Featured Reports

Virginia Beach Slumlords: Virginia and Dan Crate (641)

My brother and his family rented 545 Seeman Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23452 from Virginia and Dan Crate for 5+ years. My brother had serious desire to buy the home, but after much consideration, he chose a home closer to where his work will soon relocate to. What strengthened my brother’s change of mind was the lack of trust, integrity and witnessed deception of the landlords to resolve major issues over a 5+yr period.

1. On multiple occasions the family expressed concern of SIGNIFICANT black mold that increasingly impacted the children and parents’ health. To this day (6 days before formally vacating) nothing was done. NOTHING except the family using an industrial fan (below the front master bedroom) to ventilate the stinch of 1+ foot water and loads of black mold covering the crawl space.

2. It took the a/c system breaking after 4 years of complaints to the landlords of $1000+/mo electric bills for them to actually replace the system. They replaced the broken system but refused to replace the duct work that STILL partially ventilates the outdoors! The electric bills have averaged $500/mo since the replaced system. That is STILL an outrageous bill for 3300sq ft. living space!

3.Under a Lease/Purchase agreement stating my brother’s responsibility to repair/replace broken appliances, my brother replaced (and upgraded) the dishwasher AND stove/range when both broke at different times. Now that the landlords are enraged my brother purchased a home elsewhere, they expect him to PAY for new appliances claiming he didn’t have the right to replace these items and the items he DID replace do not match. Hmm...replaced older, broken black/white appliances with a black electric paneled, flat top stove & dishwasher that coincidently match the black microwave. The only thing that didn’t match was the white fridge.

4. Numerous times, the family complained of electrical issues throughout the home AND the smell of fish oil at the main electrical box. The family couldn’t use all 4 burners on the stove w/o the circuit breaker popping. It was impossible to blow dry hair in the front bathroom with the family room lights on. The circuit breaker consistently popped.

At NO TIME would these landlords do ANYTHING to resolve this very serious matter either. There ARE other issues the family faced while renting from these slumlords, but the most pertinent are posted here.

When my brother gave formal notification of vacating the property on 1/15/12, these people retaliated with an email full of severe malice and intent to destroy my brother’s career and that they intend to take him to court for every little thing they can.  All of this over my brother’s final decision to not purchase this home. These slumlords expect timely payments (which was done consistently over 5+ years *with proof* excluding 1 month) yet they continually neglected very serious issues that affected the medical and physical safety of my brother’s family and belongings.

Seriously, how can a buyer trust these home owners to safely repair these issues prior to a home sale after witnessing first hand their lack of care to the property, lack of care for your family’s health and safety and their lack of ethics handling these very issues at hand. What’s worse is the fact that the husband IS a General Contractor so he can get away with fixing these issues w/the least quality-grade items to barely pass a home inspection. He’s a GC and couldn’t even fix these very serious issues! Five years of this nonsense just to now deal with these arrogant people in a courtroom.

Virginia (Jenny) and Dan Crate can NOT be trusted to do what they promise. They are most certainly slumlords with pure malice if they do not get their way...even if their way seriously harms another life. Renters and buyers beware.

Bad Tenant (640)

Shirley nichol;s is a dead beat tenant. She will rent a space as if she is alone and then she will move in all her kids and grandchildren who by the way are all teakers and just out of prison. Then the rent will start being late.

Deadbeat David and Stephanie Jackson (639)

If you rent from these people, do not expect the house you rent to be fixed, nor should you expect your deposit back!

They have cheated us out of almost $6000.

We rented property from David and Stephanie Jackson at Wald Str 21, Katzenbach, 66882 (Germany) from 1 April 2009 to 31 December 2011. During this time Mr. and Mrs. Jackson resided in the United States.

During our time at Wald Str, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson arranged for one home visit, but did not come at all.

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have been notified about numerous problems with the property, including but not limited to: the driveway wall collapsing, the steam shower not working, and problems with the large whirlpool tub. It has been our experience that Mr. and Mrs. Jackson do not respond promptly to tenant communications, usually citing time or email problems. When problems arise, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson will usually either try to get the tenant to arrange for repair, or promise repair but never follow up with said repair. Getting the tenant to arrange for repair is not the actions of a responsible landlord, as the tenant should not have the burden of making these arrangements; this is solely a responsibility of the landlord, the one who owns the property and gets the benefits of ownership.

After terminating our contract, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have attempted to make us responsible for numerous “missing” items they claim are absent, such as sandstone rocks and phones. When we moved into the property, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson did not provide us with an inventory sheet on any accountable items, nor are any items listed on the rental contract. If Mr. and Mrs. Jackson wish for tenants to be responsible for non-household items, they need to provide a list of said items at the time of move-in. Mr. Jackson was informed of the location of the stones he claims are missingand provided a picture of said stones, but still hold us responsible for them.

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, as stated above, have made numerous promises to fix problems with their property, but have not followed through with their promises. They are currently attempting to hold us responsible for their failure. As a property holder, it is their duty to repair their property promptly and efficiently, something that they have neglected to carry out time and again. Any future tenant needs to be aware that they need to document efforts to get Mr. and Mrs. Jackson to fulfill their responsibility as landlords, in order to get property problems fixed and to protect themselves. We are currently seeking legal recourse in order to protect ourselves.

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, as landlords, do not comply with German (Host nation) law. Specifically they are holding us responsible for decorative repairs to the wallpaper and rugs. In accordance with German law (§ 28 para. 4 II BV) landlords are required to perform these decorative repairs every 3 years for kitchens and bathroom and every 5-7 years for other rooms. When we moved in, the rugs and wallpaper were old and this was annotated on our check in inspection. Now that we have left, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are holding us responsible for making these repairs, even though this is their responsibility by law.

Overall our time at this residence and our experience with Mr. and Mrs. Jackson has been an unpleasant time. Dealing with and communicating with Mr. and Mrs. Jackson is poor at best and at times their communication with us has been rude and insulting. Now that we have terminated our contract, we have found them to be very unscrupulous and are trying to take advantage of their position as landlords. I would advise any future tenant to learn their rights immediately by contacting the base legal office or a host nation attorney.

Jennifer Puleo (638)

BEWARE!!! JENNIFER PULEO & JOSEPH BARCLAY will seem like very nice people when they come to rent your apartment. But within months they will stop paying rent, avoid you, and will try anything not to get evicted. They will even call the utility companies and fire department. After you get them evicted, they either take off (if your lucky) or destroy your property. You should NOT trust them!!!! You can go to the civil court house and see all the petitions against them, its free information.