homes rented not as advertised
 

A friend of mine recently rented a home here in TV. It was a dump, no where near as advertised. The owner had posted what he said were comments from past renters, all glowingly acknowledging what a wonderful place he had and how it was missing nothing. Bed was a mattress on a box spring and with a dust cover in place of the bedspread, tv did not work, rusted appliances, all in pictures he advertised as being like new. Can my friend sue him for false advertising or at the least, bait and switch?

Anyone can sue anyone for anything...why not contact a lawyer?

....

It does sound like fraud. Go talk to the local police at one of the rec center stations and see what they think.

Civil matter, police will not get involved--sue them for "provable" damages

If it's true.
 

This is a forum with anonymity. Anyone can say anything. I am skeptical. Never in fourteen years have I heard anything even close. Rusted appliances? A TV that doesn't work? Sounds real fishy to me.

Agree Gracie, sounds more like he rented near The Villages but you never know. Maybe he'll post the address and what village it is in.

How long was the rental for? Did "your friend" call the person who rented it to him/her to complain? What did the owner say? If it is unlivable he should take lots of pictures, pack up and leave, look for another place then sue the owner in small claims court. As Judge Judy always says (paraphrased), "if you eat the steak you have to pay for it."

I cannot speak to this persons experience, I however can speak for my own. I have rented two privately owned properties in TV one in Virginia Trace and one in Hemingway. They were both exceptional properties. Sorry this persons experience was not equal to mine.

The crimes against seniors ad they show in the movie theaters does encourage folks to give the sheriffs a call if someone swindled them out of something. In this case, they would be a good place to go to see if they have a reasonable complaint.

I have a rental here in the villages. Many a guest has expressed they were so happy the house was better than the pictures, as they had experiences that weren’t good. So I guess it does happen that the pictures are misleading.

Loath to accuse anyone of telling Porkie Pies, but!

In 20+ years of renting in TV. we have never seen or heard of anything like that.
The worse thing we ever faced was a four foot ornamental, scrap metal chicken in the lounge, and wind chimes'
Both of which we dealt with PDQ.
Garage for one, and selotape for the second!

The home in question was on sebring street, village of Hadley, #1792 on villagers4rent.com, the owner was notified, man he sent to look at place said hanging drapes could not be fixed, door handle broken off could not be repaired, looked all over house for missing outdoor furniture without success, replaced RUSTY TOASTER and RUSTY COFFEE MAKER immediately without comment, said tv not working properly because of receiver, also noted that broken clock was in wrong place and said he had mentioned all to owner, said rental was misrepresented after being shown BED and pictures in ad. Renter contacted 4 other rentals without success. Being aged almost 90 and traveling for 3 days, they decided to stay. I have pictures and emails of EVERYTHING but do not know how to post them.Villagers4rent does not reply to complaints nor even have a mailing address. Also the a/c spewed water over the garage resulting in the renter being fearful of getting electrocuted from the standing water.

VH4R

https://www.villagershomes4rent.com/...lery/30311.jpg

https://www.villagershomes4rent.com/...lery/30310.jpg

We live on Sebring St. There is no #1792. The numbers on Sebring begin at 2321 and end at 2356. Nothing close to 1792. Nothing even close to 1792 within all of Keystone Villas. Something is not right here!

In my opinion,

Can they sue the owner? Yes.

Is it worth doing? No.

1792 is the property number on thevillagers4rent website.

How long did they stay? If they stayed for the entire time of the rental agreement I don’t think they have a legal recourse. By staying they accepted the conditions. Should have rented a hotel room long enough to rest up and make the 3 day trip home. Then they might have had a law suit. But instead they ate the steak and it was not good.

That's not the correct site name .....but close. Starts with villagershomes4rent

You just misread it. I'm thinking it may be 2340...... maybe. :ho:

The term 1792 is not the street address. It is a reference number by the web site.

1792 is the listing number on vh4r.com.

Scams
 

If you google air bnb scams, you will find that there are some scams similar to this one. The people don't own the actual house and do some last minute substitutions, etc. And the way air bnb and some others have questionable refund policies, there are scams out there and they are very difficult to identify ahead of time.

