Sylvia Ellingwood contacted us through craigslist.com after we had posted an ad looking for housing in Spokane, WA. We were in San Antonio, TX attached to the Warrior Transition Unit at Brooke Army Medical Center receiving treatment for injuries sustained in Iraq. We were in the process of being medically retired (we consisted of Husband, 24 at the time and the one receiving treatment, Wife, 26 at the time and baby, 1 year old). We wanting to move to Spokane, WA when the process was complete and were trying to find a month to month lease (we needed time to search for a house to buy) that allowed pets and was $700/mo or less. Our ad stated all of this. Sylvia Ellingwood contacts us about a property she has had for over 30 years in a prominent neighborhood in great condition. She stated in her email that she really wanted to help us out and the normal price for this property was $860/mo. The first email states that we should reply as soon as possible, as there were several others interested in leasing this property that were willing to pay the full amount. This property was supposed to have a fenced in yard, three bedrooms, one bath, new pergo flooring and needed very minimal work to be perfect. What she said it needed was one new floor tile in a bedroom that had come up while the last tenant was residing there and the bathroom 'might' need new paint. She claimed she had no pictures to share. Her son was an Officer stationed at Fort Sam Houston (attached to the Medical Center we were at). After talking over the phone and sending correspondence via email, we agreed to meet with her son (her 'acting agent') to discuss the property further and read through and sign a lease for month to month (which she 'never did'). We met with him and everything seemed to be in order, so we gave him $1, 400 for first and last months rent and signed the paperwork. We arrived at the property to find nothing but a shack. Everything was broken and busted up. The ceilings were bowed, there were no transitions from flooring to flooring leaving a 3/4'" gap to trip over, the enclosure around the bath tub was rotted out and bubbled with mold, as well as the flooring. The garage had been 'transformed' into a third bedroom with the walls incomplete, the flooring badly warped with nails sticking out in places meant for walking and barely any insulation, leaving the room freezing and unsafe. There were several cheap laminate tiles missing in the other two bedrooms. The 'new pergo flooring' was actually bargain basement laminate that was coming up and in no way new, chunks were missing. The stove was unusable until 3 cans of commercial strength oven cleaner and three days of soaking and scrubbing had passed. The insulation on the refrigerator door was filled with mold along the bottom, leaving that unusable. The counter tops were warped and bubbled all the way across. There were open electrical sockets sticking out of the walls and ceiling. The vent for the bathroom had been removed, leaving a gaping hole with wires sticking out of it making it very hazardous. The backyard that was 'fenced in and needed a little raking from the pine needles' was not actually fenced in at all and there were 6" of pine needles piled under every tree making a 'squish' if you stepped on it, with no grass and nothing but sand. It also had a derelict shed filled with junk and unusable. The trees on the property were growing out of the foundation of the house and into the power source. There were piles of trash in the front and back yards including old boxes that had obviously been there for months, a broken grill and full trash bins. The entire house was disgustingly dirty inside and out.
I have pictures for anyone interested, to show the truth in this, as well as a professional home inspection, just on a different computer so can't post today and I will probably forget to do it later.
We spoke with Sylvia and her husband about our obvious displeasure at being taken for a ride, especially after everything we had already been through. We spoke in calm, rational tones and discouraged arguing, which seemed to be all she wanted to do. She was asked several times to not curse or yell at us and was unable to comply, so we had to disconnect (after warning 'we will hang up if you can't keep your temper, we will only discuss this in a mature and reasonable way) several times. She asked at one point what was wrong with the house. We started listing these items and she took offense and accused us of putting her down. We were just answering her question. We get a phone call on our cell phone the next day from a prospective renter that would like to know how the property is. She says Sylvia Ellingwood gave her our number and Sylvia admitted to this when we called to inquire about it. We never gave permission for that. When that was stated along with references to privacy laws between tenant and landlord, she retorted 'I didn't know you were a lawyer.' We then had a knock on the door a while later with a very young girl looking very sad. She handed us an envelope and said she was sorry, then walked away. It was a notice of eviction that stated we were to be out of the house in 3 days, it wasn't a typo. We called Sylvia again and told her that we knew that was also illegal, 30 days is Federal Law. Two days later, she drove by the house several times watching us. It stopped for a while and we had to leave for errands. We had made great friends with all of our neighbors at this point because we had cleaned up the house inside and out including new paint outside and completely revamped the yard with edging, new grass seeds, daily watering and many other improvements including 13 lawn bags full of debris from the first attempt at cleaning up the front yard. All of that was earth, tree branches, weeds, garbage and who knows what else. One neighbor called us while we were out to let us know that Sylvia was waiting down the street in her car, watching the house. We get back 30 minutes later to have her pull up to the drive behind our truck that we were unloading and have that same little girl get out of the car and come to try and hand us another letter. We informed her, very politely, that we had no reason to accept the letter. She looks over to Sylvia, who couldn't even manage to look away from her steering wheel nor utter a word to us, turns back and throws it at Mom pulling baby out of the car seat.
She turns and leaves with Sylvia. A neighbor comes over to see if we are okay. We talk and laugh about the situation for a while and he asks if we intend to pick up the letter. We said no. He smiles and says, you just tell them a neighbor saw some trash on the lawn and threw it away. With that he picked it up and threw it in his own trash bin. Another two days pass and we receive a delivery confirmation letter with the same paperwork. It turns out she wished to sue us for $2400. We had the home inspected, it really didn't do well and we have the inspection still in our possession. We took several pictures, collected all correspondence between her and ourselves and were offered several affidavits from neighbors depicting the character of Sylvia Ellingwood. Husband shows up for mediation, no Sylvia Ellingwood. Court date is set, husband shows up with all of our findings, no Sylvia Ellingwood. Waited until 30 minutes after time and still No Sylvia Ellingwood. Judge says case closed and to not worry about this in the future as Sylvia Ellingwood would not be able to pursue it again with a no show/no explanation.
Here are a few additional things we have learned/experienced with Sylvia Ellingwood:
Sylvia had also informed us that the entire neighborhood 'hated renters'. It turned out it was her they were not liking. The neighborhood was incredibly beautiful with amazing people, except this house. It wasn't just people on the same street that would come by and thank us for cleaning it up while we were doing yet more work on the exterior. People all throughout the neighborhood came by to say thank you and told us several things about Sylvia Ellingwood. Most people wanted to buy the house from her just to tear it down as it brought everyone's property value down and she rented to very unsavory characters according to their accounts. That is second hand information that was repeated by several different families that did not know each other. We cannot state those as fact, but we personally believe the sources.
Sylvia Ellingwood stated to us that she was a humanitarian to the deepest degree and had spent several months helping Katrina refugees. No one has any proof to back this up and no one we have talked to has supported this claim.
Sylvia Ellingwood claims to have been a Realtor just closing out her business a few months before meeting us. We have found nothing to support that Sylvia Ellingwood was ever a Broker as she stated.
We believe Sylvia Ellingwood lied about the interest of several other families that wished to live in the house. The house would be vacant for several months between each tenant according to every neighbor we spoke with.