I wrote the following to the Better Business Bureau -- In order to prevent my Better Business Bureau complaint from being posted publicly, The residences at Scioto Crossing (Owned by T & R properties) sued me to prevent my complaint from being posted to the internet.

This company, which has been involved in over 250 lawsuits, is using vexatious litigation to try and intimidate me into allowing them to steal my security deposit. 

I will not bend to their attempts to harass me into giving up. They are going out of their way to interfere with my military duty and you can help me by signing the petition below.

My Better Business Bureau complaint is below:

Despite being the most expensive apartment complex in the neighborhood I was looking at moving to, I moved into the Residences at Scioto Crossings (3900 Suffolk Dr, Dublin, 43016, OH) due to the extremely high review scores that I did not know at the time were inflated by fake employee reviews. The complex had a 4.9 out of 5 star rating and the reviews looked legitimate as I did not realize that many of the 5 star reviewers were employees of the company or contractors. If I had known the reviews were fake, I would have never moved to the Residences at Scioto Crossing, and would have instead moved to a different complex that was $300 cheaper per month. T & R properties’ widespread practice of writing fake reviews on their properties is causing unsuspecting renters to pay higher rents due to the perceived value created by the fake review scores.

Prior to move in, I emailed T & R Properties letting them know I could delay my move in to allow them time to repair everything in the apartment. I did this because I did not want maintenance staff in my apartment fixing things during a pandemic when it could have been fixed before I moved in. T & R properties responded quickly assuring me they did not need more time. Upon moving in, nearly everything in the apartment was broken and the keys I was given to the unit were not the correct keys. My washer & dryer, toilet, air conditioning, water heater and furnace were not working properly upon move in. Many parts of the unit were dirty, and the carpet was filthy with pant spots all over it. The unit also had a silverfish infestation.

The apartment also had a severe dust issue. When I would bring these issues up, Management would speak to me as if I was crazy and would tell me I was the first person to bring up these issues. However, I found a website containing tenant experiences about the Residences at Scioto Crossings, and numerous tenants brought up the dust issues as far back as 2007. The staff was extremely aggressive, and would outright deny the issue existed. For example, when I let staff know of the mice infestation in the leasing office, their regional manager stated, "I find that to be completely false, I have investigated that myself this morning and that’s completely false." Rather than simply address the mice infestation, they suggested I was lying. Their regional manager also would insist on coming to my apartment frequently which made me feel like I was being stalked. I had to tell her multiple times not to come to my apartment and that I was only comfortable communicating with her over the phone or via email.

The chief operating officer would also deny issues and gaslight me, rather than accept responsibility and promptly address them. For example, my apartment had a refrigerant leak, which I was concerned about because it was impacting my health. Whenever I was in the apartment, I had a headache and difficulty breathing. The unit also made a loud hissing sound which typically indicates a refrigerant leak. However, Their chief operating officer sent me an email saying, "The claim of a refrigerant leak due to this sound has no merit."  When maintenance did come out, they confirmed there was a refrigerant leak. I don't believe it was properly fixed as I continued to have headaches and breathing issues in the apartment. I am confident the health issues were a result of the apartment, as I had stayed in a hotel for a week to test it. While staying at the hotel, the health issues went away. I also received multiple COVID-19 tests during this time period, and they all came back negative, so COVID-19 was not the source of the breathing issues.

During the winter, the parking lot was not taken care of properly. Multiple people were injured in the parking lot due to no salt being put down, and minimal shoveling. I was injured on the ice near the leasing office and had to see a doctor and wear a wrist brace due to T & R Property’s negligence. When I brought this up to the property manager at the time, he would agree the company was not properly completing snow removal, but he left the company shortly after. Later I also saw a doctor due to the breathing issues in the apartment from the amount of dust that was being blown into the unit through the vents. The doctor insisted I move out.

Maintenance was in my apartment frequently, as things took multiple visits to get fixed. For example, the washer and dryer that was part of my lease never worked. I looked up the year of manufacture based on the serial # in my machine (cj3571302) and model #LXR7144EQ2, and this specific unit was manufactured in 1999. I wasn't expecting something brand new, but at a rate of $40 per month, I could not have anticipated I would have received a washing machine that was over 20 years old. Eventually, I asked maintenance for a different unit, but they told me the other ones they had were just as bad. They took the non-working washer and dryer out of my apartment, and never replaced them. Unfortunately, T & R properties violated the lease by not providing an appliance that is specifically mentioned in the lease. They also never refunded me the $40 monthly charge I paid for the non-functioning washer and dryer.