I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam Run by Fake Hosts on Airbnb - VICE

sportsguy

Where do you all think the photos of the kitchen and living room came from? I put the link to the website in my post, #17.

Here's the link again, you don't need to know the address, the listing number or the website, just use this link.

VH4R

We rented three times directly from Properties of The Villages. When we arrived in The Villages, we called someone from the red phone booth at the square (once we arrived in the middle of the night and still did the same). Someone from Properties of The Villages came to the square and personally escorted us to our rental. That person asked us to walk through the house and make sure everything was up to our expectations while he waited in the driveway. After our walkthrough and approval we signed a contract saying that we accepted the rental. We have had small issues of various things not working properly during our stay. We called the number that was provided to us and someone came and addressed the problem within a day. The Villages knows how you run a rental business!

Its to bad that someone would misrepresent their property, my advice is to deal with a broker, then when thing aren't right you may have some recourse.

Agreed. :thumbup:

It's also too bad, but all too common, that so many were so quick to jump on the OP...and all but call them a liar. :ohdear:

As a owner of a rental property here he has options. Did he go through a rental website? If so then contacting them will resolve the issue as his listing will be removed and refund will he issued. If it was directly through owner would assume there was some sort of contract involved regarding payment schedule, house rules, cancellation policy etc. There is usually language in those that protect renter if house does not provide items listed in advertising. I hope he can get resolved as hard to believe this type of scam could happen in an existing villages home.

Perhaps the OP can give us pictures of the inferior condition of this home. It certainly doesn't look like it is inferior. I don't know how appliances could rust? I can't think where they would rust. Maybe the dishwasher could have mold? But rust??? I see in the picture regular beds. Looks like a mattress and a box spring and a nice bedcover. Perhaps the bed wasn't made up. Were the linens to make it up provided?

Was the patio furniture found? It looks very nice in the pictures.

JohnW. Can you contact the OP and help him post pictures???

I agree, if the person renting the home is a senior, I would pursue that route. If not satisfied, then small claims court is the way to go, and it’s not hard to sue in small claims. I’m so sorry your friend had this bad experience. Most homeowners that rent seasonally are good, honest folks, but there are exceptions.

Rental
 

My friend got scammed also. Talked to seniors verses crime and they said she could take him to small claims court. If she won the case it would be up to her to collect the money. Hahahah. Good luck.Couldnt even get him to answer the phone. Best thing to do is rent through the villages or friend referrals. Good luck. PS she also lost her $500.00 deposit. She had the old crappy golf cart charging and it started on fire. She called the fire department which arrived right away not much damaged was done. How ever the home owner tried to sue her for fire damages.

There is a 1792 on sebring in TV.... type it in Google Maps it'll take you right to it

Listing number
 

1792 appears to be the listing number assigned by villagershomes4rent.com and not the property address. It’s a courtyard villa. However, I have a rental in Collier and some of my renters have said others they stayed in were dirty and gross, so I believe her.

The post said 1782 was the listing # not the street address.

Rental
 

OP, Hindsight is “20/20” but if I was renting and had a good friend here in TV, I would ask them to “check it out” prior to making a commitment on the property. As others have posted, 98% of all rentals in TV, that I’ve heard of, are like their listing and in excellent condition. This is definitely an exception and not the rule.

I do not believe that the property number is the address. Just a random number assigned to property.

It does. And it also says 2328 on the light post when you look closer. :ho:

Here it is again, the link to the listing, no numbers required, just click with your mouse.

VH4R

https://www.villagershomes4rent.com/...lery/30306.jpg

We really need the current pictures to further access the situation.

Living in a major city, I have learned that videotaping EVERYTHING is my friend. If I even walk my dog around the block, I have my phone video rolling. If uneventful, I delete it after the walk. I would say this would be helpful in the villages. I would have videotaped the guy that came to repair the place. If someone even rings my doorbell. I have video running when I answer, IF I answer.

Ohiobuckeye
 

Sound like to me they got scammed!