Palm Springs renters beware of Joan H. Leonard aka Joan Leonard, owner of , Palm Springs, CA 92262! She works in Financial Planning and Analysis for .
We answered an ad on VacationRentals.com regarding this property. Joan Leonard responded from a email address and she posts on many different sites, including Craigslist. In the beginning, this was our only email contact for her. Her “address” is really a post office box at Post Masters in Sherman Oaks, so the only physical address we had for her was the address. She hides her home address (this should have been a sign for us in the beginning). If she was truly running an upstanding business, why would she need to hide her actual address? If that was so important to her and she was forthright, she should have hired a company to handle the rental. In addition, she told us to primarily contact her at , as this was the best method during the week. We contacted after there were problems and they said they have nothing to do with the house and it’s against their policy for an employee to run their own business or accept personal or outside business calls at .
However, in the beginning, we felt comfortable enough to rent this vacation home because of the perceived tie to and it being posted on a legitimate vacation rental website. Let me tell you – this was a total nightmare, with Ms. Leonard planning ways to enter the home from the very beginning after making assurances in writing before we signed the lease that she didn’t foresee any reason to enter the home during our 4 month tenancy, because she had renters already in place after our lease expired. This was a vacation rental for us to relax and enjoy. We did not want to be bothered by the landlord or anyone else during this time. It was only 4 months, hardly enough time for a landlord to need to enter for anything less than immediate/necessary repairs that I notified her about.
And right from the beginning there were needed repairs. As admitted by Ms. Leonard in the initial walkthrough, there was a problem with the spa. In addition, upon taking possession after being assured the carpets had been cleaned, there were numerous large carpet stains throughout the home and it smelled. We had to have it professionally cleaned twice at our expense to get the stains and odors out (and the cleaners were able to). Upon notifying Ms. Leonard of this, she promised in writing that she would reimburse us for the cost of the carpet cleaning and she never did.
The pantry, freezer and refrigerator all had food in them, much of which was long expired. Who would rent a vacation home filled with food? Even the soda was expired, so that says something for how long it must have been there. We had already paid the first and last months of rent plus the deposit up front, so we were already heavily invested in this home based on trust. Ms. Leonard was using the name to add credibility to the rental.
In addition, the recycle bin in the garage was overflowing when we took possession of the home, forcing us to wait a week to be able to dispose of it before we could use it for our items. In addition, liquids and food had leaked into the trash bins in the garage and they literally stunk. We had to soak them in a bleach solution multiple times for hours and rinse with a hose to get the stench and rotting food and other waste out of them.
In her move-in instruction sheet that she handed us upon taking over the property, she told us to play music really loud in the backyard to disturb the neighbor behind her, because he had complained about noise in the past from her. Who would put that in writing in a move-in sheet? We were stunned when she was reading this to us. Again, we have this in writing from her.
Now the real problems started, where she sent a vendor inside the home with no notice (originally the lease said that and when I questioned it, she changed it to a 48-hour notice). She changed the time of the spa repair (this was the second spa repair) multiple times to make sure we wouldn’t be there when the repair occurred. She attempted to spend the day in the house with us under the guise of planting two plants on the side of the house. She sent countless notices to gain access to the premises and even showed up with the police one time with her decorator that she needed to enter the house. Is this something you would want to deal with on a short-term vacation rental? Is this the type of person you would want to do business with?
Upon this continued harassment, we offered many times to vacate the home in exchange for returning our unused rent and deposit and she refused each time. We were forced to hire an attorney to legally protect ourselves and our possessions, because she kept violating the lease.
She also cancelled the soft water service after a month, leaving the old tank (which according to the company needs to be changed every 28 days) for the next 3 months and our water had to go through that for the remainder of the lease.
We were supposed to be notified monthly when pest control was showing up as there was allegedly a contract. However, we were never notified of any pest control until shortly before the end of our lease. So either they entered the property without the proper legal notification or it didn’t happen for the entire time we were there.
She is so paranoid, that she changed the locks after we moved out and is claiming we should pay for that. We agree that the locks should be changed; as we never felt safe knowing that many people she fired had keys to the property still. In the short time we were there, she fired the water softener people (she had just fired another company before we arrived), the pool service and earlier in the year she had fired the gardener (she told us that story).
She refused to participate in a final walkthrough, which is a legal requirement if you are deducting anything from the security deposit, which she did. Upon returning the balance of the security deposit, the check was written to my maiden name, even though the lease was signed in my married name. I definitely felt like I was being discriminated against. Are these things really something you want to deal with in a rental property? Is this the type of person you want to do business with? A person that hides their home address, wants unlimited access to the property to visit and check up on it and provides constant drama if she doesn’t get her way.
This is our story, which we have documents in pictures, videos and written correspondence. In our opinion, run if you hear the name Joan Leonard, the address or see any of her ads. Palm Springs seasonal renters beware!
