03/09/2017
To whom it may concern,
Our names are Nichole & Shaun Erickson. We are former residents of Parkview Apartments, specifically 2521 N 9th St. Apt 302, Lincoln Ne 68521. Parkview Apartments is managed by Axiom Property Management, and at the time of our leaving, Managed on site by Jordan Ty Hayden.
We moved into our apartment approximately November of 2013 (Do not recall specifically). The manager at that time was Pam Woods. During the next year or so we had absolutely no issues with our lease, paperwork, payments, or anything related to Axiom Property management. Only the topography caused us issues. There is a stream, which separates the “Guest Lot” from the Main parking lot at Parkview’s complex, and as it happens, the entire area is a floodplain with a very high risk of flash flooding. We had just bought a new car in September of 2014, and before we’d even made the first payment, on 10/01/2014, a flash flood totalled our new car. It is written into the lease that “acts of god” outside the actual building are not covered under any sort of liability, and therefore isn’t Axiom/Parkview’s problem. As we were insured, we were able to purchase another vehicle and continue on with our lives. To my knowledge, thus far there remains no signs warning of the risk of flood in the area. My page for Parkview includes pictures and video of flooding, as well as a link to a flood risk map.
As a resilient young couple, we forgave the unfortunate nature of this experience, and remained in our apartment, ultimately signing our second lease-although wiser and more on top of moving our new car away from danger during rainstorms.
A few months later, Pam the apartment manager was suddenly fired. I later learned (directly from speaking with her) that she was let go because Axiom had found out she’d applied elsewhere. So for the next 4-6 months, there was either a different manager, or none at all. During that transitional period, our second lease had “expired” or hit the year mark. As there was no manager to contact, nor any communication from Axiom, we continued to to drop our rent check in the box each month while figuring that eventually somebody would contact us.
And contact us he did. One day we came home to find a “three day notice to quit” on our door. Having never missed a rent payment in my life, I’d never seen one before, and honestly had no idea what it was at first. As it turns out, this was our introduction to our new Apartment Manager Jordan Ty Hayden. The very frightening eviction looking paperwork was for a delinquency of $5.00, for an agreement we were never aware of. I do not recall exactly what the $5.00 was supposedly for. But it was a rather irrelevant amount, and one we would never choose to cause problems over. We paid the $5.00 and signed a new lease with our new apartment manager. This was about September of 2015.
For the next few months, the Ericksons remained the quiet, reserved couple we tend to be. My Wife and I have two cats Spooky and Grimm (pets being one of the things that drew us to Parkview) and a modest collection of Books-about 1,900 at last count. We keep to ourselves, and only tend to venture out for work, or meeting friends for dinner or coffee. There was never a party, or any kind of gathering in our apartment.
The first major problem happened in December of 2015. Two days after Christmas, somebody using a cloned version of Nichole’s debit card drained our checking account at a Wal-mart in Florida. We had already written and dropped off the rent check for January of 2016. Once it was known that our rent check may have an issue we immediately contacted Jordan, to request he hold off on depositing the check, as USAA was going to require a couple days to refund our money under the insurance provided on our accounts.
His response was more or less, ‘too bad’. I will find and attach a copy of the email communication regarding this check issue. We even tried to appeal directly to Axiom as we couldn’t believe that the whole company would be so cold, surely it was only Jordan. The response was no different. So we paid our rent, plus a returned check fee for the check we asked not be cashed, plus a late fee ($75.00) for the rent that was a few days late. We weren’t exactly thrilled at this turn of events. It was becoming apparent that there would be no consideration to any situation we might experience, beyond our control or not.
