Darwin Homes Property Management
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Self Guided Tours in your home, hidden pet rent, difficult customer service
My wife and I found a decent house and applied. However, it wasn’t until after we paid the application fee and got access to the lease that we were told we had to pay a high pet rent fee. I understand pet rent is becoming normal. We pay it at our house now. However, it’s more than double what we pay now and also more than the other 3 homes we applied to in the surrounding area. To the point that it makes the rent higher than similar homes that included a garage. We were told the pet rent was in the listing, but I printed off the entire page and the only thing there was the pet fee and a sentence that said to check tenant requirements. When I check those requirements, it said nothing about pet rent, only that additional requirements may be included on the listing AND the lease. It was only on the lease after we paid the application fee. We also called about an addendum in the lease that says they have the ability to use the smart lock on the home at any time for self guided tours while we are living in the home. When asked about this, we were told they don’t practice just letting people in the home, which I believed, but refused to put that in the lease because it’s a national lease they cannot change. i believe they do not practice just letting random people into your home unattended, but the way the lease is worded would allow them to do so. I’d like it to say they retain access to the home at any time because I understand it’s their house, but we must be given a 24 hour notice if someone is coming over for a tour and that they won’t do this until we give our notice or they won’t do it at all until we move out. We decided not to follow through with the home because of those two things and that we have found homes in the area with a garage and with their pet rent it was only $10 more a month. BUT also it was a pain communicating with someone to voice those concerns. We had a total of 5 individuals from the company message us and it was all through one number that when you call takes you to a call center that can’t do anything except tell the real person you need to contact to call you back when they have a chance. That didn’t sit well with us having to make a bunch of calls through a middle man to reach our leasing agent.