JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A family in Jacksonville’s New Town neighborhood is speaking out after they said they’ve been dodged by landlords after getting charged for appliances they don’t have in their rental.
Oyackiya Lawrence said her family -- for the last 18 days -- has had no AC and no refrigerator, and she had to put in her own floors for the three-bedroom house. She told News4JAX that the last time she heard from her landlord was the day after she moved in.
Lawrence showed News4JAX pictures of the house from the day she moved in on July 12, compared to the work she’s done to keep it up, like flooring and filling in the walls.
“I’m not the maintenance people, and this is costing me a lot of money to do this stuff, and I’m just tired,” Lawrence said.
She said it all started in May when she applied for “Our Florida.” She got the money from a federal emergency assistance program and then went to sunbeltpros.com. She chose her home from the website which shows information about the fees, maintenance, service, and leasing -- but not much information about appliances, which she said she didn’t have the day she moved in.
“We were given a move-in date of July 5,” Lawrence told News4JAX. “On July 5, when I came to the apartment, it was not ready. There was nothing done. No flooring, no refrigerator, no stove. So I contact him again; this time he answers the phone (and said) on the 11th the apartment was ready, you can move in.”
But the home was the same as when she saw it on July 5. She was later told she had to get her own AC -- and then she learned she was being charged for a refrigerator and stove that were not provided for her.
She showed us multiple text messages from the last two weeks she sent to the landlord with no reply.
“Now I see I’m being charged for a stove and refrigerator that is not here,” Lawrence said. “No flooring -- what is going on? I feel like I have been scammed.”
Lawrence said she has done what she needed to get by in the meantime -- like purchase a cooler to act as a refrigerator and purchased fans to try to keep the home somewhat cool.
News4JAX had Lawrence call Sunbelt LLC directly. A representative told her she had just taken care of the work order and that Lawrence was reimbursed for those appliances.
We looked at her lease that says, “Landlords sometimes automatically provide refrigerator and stove appliances to certain units.” It doesn’t specify how it’s decided which units will receive those -- and appliances aren’t specified on the website.
We tried calling Sunbelt LLC, and the number for the landlord, and we’re waiting to hear back. Lawrence said she’s priced the appliances she needs but can’t afford them -- though she was told she would get them.
“I got to buy a stove, I got to buy a refrigerator, and I got to finish these floors,” she said. “I can’t just leave it like this. I have to make it livable for us.”
She said she’s relieved to have the money back and can put it toward what she and her family need.
In order to be your own advocate, sometimes you have to skip over the landlord and go right to the company, especially if you’re not getting any response. To avoid situations like this, be proactive. Before you sign a lease, know the fine print in the lease, ask questions before moving in, and go see the place before your move-in date.