Cote Realty - Weichert Do not lease a home from this company!! Cypress Texas

I leased a condo from Cote Realty from March 2005 to February 2006. I then leased a home from this company from February 2006 to September 2008. I thought they were a good, genuine company and that's why I decided to lease the home from them. Boy, was I wrong!!!!!

When my husband and I moved into the home in February 2006, the home was a complete disaster! The carpet was gross and the home was not clean. I called the Cote Realty sales lady (Linda) who did the contract with me to ask when the home would be cleaned and she told me that rental properties came "as is" and that Cote Realty did not clean the homes before the new tenant moved in. So, since the contract was already done, my husband and I moved in and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Needless to say, we weren't happy campers. I mean, I thought when you moved into a rental property, whether it was an apartment or home, that the company would make it look presentable. They did not because the home came "as is."

So, my husband and I built a new home and gave our 30 day notice on August 30, 2008. We actually closed on our new home on August 29. We vacated the rental property on August 29 but, of course, still paid for the last month that we did not live there...which is fine considering we were still responsible for the property. No big deal.

My husband and I wanted the new tenants to move into a clean house (unlike we had and we remember what we went through), so we paid for a professional cleaning service to come into the house on September 11, 2008 to thoroughly clean the house. It was classified as a Move-Out Clean. We knew that Cote Realty wouldn't clean it because of our prior experience.

Well, when it came time to send our $1000 deposit back at the end of October, Cote Realty charged us $413.00 for cleaning/deodarizing, lightbulbs that were out, door stops that were missing, and A/C filters.

Now, let me tell you, the house was thoroughly cleaned after we moved out. WE paid for the service. And Cote never cleaned/deodarized the house for us before we moved in. AND, we put a brand new A/C filter in the home PLUS left another new one in the hall closet since we knew we would no longer need that size filter in our new home. There were NO door stops missing. So, maybe there were 1 or 2 light bulbs out that we missed, but are 2 light bulbs $413.00? Wow. Plus, we listed all the defects on the house on our Inventory Report when we first moved in.

Needless to say, these people will be making a trip to Small Claims Court. It may not be a lot of money, but it's the principle.

Main point: Watch out who you rent from!!

Anonymous
Conroe, Texas
U.S.A.