple times;  6 months of living under her all-spying eyes were enough to scar me for a lifetime.  Fortunately in my case,  the judge recognized that this landlord does not have the temperament or skill set to manage a lemonade stand,  let alone a 5-unit property.  The property owner has a documented history of  bursts of inexplicable temper,  featuring public screaming both on and off the rental premises,  and a pattern of running around the rental property screaming tenant names,  irrational accusations,  and rattling the doorknobs as though she would force entry.  It’s not just irritating living under this woman’s “rule of terror”  - it’s actually frightening.  I had to get security to escort me to my car once when she started screaming at me at Costco’s after I won my case against her.  Other tenants have been forced to call the police on her to get her to leave the rental premises.   Our support group has full transcripts of all cases against her,  please feel free to contact us at  (((redacted))) for copies or assistance in preparing to face her in court.

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#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Bogus Report

AUTHOR: Connie Hoag - ()

POSTED: Friday, December 13, 2013

I have never had a tenant or known anyone by the name of MoReilly.  I did however, have a former tenant whose rental contract I had to terminate because she was so difficult.  She had a dog that bit at least 5 people on the property, killed 20 of my chickens, had dogs in the house in violation of her contract, and bounced 4 checks in a six month span, refusing to pay the fees associated with them, adding memos like "Will it clear? Oh no!"  She was abusive, rude, and uncooperative.  I also gave her a comply or quit notice, and she failed to either comply with her contract or vacate the premises.

When I asked that she keep her dog on a leash if it was out of the yard, after it began to bite people and kill chickens, she became very hostile, and began a propaganda campaign of harassment against me, posting bizarre lies about me on Craigslist to discourage prospective tenants from renting from me, and flagging my ads for deletion.  She made similar claims to the ones in this report, which were proven to be false in court, and I obtained an anti-harassment order against her (see Whatcom County case #AH13-08) ordering her to cease exactly this type of activity.  She was making wild untrue allegations, such as being threatened with a butcher knife if she didn't mow the lawn, and craziness about dandelions and window opening and closing schedules.  She defended herself in court by claiming that some people just don't understand sarcasm, hyperbole, parody, humor, etc.  The judge responded that he appreciates humor, and this was not it, and that making statements that you know to be false to try to damage someone's reputation is defamation.  He found her guilty of tortious interference with advantagious economic activity, and ordered her to cease.  He also spoke sternly with her, and told her to "tread carefully."  She responded that she would cease and desist. He ordered her to pay the court costs. She hasn't paid a cent.

I only entered her living quarters a very small number of times during her tenancy, which was over a year, and it was to perform duties outlined in the contract, such as clean the chimney, or put up the storm doors, or at the request of the tenant to do things such as repair a broken mini blind or install a push bar she requested on the screen door.

This was the tenant from hell, and although she vacated the property at the beginning of January (and refused to surrender the premises, instead changing the locks and setting up lights and timers to make it look like she was there), she has continued to go to extremes to torment me.  I never did anything bad to this tenant.  I tried to resolve the problems with her dogs and checks in a respectful reasonable manner, and was treated to nothing but extreme abuse in response.  

She then sued me in small claims court for the return of her deposit, but the judge found that she had so heavily damaged the property that she owed me money over and above her deposit.  She hasn't paid any of that either.

It has already been proven in court that her claims are false, and she is violating her restraining order by posting these bizarre accusations. 

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