Indian Canyon Apartments

I moved into a McCathren Management property, Indian Canyon, in February 2016. Living there was fine. There was a lot of turnover with the staff but no huge complaints. I moved from a three bedroom to a two bedroom when my lease was up. They claimed there was a "pet smell" (I have a cat, though I had cleaned thoroughly) and charged me a cleaning fee from my security deposit. Fine. I got the rest of the deposit back. Living in the two bedroom was much worse. I originally liked the complex because… it was quiet. There were constantly people running up and down the stairs outside of my apartment, yelling, etc. The location was convenient for my job and I liked the amenities, so I tolerated it until my lease ended. I moved out because I wanted to downsize further and they didn't have a one bedroom available initially (later they did and offered it to me, but I had already found something else). When I got a letter with my security deposit information, I was expecting a small check, as I assumed they had used maybe half of my $700 deposit for a cleaning fee. Instead, they took my whole $700 deposit and charged me $1500 on top of it. They're saying they HAD to replace the downstairs carpet (around 600 square feet of some cheap polyester material) due to pet smells and claim it cost $2200. I have quotes from contractors showing how exorbitant this is. They also appear to have written $1200 and crossed it out and changed it to $2200, which is suspect. They charged me for things like $25 to clean a toilet, while I have pictures of the toilets being spotless. I spent many days cleaning that apartment. I'm guessing the carpet did not need replaced and was not new when I moved in. IF it needed replaced, it was probably due to water damage; a contractor flooded the carpet while I lived there because they used a faulty spigot outside of my apartment, something the company never bothered to fix. They never showed me any evidence that the carpet needed replaced, no proof of the age of the carpet, no invoice for the cost of replacing it. I sent a dispute letter via certified mail and fax after consulting a lawyer at the end of April. I never received a response from McCathren. Today, July 16, nearly 3 months later, I received a call from a debt collector. I am prepared to fight this predatory charge. I was the ideal tenant and had a friendly working relationship with those in the front office; they still did this to me. I would not recommend Indian Canyon to anyone. Read More