InTown Suites Violation of FHAct - Keeping Deposit Lilburn Georgia

On September 7, 2015 I found myself in need of a long-term hotel. I had finally gotten a small job after a year of searching and I had nowhere to go to prepare for interviews, orientations, etc. I am disabled and have a support dog so I always check to make sure they are allowed in apartments or rentals that I am trying to find to live in. I did not, at the time, know about the Fair Housing Act's inclusion of support dogs in rentals so I believed it was entirely up to the property owner.

I found InTown Suites in Lilburn (one of the few with an open room) and the manager at the desk (presumably 'johnb' as that is the name listed on my invoice) told me they did accept support animals with proof. I gave him my letter and prescription from my doctor and he made copies for his records. No problem. Then came the shocking fee. The rooms are advertised out front for around $219 a week. They don't mention until you rent that there are the regular taxes plus a new Georgia hotel tax of another $5.00 a day, making my first week's stay $372. The "benefit" comes in when you stay more than a week because the cost goes down into the upper $200s.

So I used almost every dime I had getting in that week, hoping I would have the money by the time the next week came around - time to get a paycheck from the new job along with some help I'd received to get by. Upon entering the unit, #340, I nearly passed out. It was an absolute dump. It looked like something you would imagine living in if you lived in a back-alley crack area. Still, I had no choice as it was all I could find for the price that it WOULD be in the following weeks. (I immediately took pictures.)

A few days in, I noticed the refigerator beginning to get warm. It was just before they closed the office and I had just purchased some eggs and milk to keep me until I made some money, so I felt the need to call right then instead of waiting too late.

A different "manager" (I have no idea who all they really were) came up to the room with the maintenance guy (after first stopping to talk to the tenants of a room that had pot smoke billowing out of it). After lying to our faces about "proof" that the refrigerator was working, he sent the maintenance guy to get another one anyway. He then turned to the dog bowls and said, "I meant to talk to you about this. I can't have this here. No pets are allowed." This immediately infuriated my daughter who was there at the time and said, "It isn't a PET, it's a support dog." I explained to him that the "manager" who checked me in assured me that they were allowed and that I had just spent all my money to get the place. (I'd have had to pay another "upfront" cost to start all over at another InTown Suites if I had to leave that one.)

He insisted that HIS boss had just been there and expressly told him he could not allow any animals there, that he'd talk to him, and let me know if he was told otherwise. (When the maintenance guy came back with the refigerator, he apologized profusely about the conduct of his boss, explaining he had a tendency to fly off the handle like that.) 

The manager never returned or called to tell me that I was allowed to stay, so I prepared to leave at the end of my week. I did immediately look it up and found that according to the Fair Housing Act, support dogs ARE included as recognized accommodations in rentals. The night before I left, I cleaned the room and made sure it was in the exact condition as when I got there. (I took pictures then, as well.)

The evening before I left, I called the office to find out how I would get my deposit back given that I had to be at the new job before their office opened (at 11:00 am). A different associate told me to leave the key on the dresser in the room and he would put the deposit back on my credit/debit card that I used to secure the room. I have not seen the deposit since.

I have left three phone calls (they are almost never in the office to answer the phone) and have not received one call back. I did speak to a "stand-in manager" after one of the property managers there left (not sure which one) and she promised to look into why the computer said, "Customer left deposit." She never called back. I called their corporate office twice, once when the manager told me I had to leave and once for the deposit. I did not hear back about the dog and am awaiting the callback about the deposit now.

InTown Suites' caused a great deal of hardship for me at an already impossibly difficult time in my life. I am now without a place to live other than my car while beginning a new job and juggling two disabling conditions at the same time. They have violated the Fair Housing Act and at this point, stolen my deposit as well.