Mark Brower Properties False Damage Repairs Mesa Arizona

It appears Mark Brower is addressing many of the issues I had with him.  The information he is providing now would have been helpful at the time I ended my lease.  This is after the fact and a little too late.  I never received a "preparing for your move-out" document from Mr. Brower.  Never even heard of it until reading about it in his rebuttal.  All communication between us trying to resolve the deposit issue not once mentioned  this document.  Neither Mr. Brower nor his staff ever referred me to any such document.  If if they had, I would have asked for a copy.  This is another example of the way I was treated differently from other tenants. 

In 20 yrs of rentiing, I have always received my deposit back until this time.  Mr. Brower states the property needed to be brought up to "rent-ready condition" and that is why my entire deposit was kept. There is no way $895.00 of my deposit was needed to cover my responsibility as a tenant to leave the property in the condition it was when I leased it.  The fact is the property was in far better condition than when I moved in.  It was clean and painting had been done. Using my entire deposit to get the property in "rent-ready condition"  according to him was not even close to being fair.  The one thing I do agree with Mr. Brower is that the house inside had not been painted for many years and needed to be done, but not with my deposit money.  The items I was charged for should have been addressed with the owner prior to me leasing the property and not paid for out of my deposit. 

Mr. Brower states there are "glowing" comments about his company made by other tenants.  While that may be true, what  he lacks to tell you is there is also a complaint made by a current tenant against him at the Better Business Bureau.  Perhaps if Mr. Brower had been upfront and communicated with me, I too would have written glowing remarks.  The bottom line is I am a far better tenant than most, I do not leave homes I  leased in conditions where my entire deposit is needed to cover costs for painting, repairs or cleaning. If Mr. Brower would have taken the time to let me have a walk-through with him at the time I moved out, all issues would have been resolved.   Mr. Brower needs to learn how to recognize and not take advantage of a good tenant.  Honesty and integrity go a long way in his business.    

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to this report.  We acknowledge that we are in an industry where disputes over security deposit refunds are unfortunately very common.  We strive to develop and follow the very best practices in our industry.

We take great care to document property condition both at the beginning and the end of each lease.  We visit the property, in person, with each new tenant that moves in.  We typically spend 60-90 minutes at the property filling out a 6 page inspection report with over 150 line items and take 60-150 photos to thoroughly document the property condition.  We do this to protect both the tenant's security deposit from unfair charges and protect the owner from damage/abuse/neglect above "normal wear and tear".

Prior to a tenant moving out we send out a document entitled "Preparing for your move-out".  In this document we specify the process of a tenant surrendering possession of the property and give helpful guidelines about the condition we expect the property to be left in.  This is to help maximize the return of the security deposit to the tenant.  We outline that tenants must somehow turn in keys to the property at our office when they have moved out.  We have a night drop slot near our front door to ensure this can be done in the evenings or over a weekend at the tenant's convenience.

We also take pride in being responsive to communication with all tenants and owners we serve.  If someone has a question about a process or the next steps they can expect to receive a call or email back from us the same day in most cases and almost never later than 24 hours after the question or call comes in.

We make sure each move-out inspection is performed as thoroughly as the move-in inspection with as many photos.  Assessing charges against 

As indicated in the complaint we did give the tenant the right, as required by law, to be present at the move-out inspection.  We regret she was unable to make it to that appointment.  We provided this tenant with a copy of the detailed move-out inspection report along with a detailed breakdown of the charges against her deposit.  The charges assessed against her deposit were less than the cost to bring the property back up to 'rent-ready' condition.  We understand that tenants are not responsible for any property repairs that are needed due to 'normal wear and tear'.  To ensure we are assessing the correct charges during this process we carefully review not only the differences bewteen the move-in and move-out inspection reports but also the before and after photos.

I understand there may be some landlords and property management companies who take advantage of tenants by wrongfully withholding part of the security deposit without cause.  We believe we are exceeding industry standards in our careful and detailed security deposit reconciliation process.  We care very much about doing the right thing and upholding industry best practices.  We want people to be able so say great things about us online and a search for our company name will bring up several glowing reviews from both owners and tenants, all of which are genuine.

I regret this former tenant feels they were treated unfairly but I sincerely wish her the best going forward.  Mark Brower - Broker/Owner

My email service had not been installed at my new address, so I  got email message late

Do you mean the Internet connection? There is no email service installation unless you own a web mail server.