Cypress Lakes at Stonebriar Apartments Gaines Trust, Gaines Investment Trust Kept our security deposit against Texas state law and are now ignoring all requests of justification. Frisco Texas

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ BEFORE DECIDING ON CYPRESS LAKES APARTMENTS

I would NOT recommend moving into the Cypress Lakes Apartments in Frisco! Not because of complex conditions, but because of business practices within the management, leasing center, and over all policies of the community. They will deny issues at all costs, ignore and pretend it never happened, and then function like a dictatorship when they have an issue. I have listed out numerous examples and proof in my full review if care to read it (I strongly urge you to). If not, this is my warning to ALL. DO NOT MOVE INTO THE CYPRESS LAKE APARTMENTS IF YOU VALUE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY, WANT COMMON FREEDOMS, AND VALUE TRANSPERANCY AND HONESTY.

My first impression of the complex was one of excitement but after move in, reality set in and the disappointment and frustration began to grow. Do not fall into the same trap as I did.  Management will lie, cover-up, and fabricate reasons to make your life difficult as a resident and finally to steal your security deposit at all costs.

My first indication that we were going to have issues:

When I first moved in, I began to unpack and decorate. As a proud American in a new home, I decided it would be nice to hang the American flag from my first floor porch. I was immediately greeted with lease violation threats. After inquiry, I found out that the American flag is banned from the property. This was my first indication that things were not as they seemed. The management has a policy that they can dictate your “Garden Décor” and all flags fall under that policy. As to “not offend the community” I was told that the flag must go. I was also told that neighbors in the complex had “complained”. I held on as long as I could, 6 months, and eventually, I received eviction threats. I was not in the position to move again and was put in an extremely disheartening position. I work everyday with Veteran non-profits that benefit combat-wounded servicemen. It broke my heart, but given my situation at the time, I finally gave in due to eviction, fine, and lawyer fee threats. Old glory came down should have moved out then but could not – something I still regret today.

During my residency I enjoyed to amenities, but still had many unfavorable run-ins with the Gaines and Cypress Lakes management. These ranged from 3 years of broken grills and physical burns due improper functioning of the grill, our apartment being infested with insects and the exterminator creating a toxic situation leading to having to stay at a family member’s home and a trip to the vet for our cat, and several smaller instances that were either ignored or never addressed.

My wife and I chose to live at Cypress Lakes while we saved for a house.  Upon submitting our 60 notice of move-out is when the real fun began! For anyone who knows about building a house, they never complete on time. I have never met such a inflexible, policy driven, and difficult group of people who lack common sense and common courtesy in my life! We were held to unrealistic policies that ended up costing hundreds of dollars extra in lease costs due to having to extend our lease extra just to ensure we would have a place to live in the final weeks of construction. Due to their rules, we kept our apartment for almost an extra month to ensure our home build and our housing would overlap. Our house completed early but due to the inflexible rules, we could not alter the lease period and therefore we were charged. We began to have this discussion with leasing a year in advance and were told it would not be an issue – until it was…

Next was the move out. The complex offers a “walk through” before move-out when both parties can ensure there are no issues left behind that there will be charges for. The only problem is they do not honor that. According to the office, and not in the lease agreement, an appointment has to be scheduled 7 days before move out. I called in and requested several times but was never given the correct person nor was my message relayed. One week before move out I finally got the attention of management and then was told “Sorry, you did not make the advance notice of 7 days” and that we were now not eligible. This really concerned me since I heard of so many nightmare move-out stories. I begged for a walk through to cover myself but each time I was denied or ignored.  I preparation, I hired my cleaning lady to do one more cleaning (we had a professional cleaner every 3 weeks).

I called in after we turned in our keys and we were told all was good and we would be receiving our deposit… until we didn’t and got an additional bill for carpet replacement.

Here’s the long story short: They fraudulently kept our security deposit against Texas state law and are now ignoring all requests of justification.

They have blamed carpet replacement. There were no stains, no tears, no damage at all – just normal wear and tear on an already cheap 5 year carpet. We lived on the carpet for 3 years and prior to move in requested a new carpet. We were not granted the new carpet because it was only 2-3 years old at that point. The prior property manager agreed that the carpet was dirty and instead offered us a professional deep cleaning because she could not make an exception for us.  

I have called several times for carpet records as to the last time the carpet was replaced. Each time my call was screened and not answered OR I was told that the manager was not on property to discuss it.  I even went as far as to call from the property while looking at the manager sit in her office. I was told she was not on property again! A complete LIE from the office staff!

I looked into the legalities of the Gaines and Cypress Apartment actions and as I assumed, they are ignoring me for a reason. Please see below:

Landlords cannot deduct items for normal wear and tear. The definition of “normal wear and tear” provided by the Texas statutes states as follows:

“Normal wear and tear” means deterioration that results from the intended use of a dwelling, including, for the purposes of Subchapters B and D, breakage or malfunction due to age or deteriorated condition, but the term does not include deterioration that results from negligence, carelessness, accident, or abuse of the premises, equipment, or chattels by the tenant, by a member of the tenant’s household, or by a guest or invitee of the tenant.” Tex. Prop. Code §92.001(4).

If I may put it more simply, normal wear and tear is what occurs if a reasonable person was living in the premises. 

Using the normal wear and tear definition, landlords should not be able to replace all carpet once a tenant leaves. If a carpet is ten years old and worn, the last tenant should not be stuck with the bill to replace it unless the tenant destroyed it. Alternatively, though, if a tenant receives the premises with fairly new carpet, the carpet should look pretty nice after living there only one or two years. Any stains and rips would most likely be deductible. Further, the landlord cannot use the carpet replacement as an opportunity to upgrade at the cost of the tenant – WHICH GAINES DID!