Joan H. Leonard, Rental Home Reviews
Palm Springs renters beware of Joan H. Leonard aka Joan Leonard, owner of , Palm Springs, CA 92262! She works in Financial Planning and Analysis for .
We answered an ad on VacationRentals.com regarding this property. Joan Leonard responded from a email address and she posts on many different sites, including Craigslist. In the beginning, this was our only email contact for her. Her “address” is really a post office box at Post Masters in Sherman Oaks, so the only physical address we had for her was the address. She hides her home address (this should have been a sign for us in the beginning). If she was truly running an upstanding business, why would she need to hide her actual address? If that was so important to her and she was forthright, she should have hired a company to handle the rental. In addition, she told us to primarily contact her at , as this was the best method during the week. We contacted after there were problems and they said they have nothing to do with the house and it’s against their policy for an employee to run their own business or accept personal or outside business calls at .
However, in the beginning, we felt comfortable enough to rent this vacation home because of the perceived tie to and it being posted on a legitimate vacation rental website. Let me tell you – this was a total nightmare, with Ms. Leonard planning ways to enter the home from the very beginning after making assurances in writing before we signed the lease that she didn’t foresee any reason to enter the home during our 4 month tenancy, because she had renters already in place after our lease expired. This was a vacation rental for us to relax and enjoy. We did not want to be bothered by the landlord or anyone else during this time. It was only 4 months, hardly enough time for a landlord to need to enter for anything less than immediate/necessary repairs that I notified her about.
And right from the beginning there were needed repairs. As admitted by Ms. Leonard in the initial walkthrough, there was a problem with the spa. In addition, upon taking possession after being assured the carpets had been cleaned, there were numerous large carpet stains throughout the home and it smelled. We had to have it professionally cleaned twice at our expense to get the stains and odors out (and the cleaners were able to). Upon notifying Ms. Leonard of this, she promised in writing that she would reimburse us for the cost of the carpet cleaning and she never did.
The pantry, freezer and refrigerator all had food in them, much of which was long expired. Who would rent a vacation home filled with food? Even the soda was expired, so that says something for how long it must have been there. We had already paid the first and last months of rent plus the deposit up front, so we were already heavily invested in this home based on trust. Ms. Leonard was using the name to add credibility to the rental.
In addition, the recycle bin in the garage was overflowing when we took possession of the home, forcing us to wait a week to be able to dispose of it before we could use it for our items. In addition, liquids and food had leaked into the trash bins in the garage and they literally stunk. We had to soak them in a bleach solution multiple times for hours and rinse with a hose to get the stench and rotting food and other waste out of them.
In her move-in instruction sheet that she handed us upon taking over the property, she told us to play music really loud in the backyard to disturb the neighbor behind her, because he had complained about noise in the past from her. Who would put that in writing in a move-in sheet? We were stunned when she was reading this to us. Again, we have this in writing from her.
Now the real problems started, where she sent a vendor inside the home with no notice (originally the lease said that and when I questioned it, she changed it to a 48-hour notice). She changed the time of the spa repair (this was the second spa repair) multiple times to make sure we wouldn’t be there when the repair occurred. She attempted to spend the day in the house with us under the guise of planting two plants on the side of the house. She sent countless notices to gain access to the premises and even showed up with the police one time with her decorator that she needed to enter the house. Is this something you would want to deal with on a short-term vacation rental? Is this the type of person you would want to do business with?
Upon this continued harassment, we offered many times to vacate the home in exchange for returning our unused rent and deposit and she refused each time. We were forced to hire an attorney to legally protect ourselves and our possessions, because she kept violating the lease.
She also cancelled the soft water service after a month, leaving the old tank (which according to the company needs to be changed every 28 days) for the next 3 months and our water had to go through that for the remainder of the lease.
We were supposed to be notified monthly when pest control was showing up as there was allegedly a contract. However, we were never notified of any pest control until shortly before the end of our lease. So either they entered the property without the proper legal notification or it didn’t happen for the entire time we were there.
She is so paranoid, that she changed the locks after we moved out and is claiming we should pay for that. We agree that the locks should be changed; as we never felt safe knowing that many people she fired had keys to the property still. In the short time we were there, she fired the water softener people (she had just fired another company before we arrived), the pool service and earlier in the year she had fired the gardener (she told us that story).
She refused to participate in a final walkthrough, which is a legal requirement if you are deducting anything from the security deposit, which she did. Upon returning the balance of the security deposit, the check was written to my maiden name, even though the lease was signed in my married name. I definitely felt like I was being discriminated against. Are these things really something you want to deal with in a rental property? Is this the type of person you want to do business with? A person that hides their home address, wants unlimited access to the property to visit and check up on it and provides constant drama if she doesn’t get her way.
This is our story, which we have documents in pictures, videos and written correspondence. In our opinion, run if you hear the name Joan Leonard, the address or see any of her ads. Palm Springs seasonal renters beware!