Golden Rule Real Estate and Property Management — Local services in Gainesville

Golden Rule Property Management in Gainesville, Florida is a very unprofessional and unfriendly property management in Gainesville. Its hilarious that their company's name is Golden Rule, however, the reality is that its a pretty shady business that they are running. The people work there are very nasty to their renters. We rented an apartment managed by them and that property had a water pipe bust and the whole house got flooded at 3 am in the morning. We called a management employee whose name is April for help, and instead of providing any help to us, she started bullying us and lecturing us, as if it was our fault. They hid the information of very old and completely rusted water pipes in the house when we rented. We then called 911 and the the Fire Department folks came and rescued us from a total water-logged situation. By the time, they could turn off the water line of the house, the house was under almost 1 foot of water. After several hours, some plumbing guys from the management showed up and then they put about 15 big industrial grade blowers in that apartment, and then the management forced us to live in that extremely health hazard situation for almost 48 hours with all noisy blowers on around us in that house. We had no choice but to go to a hotel to stay for the night at our expenses. Next day around noon, April and another employee of Golden Rule showed up with some note books in their hands and especially April started threatening us and bullying us just because we asked some questions to her - for example, when she expects that the noisy blowers will be turned off, and who will foot the utility bills for the water and electricity, and will the management move us to any temporary accommodation? But, April and the other employee continued to bully us and denied any comfort to us that we were expecting from them. It was unbelievable and a horrible bullying and condescending behavior that left us shocked. In fact, April asked us in a very bizarre way, why we called 911? The management became nastier, and despite our repeated requests to delay the floor removal work for a week to give us some time to rearrange and put together our stuffs that got damaged due to flooding, April and other staffs did not listen to our request at all, and gave us tremendous hard time by sending the floor removal guys next day who removed all wooden floors and again we were forced to live in that highly unhygienic condition without a proper floor for a month. They charged us full rent and no relief was provided. What we went through, I would say they are probably worst of the worst kinds. I would have sued them and demanded three months rent, but the lease was under my friends name. And I would like to caution to all renters who might be interested in renting their properties to please consider all aspects including conditions of the house/apartment before moving in. please note: I am not Megha Agrawal I am her friend, soon after I posted this review April threatened megha and this was her email: This is another example of how bully and retaliatory, April is. Soon after the complaint was posted, instead of apologizing, April sent this threatening e-mail I am quoting "Oh and I’ll be posting a response to your review along with your information like your real name so other property managers can search it and see how horrible of a tenant you were so they can know before they rent to you". April please note you are retaliating first and second please read florida law, you cannot rennovate while...

EDITING TO ADD A RESPONSE TO THEIR RESPONSE: First of all here's a little lesson in customer service for you guys. There is always a chance that someone won't "understand how private rentals work". It is literally your job to know that. However, if you had contacted me privately and explained that in a kind manner you would have gotten a much better response. It's all about how you treat people and having empathy, which you clearly lack. I'm also a little taken aback that you felt the need to mention names of the other people that applied with me, when they had nothing to do with this review. Luckily for me, I can change my name on here for my own privacy. As far as threatening you with a lawyer, I did that BEFORE I was aware that we were not getting charged the application fee, so for that I will apologize. I have literally never left a bad review in my life, I am a very understanding person but I've also never encountered such a lack of professionalism. It is honestly shocking and I am glad I did not end up renting from you.

I do NOT recommend giving this company your money in any way, shape, or form. First off, it is nearly impossible to get a hold of them. I tried calling several times throughout the day starting when they first opened at 9. They had a house listed for rent that I was absolutely in love with. - and if you live in Gainesville and rent I'm sure you understand the struggle of trying to find a place because they go FAST. So, after calling several times and leaving a voicemail with no response I finally got someone on the phone. They told me the place was still available, but they didn't have any appointments available for showings until Friday- totally understandable because it is moving season. So, I confirmed that pets were allowed. It is listed on facebook, zumper, and their website that pets are WELCOME. Since we really wanted the place, I asked if it would be okay to just go ahead and fill out the applications and move forward with the process because we were set on it and confident that we wanted it. Whoever I spoke with said that they recommended looking at it first (fair), but if we wanted to go ahead and move forward with the application that was totally fine. We decided to do that because every time we have wanted to look at a house, the appointment gets cancelled because it gets rented out before we get to look at it. So after filling out the application (we are more than qualified for it as far as credit and income goes, no reason for it to get denied). Mind you they also have a 75 dollar application fee per person which is excessive in my opinion, but whatever. We were SO excited about the place, until they finally got back to me hours later, and said that they were not able to move forward because they "just updated" the listing to not allow pets. 100% bullsh*&. I looked everywhere, the listing still said pets were welcome (everywhere it was listed)- pretty much all of their homes say that pets are welcome actually. We even drove by it and saw two beautiful and large dogs in the yard. This was yesterday and the listing STILL says it allows cats and dogs. They were not apologetic, honestly just outright rude about the whole thing. The whole situation was just very disheartening, it has been such a struggle finding a place in Gainesville, and these real estate agencies being shady and how poorly we were treated just makes it so much worse. Customer service is important to me and this company is LACKING it...

I rented a house from golden rule for 1 year, and it was miserable. They lie about coming and fixing things. When we moved in, they claimed they sent someone in to clean, but when we got there, it was very much still dirty and gross. We begged them to let us in a day early so that we could clean before moving in. The first night we were in we had an issue with the plumbing, (we wouldnt have an issue if they properly took care of the property when no one lived in it) they did come and fix that but only because it was considered an emergency. There was an issue of bubbling with the terrible fake tiles that are in the .5 bath, and they said they would have someone come look at it. No one ever showed up. We were unable to use our front door because the stupid code locks they have on this house won't work. When we submitted a repair request for that it sat unanswered for a while and then randomly one day they marked it as a completed repair, yet the front door is still unable to be unlocked from the outside.We submitted a repair request for a cracked window we found while taking off the window film the previous person had up. They haven't sent anyone to even take a look at the window. They were 2 months late on the 6 month inspection. (was told they would send someone out to look at the bathroom tile, Shocker no one showed up, again.) I was told the autopay feature on their app works but when i signed up for it first time there was an issue and they charged me late fees. Of course, they blamed me for the autopay situation. These cowards hid in their offices and wouldn't answer the phone or door, DURING BUSINESS HOURS, After i had informed them i was coming to sort out these late fees. After sitting outside and knocking for an HOUR and having called about 14-15 times, i unfortunately gave up and just paid the fees.On top of all that, they still wanted to raise our rent for the next lease. In November the shower drain collapsed so the water wouldnt drain, and she provides a plumber he shows up and tells us its the drain and that it had collapsed because in trying to clear it he was pulling up dirt from under the house. We ask april to end our lease early so that they can just get to work and fix it without us in the way, and she can just keep our security deposit. She says no and that we "confirmed" that the tub drains just slow. When in reality, what we said was that it was draining slowly when we first moved in, and now it's not draining at all. They have since fixed the drain,(making the tub absolutely disgusting in the process and ive scrubbed it and showered and its is still nasty)Please avoid golden rule at all costs they want to charge outrageous rent for something being held together with Elmer's glue. and April, i know you will read this. can't believe how rude and unprofessional you are. You run a business act like it, not a teenager throwing out insults (saying someone has one or more severe mental illnesses)to every 1 star review you get(Which all seem to be legitimate concerns and complaints about you). Maybe April, you should take that stick out and go look at yourself in the mirror. Our house had potential, too bad companies like this one,...