My payment related problems with Renaissance Rentals, LLC began around June 7, 2005. This is the date check number 1056 cleared my bank for an amount of $182.50.
This payment was requested a few days prior to this by Renaissance Rentals, LLC for the withheld portion of my security deposit from a previous apartment I had rented from them that I vacated in early February 2005. It was requested to make up for the portion they did not transfer to my new lease in a different apartment in the same building. Although I knew legally I was not required to pay it, I did, for the sake of continued good will, as I felt that my financial situation was unlikely to change in the next decade, so I wanted to maintain a good tenant landlord relationship on this matter. I also felt strongly that if I did not pay it, though they had no right to ask for it, I would be denied the opportunity to continue living in my present apartment.
My good faith action was in vain, and this date marks the beginning of persistent exploitation of my good will.
Late in July of 2005 I went to make my rent payment in the office. I needed to ask them the exact amount I owed because my rent had increased by $3.00 a month when I moved from 171 E 17th St. to 159 E 17th St. I had paid check number 1053 $2,700.00 in January 2005 for six months of rent for 171 but because I had moved and the rent had changed I wanted to know exactly how much back rent I owed. I had been told when I moved that I would be invoiced for the exact amount before August when my next rent would be due, but I had not received an invoice and it was almost August 1, when rent would be due. When they checked my account I was told I owed $50.00 total and that my rent other than that amount was paid in full until September 1, 2005. I asked them why and I was refused an explanation. When I asked how to get an explanation I was refused information on the process of obtaining a clearer understanding. I felt that this was a mistake, but I also thought it could be possible that I had paid for 7 months rather than 6 in January. Because my questions were increasingly being met with disapproval, refusal of answers and increasingly frightening behavior I became afraid that they would accuse me of behaving in a dangerously irrational way for asking these questions and that they might be calling the police to have me adjudicated as dangerous to self and other, due to my disability, though I feel I maintained my composure very well. So I wrote them a check number 1057 for the amount of $71.00. This amount was for the $50.00 charge they would not explain, plus 7 months worth of $3.00 back payments and I decided to take them at their word that I was paid up for August. I was also afraid that if I insisted that I did owe rent that month and if I had written the check for $471 there was a strong chance that payment would not have been correctly recorded, and I would be asked to pay it again at a later date. I reiterated that they needed to check their books before I left the office. My next payment was rent check number 1058 for $453.00 in late August and it cleared my bank on September 2, 2005.
In October of 2005 I informed the company that my pay schedule caused me to receive my salary in the middle of the month after the late payment grace period. Due to this it was my intention to start paying my rent several weeks early. They told me there was no problem with this and I could pay my rent as early as I chose. On October 4, 2005 my rent check number 1060 cleared for $453.00 covering the month of October and on October 17, 2005 my rent check number 1061 cleared for $453.00 covering November of 2005. From this point onward I paid my rent a few weeks early by check until a few days prior to March 20, 2006 when I made my first online payment to Scholars Rock Apartments. In mid April I received my first late rent payment notice tied to my door. I called and explained that I paid my rent in mid March and I was told by Travis Tressler that the notice was a mistake and they would take care of it. I specifically asked about August 2005 at this time and I was told that that was absolutely not the source of the problem. One discrepancy on this note and all following notes was the amount of my rent. I’m sorry I don’t have those notes at this time but I have a subsequent note from March 2007 which asks for the amount of $497.00 although the rent amount on my lease at this point is $472.00. I will talk further about this note later. Following the note I received in April 2006 I continued to receive notes nearly every month of the same nature, though I can provide details of payments on a timely basis. I called every time I received these notes and was reassured that everything was ok but the notes continued to come.