Thus began more or less a downhill slide in our satisfaction with Axiom/Parkview. I do not recall a pleasant interaction with Jordan, or a day we didn’t walk down the hallway wondering if we were going to have some sort of note (usually that 3 day notice to quit)
After the issue in January of 2016, came the really big issue on 04/27/2016. We woke one rainy morning to find that the roof in our living room was starting to leak. Nothing catastrophic at first, but any leak is concerning. Pictures at this point can be found on the Parkview Truth page. We immediately contacted Axiom/Jordan through the emergency maintenance number. We both missed a day of work in order to both assure the proper reporting of the problem, and ensure that our growing book collection would be safe. There were about 400 books under the immediate area of the leak, not counting the furniture that was dripped on. We were assured that whatever the roof’s problem, it would be fixed quickly and effectively. This was not the case. At first we were told that it was simply a shingle that had blown off in the storm. And later on the maintenance man and Jordan stopped bothering with theories and simply said that a professional roof company was coming to evaluate it. Well, as the saying goes “April showers bring May Flowers”...but for us April showers brought more leaks and pieces of the Ceiling falling in May. Maintenance and repair continued to elude us, all the while with the excuse “all of the roof companies are backed up”.
Through USAA (I’m an Army Veteran), we have our checking accounts, Car insurance, and Renter’s insurance. But as you now know, USAA had already paid out the previous year for a totalled car. And while our book collection was and is covered, many like our autographed copy of “I am Spock” by Leonard Nimoy, would be more or less impossible to replace. So our civil, but strained communications with Jordan kept up, with the simple goal of repair, and ultimately retreat back into our quiet lifestyle.
That retreat was not to be. After numerous contacts for something more solid than “we’re working on it”, and after a letter in July of 2016 stating that our lease was expiring soon (September 30th 2016), we received a letter on 08/04/2016 stating that Axiom/Jordan will not be willing to renew our lease.
I want to make something very clear, even up to the point of that letter, and after all Jordan had put us through, and the fact that nearly 4 months after our roof started leaking...I still did not want to move. Moving nearly 2,000 books, Two Cats, and all of our other possessions while working full time and at the time with only one car, sounded like a nightmare. The devil you know and all that, I still suffered under the delusion that we could have made it work. I look back and see that fortunately, the decision was not mine to make. (Nichole was more than ready to move)
We were very lucky to find the house we have now. Landlords have an aversion to Cats it seems, no matter how clean one promises to be. Rent had already been paid for August 2016, though with the growing danger from above, it rather shouldn’t have been. We did not pay rent for September of 2016, instead using it to facilitate our hasty move. August/September isn’t a fun time to move in the City of Lincoln, as the college and it’s students compete for rentals, and having a couple pets doesn’t exactly place you at the top of the list. As well as the fact that many places request an outrageous deposit, the highest I recall was $350.00 per Cat. We’re not overly wealthy, moving was difficult and taxing.
But we were free, and things could only look up. We knew that Jordan’s love of paperwork wasn’t sated, and that he’d likely send us a bill for the final month’s rent, as well as some cleaning we didn’t do on the way out. Cleaning was fair, and expected, we didn’t have the time or the desire, and had no hope of our security deposit being returned anyway.
What was not expected, and quite frankly the coup de grâce, was the bill we received for over $1,500.00. $1,300.00 of which was cited as “Insufficient Notice”. Per our lease, they require a 60 day written notice that we’re moving out, lest we suffer this fee. No mention of any relief should this situation be of their own creation!
I am, by trade, a Bill Collector. And, not unexpectedly, very well versed in collection laws in the state of Nebraska, as well as FDCPA or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Regulations. In my professional opinion, the balance is laughable, and were it seen in court, would take no effort to have thrown out. I will remain civil, and hope that for everybody’s sake it doesn’t progress that far. So far they’ve presented an extremely weak case as to why we should pay them a penny more than we already have. And I’ve promised to Axiom, Jordan, and Rent Recovery Solutions that they’ll not receive any payment from me. I have even gone so far as to send Rent Recovery Solutions a bill, for undue rent, and mental/physical anguish due to this situation. Though in all fairness I’d consider it settled at simply updating my balance to Zero. They’ve failed to respond to my Dispute letter, or address any grievances I’ve had with the collections process. Axiom Property Management and Rent Recovery Solutions have earned themselves Better Business Bureau and FTC Complaints. I have also started a Public page with the hope that those with experience may network and share their own stories, and that those without experience may be warned.
I lack the creativity to come up with a worse way for our experience with Jordan Ty Hayden to play out, but at the same time recognize the positives we now enjoy while living in a house, and not an apartment.