My water heater did not work for 6 months. After maintenance came out multiple times to flush the non-functioning water heater out they finally replaced the water heater. I was never reimbursed for the increased water bills due to them flushing the water heater multiple times. I am also confident they were excessively charging me for water, as my bill for August was the same as the previous month, even though the apartment was unoccupied for August and no water was used. While waiting six months for them to repair or replace the water heater, I had to shower at the gym.

I was also charged $8 monthly for trash removal, but despite that I had to take my trash with me to the gym. I had to put it in the gym dumpster as the trash compacter at the residences was always overflowing every time I tried to take out my trash. Because of the overflowing trash, there were always mice, bees, and opossums swarming around the compactor and an extremely rancid smell came from it. Despite not being provided adequate trash service, I was not reimbursed for the trash fees paid.

The apartment complex had a serious safety issue. One of the staff members got into an argument with someone in the parking lot. The staff member claimed that person had threated to stab him, and asked me to call the police on his behalf. When the police arrived, the T & R Properties staff member was uncooperative with police. I have no idea if that staff member was actually threatened, or if he was just making it up, as he refused to cooperate with police when they actually arrived. If someone legitimately threated to stab their staff member, a safety notice should have been sent out warning the tenants of this person, however, T & R properties refused to send one out as their primary interest was covering up the crime at this complex.

On July 1st, the regional manager called me to harass me regarding the concern I raised about the mice infestation in the leasing office. Their regional manager offered to let me out of my lease if I signed a document to waive my right to sue T&R properties for the health issues in the apartment and agree to an NDA. I refused to sign it. We then discussed that I will be going on military orders in August. I mention to their regional manager I am not deploying in August but will be on military orders in the US. She states that as soon as she receives my military paperwork she will let me out of my lease.

On July 6th the chief operating officer confirmed in writing the following, "He understands that he will be charged rent until he provides the military papers". Again, she made it clear she would accept my military paperwork without specifying it needed to be a certain length of time. However, I now know that their chief operating officer sent me this in bad faith. Her plan was to wait until I turned in my military orders, and to then demand I sign an agreement to waive my right to sue and remove my negative reviews. If I did not agree to sign this agreement, she planned to keep my security deposit.

On July 31st, I reached out to ask where I should turn in my keys and I was never given a response. I left town to begin my military orders. I still paid the August rent as I still had the keys. I did not realize at the time that they intentionally did not tell me where to drop off the keys. When I contacted them again about turning in my keys, they refused to take back possession of the apartment and stated I was responsible for rent through 12/31 unless I signed an agreement to waive my right to sue them for the health issues in the apartment and to remove the negative reviews.

I asked the regional manager if the reason the one star reviews kept disappearing was because they were getting others to sign these agreements but she wouldn’t answer.

I refused to sign the agreement and pointed out that the chief operating officer was reneging on our initial agreement, which simply required me giving them my military paperwork. I asked T & R properties to take back possession of the unit and they refused to and insisted I pay September rent. 

I emailed their their attorney and told them I would continue to pay rent and then try to get my money back through the court. I also notified him that their regional manager had already cut my access off to pay my rent. He told me to just turn in my keys.

On September 12th, one of my neighbors notified me that there was an eviction notice on my door. Essentially, T & R Properties was abusing the eviction system to try and scare me into signing the agreement not to sue. I emailed their regional manager that because they were attempting to evict me, they could no longer refuse to take back possession of the unit and they now had to accept keys and possession of the unit.  Their eviction scheme ended up backfiring against them.

I never received back my $1,299 security deposit. On October 14, 2021, I received an extortion notice email from their collections manager that they were charging me $4,966.98 in additional charges and that if I did not pay it in two weeks, they would begin collection proceedings, damaging my credit. They were attempting to charge me rent through 12/31/21. When I pointed out that they were violating Ohio Law by intentionally not advertising my unit, they all of a sudden quickly found a new tenant, but insisted I pay for September and October Rent or they would begin collection proceedings against me. I notified their collections manager that he should not continue to try and extort me on behalf of T&R Properties and that I was not responsible for their decision to not look for a new tenant initially.

T & R properties began sending me suspicious mail, which were just blank pieces of paper with chemical residue on it. I also caught a member of their management team contacting me on social media using a fake alias and pretending to be a fellow military service member. He could have been attempting to gain classified information from me. This was disturbing – not only was T & R properties writing fake reviews at their units, but they were also utilizing social media to falsely pose as residents, military service members, etc, to distort the reality of the poor quality housing they provide.

The money that T & R properties, a company that received $1.3 million in PPP funds,  stole from me is food out of my family’s mouth.