Would give 0 stars if possible. We moved in June of 22 to no working A/C, no fridge and no stove on a day that was an “office holiday,” which also happened to be a Friday. We should have turn and ran then.
Less than a month later, I am showering when I hear water splashing elsewhere in the house. I find my kitchen flooded. Please note this was a one bathroom house. I would not have a working shower again until November.
In July, we were offered hotel accommodations and declined in favor of a $34/day rental concession that I was told to put in writing and send to the residents email. I proceeded to spend 13 hours on the phone over those serval months, making over 100 total calls to Darwin for them to call me back 3 times. each time I called I was told that I had no submitted a request and they would do it. I would ask for them to copy me on the request to ensure it was put in and I was denied and told it was against policy. I have emails, portal messages, and text messages from that time of me BEGGING someone to care.
It was not until we quit paying rent in October (after submitted 5 written notices via email and the portal and was well within our legal protections to do) that someone called us to demand payment and sent someone out to fix the plumbing.
We were told that the rental concession was not valid since it was sent in an email by me and not by one of their representatives. They offered us $500 in rental concession after 5 months without a shower. That wasn’t even enough to cover the gas money we had spent having to drive elsewhere to care for our basic hygiene needs. We attempted to negotiated several times and even noted that the offer for hotel accommodations was written in an email by them, and offered to take whatever their allowance for that would be for the five months we were without a shower.
This is when they put a demand for payment on our door, dated from before we were even in talks about rental concession. Next came the eviction notice.
Our lawyer worked with their lawyer to release us from our lease, drop the eviction, and agree not to pay back rent in exchange for us not countersuing. I began keeping records early on because I knew by the way they acted that this would eventually turn legal. All I had to do was bring in my GIANT folder worth of evidence and call logs as well as a copy of Kansas City’s tenant bill of rights.
We vacated the property 1/19, ten days after our first court appearance. Our case was dropped on 2/27 officially but it was recognized that we had transferred the utilities out of our name, cancelled our renters insurance, and moved out.
Yesterday, we received an email stating that there may be a leak on the property and our names are still attached to it. I log into my portal and they are still charging us daily late fees and rent. I cannot get in contact with anyone as now their phone number just hangs up if there’s no one immediately to answer your call. I’ve sent portal messages, emails, texts and received no response.
The day that I moved out of that house was the happiest day of my life, I thought I was free from having to deal with Darwin ever again. Yet here I am. I am posting this here as this is the only place that Darwin seems to respond to. And I need someone to contact me and remove my information from that property ASAP.
Do not ever ever EVER rent from this company. They have a track record of buying homes for cheap with known plumbing and mold issues and renting them out to people in states that don’t have strict renter protections, luckily my city does. If you don’t believe me, just look up the Facebook group “Darwin Property Complaints.”
EDIT: I have now been denied my legal right under Missouri law to speak to my property manager multiple times and been hung up on by the supervisor 3 times.
