Shadow Oaks Apartment homes fraudulent charges, illegal collections procedures, move-out scam, threats, federal violations Tampa, Florida

Shadow Oaks Apartment complex in Tampa Florida along with Capstone Credit Services have taken place in violating federal laws one important one known as the FDCPA. I have known one other resident that also had the same problem, but this person took no action and ended up paying them money.

What they are doing is this. Upon moving out I requested a walk through of my apartment, they did not provide one for me on my request. I had cleaned the apartment for a solid week and  I believed everything was fine. Three months later I received a bill in the mail for over $500 in cleaning fees. I called the complex which said it had already been forwarded to a collection agency and they would not discuss the matter. The corporate leasing office would not return any calls.

I quickly disputed the charges with the collection agency who would not listen to what I had to say. Later I found they made bad marks on my credit, which also on the report showed that the dispute had been mediated and I owed them all the money. When I found this I called the company and got in contact with a male who heard me out and I sent him pictures of the apartment when I moved out.

I called again a week later and a woman handled my call. She said even though the apartment was clean in the picture I probably trashed it afterward. She said the only way to fix my credit was to pay them otherwise they would continue to hurt my credit any way they could.

I continued to state my point: I had a witness statement, I have never missed a payment on anything, the lease had nothing about me paying for general wear which was minimal at most, and the apartment was clean if they felt not why did it take 3 months for them to say something was wrong. At this point the call escalated, all on there end.

The woman began yelling in the phone saying I was the loser that can't pay his bills and she had no reason to listen to me. Then said she works for Shadow Oaks and not for me so it didn't matter what I had to say at this point because it was there word against mine. She stated they would continue to hurt my credit and prevent me from getting loans unless I paid, yelled some about how I was wasting her time and slammed the phone down.

I called back obviously upset due to the threats and disrespectful way I was treated. When asking for a manager they just put me back with the woman who admitted I would never reach a manager because she ran my account. These calls happened on 08/18/09 at 3:30PM.

This is an obvious scam from an apartment complex that badgered me for 6 or so months before moving out on resigning my lease because I was such a care-free resident. I could see long before moving that they weren't getting many residents(I had 2 neighbors who only stayed on short leases in the 3 years I was there). They come up with false charges long after the person moved so there would be no way for them to get contrary evidence no matter how immaculate the apartment was left. They give your information to a crooked credit group and then damage your credit until you have no choice to pay.

In addition, I like my time there and actually defended the complex when my friend had told me upon moving out there was a ridiculous charge for cleaning. I told her there must have been something wrong, which she said the apartment was left perfect. Then the same thing happened to me which I had to apologize to her.