Consumer complaint received 2022-08-25
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Communication tactics — You told them to stop contacting you, but they keep trying
Company: HW Holding, Inc (NY)

I signed a lease with XXXX XXXX around XX/XX/XXXX and they made me pay a bunch of monies. The payment amounts felt spurious and I was assured things will be sorted out when I move in. 

Due to a covid  exposure, I delayed my move in to adhere to CDC laws and they promised to prorate the amounts remaining to accomodate for the disjointed lease start date. I was supposed to move in on the XXXX of XXXX, XXXX, but ended up moving in on XX/XX/XXXX. Despite conversations about the issue, they tried to bill me again for the period I had not moved in. After a little back and forth, then claimed they had fixed the issue. I have attached a copy of that conversation. 

Then on XX/XX/XXXX, there was a billing attempt by XXXX, a rental insurance that XXXX recommended. I had my own renter 's insurance from XXXX at the time and had submitted same to XXXX, so I was perturbed that XXXX again tried to bill me. As much as Common pretended not to know what was going on, this communication from Sure proves otherwise : " Hi XXXX, This policy was purchased through Common and the policy number is XXXX. To begin the cancellation process on your renters coverage, give the following number a call XXXX and select Option XXXX, then Option XXXX. Please have your policy number ready when you call. A representative will be able to help you with the cancellation and refund of your policy.Best Regards, '' When I reached out to XXXX on the issue, they pretended not to know what was going on. I have attached a screenshot of the conversation with XXXX. 

Around XXXX of XXXX, due to billing opacities, I requested for my rent payment schedule, and up till this day, XXXX never sent that schedule. They first referred me to a non-existent page on their web portal, and after I insisted, they just started sending me random unverifiable screenshots. 

When they approached me to renew my lease with them, I declined and cited a plethora of issues with them, including the refusal to furnish me with the lease payment schedule, and other outright lies they kept telling me. Eg for so many months, the dishwasher in the apartment was broken, and despite repeated reports, they will promise to send maintenance to fix it, tell me and my then roommates that they have fixed it via emails and text messages, whereas they never did. On one of the the occasions, when they sent one of such texts, I and another roommate went downstairs to check and sure enough, they were lying as the dishwasher was still not fixed. It was not fixed till I moved out of the apartment. 

I endured XXXX abuse by another housemate while at their property, told them about it, and they did nothing to prevent the situation from reoccurring. 

When I moved out on XX/XX/XXXX, few days prior to my lease end date of XX/XX/XXXX, I notified them. Up till that time, ALL payments for rent were processed automatically, and never was any payment processing returned as I made sure there was always more than enough in the accounts they had access to via auto payments. These payments ALWAYS occurred on or before the first of the month. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, after the end of my lease and after I had moved out, one of their partners, XXXX, who processed payments for them, tried to bill me. I notified them that I had moved out instead of renewing the lease, and that they should update their records to reflect that and prevent further billings. They told me it might take 1 - 2 weeks for the property to process my move out with XXXX. Then on XX/XX/XXXX, a clear one month and XXXX weeks after I had moved out, XXXX billed me again. It was at this point that I was XXXX and told XXXX I might seek legal reprieve at that point. Few days later, XXXX informed me that the property has processed my move out, more than a month and half after I moved out. 

Shortly afterwards, XXXX started harassing me with phone calls and emails, claiming I owe them. They did not provide any failed billing attempt prior to my move out as they always processed their payments on or before the first of each month. They still had authorization to bill my accounts up till a month after I moved out. All bills they sent to me and processed went through. When I raised these issues with them, they responded with more phone calls and emails without any explanations. I repeatedly asked them to sent me the payment schedule for the lease like I had asked them in XXXX of XXXX while I was at their property, they never sent it. Nothing to show the amount they claimed I owed is indeed owed viz a viz payments made and what is outstanding via an account statement and or payment schedule despite me repeatedly requesting for those. When they kept ignoring sending me the requested information, and going by their prior spurious unauthorized billing attempts, I told them to stop calling me if they will not send the requested billing and payments reconciliation documents. They did not stop calling me. I had to infact resort to blocking their numbers as they were calling at odd hours of the night and very early in the morning in addition to numerous afternoon calls. 

As I was reviewing my annual credit report, I noticed a collection item placed on my XXXX report referencing " XXXX '' for the same amount XXXX XXXX were harassing me for but never proved the debt, and in fact avoided proving the debt. " XXXX '' was the name of the property, but the company was XXXX XXXX. 

I would have given more details on how they made the property so unsafe for residents at some point by refusing to fix the building entrance door which resulted in so much package theft, and they kept lying about fixing the door and even lied to cops about the situation when residents now started filing police reports.