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Report: #1250250

Complaint Review: Joan H Leonard - Palm Springs California

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  • Reported By: BillySanDiego — San Diego California United States
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  • Joan H Leonard Palm Springs, California USA

Joan H Leonard Sandra Belew, Joan Leonard, Ms. Leonard, Joan L., (((REDACTED))). e-mail and phone number used, Palm Springs Vacation Rental Landlord Ripoff Palm Springs California/ Windermere Real Estat. Palm Springs California

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In our opinion the ad about this property was very misleading. It starts off with the title saying the vacation home is luxury. The truth is the house was a foreclosure with low budget furniture. Google the address and you can see it was bought as a foreclosure and it was in very bad condition. The majority of the accessories are glued down because the owner is so untrustworthy with renters. In my opinion, I didn't see anything that was luxury. The title says great location. The home is actually on the north side of Palm Spring in a seedy area. Look at the couple of miles around the home on goggle map and judge for yourself, on the low budget older shopping centers and old homes that are being foreclosed in the area within a few miles. It's very windy on the north side. It's not far from the airport and in direct line of the planes above so you get all the plane noise above you and can't open the windows because the noise is so bad. We had rented the home without seeing it and trusting the pictures and the ad from VactionRentals.com. It's also listed on tripadvisor,  craigslist, listed with Windermere Real Estat.  The MLS Listing ID:(((REDACTED))) The ad claims this house is new on the rental market. It's been rented off and on for years, so this again is very misleading. Check the details and ask yourself why would someone write such misleading things and don't go on blind faith like we did.

This vacation rental was located at (((REDACTED))). The owners name is Joan L. Leonard. The house manger's name is Sandra Belew. The real estate company is Windermere Real Estat. We recieved e-mails and phone calls about this vacation home from Ms. Leonard's work place (((REDACTED)))'s. In my opion, run if you here any of these names. You will NOT get the peace and enjoyment you are entitled to under the law.

And right from the beginning there were needed repairs. In the initial walkthrough, there was a problem with the spa not working. It took lots of texts and e-mails and almost a month for the owner to get it fixed. Than the heater broke again you are dealing with a house that was a foreclosure so the repairs are ongoing and the owner didn't want to do them. Is this something you want to be bothered with on a vacation rental? In addition, upon taking possession after being assured the carpets had been cleaned, there were numerous large carpet stains throughout the home and it smelled. We have pictures of the stains. We had to have it professionally cleaned at our expense to get the stains and odors out (and the cleaners were able to). The owner promised in writing that she would reimburse us for the cost of the carpet cleaning and she never did.

The pantry, freezer and refrigerator all had food in them that we have pictures and we complained about in the initial walk through, much of which was long expired. Who would rent a vacation home filled with expired food? Even the soda was expired, so that says something for how long it must have been there, not what you'd expect from a luxury home like the ad claims. Again we have pictures of all the expired food that was left. We had already paid the first and last months of rent plus the deposit up front, so we were already heavily invested in this home based on trust. In addition, the recycle bin in the garage was overflowing when we took possession of the home, forcing us to wait a week to be able to dispose of it before we could use it for our items. In addition, liquids and food had leaked into the trash bins in the garage and they literally stunk. We had to soak them in a bleach solution multiple times for hours and rinse with a hose to get the stench and rotting food and other waste out of them.

In her move-in instruction sheet that she handed us upon taking over the property, she told us to play music really loud in the backyard to disturb the neighbor behind her, because he had complained about noise in the past from her. Who would put that in writing in a move-in sheet? We were stunned when she was reading this to us. Again, we have this in writing from her.

The owner refused to participate in a final walkthrough, which is a legal requirement if you are deducting anything from the security deposit, which she did. Upon returning the balance of the security deposit, the check was written to my maiden name, even though the lease was signed in my married name. We did not get the deposit returned in the legal time frame. I definitely felt like I was being discriminated against. Are these things really something you want to deal with in a rental property? Is this the type of person you want to do business with? A person wants unlimited access to the property to visit and check up on it and provides constant drama if she doesn't get her way. It was a nightmare.

This is our story, which we have documents in pictures, videos and written correspondence. In our opinion, the ad was untruthful and not what you'd want in a vacation rental. Do yourself a favor and check every detail from this ad from this owner or address. Ask the neighbors about the horrors of this property. Do your homework and check everything.  It was a real nightmare for us. We certainly would not recommend this home or owner to anyone

Update: Joan H. Leonard, aka Joan Leonard, aka "Joan L" took legal action against me as revenge for my 100% truthful reviews of her and her Palm Springs Vacation Rental Home business. Of course since it was a baseless claim, the case was dismissed without me having to say a word. However, she had plenty to say before the case was dismissed and we now have her on the record, under oath, lying over and over and making ridiculous claims, which is perjury, a criminal offence. She even said under oath that she pulled our credit without ever getting permission from us, which is also illegal (she did not ask to pull credit upon starting the rental). She made claims that she received over 300 harassing phone calls because of this review, which of course is ridiculous, since 300 people haven't even viewed this page at this point. We also proved to the court that she initiated contact using a work email, calling from a work phone number and using a work address. Is this something you would even want to consider thinking about when looking for a rental home? According to the City of Palm Springs, Ms. Leonard does not have a short term vacation rental permit, nor has she ever paid the City of Palm Springs taxes for having this business and she admitted this under oath. There are hundreds if not thousands of properties in Palm Springs to rent - in my opinion stay far, far away from this one if you want to maintain your sanity and actually enjoy a vacation property. You will never get the quiet enjoyment you are entitled to under the law if you rent this property. Ms. Leonard served us no less than 14 notices to enter the property in less than 4 months. The aggressive outbursts in court at the judge question any sense of her mental stability in my opinion and are what we saw with regularity when renting this home. Now we have it all in the court record for future legal action. She will not go away, she will not stop writing, she will not stop contacting people about us, even more than  4 months after ending the tenancy, which is likely leading us to seek a restraining order against her and civil action against her and her employer. Again, ask yourself - is any of this worth it when you are just trying to relax in a vacation home?

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/22/2015 04:05 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/joan-h-leonard/palm-springs-california/joan-h-leonard-sandra-belew-joan-leonard-ms-leonard-joan-l-redacted-e-mail-an-1250250. 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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