Colony American Homes CAH Steals deposit money

Do not rent from this company.  I rented from this company for 1.5 years.  Never paid my rent late, and actually made improvements to the property while I lived there.  I moved out on 10/31/2014.   I always had issues getting in touch with anyone in the local office, but didn't worry too much about it because there were no issues with the property that needed to be addressed.  After moving out, we hired a cleaning company (on our dime) to have the house cleaned because that's just the right thing to do.  I even left all utilities in my name for the month of November just to give CAH time to transfer everything back to themselves, and so the house would not sit "stale" (Florida humidity means you need AC running).

Well, 14 days later we received a nasty letter from CAH stating that if we did not pay November rent we would be evicted (keep in mind our agreement was complete on 10/31, and the house was sitting there clean and ready to rent).   Amused, I contacted CAH in Tampa, they apologized for the notice.  I asked them to contact me when they go do the walkthrough so that I can be with them.  Well, they never contacted me.  After a couple weeks, I drove by and saw workers in the house (I assumed preparing it for the next renter).  A couple weeks after that, I called to ask about my deposit....I was told that not only would I not get my deposit, but I owed them $500!  I stayed calm, and asked the gentleman to please have his manager contact me (as they were not available at the time).  No call.  No call.  No call.  I called them.  No return call. etc. etc.   I assumed that I would have to fight for my deposit back, but since I never received a bill for the $500 I figured that they realized how ridiculous that was and dropped it.

Fast forward to the end of February.  I receive a letter from a collection company for the $500.  Keep in mind that CAH never sent me a bill, never called me to discuss, never did a house walk through, nothing....no communication.  Judging by the comments here, this seems to be their mode of business.

They think they can get away with this type of thievery, but they cannot....here's why:  I was the property owner that sold the property to CAH!  So I have all of the documentation showing that there was no damage to the property, and that the property was sold as is.  I then rented the home, immediately upon selling it, from CAH...so the only person to live at the property was me.  I have the inspection report from when they bought the property, I have the pictures, I have pictures from when we vacated the property after rental.  And more importantly I have the renters agreement that shows that they are in breach of contract.

Do not rent from this company ever.  One of their corporate media folks will likely reply very pleasantly to this post and give an impression that they really care, and that are focused on customer service.  Please trust me, and all of these other reviewers that they are, in fact, not concerned at all about customer service.  They are a wall street company that is concerned with one thing, profit.  Which isn't a bad thing, but stealing to make profit is wrong.  

CAH needs leadership change from the top!  If you are an investor, please consider adjusting your strategy accordingly.  If you are an executive from CAH reading this, please call me and I will be more than happy to describe to you in detail how your company is being driven into the ground!  And unlike most of the people CAH is stealing from, I have the facts and documentation to back up my claims.