After a stay at the above residence, the owner informed us that no security deposit would be returned because of suspected smoking outside the home. When challenged that no one in our party smokes, the owner refused to discuss the matter further, hung up on the conversation and would not return phone calls.
Additionally, the location and views were not as described. The bed linens had a heavy detergent smell to them.
Stay away from this rental. There are others in Leadville of better value, much less the poor business practice.
Beware! This house is in a high-crime area and is not secure. The owner, Keith Briggs, refused to divulge the address until the rent and deposit had been paid knowing that I was from Omaha and could identify the location. Also not divulged on his VRBO listing is a tenant who lives in the basement of the house and is very strange. He lurks around and made me feel very nervous with my young children around. The house itself is not secure as sliding glass doors have no curtains and are only made secure by a wooden stick in the gliders. The door handle of the door used to go into the house from outside is hanging by a screw and it seems as if the house has already been broken into. The patio furniture you see in the pictures on VRBO is all broken and filthy. The pictures of the interior of the house are pretty accurate and it was clearly a lovely home in its day, but Keith Briggs lives in Evergreen, Colorado and could not care less about this property. Mr. Briggs also does not provide a rental agreement and will not refund you your deposit. I had reserved and paid for the rental of his house more than 3 months in advance. He double-booked the house and then asked us the day before our vacation began to help him out by finding another place to stay. When I told him we couldn't do that he punished us by keeping our deposit on a bogus excuse. We left this house in better condition than the way we found it but Mr. Briggs now refuses to refund our deposit. I would like to warn anyone considering renting any properties from Keith Briggs to look elsewhere. He also rents properties in Evergreen, Colorado. This guy is a liar and a cheat.
Owner did not provide the "daily complimentary" breakfast, the promised "gift pack" or even toilet paper. If that weren't bad enough, she tried to withhold our security deposit.
Watch out for the trick photography too--the cabin is carefully photographed to avoid showing you that it right next to a trailer home. We kept getting startled by people walking by the kitchen window--not their fault--they had to walk by it to get out of their trailer.
Owner agreed to an exchange of three days at his vacation home for six at mine (even though both homes rent for about $650 a night, we really needed a place to stay because my son was at Children's Hospital for an operation. I paid a $150 cleaning fee and a $500 security deposit. The whole time we were there, the showers didn't work. Owner called a plumber, but the problem was not fixed. After I checked out, I asked if he could refund the $150 cleaning fee because of the inconvenience of having no showers. At that point he said I was in breach of my contract and he would not only NOT return the $150, but he wouldn't return our $500 security deposit either! Even though we left the place in immaculate shape.
The 'cabin' is represented as lakefront property that you can ride ATV's off the porch into the Pike National Forest. This is not the case. You cannot ride ATVs from the porch and the Sheriff lives directly across the Marsh and will enforce this. There is a lake that is private, not for this cabin's use.
The house was falling apart. Missing light bulbs, the dead bolt lock was gone, the railing going upstairs was loose, none of the amenities promised were provided. But WORST OF ALL, they kept my $450 security deposit for NO REASON.
BEWARE of Julia Seniw, she has several rental properties in the Colorado area. She is a liar and a scam and will take your money and not hold up her end of the agreement.
1. The freezer is broken which we did not know until we lost all of our frozen food, this also meant whatever ice it managed to make bridged and was unusable
2. The fridge works but not great
3. Terrible linens
Our bed had a thin fitted sheet with no elastic and no mattress pad so often we woke up on the mattress GROSS-this is actually against code
The downstairs bedroom had reindeer flannel Christmas sheets since there are no windows downstairs it was pretty hot in flannel sheets
Thread bear motel 6 style towels and pillows
4. The toilet in the second floor bedroom gets stuck and runs continuosly until you unstick it and if it was more than pea you often need to flush twice and use a plunger
5. The breaker was tripped downstairs and we had to fish around to figure it out and then one of the bulbs was burned out in the bathroom
6. Blinds falling off wall in second floor bedroom
7. Went to turn on lamp in other second floor bedroom and the lamp collapsed in two pieces
8. Carpets we already discussed, but they are truly disgusting they are so filthy and stained
9 the bench upstairs on the balcony is rotten
10. The balconies are beautiful but unusable bc of rotten wood, inadequate railing and no furniture
11. The glassware had to be rewashed it was dirty and greasy
12. Big dirty stain on downstairs granite
13. Three bedroom three bath with loft sleeping but only eating seating for 4 is obviously inadequate and should be represented more accurately, the condo was clearly not originally intended to sleep that many as the third bedroom was in the former garage.
Safety
Completely rotten board on second floor balcony,
The railing does not meet the wall and there us a 6-8 inch gap with no railing
Paint cans stored near furnace, obviously we did not use furnace but others may
Knife broke in my hand, the handle and knife broke apart as I was cutting
No screens and tons of mosquitos flying in and biting
All of these things and the property manager had the nerve to say if we had let them know about all of these things they would have fixed them. We complained about the carpet and screens the first night and NOTHING was done. We asked for a $100/night credit and they are only willing to give $50.
Keith Briggs, owner of the house, told us that there was no physical address for the house when we first asked him for it. Only after we paid our $300 deposit would he give us the address. The house is advertised as a 4BR 3 Bath home. We only found 2 baths. There was a locked door in the basement... maybe it was the 3rd bath but it was not available to us. Only found 4 Bedrooms. There was a bunk bed in the basement but the room cannot be called a bedroom as most of the space is taken up by a large furnace. The rails on the deck were very loose and dangerous as the house was on a mountainside. Several of the windows would not lock. The advertised fenced pet area was not usable due to weeds knee high. All of the gounds were knee high in weeds. I had to ask for a contract and when it was signed he wanted the rent in full. I reminded him on the contract agreement that full rent wasn't due until 2 months prior to arrival which was 5 months away. He said he forgot..things were hectic there. When I did send the rent, he complained of the method and the fact that I sent it certified registered mail. He said didn't want to have to go to the post office. He was going to charge me $15 to check the cahsiers check out until I told him that was a hidden fee. He did drop the fee. My chief complaint is that his house manual said carpet spills are $10. He accused us of a LARGE carpet stain in the master bedroom and kept $55 of our $300 deposit. There was a stain on the carpet when we arrived and his wife was working on it and she stated that she had cleaned the carpet and spots were showing up. He said the stain we supposedly made was seen by a black light. He accuses my dogs. My dogs weigh 3 lbs and were always crated when we weren't there and when we were there, they were downstairs with us. They can't make a LARGE anything. We left the house in immaculate condition. They even brought over their own trash for us to put out with trash from the house. We were worried from the beginning about how honest he was and unfortunately, our worries were confirmed. Nice home, beautiful view, but beware of the owner. He will find something wrong to keep part of your deposit.
