FRE Real Estate and Property Management Scott Robertson, Justin Ellis predatory business practices by company offering help and services with rentals and property management Sandy Utah

During the month of July 2016, my fiance and I were looking to rent a home for ourselves, our 4 year old daughter and our 15 year old labrador retriever who is dying. We were using Zillow.com to look at home rentals and came accross FRE real estate and property management. My fiance and I found quite a few properties that we were interested in with this company so I sent an email to the property manager Scott Robertson. Scott immediately sent us a link to schedule a viewing as well as apply to rent the property. The application fee per person was $39.00 to have FRE property management run our information and make a decision to rent to us or not. Both my fiance and I paid the fee totalling $78.00. The web site was very clear that this fee was not refundable whether you were approved or not approved.

After we submitted our applications, I contacted Scott to let him know that we had applied and I asked what our next steps were. Scott responded that he sent me an email about our next steps but the email was never received so I had to keep calling Scott to clarify. Scott told both my fiance and I that in order to be considered for a property, we would have to submit the security deposit that the property required which for the property we wanted was 1095.00. Both my fiance and I were worried about submitting this security deposit for a property that we were not even confirmed to be able to rent and because that was the only money we had to put a deposit on a property, I contaced Scott and asked him if there was any other way to get a spot or if we could wait for them to approve us for the property prior to tying up our only deposit money. Scott said that we could drop off a check at the FRE office which I thought was a great way of dong it. A check for that amount would protect us as consumers and the company in case we were approved.

My fiance drove out to Sandy (which is about 10 miles from where we are located) The office was closed at the time and there was no drop box. the next day, I took time off of work and went out to Sandy to drop a check off during business hours and spoke to Scott. At that point Scott nofified me that they could not accept a check for the 1095.00 and that I would have to bring in a money order or certified check. I was annoyed because either way, the money would be tied up which they were making their decision and we would be unable to put a deposit on another property with another company if we were confirmed into another rental. Both my fiance and I were very nervous about the money but we felt we didn't have a choice if we wanted to rent with this company. We decided to submit the deposit online though the company web site. Within an hour of submitting the deposit, we received an email stating that our 15 year old lab would cost an additional $550.00 to live with us. I had previously paid pet deposits but never more than $250.00 for one pet, espcially not a pet that was dying and wouldn't be around through the rental period. I immediately called Scott and asked why we were not told prior to submitting the deposit and Scott stated that it was on the web site. Neither my fiance or I would have agreed to pay that amount for any pet to be on the property. I told Scott to please cancel our request and refund the money. Scott said that he would go ahead and do that and said that the return of the money could take up to 2 business days. My fiance and I were very nervous about it being returned in time because our move date was approaching rapidly. We waited 3 days before contacting Scott again to tell him that the money was not there. At that point, Scott told us that he never said two days, he said five business days. Well at that point, we had to move in with family and put all of our things in storage due to not having the money to put towards another rental that we had been offered.  We had to have a friend keep our dog through the transition. This was a devestating blow to my family.

At the end of the 5 days after very callous and forced responces from Scott, we received a partial refund from the money we trusted FRE property management to hold for us in the event that we were confirmed into a property. The refund into my fiances' bank account was 1040.25, not the 1095.00 that we had trusted with them. FRE property management has taken another $54.25 from the pockets of our family who was now without a home. I contacted Scott to ask why they took more of our money when we cancelled within an hour of submitting the deposit. Scott didn't have the time to respond apparently so I forwarded the email to two other FRE employees and though Justin did repsond to us, he was not willing to refund the 54.25 that was taken from us for no reason.

Our family is now out two 39.00 application fees and then another 54.25 without receiveing any type of product of service from this company. There are a lot of people out there trying to rent properties paying these fees We have reached out to the company and asked them to be fair and make the situation right and were turned down. We feel others should know to avoid FRE at all costs. Renting a home  is hard enough without bottomfeeders to take advantage. Lori F