About a week before we moved out I went to the office to ask about painting our apartment back. I had painted 3 rooms. The woman I talked to said that I may only have to do a primer because they paint the apartments after you move out. She said she wasn't sure and would call us back when she found out. She called my husband back and said that we would have to paint it back, but since they use an expensive brand (Dunn Edwards) that we could buy a cheaper brand and get the color as close as we could. So I spent about $75 and 3 days painting it back myself.
Fast-forward about a week after we move out and we get this bill saying that we owe $150 for painting. Thinking this has to be a mistake, my husband calls and is told that we had to paint it the exact color that they use and that we still owe the $150. He tells of the conversation we had before we painted, only told be told that no one on thier staff told us this and that the conversation never happened. We talked to them several times trying to reason with them, and every time it was a different story of what we said or did. The manager tried to tell me that my husband admitted to knowing we had to paint it back with the Dunn Edwards paint, which he did NOT! Then they said that the color we used was yellow! So thinking maybe Pillar (company that owns them) would see how ridiculous this, and would figure things out. The woman from Pillar that called me told me even more lies that the manager told her. That they gave my husband some post-it note with colors on it, which he didn't even go in and talk to them in person at all! The story of what we did just keeps changing with every phone conversation! How can they possibly believe that I am making this up'! I would have either not painted myself at all and let them charge me the $150 OR painted it with the Dunn Edwards paint in the first place!
Anyways, we are now getting ready to report them to the Better Business Bureau and see what legal actions we can take. They are completely dishonest and are taking advantage of us. We are a young married couple, going to school with a baby and cant afford $150 for THIER mistake plus the $75 that we already spent painting. They know what they are doing and dont care. I wouldn't wish this on anyone else and just want to warn you what kind of place you will be moving into and how they treat thier tenants. If you want to avoid a nightmare like this, dont move here!

User Responses
From: CodysWife05	Date: 02/16/2009
We lived at Cantera for two years. Our move out went incredibly smooth and we will be getting our deposits back quickly. We never had any problems with any of the staff and they certainly don't rip you off. They knew us by name since the day we signed our lease and they even were flexible when my husband and I got pregnant. You signed a lease that detailed the exact condition the apartment needed to be left in. Take responsibility for your mistakes.
From: cluffgirl	Date: 02/17/2009
Okay so it's my mistake that I went down in person to ask specifically about painting and even got another phone call after making sure thats what we were supposed to do. I guess it's my fault that the staff gave wrong information and now we are paying big time for it. Not only did I spend 3 days of hard work and alot of money painting the way THEY told me to, but am now paying also paying for the mistake of thier employee. Yeah, sounds like it was all my fault! Maybe if you choose to live here you shouldn't listen or talk to any of the the completely clueless employee's! So glad that your move out went smoothly, but mine did not! And I would take responsibilty if it were my mistake, but it was thiers!

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