[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by bobbiw217@gmail.com

A friend of mine recently rented a home here in TV. It was a dump, no where near as advertised. The owner had posted what he said were comments from past renters, all glowingly acknowledging what a wonderful place he had and how it was missing nothing. Bed was a mattress on a box spring and with a dust cover in place of the bedspread, tv did not work, rusted appliances, all in pictures he advertised as being like new. Can my friend sue him for false advertising or at the least, bait and switch?

In my opinion,

Can they sue the owner? Yes.

Is it worth doing? No.

[Tom53]

1792 is the property number on thevillagers4rent website.

[Fredman]

How long did they stay? If they stayed for the entire time of the rental agreement I don’t think they have a legal recourse. By staying they accepted the conditions. Should have rented a hotel room long enough to rest up and make the 3 day trip home. Then they might have had a law suit. But instead they ate the steak and it was not good.

[CWGUY]

Originally Posted by bobbiw217@gmail.com

The home in question was on sebring street, village of Hadley, #1792 on villagers4rent.com, the owner was notified, man he sent to look at place said hanging drapes could not be fixed, door handle broken off could not be repaired, looked all over house for missing outdoor furniture without success, replaced RUSTY TOASTER and RUSTY COFFEE MAKER immediately without comment, said tv not working properly because of receiver, also noted that broken clock was in wrong place and said he had mentioned all to owner, said rental was misrepresented after being shown BED and pictures in ad. Renter contacted 4 other rentals without success. Being aged almost 90 and traveling for 3 days, they decided to stay. I have pictures and emails of EVERYTHING but do not know how to post them.Villagers4rent does not reply to complaints nor even have a mailing address. Also the a/c spewed water over the garage resulting in the renter being fearful of getting electrocuted from the standing water.

That's not the correct site name .....but close. Starts with villagershomes4rent

Originally Posted by pklein9747

We live on Sebring St. There is no #1792. The numbers on Sebring begin at 2321 and end at 2356. Nothing close to 1792. Nothing even close to 1792 within all of Keystone Villas. Something is not right here!

You just misread it. I'm thinking it may be 2340...... maybe.

[Velvet]

The term 1792 is not the street address. It is a reference number by the web site.

[charmed59]

Originally Posted by pklein9747

We live on Sebring St. There is no #1792. The numbers on Sebring begin at 2321 and end at 2356. Nothing close to 1792. Nothing even close to 1792 within all of Keystone Villas. Something is not right here!

1792 is the listing number on vh4r.com.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

If you google air bnb scams, you will find that there are some scams similar to this one. The people don't own the actual house and do some last minute substitutions, etc. And the way air bnb and some others have questionable refund policies, there are scams out there and they are very difficult to identify ahead of time.

I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam Run by Fake Hosts on Airbnb - VICE

sportsguy

[John_W]

Where do you all think the photos of the kitchen and living room came from? I put the link to the website in my post, #17.

Here's the link again, you don't need to know the address, the listing number or the website, just use this link.

VH4R

[MIskra]

We rented three times directly from Properties of The Villages. When we arrived in The Villages, we called someone from the red phone booth at the square (once we arrived in the middle of the night and still did the same). Someone from Properties of The Villages came to the square and personally escorted us to our rental. That person asked us to walk through the house and make sure everything was up to our expectations while he waited in the driveway. After our walkthrough and approval we signed a contract saying that we accepted the rental. We have had small issues of various things not working properly during our stay. We called the number that was provided to us and someone came and addressed the problem within a day. The Villages knows how you run a rental business!

[Dave2000]

Its to bad that someone would misrepresent their property, my advice is to deal with a broker, then when thing aren't right you may have some recourse.

[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by Dave2000

Its to bad that someone would misrepresent their property, my advice is to deal with a broker, then when thing aren't right you may have some recourse.

Agreed.

It's also too bad, but all too common, that so many were so quick to jump on the OP...and all but call them a liar.

[Colby]

As a owner of a rental property here he has options. Did he go through a rental website? If so then contacting them will resolve the issue as his listing will be removed and refund will he issued. If it was directly through owner would assume there was some sort of contract involved regarding payment schedule, house rules, cancellation policy etc. There is usually language in those that protect renter if house does not provide items listed in advertising. I hope he can get resolved as hard to believe this type of scam could happen in an existing villages home.

[graciegirl]

Perhaps the OP can give us pictures of the inferior condition of this home. It certainly doesn't look like it is inferior. I don't know how appliances could rust? I can't think where they would rust. Maybe the dishwasher could have mold? But rust??? I see in the picture regular beds. Looks like a mattress and a box spring and a nice bedcover. Perhaps the bed wasn't made up. Were the linens to make it up provided?

Was the patio furniture found? It looks very nice in the pictures.

JohnW. Can you contact the OP and help him post pictures???

[PanamaKim]

Originally Posted by charmed59

The crimes against seniors ad they show in the movie theaters does encourage folks to give the sheriffs a call if someone swindled them out of something. In this case, they would be a good place to go to see if they have a reasonable complaint.

I agree, if the person renting the home is a senior, I would pursue that route. If not satisfied, then small claims court is the way to go, and it’s not hard to sue in small claims. I’m so sorry your friend had this bad experience. Most homeowners that rent seasonally are good, honest folks, but there are exceptions.

[Lyn Wagner]

My friend got scammed also. Talked to seniors verses crime and they said she could take him to small claims court. If she won the case it would be up to her to collect the money. Hahahah. Good luck.Couldnt even get him to answer the phone. Best thing to do is rent through the villages or friend referrals. Good luck. PS she also lost her $500.00 deposit. She had the old crappy golf cart charging and it started on fire. She called the fire department which arrived right away not much damaged was done. How ever the home owner tried to sue her for fire damages.