21 Villas/21 Enterprises Jeffrey Chase Rental Housing Scams Internet

Jeff Chase (real estate representative for 21 Villas / 21 Enterprises) charged us $3,500 ($500 of which was for the security deposit) up front for a rental house in Indio, CA 6 months prior to our rental date. 

When we arrived at the home, the owners were still in the house and had not been notified we were coming at that time.  We waited outside while Jeff got into an argument with the owner in front of us about how he had not paid her for the rental of her home and that we were not permitted to stay there until they received payment (even though we had paid $3,500 in full to Jeff 6 months prior).  While this went on, Jeff's "assistant" gave us a "tour" that made us even more unsettled about the situation.  It was clear from talking to her that she had never been in the house before and that somebody was being scammed.  We worked it out with the owner to let us stay there, with a promise from Jeff that he would pay them immediately.  

I spoke with the owner a week after our rental date and she had still not received a full payment from Jeff.  Further, per my discussion with the owner, there were no significant damages to the house or any other reasons for us to not receive a full refund on our security deposit.  We have contacted Jeff for this multiple times since our rental date (April 2014) and have still not received payment.  It is now 2 months past our rental and to my knowledge the owner has never received the full payment that she and Jeff agreed upon, and we have never received our security deposit.