Difficult Homeowner
Review Submitted: August 23, 2008
Date of Stay: August 2008
The house is well appointed, but difficult to maintain: blond carpets in living rm, dining rm.; wall to wall carpeting in tiny, cramped kitchen; top portion of the dishwasher non-operating; plumber brought in during mid week (instead of after we were gone) to fix problem toilet, presumably to save money on plumbing bill. Be sure to do a walk through with homeowner at the end of your stay. I waited 1/2 hr. for her to show up to do a walk through together on Sat., our last day. She said we didn't need to do this, and we left. We later found out that homeowner has kept 3/4 of our security deposit, insisting that extra clean up was needed after we left. Yet, we completed every task on homeowners posted list of renters responsibilities: we left the property "broom swept" and vacuumed, with bathrooms scrubbed and kitchen cleaned, outside swept, and grill wiped down and even trash hauled to the local dump. This work was deemed not thorough enough. She charged us a total of 14 hours of clean up after we left: (she brought in a team of 4 people and charged us an hourly rate for each person working). An example of how we were charged for some of this clean up: we only grilled three times, yet homeowner insisted grill needed to be taken apart and given a 2 hour thorough cleaning.
Owner's Response: It is unfortunate to see the poor write-up received from grpmom in Napa, CA. We take pride in maintaining our property and take pride in keeping it clean. Most of our guests that stay with us GREATLY appreciate this fact as well, and many have come back specifically because we keep this home as neat as we keep our own. We think it is fair to ask our guests to care for the property while they are there. Grpmom's group did not care for our property.
Some specific examples:
1. The kitchen refrigerator (16 months old) was full of frost in the freezer and the drain pan was full of water which had leaked all over the carpet on the kitchen floor, this seemed to have been the case for a few days as the seeping wetness had covered quite an area. At first we were very concerned that the refrigerator had broken, we called in an appliance repair person who stated the refrigerator was fine that the door to the freezer was not being closed and caused the problem (cost to us $70.00). Entire fridge had to be unplugged, thawed and cleaned - draws and shelves had not been cleaned.
2. The downstairs bathroom was not cleaned. Including the need to vacuum, wipe down sink and tub area, the bathroom cabinet now held a small bowl with cigarette ashes. The contract specifically states there is to be NO SMOKING in the house.
3. Checking dishes in the cupboards it was noted that a glass had chocolate finger prints - this necessitated emptying four shelves with glasses and dishes to find several other dishes and glasses put away dirty. Dishes and glasses were cleaned and re-shelved.
The mid-week toilet repair was planned with their consent. The tank was sweating and needed a valve to reduce the moisture condensing around the tank and dripping on the carpeted floor. We accompanied the plumber to the house and remained with him for 20 minutes until the situation was corrected. To let the toilet continue to drip and create a "mold" issue.
This group requested to return the week of August 5, 2009 as their son was to be married and they wanted to reserve the house for that week. If we had agreed to the reservation this discussion/complaint would not be taking place. We however stated that we would not consider re-renting the house due to the condition it was left in at the end of the rental period. The refund that was allotted was generous for all the time, effort and money that the rental resulted in costing us.
*unable to list all cleaning charges.
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Helpful votes: 9/23