The next discrepancy comes in June of 2006. A few days prior to June 20 I submitted my rent payment to the online payment system with ample funds in my checking account. After several days when the funds were not withdrawn from my account which I check online daily I checked the rent payment website and saw my payment was marked NSF. I have bank statements showing that the funds were available in my account for the period of time when the payment was submitted and that my bank has not recorded any attempt to claim the amount from the rent payment website. When I called Renaissance Rentals to inform them of their website’s error they told me the problem must be mine but they magnanimously waved NSF fees because I was attempting to pay early. I gave up arguing that the check hadn’t bounced and their website had an error but they refused to investigate the matter. I promptly submitted a new payment which was received and deducted from my checking account on June 29, 2006.
For a few months I stopped receiving late rent payment notices until March of 2007. At this point I was informed that the problem was due to the alleged NSF from June of 2006. I promptly printed out a copy of my online payment history from www.renaissancerentals.prospectportal.com and submitted this through email attachment to Tami Martin. I was told on Saturday, March 10, after spending a hour with Tami going over her document about my rent and showing her mine that showed one payment that was not on her document that she would look into the matter further and she would contact me Monday. I left believing that they may owe me $50 dollars and despite what I had shown Tami to back me up, she seemed visibly angry at these words.
She did not contact me again until Friday April 13. I had mentioned on Saturday, March 10 that the rent discrepancy could be due to the incident of August rent for 2005, but since Tami had not gotten back in touch with me at all between March 10 and April 13 I believed all was current with my account except the $50 surplus. As the wording of Tami’s April 13 note was unclear at that time I believed her email asking for an additional $395 was to make up for August 2005. However on closer inspection she was asking payment for the NSF. I made arrangement to pay for what I thought was their mistake in August 2005 and I made my last make up payment of $95.00 on October 1, 2007.
In the second week of October 2007 I again received a late payment of rent notice tied to my door. I immediately returned it to the office and told them I was certain I was current until November 1. At this point I received emails accusing me of being a chronic late payer of rent and saying that I still had to pay for my NSF. After phone calls, emails and documentation could not resolve the issue I called HAND of Bloomington who put me in touch with Legal Services. I also reported the money stolen to the Bloomington Police Department who told me I was better off to contact the BBB and I submitted a complaint with them on October 22.
I finally received an email on October 23 from the new manager Jessica Howe stating that I only owed them $5.00 but there was no explanation or evidence of why I owed this money. In addition, her note told me that I had paid only $53 in August of 2005 when I had sent them documentation that I had paid $71 at that time. I requested an explanation in writing for the $5 charge but I have yet not received it.
I feel I received this note because I put up my correspondence with every one I had to contact to reach a partial resolution of this issue on my window on the morning of October 23 so that my side of the story would be apparent to my neighbors who were being led to believe by the notes and activity that was refusing to pay my rent. I felt that I had to take this step because I was convinced that no one at Renaissance Rentals LLC had ever believed me to have an actual rent issue and that I was being harassed and extorted. The whole time they expected me to become verbally abusive and were reporting that my denials of owing the money no matter how plainly worded, were abusive, though I was only frankly and plainly explaining my payment history over and over again, in my free time and on my off days, on the phone, in the office in email and at my apartment door spending hours of my life.
At 11:45 am on October 26, 2007 Jessica Howe came to my door and told me the documents on my window were a violation of my lease, but after all this history of false claims and mistakes she didn’t bring a copy of the lease with her or cite the exact article of the lease I was violating and expected me to obey her on her word. I believe she may have video taped this conversation which took place in my door way with many tenants watching from the balcony and parking lot. I believe that she was continuing to attempt to find a justification to deprive me of housing by using her perception of the nature of my mental disability to provoke me with her demeanor and lies to say something that might be considered aggressive and which could be used as grounds for adjudication as a danger to self and others.
I have the majority of my email correspondence, all my bank statements and can get access to pictures of canceled checks if necessary.
On January 28, 2008 I was informed by Jessica Howe of Renaissance Rentals that I would not be permitted to renew my lease. In addition, when looking for future housing I will be forced to give this landlord’s phone number to future housing providers so that they can talk to them before they consider offering me housing.
