I had such high hopes for Ranchstone Garden Homes as it was to be our first rental experience in over seven years, and it looked very promising compared to all the other options at the time. The exteriors of the units were nice, the floor plan was big enough, there was a yard for our dogs, and it was in walking distance to Kerby Lane at the time. We were very excited. Instead of a long verbose narrative, I feel that due to the volume of issues, this would best be documented in a bullet pointed fashion.
1. Shoddy does not adequately describe the degree to which maintenance and repair work was lacking.
2. Upon move in, the laminate counter tops were peeling off, and there were several large uneven seams where drywall had been repaired using in appropriate materials and no touch up paint.
3. Requests for maintenance and repair were routinely responded to days to weeks later, and often not at all.
4. During the summer when watering restrictions and high heat killed the lawn, they would still have their lawn crews come in and mow and blow the dirt around as though it was accomplishing something.
5. After the summer Hail Storm, I cleaned up the glass that came into my son's room when several hail stones broke his window. The repair crew carelessly knocked more broken glass into a child's room and did and said nothing to fix it or even alert me to it. A cracked window was not even repaired, and the ones that were repaired were done poorly.
6. When the roofing company was brought in to repair hail damage, they were allowed to work up to 9pm at night, making so much noise that it was impossible to work from home or enjoy television or radio, or put the kids to bed at their normal bed time. Roofing company employees were stealing electricity to run their tools and no offset was offered by management.
7. EVERY one of my electric bills were OVER $300.00 and some OVER $400.00 starting in the spring. Some of the duct work was obviously crushed as some rooms blew hard and cold and some rooms not much of anything came out of the ducts.
8. Neighborhood kids that were WAY too young to be doing so, were routinely running around the neighborhood well into the night making noise and running across people's yards.
9. When I was one day late paying the last month's rent, an improperly filled out eviction notice was posted on my door, stating a move out date that was a full 3 days earlier that what had been agreed upon. This was settled and explained as "standard procedure," and I was allowed to stay through my originally agreed upon move out date, though I find this surprising, off-putting, and highly unprofessional, especially since I was never late with rent.
10. The thermostat was the cheapest entry level one you could possibly get, and was very stiff and difficult to read, and would routinely run for hours past the time that the set temperature had actually been reached.
11. When I moved out, I found that the hall closet next to the A/C closet had become soaked and infested with black mold, likely due to the thermostat overrunning the A/C unit. I reported this several times with NO follow up. Granted the kids and dogs did a number on the cheap carpet, but if I receive an invoice for anything over my non refundable sure deposit and pet deposit, I am going to lawyer up and take them to small claims court for my daughter and son's medical expenses.
12. Forgot to mention that the water heater was good for about 2 showers a day.
In summary, this was the first rental experience I have had in over 7 years, and it was absolutely horrific. I find it comical that the office voicemail outgoing greeting boasts "5 Star Service." It's absolutely laughable. Not only would I not recommend Ranchstone to anyone, but I am actually taking the time to post this everywhere I can to try to save as many people as possible from having the same miserable experience we had. If I had to sum up the entire image that Ranchstone portrays beyond the first impression, it would be, simply stated, "Trashy."
