I had applied to one of their managed properties and got denied. When I asked why, the on-site property manager (who told me she had only been working there less than a week) said that she didn't know, but everything would be laid out in a letter I would receive from the screening department. They canceled my boyfriend's application because he had applied with me (first red flag). So I waited for the letter. Surprise! It laid out NOTHING. All it said was that I had been denied due to a negative rental history. I thought this was very strange because I had talked personally with my previous rental managers and th...
I had applied to one of their managed properties and got denied. When I asked why, the on-site property manager (who told me she had only been working there less than a week) said that she didn't know, but everything would be laid out in a letter I would receive from the screening department. They canceled my boyfriend's application because he had applied with me (first red flag). So I waited for the letter. Surprise! It laid out NOTHING. All it said was that I had been denied due to a negative rental history. I thought this was very strange because I had talked personally with my previous rental managers and they had nothing bad to say. The letter had no phone number or means of contact other than the address to this rental company (second red flag). I called the on-site property manager to see what I could do to fix this error and she said that I had to submit a claim in writing to have the screening department re-evaluate. I googled Summit's phone number and first talked to a man who said he would forward me to the screening department. After being on hold for 1-2 minutes, there was a pause as if someone had picked up the phone and then I got a dial tone (red flag number three). So I called right back and got a lady who was rude and dismissive, who told me that she couldn't tell me who said or what was said that led to my denial and that she would not forward me to the screening department because they couldn't tell me that information either - I should just write a letter and they'd re-evaluate. So I asked her how I was supposed to make an effective claim that a mistake had been made if I didn't even know what I was refuting? That seemed to catch her off-guard and she ended up forwarding me to the regional manager of blah blah blah, which went straight to voicemail. I left a message in the early afternoon. Around the same time the next day I got a call back from this regional manager lady and she was just as rude and dismissive as the first lady! She told me what had been said, but not who said it (because I may retaliate against them?). I asked her how I could go about remediating the situation, and she told me flat out (I kid you not) that I would never be able to apply to any of their properties EVER, because even if I could prove it was a mistake, it would look too "suspicious" if the " if the property that had given the negative rental reference recanted their statement (as if I had coereced them?). them?). This was red flag frickin' four. At this point, I was so upset, thinking I'd never be approved for another apartment because of this mistake. I ended up calling the manager of the place I'm at now because I had deduced the reference came from her, and I wanted to see what had happened since she had told me nothing bad had been reported. Come to find out, she had checked three boxes: ONE noise complaint, and another for ONE car complaint (we were in an accident and parked our busted car in the property lot). And we paid rent late ONCE. For the whole year. Needless to say, these are not reasons why a person with an otherwise impeccable rental history would be denied. My current manager continued to tell me that Summit properties have a reputation for denying applications for certain reasons to hide their true intentions for denying tenants. She implied they intentionally make it difficult for applicants to go through the re-evaluate stage. Now, I don't know if a better-looking potential tenant came in behind us and applied for the same unit, or if maybe race was a factor (I'm black and my boyfriend is Mexican with a mexican-sounding last name), but whatever their true intentions were, it was the worst experience of my life and I will never EVER apply to any of their properties again, recommend their properties to anyone I know, or ever have a kind word to speak on their behalf.
Oct 19 2017