ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla — Management of a local apartment complex shut out Action 9 after Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal asked why a woman hadn’t received her deposit back.
Gabbi Redding paid a security deposit when she applied to lease an apartment in March, but she said her application was denied and the apartment complex wouldn’t return the money. The website for the Timberlake Apartment Homes in Altamonte Springs shows security deposits are totally refundable, but after around five months of trying to get it back, Redding turned to Action 9.
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Action 9 stopped at the Timberlake Apartment Homes to try to get answers for Redding.
Once inside the front office, Consumer investigator Jeff Deal said, “We received a consumer complaint from a young woman who’s been trying to get her security deposit back for the last five or six months.” A worker at the front desk went to get a manager.
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Months prior to this Gabbi Redding was trying to find a new place to live and started looking at the Timberlake Apartment Homes.
She said, “It just seemed like it was a good fit for me, I like the layout, I like the unit that I toured.”
In March, she put in her application. That included a non-refundable application fee and a refundable security deposit of $250, but the problems started when she learned her application wasn’t approved.
“I never received a refund or reimbursement or anything,” she explained.
Weeks went by, then months. Even though the company website clearly shows security deposits are “totally refundable” she just wasn’t getting it back. Redding showed Action 9 emails between her and management at the apartment complex.
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One email in May from property manager Alaina Holliday states “I understand you’re owed a refund from Timberlake that you haven’t received. Can you please provide me with your correct forwarding address?” Two months later in July, assistant manager Jamaal Milledge wrote “I have not forgot about your refund has been escalated to our corporate office.”
When mid-September hit, according to Redding, she still had not received a refund, and frustration really began to set in.
Redding said, “I just think that they would expect for people to just kind of give up and just be okay with keeping their money.”
Timberlake Apartment Homes is managed ZRS Management, based in Orlando. It has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau for unanswered and unresolved complaints.
“I think been more than patient. I’ve be very respectful,” Redding told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.
When Jeff Deal tried to ask about her refund at the apartment complex, the manager asked him to leave and wouldn’t explain why Redding wasn’t getting her deposit back. Deal was only able to show her Gabbi Redding’s name on a piece of paper.
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The manger said, “We don’t have any comments, and I need you to leave.”
Deal replied, “Is there anybody that can answer some questions for her?”
She said, “Nobody can answer questions for you.”
As the Action 9 team was leaving, Deal asked, “Why has it taken so long?”
The manager only replied, “Thank you” and closed the door.
The good news is about a week and a half after Action 9 started asking questions, Gabbi Redding finally received her deposit back.
In this case, Action 9 also reached out to complex ownership and ZRS Management for an explanation, but so far, there’s been no response.
In Florida, at the end of your lease, if the landlord isn’t keeping any of your security deposit, they have 15-days after you move out to refund it. The law doesn’t seem to specify what should happen if you never move in.
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