During my last year in graduate school, I rented an apartment at 1117 W. Huron (Huron Flats) from Cabrio Properties.
I have rented in Ann Arbor for eight years and have never had such a negative experience with a landlord or rental company. During our
time with them, Cabrio used every opportunity to extract money from us. We regularly received emails threatening us with excessive fines for everything from trash pick-up to lost keys to dead batteries int eh smoke alarms. None of these fines were mentioned in our contract or at our initial signing.
It's also clear to me that Cabrio uses tenant security deposits as a revenue source for routine maintenanceβa practice explicitly forbidden by Michigan and Ann Arbor statutes. I have rented many places in Ann Arbor and have never been charged a security deposit. We took excellent care of our apartment with Cabrio and they (predictably) responded with excessive charges. They charged us $75 to remove a water spot inside of our cabinet, $65 to remove an ink spot from a linoleum floor, and $250 to remove an ink spot from the carpet. We also received a vague $100 charge for "removal of trash/extra cleaning." As far as I can tell, the "extra cleaning" involved wiping off some streaks from the front of a kitchen cabinet.
When I called Cabrio on the phone for clarification, their representative tried to justify their charges and fines by claiming that were were the first people to occupy their apartment since its renovation. This was a flat-out untruth. When I called him on this misinformation, he fell back on a weak rationale that many of their tenants were first-time renters and needed close supervision. Not exactly the kind of attitude I like hearing from someone who I'm signing a contract with.
Please share my experience with prospective tenants.
I rented from fall 10 through winter 11.
...