Connect Inc

This review is based on my experience with Connect Inc. Last November in 2020 I was approached by a young lady who said she was enrolled in a program that will pay for her housing. After a conversation with the young lady who I’ll refer to from now on as “the girl”, I decided to go ahead and give her a try. The girl paid the first months rent and security deposit and I allowed her to move in four days early before start of the lease. Shortly after, possibly a day or two I was contacted by Connect Inc. and instructed that they have to pay the first months rent and security deposit and that I had to refund the money to tenant which I did immediately the next day. Connect met with me at the house, I believe within a week to go over certain requirements with the inside of home and needed copies of the lease. I had to send them the lease by email and also confirm the changes were made in home. They also had me fill out required tax Information. For the first week or so everything was fine but within the first month the utilities were not getting paid and five months after her initial move in the bills still weren’t in her name. The tenant was supposed to have the bills put in her name immediately. Roughly what followed after was notices by the credit bureaus with instructions that I was to call them immediately. Luckily for me I was able to pay the bills and not have my credit ruined. The tenant multiple times lied to me and told me the bills are paid and that everything was put in her name. Connect has social workers that instructed me that everything is to go through them and they’ll take care of it. Connect Also in messages instructed that they were in charge. After many messages to the tenant regarding certain problems and at the same time sending messages to the social workers, which many of my messages were not answered, there were finally meetings scheduled. The purpose of these meetings were to have discussions with the tenant and to help her become compliant within the program. My wife and I did not want to have to evict this young lady and we welcomed every opportunity to help her. I will admit the only thing that I liked about Connect was the fact they paid me on time, every month. There was three meetings that were scheduled with the tenant and all of them she was never present. She never notified me or the social worker. I believe it was the last meeting, the third one the social worker called her and the tenant said she was in the hospital with the children. The tenants grandfather who is at the property every day letting the dog out came around the corner and I asked him where is the girl? and he informed us that she got called into work. So now from this point on even the social worker knows she’s lying. My lease dictates in emergencies I can go into the home and I have a video of myself and the social worker who agreed that we should go into the home so we did. Incidentally this is what society wants now, social workers to handle the situations. I’m telling y’all that society is making a big mistake. The social workers or connect whom they work for do not care for the landlords and their costly investments. They’re only concern is for their clients and the trash they place in these homes. The home was absolutely deplorable condition. The outside was in deplorable condition. The grass was at least several feet high, trash all over the place. We went into the home. It was disgusting in there, very dirty, cloths everywhere. It really looked like a tornado went through there but that wasn’t the worst. The vents in the floor were clogged with debris and just plain house junk, Along with dirt and just plain filth. The home itself looks like a gang of thugs went through there with holes in the walls, paint scuffed off the walls, over possibly 1000 holes in the upstairs drywall, and the mudroom was totally destroyed with holes they could throw a bowling ball through in the drywall, not to mention all the trim chewed up. My wife and I got a loan for 27,000 to totally remodeled this home. Three brand new $280 doors +140+ dollar screen door kicked in with dings and dents. The tenant was instructed not to put any screws in the walls but decided to screw curtain rods into my brand new metal doors. I was heartbroken, six months of my wife and my dedication and hard work totally destroyed. I want to take the time to mention that for months and months I messaged the social workers, pleaded to do something, while at the same time called Connect trying to get a hold of supervisors and the people in charge. As of right now I can prove everything I said with text messages. I never got a hold of anybody and was promised that someone would call, which never happened of course. In multiple text messages from the social workers I was promised emails and answers to my questions to no avail. One time I did get to speak to a lady in charge who told me that I was not in their “we fix your house program” and that maybe this wasn’t a program for us. The lady also told me “that since my wife and I can’t handle this program since “this is what these tenants do, they destroy houses, and that maybe we should sell our house, and that were in the wrong business”. I was upset that we were being painted the bad guys in this relationship. I told the lady that if we couldn’t remain in the program after being explained what the program would do and what we could expect, that wouldn’t be fair. The lady told me that after they pay me the three months rent and I get to keep the security deposit for the $10,000 in damage that they were going to vacate the program. This meant that they were done with us. I was angry and I said “if we’re not treated fairly I will have to go to the commissioners about this”. This lady became furious and told me that I may not mean to sound threatening but that I am making threats, and that I do not threaten her and she hung up on me. I never did after months of trying ever get to speak to anybody from Connect again. After the tenant was out of the house they changed the locks on my home without my permission and apparently had cleaners according to the text messages go through our house to clean. After two weeks we were finally allowed back in the home. I was told by the lady who hung up on me “so I couldn’t go back in and cause more damage and try to pin it on them”. So like I said after two weeks we were allowed to go in, the social worker, top supervisor, myself and my counsel. The supervisor again said that this might not be the program for us, but they hate to see their landlords treated like this, and that they were going to help. She also reiterated that I was getting three months rent and got to keep a security deposit. I called every politician in the area including Commissioners, some of which made phone calls on my behalf, but would not send a confirming email on what the discussions were. Commissioner also confirmed that I could expect three months rent and the security deposit but later when I contacted him to give me an affidavit he said that he couldn’t get involved. It blows my mind that these politicians take a oath but that no one would help with this issue. Even though I tried and my counsel tried, we never did find out who’s in charge of connect. Even connect seems to be confused and could never confirm who founded this piece of trash staying in our home. SPHS was even contacted multiple times and was very little help. Over $10,000 in damage to our beautiful new house and a half a year of our hard work down the drain. And now that I filed a case against them they had an attorney send me a settlement offer which stated I would get my last months rent if I sign they weren’t responsible. So now Connect is breaking their promise of the three months rent in hopes that we are so financially strapped that will sign off any responsibility for them since we need money so bad. Yeah right. I’m not signing nothing. I have several senators now involved and was promised by one of the local news stations that a reporter will talk to one of the attorneys and are interested in the story. The heart ache and aggravation this has caused has been a horrible drain on us. I’ve had to be treated and have therapy sessions because I’ve been so depressed. I think the worst thing is being ignored and no one taking responsibility for what has happened. I know there’s a local young man that has 50 homes with them. I know that this young man collects rent and is also paid by connect to fix the damage any tenant causes. This young man is very wealthy and has many homes with Connect so I guess this is why they take care of him. The $18,000 we paid for the house, and the $27,000 I put into it was our entire life savings. I’m telling y’all that as of right now I would never recommend Connect inc. for any landlord to do business with. Also Pennsylvania SPHS is equally horrible and did next to nothing to help us. I’ll keep you all up-to-date on the hearing that is scheduled very soon. Of course I’m suing some sort of County run program and have a little faith in our court systems to do what’s fair but time will tell. The financial drain has also been overwhelming but we will get through it and most certainly come out the better for it. And for all the ladies in this program that are laughing at us and ignored us, I’ll say thank you for the pain you caused and life has a strange way of coming back around. My impression of all of you is that you have a little control in your lives and have enjoyed your chance to beat up on us! You all have my sympathy. I hope this story goes public and you all loose your jobs. Landlords, be very careful with Connect Inc. They admitted they haven’t done this right. I just want the taxpayer in Washington county, and other surrounding counties that their Hard earned tax dollars our funding Tenants to destroy houses and get a total free ride.