I will try to make this as short as possible!
My husband and I had an incident last Friday. As I said in my earlier post, we pay our rent on a weekly basis. Our rent is due on Thursdays. Every day that it is late, there is a $15 late fee.
There have been times in the past 3 years that we have been late on our rent, but we have never been late more than 3 days, and we have always paid our rent in full plus all applicable late fees.
Last Friday, a new assistant manager showed up at my door and when I went to answer it he told me he was there to lock us out. I was home alone with my son (hubby was working) and needless to say, quite shocked, as we had already made arrangements with the actual property manager to pay that day at 8 PM. I informed him that I would have to contact my husband. The AM stuck his foot in my door and refused to let me shut the door, even after I informed him that I did not want my 2 year old son or my 2 cats to run outside and get hurt. I spent the next 15 mintues on the phone calling my hubby, dad, mom etc - trying to get ahold of anyone who could help me. The AM began banging on my door again (with his foot still holding my door open) and when I went to the door he told me that I was being "very rude and disrespectful for making him wait outside in the heat and humidity." He then told me that my son and I could wait outside until we got a hold of someone. I told him that I still needed to get in contact with my husband. I asked the AM if I could speak with the manager, and he refused. At that point, he told me that he could "be the bad guy and MAKE me and my son wait in the office."
At this point, I was literally afraid for my and my son's safety as the AM being extremely hostile. I told him that the only way I was leaving my room without my husband there was if someone physically removed me and my son - and if that was the case that would be assault. As soon as I said that, he backed off, immedieatly removed his foot from my door and walked away saying "you want to play games like that, I will play games." I also asked the AM for some identification, as he was brand new, and I had never seen him on the property before. He told me he didn't have to provide me with any type of identification, and that all he had to do was say he was the assistant manager.
Fast forward to 2 hours when my husband finally gets home. He goes up to the office to pay rent, and the AM REFUSED to take our money. He told my husband that unless I "apologized to him for being rude" that he would evict us on Sunday at noon. He also informed my husband that b/c my license that Budget Suites had on file was invalid, that they could call the police, have the police physically remove me from the property, and then search our room. This caused my husband A LOT of emotional distress.
An hour or so later, my husband, myself, and a witness went up to the office to talk with the AM. I handed him my valid drivers license, and asked for a copy of the documentation that Budget Suites sent to me requesting a copy of my license. He then said "well I can give you a copy of the rules." I told him that I had a copy of the rules, which I signed back in 2007 when we moved in, and that my license was valid at that time. I then said I was unaware that it was my responsiblity as a customer to keep track of Budget Suites files, as that's what I thought their employees were for. I again asked for a copy of the signed and dated documentation that Budget Suites sent to me requesting a copy of my valid license. At that point he said "well this isn't about your license" and completely changed the subject.
He wanted an apology or he was going to evict my family. My exact words were " I informed you that I needed to get in contact with my husband. I did not say how long that would take, and you did not inform me that you were going to be waiting inside my door way the entire time. You were more than welcome to leave at any point you wished." At that point, he stood up and said "I can see this is going where I wanted it to, so you will have until Sunday at noon to vacate your room." I asked for the manager's contact information, and he refused. I then asked for the area manager's contact information and he refused. Then, I asked for the property manager/owner's contact information (which I thought had to posted somewhere) and he refused to give me that as well.
I ended up having to track down my manager's wife through Facebook and send her an emergency message to have her husband contact me. He did, and he wasn't too happy about the situation. He cussed me out over the phone, and told me to apologize to the AM, pay my rent, and be done with everything. I ended up doing just that (except for the being done with everything part lol) b/c my family needs a roof over their head.
That was just the incident that happened on Friday. We (all the Budget Suites residents) are not allowed to complain. If we contact management to complain about bad service - they threaten to evict us. We have been told that we are not allowed to turn our room phones off, b/c it makes it more difficult for them to get ahold of us. We have also been told that if we see trash on the property (even if it's NOT ours) we HAVE to pick it up or else they will evict us. The managers regularly threaten and cuss at the residents here.
My main thing, is that if we would be considered tenants under Texas law, if they were trying to evict us, would they have to follow Texas eviction procedure? Could they have evicted us for me "not apologizing" to the AM - even though I did nothing wrong? They couldn't have evicted us for non payment of rent b/c they refused to take our money. Yes, I do realize that our rent was a day late when we went to pay it, but we have every receipt dating back 3 years from Budget Suites, and in that 3 years we have been late several times, and it was never a problem. Why now???
Sorry for the looong novel of a post!! This has been a very stressful and emotional situation for my family!
