Chet Judd - RPM Rincon Tucson Review - Real Property Management

After a few years now, Mr. Chet Judd still refuses to remove us from collections, and fraudulently keep our  entire rental deposit.

Instead of making good, he has opted to hire a reputation management company (I believe) to write reviews (many fake if not all) on his Google Plus profile and yellow page listings.

Here are links to some of the reviews that illustrate a pattern of fraud:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/real-property-mangement-rincon-tucson
http://rinconrealty.blogspot.com/2013/08/rpm-rincon-tucson-real-property.html
https://plus.google.com/105606215009919709233/about?gl=US&hl=en-US

Mr. Judd insists on continuing fraudulent business practices and some have claimed his company has rented out homes that were not only unclean (like ours) but unsafe as well.  Our hope is that Mr. Judd and his company will be brought to justice.  If you have been ripped off or otherwise damaged by RPM Rincon (Chet Judd), post a message here and we'll put you on the list.

Blue Fox Properties LLC and GM Debbie Hightower - Bad Business Practices on the Horizon?

Actually, the bad practices appear to have already arrived based on recent reviews.

A property management company, Blue Fox Properties LLC, was formed in 2009.  Within the last couple of years, a new General Manager was named there - Debbie Hightower.  Hightower was formerly employed by RPM Rincon and under her hospices piled up a substantial number of complaints from tenants and property owners alike that are documented in other sections of this blog, other complaint forums, and Google reviews.

To learn more about Hightower's business practices at RPM Rincon, you can learn more from these links:

http://rinconrealty.blogspot.com/2013/08/rpm-rincon-tucson-real-property.html
https://plus.google.com/110756740835308520096/about
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/15250820369/judd-chet--rincon-realty--investment-co-tucson

Apparently one tenant was so agitated by Hightower's actions that they mistakenly sued her personally rather than the appropriate party, RPM Rincon:

http://www.jp.pima.gov/casesearch/CaseSearch.aspx?casenumber=CV11510616&case_type=civil

Recent reviews of Blue Fox Properties LLC starting in November of 2011 are carrying the same tone as the RPM Rincon complaints.

http://www.yellowpages.com/tucson-az/mip/blue-fox-properties-450834784

Property owners and prospective tenants of Blue Fox Properties LLC may want to consider the actions, reviews, and former business practices of Debbie Hightower prior to engaging them in a management or lease contract.  If you've been damaged by Blue Fox Properties in Tucson, post your complaint here or on any number of complaint forums to forewarn other unwitting tenants and property owners.

RPM Rincon Tucson (Real Property Management) has moved

This company recently moved from a location in Tucson on Campbell.  Debbie Hightower and company are infamous for fraudulent dealings with tenants.  We are not alone.  Here is the new location on Tanque Verde:

https://plus.google.com/110756740835308520096

Here is our experience with Debbie Hightower and RPM Rincon:

They fabricated costs with regard to cleaning even after professional cleaning was performed upon vacating the property (home rental in Tucson AZ).  In our case, $1400 in fabricated costs were created.  When we disputed these fabrications with photos and invoices paid to cleaning companies, Ms. Hightower arbitrarily inflated the fabricated costs to $1800 - when you lie, why not lie bigger?  Then, when we refused to pay, they put us in collections and forced us to retain legal counsel to fight the matter.  

The fact is, we found the home we rented (coming from out of state) in a less than clean condition.  We left it cleaner than we found it.  They stole our deposit and then billed us for carpet and paint replacement (it was well used when we found it) so they could essentially repaint and re-carpet the home on our dime.  They have a long list of reviews on their old listing at their old location.  All of the positive reviews are written by agents or employees of the company.  Here is the old location and listing on Google:

https://plus.google.com/105563837723591363480/about?gl=US&hl=en-US

Without exception, every review written by real tenants tells a similar story about people who continually deal unfairly and illegally with tenants.  Their shills currently have buried the description of their true business practices.  If you are one of the many how have been burned by this "business", then take the 5 minutes to post your review here or better yet, on their Google plus link at the new location (above).

RPM Rincon Property Management Tenant Concerns

For now, the title of this blog includes the keywords "Tenant Concerns". Based on RPM's actions moving forward, we'll change the content of the blog to match their chosen business practices.

As tenants of this company, we have witnessed some red flags. They are currently significantly past due on evaluating/negotiating our deposit and we may have been duped into overpaying our last months rent.

Here are some other reports about this company on Google that is also cause for concern:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?q=rpm+rincon+tucson&hl=en&cid=15110350981124653869

Note the 5 star reviews appear to likely be shills for the company.

We are sending the following correspondence to them today, July 18th, and for the purposes of consumer protection, we will publish their response to our demand to return a prorated rent refund and at least 60% of our deposit. Here is the letter we sent to them today that explains our experience with them and cause for concern.

Real Property Management, Rincon
4703 N 1st Ave
Tucson, AZ 85718
Dear Maria ***** (anonymous for the moment):

RE: Termination of Lease and monies (deposit and prorated rent) to be returned.

As was agreed on May 18th, the property located at 7350 E Placita Sacra, was vacated and professionally cleaned (receipt available) on June 17th (cleaner than what appears in the photos when we began occupying the residence) with the keys returned on that same day. We paid rent for the entire month of June, although we were verbally promised a prorated refund for the remaining 13 days of June. In addition, we were promised multiple times that an inspection would be completed that would precipitate an evaluation of the return of a portion of our deposit within 2 weeks. To date, we have neither received compensation, nor any information of any kind.

After speaking with a representative at RPM in early May, we presented the issue of providing notice in the middle of May for a mid-June move. We asked about the terms of the lease that only referred to a 30 day clause for lease termination. We were assured by your representative that if we paid the full month’s rent in June, and moved in the middle of the month, we would receive a prorated refund for the overpaid rent.

We spoke with Joanna ***** on June 30th and she contradicted the representative we spoke with in May. She said that RPM does not issue prorated rent refunds in these circumstances. If the lease allows for this, then we have yet to find that clause. We are aware of a 30 day notice clause and 30 days notice was provided on May17th, and the keys were delivered to your offices on June 17th. If we were mistaken about the 30 day clause and we were told that we would have been required to move out by May 31st to avoid the overpayment of rent, then we would have made those moving arrangements. If we were given the incorrect information when we confirmed the mid month moving arrangement, then we will assume it was an honest mistake by RPM and accept the appropriate prorated rent refund. Please compensate immediately as we have waited over half of the month to receive it.

There is one issue with the property that should be addressed with a portion of our overpaid rent. One of the internal bedroom doors requires replacement. We received several quotes for this work and the highest of them was $175 (including installation). We would expect this amount (or less) to be deducted from what is owed to us.
We have requested the return of our deposit multiple times over the phone and we were assured that we would have a response within 2 weeks (giving time for the inspection, etc). It is now July 18th and we have yet to receive the prorated rent or the deposit or a notification of any kind.

We are concerned that perhaps this delay is an intentional attempt to take advantage of a law that gives RPM the right to keep our deposit after 20 days if formal notice is not received. Please accept this letter as not only formal notice for the return of the deposit, but also notice that we are prepared to formalize our approach to this matter.

Although we expect this matter to be resolved informally, we are concerned that your company’s business practice’s serve to mislead tenants at best and defraud them at worst. As a service to those who might to business with your firm, we are publishing this correspondence and your response to it at the following well tagged, titled and optimized blog: We expect an immediate response and resolution.

We will now optimize the blog to be a lighting rod for any other problems that tenants encounter with RPM Rincon and report those actions so that other unwitting tenants might be aware what may lie ahead. If their response is fair, we will report that as well.