Arroyo Property Managment Leigh Ann Smyth ***SCAM!!!*** Pasadena California

During initial walk-through prior to leasing the apartment, Leigh Ann Smyth (property manager) visually showed me items in the apartment that were defective/broken/non-working (stains on horizontal blinds, oven hood missing lights, etc). During the year of my occupancy, I never raised any of the blinds in the apartment. In fact, I became a partial occupant 6 months prior to my lease ending as there were problems in the apartment with sewer water coming up through the bathtub drain and shower (filling them both with sewer debris and stench).

I continued to pay rent each month (on time) while splitting my time between this apartment and a cabin that I own. Landlord showed the apartment to prospective tenants approximately 3 times a week (for one month) in which I would leave so that she could show it. I thought it odd that the landlord did not wish to do a walk-through of the apartment prior to my vacating. She only instructed me to lock the door when leaving, and she stated that my apartment was in "such good shape". When landlord sent my deposit to me, she deducted $500 (out of the $3990) for 3 broken windows.

When I contacted her regarding this, she said she never opened the blinds at the initial walk-through, so she did not see the 3 broken windows. I told her that I never opened them either. The windows were broken prior to my leasing the apartment. I would absolutely know if I broke 3 windows. Had this been the case, I would have paid for them to be fixed.

I am astonished that Leigh Ann Smyth could take advantage of me so blatantly. We were almost on personal terms and I have a letter from her stating what a great tenant I was. I was completely taken by her perceived niceness and honesty. Frankly, I am shocked by her behavior.

I believe that she knew all along that those windows were cracked prior to my moving in. I believe that she purposely failed to tell me about the windows, and hoped that I did not discover them. I believe that this was a massive scam for her (and the apt owner) to use my security deposit to pay for their cracked windows. I will not rest until my complaint is made public about this dishonesty.