They're just waiting to pull the carpet out from under you - literally.

I've been living at Homecoming at Terra Vista for nearly 4 years. In fact, I still live here. Overall, it's a nice place to live. Most of the problems are pretty standard for apartments: parking, noise, etc.

I've received nothing but good service while being a tenant & Homecoming has had no problems with me. No late rent or noise complaints or anything like that. I thought we were on good terms. Boy was I in for it!

Instead of being treated like a loyal resident & with customer appreciation, Homecoming at Terra Vista has treated me like a deadbeat who walked out on them – because I transferred to a renovated unit.

You see, we have a dog. Why should that be a problem? Homecoming is pet-friendly, right? Wrong.

Homecoming at Terra Vista doesn't see pets; they only see cash cows. An extra way for them to bilk money out of you.

Most obvious is the $40 additional "pet rent" I've been paying for 3 of my 5 years. Also, there's the extra $800 pet deposit & DNA registration that I had to pay for.

Then comes the move out; that's when Homecoming will really squeeze it out of you. They will invent charges, play a shell game, & take advantage of the fact that the money you're fighting for isn't worth having to hire a lawyer or taking them to court.

What they've done to me: We transferred out of our old apartment & into a new one. After move-out, my wife hired Merry Maids & a carpet cleaner to make sure we were in compliance with the law that tenant's leave apartments in a similar condition as when we moved in.

The carpet in our old apartment is nearly 6 years old & was prorated to $0 upon our move-out. That's when Homecoming pulled the carpet out from under us - literally.

We have $1100 left in Security Deposit ($800 being the Pet Deposit). Homecoming returns only $526 to us. Why?

Well, the biggest deduction went to a vendor who's gone through with a blacklight looking for urine. My carpet cleaner says this is a scam because many stains will continue to appear under a blacklight even after a thorough cleaning. But, whatever, I guess. $55 for the "pet scan".

Surprise, the vendor found stains. Of what? We don't know; he says urine (of course he does). Why? Because they used a pH strip test on the stains. The pH strip came back with a pH of 6.4. Well, urine of a healthy dog can have a pH of between 6 & 7 SO, it must be dog urine!

Never mind the fact that clean lake water has a pH of 6.5, milk has a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. Rain water can be 6 pH & distilled water is typically 7.

It must be dog urine because - money!

So I get a report saying that there were 30x stains ranging from 6" to 14" & ALL of them MUST be dog urine. That's between 15 & 40 feet of stains on 6 year old carpet in an 800+sqft apartment.

Well, that's not the end of it, folks! By God, the whole apartment needs to have the cement under the carpet treated. Guess who's paying for it? Not just where stains are; the WHOLE apartment.

That's right. I get charged an additional $350 for "Removal of urine saturated carpet, pad, & tack board. Treatment of floor, consisting of deodorizing, disinfecting, & sealing. *Material included. - $350"

How much material? I don't know. How much am I being charged for each of those elements? I don't know. How much is labor? I don't know. What material did they use? I don't know.

So I ask for a more itemized receipt; Homecoming tells me the vendor says it's not possible.

The carpet is prorated to $0, but I'm still being charged for carpet "removal" from this vendor? Is that even legal?

I tell Caseie that we had the carpet professionally cleaned. She tells me, "That usually means there was a mess to clean up." Wow! WOW!

Guilty until proven innocent here at Homecoming at Terra Vista. Such customer appreciation!

Feel free to move here, but don't expect much if you ever move out (or upgrade units, like I did).

Not a resident; just a dollar $ign. They need me to help fund their renovation of my old apartment.