Fresh Abode LLC Amelia Matera Abode aloha The Manager of the Rental Company kept my deposit Honolulu HI

I lived in Honolulu from November 2020 until January 2021. In December when I was looking for a space to rent , I came across Ms Amelia Matera renting space  advertisements. Ms. Amelia Matera is  a licenced realtor and manager of the Fresh Abode renting company.  She and I talked about renting a studio and  she explained to me the conditions of both, the short term and the long term renting. On the day I moved in,  my friend  Dusan came with me , who as  he witnessed our verbal agreement  about the renting conditions, can testify in support of my statement. 

 The monthly rent for the pace as advertised was $1395 for a short term and $1195 for a long term ( longer than 6 months. )In our verbal conversation Ms. Matera explained  the renting conditions as follows: if I did not want to stay for less than  6 months, I could only send a notice 30 days ahead the day for the next rent to be paid, clean the rented space to be in the conditions it was found on the day I moved in, and pay $200 dollars in addition to the $1195 rent for the long terms option of 6 months or longer.

 I moved into the studio, and paid $1809, which was $1195 plus the deposit. At that time my intentions were to stay for a minimum of 6 months and look for a job. On the second day of moving in, after receiving some news and unpleasant unfavorable information,  I realized I needed to leave Hawaii, thus, I sent  to Ms. Matera an “ intent to vacate” email. She responded by encouraging me to look for options to stay if possible. However, I had no options to facilitate my staying. On the day of moving out I cleaned the room completely and let Ms. Matera know I was expecting to get the deposit  ($414) back, minus the $200 as a penalty for not staying the long term.

 On January 17, 2021,  I contacted Ms. Matera regarding my deposit of  $414, however, she denied my right to get the deposit back citing some reasons that were not part of the agreement.

 I reported her to the BBB and we have an open case. However, as she is not a very truthful person she is giving  the BBB  information which is incorrect. Moreover, her moral character is shown in a couple of other cases where she did the same thing to other  tenants, and was reported by them. It seems that keeping the deposit for no justifiable reason is her habit which shows a terrible unprofessional attitude.

 I already reported her to several professional  sites, tried to take her to small claims court, etc, and finally, this is my attempt to prove that Ms. Matera stole my money for  which has no legal right. She is a very unprofessional individual who should be having her licence taken away, as she is misleading  people in order to keep  their money extorted in a form of deposit, which she has no legal  or justifiable reasons to keep.

I have a letter written by the witness in which he gives the statement  about the verbal agreements between Ms Matera  and me, about the rental conditions,  and also, about his attempt to serve the letter for the small claims court  he was not able to accomplish. I can also submit the statement by the Better Business Bureau if needed.