Read before signing a lease.
Shady & unprofessional. All current & future residents should be aware of their illegal behavior in regards to resident mail and money.
A student client of mine didn't get her financial aid check. After a week or so, she checked with school, who said it had been cashed already. After investigating, she found that staff at Seeley Lake had taken her mail (addressed to HER) containing the check (also made out to HER) at the office. Instead of returning the mail, which
...would be the appropriate step, the staff instead signed & cashed it.
Wait what?
A check made out to the resident. In a sealed envelope addressed to the resident. Cashed by the staff in her apartment office.
You'd think if a business made a mistake with such a large amount of someone's money, they'd want to discuss & resolve things asap.
Well, Seeley Lake had a very different response.
The office staff did not provide anything in writing, nor would they explain why it happened. Instead they told the resident they'd "contact their attorney & try to have the funds back in 7-10 days." Try?!
I immediately called to resolve the situation so that this student (single parent on fixed income) can resume classes & was treated rudely by office staff, who told me the client should "make sure her mail doesn't go to the office."
I asked, "Isn't the bigger issue that someone in your office not only opened mail addressed to a resident there, but also signed & cashed a check made out to the resident?"
She'd only say "I don't know," "I can't say," & "That person isn't here today," & "Well, we get a lot of checks & didn't look at it."
So in summary, if you live here, know that if the office gets YOUR mail by accident & it happens to be a check, they may open YOUR mail, take YOUR check & cash it ILLEGALLY, & then when you ask how/why someone in their office signed YOUR name on a check, they will blame YOU, the resident, for your mail ending up in the office.
Since they would not confirm with us on paper that the money that was taken will be given back to the resident (or exactly when), the police are now involved to make sure she gets her financial aid funds back, so hopefully they will not do this again or to anyone else, but still - Be very aware. Lots of shady stuff at this place. You can find better.
Property Manager Responded