Tricks used by large apartment leasing agents?

June 20, 2018 7:16 PM

We recently toured a brand new "luxury" apartment building in Northern California. The leasing agent told us we would received one free month on certain units. We put down a deposit on one unit. The next day I called their office and spoke to another leasing agent, who said actually the concession was 2 weeks free, not 4. Well that changed the math on which units we were interested in.

The second agent said we could just transfer out deposit to another unit and promised to send photos of the other units, but it was literally impossible to reach anyone on the phone. Would they screen calls so that the deadline to request a refund of our deposit expires because we can decide on other units? What other tricks do leasing agents use? Is bait and switch ever done to tenants (sign for one unit then get another?)

posted by KatNips to Work & Money (4 answers total)

You mention a deadline to request the return of your deposit. If you can just ask for your deposit back, I would do that (in writing by certified mail) and rent elsewhere. And maybe document this somewhere public. This was not an accident.

If they try to hold on to your deposit, I would try to find a lawyer friend (or plain hire one) to write a strongly worded letter. It's likely that they'll back off and move on to the next guy if you show any credible sign of being willing and able to put up a fight.
posted by meaty shoe puppet at 7:55 PM on June 20, 2018 [11 favorites]

Not specific to leases, but I once rented an apartment - they showed us a floor plan with furniture, looked fine. Turned out the furniture was drawn at a smaller scale than the plan.
posted by rudd135 at 4:33 AM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is shady as hell and I would back out now. I've never been able to get a apartment management company on the phone reliably, but yes, I think they are purposefully doing it. You should show up and ask for the deposit back.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:19 AM on June 21, 2018 [6 favorites]

Leave a firm message saying you left a deposit based on certain terms and those were subsequently changed after your verbal agreement was made. Make it clear in your message you feel there was a bait and switch, and you paid under a willfully false understanding of the terms. Say something like "if I don't hear back from a supervisor by 1:00 pm today I will be stopping payment on my check and sharing my experience on Yelp"
posted by latkes at 8:49 AM on June 21, 2018 [4 favorites]