Garland Properties

I really didn’t want to do this review, but I think it’s important to know how a company works if you’re looking at a long-​term business relationship like a lease. We rented a townhouse in the Franklin Meadows area of Seymour sight unseen, moving to TN from Florida for my new job. We would be arriving late on July 4, so Ms. Garland gave me the lock box code so we could get into the house when we arrived. We arrived late at night to find not only no lock box but no door knob and looking through the window it seemed like they were still working on the house. We had to find a hotel in the area (which was later taken out of the rent).
If you’ve ever tried to call Ms. Garland, you know how hard it is to get her on the phone. It took many attempts the next morning to get a call back, but eventually she did call me back and apologized and we eventually were able to get into the house. So, where’s the refrigerator? Many more attempts finally gets her on the phone again to confirm that we should have a refrigerator. Later that afternoon a new refrigerator arrives and is installed. The entire time all this is happening, she is telling me that she can’t believe how nice I’m being about all of these mistakes and that she doesn’t think she would be handling it this well (little did I realize that my being nice meant absolutely nothing in the long run).
In the meantime, I parked the trailer I used to move on the gravel lot near the building for a couple of weeks until I returned it to Florida to only find a Notice posted on it that it will be towed in 3 days. So now I’m starting to understand that this HOA is not a very understanding bunch and I have to find a place to store the trailer.
Flash forward to September and an error by my employer’s payroll processor leaves me without a paycheck and several hundred dollars in the hole due to NSF fees. I communicate everything by email to Ms. Garland only to find an eviction notice posted to my door a few days later (so much for being nice). I eventually paid the rent plus late fee in cash, deposited in her bank account. I told her I would likely be late with the October rent since this situation has me behind (I live paycheck to paycheck like everyone else) and I haven’t been able to recover much of the fees I was charged. Last night (the 5^th day of the month) at 9:30 PM we get a knock on the door from the State Constable delivering a court summons from Garland Properties. Basically, the summons says I have to pay the rent, pay the entire amount of the lease (over $ 13,000) and leave the premises. It’s not like I’m not going to pay the rent, I’m just late. What I don’t get is that she has 3 empty units in this neighborhood, two of which have been empty since before we arrived in July, and somehow it’s good business to have another empty unit rather than work with a tenant.
We are a mature couple, no children, no pets, we take care of the homes we live in and have never had a situation like this in 15 years of renting. I just hope that by paying the rent before the court date we will able to stay, otherwise we are in a new town, new state, no family here and homeless with no money and owing $ 13,000+. In hindsight, it doesn’t really matter how nice and understanding I was when we first arrived, Ms. Garland takes her job seriously and cares only about one thing: money. Buyer beware.

I rented a home from the property manager Amy Garland a year ago, and while living there, she gave a copy of the master key to at least 4 other local people so they could come in anytime, without warning, to check air filters, window screens, a/​c and other random things. I left the property as soon as the lease was up and want to warn people before they spend the same year I did. More than once, I would be about to shower, watching TV, or sleeping only to hear the front door unlocked and someone enter the house. She would always apologize for the mixup and say whoever it was just wanted to check something and her email notice must not have gone through. It was terrifying to live in the property knowing all of these people had keys and knowing especially they had her permission to enter at will. Perhaps she has full trust in strangers, but as a rape victim, I don’t trust strangers having a key to my home. I rented a home, not an apartment, so that this wouldn’t happen, so that I could feel safe. Don’t rent from her if you value your safety.