I recently got my deposit check back and was charged for over $400. Here are some details: (1) I was charged almost $100 for a lamp they never gave to me (2) I was charged about $160 for a very vague general cleansing fee $75 carpet cleansing. The thing is that when I moved in, they gave me an extreme dirty apartment. Now I gave them a much cleaner apartment back and they still charged me almost $250 for cleansing (3) They charge me money for bulbs even though I left a lot of extra good bulbs in the apartment. (4) All of the above problems would not happen if they read the check-in sheet. But no, they don't read the check-in sheet.

I just talked to the tenant union and my friend who lived there. After listening to all the stories, here are some of their tricks:
(1) they will send you additional bills they did not charge you at the first place. For instance, they will send you a large bill for painting the whole apartment, even though regular painting is their own responsibility. If you want to dispute the charges, they might say that now they want to charge you painting so now you owe them money. If you refuse to pay, they will send a report to the credit company and ruin your credit. This situation actually happened before.
(2) they seems to make up a thing regularly in order to charge their tenants. There was one year many tenants were charged for thermometer. I suspect this year is a lamp.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/29/2008
The people at PPM read these reviews, and I find it very interesting that they never respond to any of these claims. I have heard MANY complaints about these extra bills they charge you with, and yet PPM hasn't said anything about them here. If the manager from PPM doesn't respond to this, I think everyone should assume that you'll get charged with bogus bills if you live here.
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/21/2009
I work for management companies like this for over 15 years.We were told to make up charges. 1. We would see how much of a deposit the resident had. 2. Find out if the resident had turned in a check sheet when they moved in. If not then we would take every penny they had on deposit and then some. 3. All of the charges are inflated. Carpet cleaning-charge the resident $75 to $150. We paid the carpet cleaning copmany $25. And one more trick they used was taking photos of damange in another apartment then put that picture into some other residents file to get there deposit money. Ican go on and on but I think you all get what I am saying. Just remember, take your own pictures at move-in and always walk the apartment with the manager at move out. They hate that because they can't get away with stealing your deposit. Good Luck out there...
From: happylandlord99	Date: 03/16/2009
There are no tricks. We were told to register with this website as the managing company, would cost us money. Does that seem fair to you? Do you have to pay to make things up and post them here? Why should we respond to every bogus, unsubstantiated comment that previous tenants, who did not follow their lease or cleaning procedures want to say about us. The response from the person that claims they were told to make up charges that worked for a management company should be charged with a crime. We provide our tenants a copy of the bill from the independent company that performed the work, carpet cleaners, etc. We take pictures in the apartment, not a different apartment. People need to learn to take responsibility for their actions.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/04/2009
Could some one tell me how to avoid these charges? I will be renting an apartment from ppm starting in August, and I have already had some problems with the management. I think it is just mainly lack of communication. However, I would like to avoid extra charges and fees such as "lightbulbs" and "painting". I really want to just have a smooth year with them. Any tips?

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