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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.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Easterner is Sylvia Ellingwood. Shes a snake in the grass. I rented her Litchfield property and it was a giant mess. Took 4 dump loads of the previous tenants garbage to move in. They fix nothing but when they are forced to her drunk, drug addict son shows up. Heres a sample.
I had similar experiences with Sylvia 2015 when I moved back to Washington, I had the same long drawn out responses and her not having photos of the house but it was a great home and such. When we went to see the house that her son met us to show it was in absolutely terrible shape (which was to be fixed before we moved in) she had a “handyman” fix the major things and told us they other things were scheduled to be fixed. After moving in the back door was a closet door with a simple pin lock, and handle lock. The breaker blew anytime we tried to use our dryer when asked for someone to come look at it she put it off for 2-3 weeks. We had to leave for an emergency family issue when informed her and I had my mom checking on the house, she had her husband “break” in to fix the breaker which he (still did not work) he broke the door and lock and left it open. She never informed us that she was having someone come by or anything and left my house open to whoever please by breaking the “closet” door with lock. When I inquired about getting a new door is when she told me her husband had done it 2 days prior and left cause he couldn’t fix the breaker and it still didn’t work! including black mold we found. Not even 2 weeks later after the door was to be fixed 4 different occasions the house was then broken(through the same door that we jimmy rigged to be somewhat secure) into and everything of value stolen. When my husband called her about it she was screaming and using curse words at him and then blamed us for the property being broken into and insisted we broke into the house so we could get a pay off then hung up on us. I wrote her that night and told her I was ending our lease as soon as I could get a new place. She told me she was going to sue me and I still owed rent for the 7 months. Then I continued to receive harassing emails and text messages and multiple call after call telling me I still owed her. I contacted an attorney within a week of this all, and had records of everything which gave us lawful termination of the contract and the lawyer wrote a certified deaming we had every right to terminate due to failure to fix things that were required by law to do and if she was going to contact me she would be taken to court and sued. Sucky part is she never returned the money from the “deposit or last month rent and I was only there for 2 months
WOW, I just received a call from her responding to my craigslist ad at 11:30 at night, she appeared nice but after looking her up and finding this, I am not sure if she is. She wanted help cleaning up a fire that occurred in "August 5" of this year and then help us out with the rental but records show it was more like five years the fire happened.
Sylvia is a common thief. She will not repair anything. In the dead if winter the baseboard heaters in the house went out. She told me to go buy space heaters and wait for spring, then the pipes froze her way of fixing it was to have her drug fueled soon drop off a bale of hay to stuff in the wall. She had a 700k+ debt for lawsuit brought against her. She never worked for the red Cross on hurricane Katrina which was easily verified by them. In fact during Katrina she was in Texas. Her husband is a kind man who is brow beatin by her. We sued her got a judgement due to the structural integrity of the house we rented. She appeared in court was told to pay it immediately or face jail time. She fled to north Carolina and has an open warrant. She's a pile. Do not rent from this thief. You're better off without this woman in your life.
I totally agree with what is being said here. I signed a lease with Sylvia Ellingwood for July 2015.She comes at me with the current tenants" Don't want to move".So I in return posted a ad on craigslist stating "I need housing".Sylvia saw my ad and went crazy.Saying things like "I'm trying to scam people".I have had a tragic fire in December 2014, which left my six year old son graphed on his left hand, elbow, ear and face.I was given only a couple of weeks to find adquete housing.Sylvia was given a time and a place to meet to recieve money for the house she declined.Saying she was not renting to me due to a eviction I had.She knew all this from the craigslist ad she responded to.She does call and harass people.She got me kicked off snap housing.
