Business ProfileforMatchbox Realty & Management Services, Inc.

WARNING: MONEY GRAB MONTHS AFTER LEASE ENDS! Duke parent X 3 had terrible experience 2-3 months after move-out two years in row (VA law requires claims to be revealed in 30 days to protect tenants). Son spent days cleaning his apartment afterwards and took photos. Several months after new tenants moved in, they charged all former tenants $744 X 23 = $17, 112 on top of the security deposit of $11,500 (estimates) for fabricated charges such as carpet cleaning when there was no carpeting, or oiling the butcher block and basic maintenance like fire alarm batteries, and light bulbs. We also paid for a fabricated maid; place has never seen professional cleaning as we were given the place in a dirty and extremely inferior condition. Expected to lose security deposit because there was some clean-up and damage but not $28,500 worth. Also, unlawful to charge tenant for damage that occurs on another tenant's lease which is common practice for Matchbox. Consulted with 2 attorneys who said this was some of the worst slum lord behavior they had seen. Only course of action is small claims court. Try not to rent from them. Lots of ethical rental companies, but not this one. If you rent from them, be present for the final inspection of property so they cannot fabricate charges.

Ms. **********, we absolutely disagree with your comments about the condition of the home at move in. While there were charges that were excessive, it was completely due to the condition the home was left in at move out. Upon move in, the entire house, including ceilings, had been painted. The entire house had been cleaned by professional maids. The entire house had been visited by maintenance to fix pressing issues that were noted during the inspection. Carpets were cleaned, vinyl was deep cleaned and wood floors were scrubbed with a professional scrubbing machine. During your son's tenancy, with his fraternity, there was thousands of dollars in damage. You mention that there were erroneous charges with carpet cleaning, butcher block oiling, smoke alarm batteries, etc? I would like to see where you have confirmed this to be erroneous. Your security deposit disposition states carpet cleaning but this is a bulk request for any kind of floor cleaning: deep cleaning of linoleum and hardwood floors are included in this. All apartments at the Gingerbread have carpet except for one unit. EVERY apartment has linoleum and/or hardwood that had to be cleaned due to the condition it was left in. For the Oiling of Butcher Block-- this was specific to unit 5 on the island in the kitchen. Again, just because other units don't have it does not mean that there aren't differences between units that cause different services to be needed. Light bulbs, smoke alarm batteries.... these are a requirement of the Lease. If they are missing, burned out, not working, or different temperature bulbs- they are replaced at the Tenant's cost. Fabricated maid? I have the entire inspection for review that shows no cleanup by Tenants prior to move out. There are actually invoices for trash that total over $1,000 just to remove the trash so that we could get into the unit and start doing our inspection. The new tenants moving in had nothing to do with the charges that were placed on your son and the other roommates. Damage is damage and the owner is not responsible for this. I don't see a place for us to upload pictures of the damage to this review, so if it comes back to me, I will upload as many pictures as the BBB will allow me. The information you have stated about the condition at move in and what it looked like when your son moved out is false.