So this is the story about how Greenbriar Rentals in Bowling Green Ohio screwed my roommates and me over our rental agreement.

The story starts with our current apartment. This year we live in a townhouse rented by greenbriar and we were happy with the place when we moved in. They have a strict rule against having any pets and we own a couple of cats, but they had always exercised a “don’t ask don’t tell” sort of policy on it. We lived with them for two straight years prior to today and I had lived with them in an additional year before then. They were, and to date, are the only rental company I have ever rented with. I had always felt they were strict and a bit pigheaded, but they were cheap and they rarely bothered us, so I lived with them. Over the years I had noticed several of the town houses near mine contained a variety of pets including dogs, cats, snakes, rodents, and birds. A year and a half ago we got a cat and lived happily for over a year, even after we switched town houses. Then we got a letter saying we had to get rid of the cat and so of course we were in the wrong and we did.

So we go looking for a place to live this coming year. We look everywhere else in town for any other rental company. We find a few nice places, but nothing that will fit all of our needs. Some places look awful, some don’t take pets, and some only have 2 bedrooms. After a couple of months, greenbriar updates their website to say that pets are aloud:

Now I could argue all day with them on how stupid this picture makes them look. One line saying no pets in bold followed an inch later on the printed page with an add-on that is for houses with pets but you know, they just added these places, so whatever.

These new houses are a little higher then I was looking to spend, but you know for everything we want; I am willing to pay the premium. I make good money, so why not love the places I live?

So we set up a walkthrough of an apartment. They look wonderful, but as we are walking through our choice house the guy leading our tour mentions that they just rented this place for just the summer, but it would be open again in the fall. We do notice that no one lives in this, or many of the other houses, so we ask to look at another one nearby. This one is even nicer, so we say hey why not.

We go back to put our half of a deposit down, and ask a few questions. We ask if we can get rid of the washer and dryer provided because they are coin operated in our own house and replace them with the washer and dryer we were connived to buy because they were not provided in our old apartment, which they also rented. The woman does not know and suggests we ask later, and we shrug it off assuming it would be something we could work out later. They inform us that there will be an additional charge each month for the pet. Now we are already paying 1,100 dollars for our deposit, instead of 270, because of the pet. Over twelve months that would be almost 70 bucks extra a month, but whatever the 30 dollar a month fee is not going to break me, I deal with it grudgingly.

We ask them if we can change the move in date, because it is set to May 1^st, and we live with them in another place until May 30^th. The place is empty anyway, and has yet to be rented about a month before their date starts anyway. No deal, because that would break their preset dates. Never mind the fact that someone else was able to move in from just May till August, the idea that instead of skipping out of 9 months we just wanted 29 days, that is too much for them.

We are then asked to get parental agreements before we can sign the lease. We have always had to have these before because we were all students, but this year for once I am living with no students at all. I ask what the policy is for non-students and am informed we can either get the forms signed or pay 35 dollars a person to get a credit check run. Well, I know my parents and they trust me, so a piece of signed paper is worth less than 35 dollars so we agree. Now this already was bugging me a little because I have lived with these people for four full years, and never missed rent by a day. Also my roommates and I combined have lived with them for nine years, and none of us have ever missed any rent. As lame as it is though, whatever, I will get over that.

So moving on, I go and get my agreement signed in front of a notary. The form asks for my mother’s SSN, but the teller suggests to us that she feels that form has no legal right to have such a request on it, so my mother doesn’t add it.

So now, today. We show up as scheduled today to sign our lease. I am told right off the bat that I have to have my mother add her SSN because it is required. When I ask why they suggest that that number will be needed for any legal documents in the case they are needed. The fact that my mother was required to show ID in front of a notary proving she was not lying, and the SSN could easily have been made up later, but you know whatever. Now already mad I make the drive across down with my roommate to get my mom to add her number.

We get back to hear my other roommate arguing about the washer and dryer which are apparently things we cannot remove. Someone will come into our house once a month or so to collect the change, and if they are disconnected we will be kicked out. What. After this same agency suggested we buy a washer and dryer for their cheaper living option, we are not expected to live in an overpriced home and basically have a laundry mat in our house? How stupid is that.

We bite our tongue and start to read over the other addendum for our pets. We notice right off all of the official documentation lists we will have a pet, not pets as we have asked about earlier. We ask and are informed we cannot have more than one pet. Apparently a 35 pound dog is fine, but two cats less than ten pounds each, those are not okay. Don’t worry that all of the ads said “pets” that of course was just a play. We complain and they take it to the owners, who turn us down. I ask if I can pay the fee twice a month for two pets, nope. So we ask if we can get our money back, this is all just too much bitter taste and we want out.

We are then shown the agreement on the down payment which lists the idea that we put half of our deposit down just for them to hold the apartment and as the first thing we were made to do today was pay the rest of our deposit, we cannot have any of that back. I can, perhaps, understand keeping our first half of the deposit because it was off the market for two weeks, but keeping it all is just too much. I burst out angry. Hell the place is empty anyway, if no one lived in it all year, who the heck was waiting on it anyway.

We sat and talked it out. We decided to somehow get rid of one of the cats. We can’t lose the 1,100 deposit. So we are stuck living with them.

I will admit outright here that a few of these problems were us not reading and simply trusting this company to not treat us like shit. I am not writing this to complain, or to try and fix my plight. The point of this is that so you will read it, and not rent from greenbriar.