How can I put it nicely, this lady is flat out crazy. Please do not rent from her. I am not trying to bad mouth anyone, I am just trying to save you. She will call you for no reason yelling and screaming at you and you won't even understand why. All she wants is your money and for you to sign a lease for a home she does not clean before you move in or even take the nails out of the walls. Ridicously priced move in for a home that you have to clean YOURSELF before you can live there. She called me literally screaming while I talked calmly to her. I told her that the conversation was inappropriate and she said that what was inappropriate was that I didn't sign a lease. Are you serious? I told her that I won't be disrespected like that and thanked her for her time and hung up. Thank goodness I dodged that bullet. Again, it may sound like I am trying to bad mouth. I am just extremely upset that a person could put someone through this and I want to save anyone else from making the same mistake I did applying for a house from this lady. You will go to only VIEW the home and she will call and harass you about why you didn't sign a lease and give money to her husband during the viewing because he is 80 and in antagonizing pain. Since when does an 80 year old man (who shows no signs of pain) showing you a rental turn into you being obligated to sign a lease right then and there. And please tell me how this justifies me being harassed and shouted at. Especially when I texted her after the viewing and told her that I was interested in renting the home (I was desperate to find a place fast and this was a very easy home to get into credit wise, now I know why! Nobody wants to rent for her obviously). Anyways, after I text her and tell her I'm interested she calls me and says I don't understand what's wrong with the house. I said I'm sorry ma'm what do you mean? She says why was there no money given why was there no lease signed I don't understand. I told her that I needed to talk to my parents first, as I was renting it with them and they had the final say. She literally screamed at me YOU'RE 18 YOU DON'T NEED YOUR PARENTS APPROVAL. I'm sorry that some 18 year olds respect their parents and don't just sign leases without talking to the person who is paying for it, my bad. Any sane person would understand that. I told her that I set up a day with her husband to sign the lease on Tuesday (it was Sunday that day). And she yelled I can't wait until Tuesday! What the heck? I was so confused after this entire phone call where I basically got screamed at and talked completely polite to this psycho woman. I'm sorry I'm just so upset that this woman is even allowed to rent homes out! PLEASE DO NOT RENT FROM HER UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE STRESSED OUT AND STALKED FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR LEASE. After the phone call she kept texting and calling my parents, which I already warned that there was no way we could rent from her after how badly she disrespected and how completely insane she acted. I'm 18 and she acted more immature than any person I've ever met in my entire life, hands down. She texted my parents the next day and said I need to know if you are still interested in the rental or else I have to rent it to someone else. If I'm not answering your million phone calls maybe you should get the hint and move on! Cause I'm sure you have a whole list of people waiting to rent from you. So now that I've ranted on and on, in all honesty, seriousness, and respect, I believe something is not right with this woman. I think she have a mental disease of some sort beyond her control. I am not being mean just stating that I believe she might not be able to control or even understand that what she is doing is wrong. There are definitely some major issues in her head, and if for some reason I am wrong, I apologize, but I truly do not see how I could be wrong. I really feel sorry for this woman and her husband (because he was a nice guy.) Don't get me wrong, she is completely nice when you first talk to her, but if you don't hand over the cash when and where she wants it, SHE WILL TURN INTO A WHOLE NOTHER PERSON. If you give her the $3000 move in she wants the same moment you start talking to her about her home, maybe renting from her will be a different experience for you. And remember, viewings of the home don't go over well for her. Bring money in hand or she will flip on you over the phone. Better yet, DONT RENT FROM THIS LANDLORD.
Interesting. Found this post via a search for Sylvia Ellingwood. In dealing with her I can't tell what is fact and what is fiction. This post helps me a lot.
I am the original poster of this complaint. Nothing is slanderous. It is all true and I am able to prove every word. I keep very good records, especially on past homes we have lived in. We have never once had a problem with a landlord and we have been renters many times. That, too, can be proven. I believe that this is Sylvia or a 'friend' of hers making these posts. I would love to know if I am wrong, though! Please explain how my posting is 'criminally negligent' or 'slanderous'. That would imply I have broken a law, and I have not. It's only slander if it isn't true. Landlord can respond, this is a public forum! You are right, however, in that many fellow Americans have been very grateful and offered us help for my husband's service. That in NO WAY mean they ALL do. This woman took great advantage of us because we were naive and did not press for photos of the property before we signed the paperwork. Sylvia's son flew in from San Antonio and stopped by to see how we were doing. He, at least, seemed very nice. He was very much outraged himself at what his mother had done and the condition of the house. He apologized profusely to us that he had any involvement and that he was also sorry that he vouched for his mother and the home. He then invited us to show us some of the local sites if we had a free day while he was in town. (If you read this, we are truly sorry we didn't get to meet up with you again!)
To the first post, you have had different experiences that are pretty unheard of if you think military folks are hard to please. We get jerked around so much that we are often thankful just to be settled into decent accommodations with the majority of our belongings unbroken by movers. Where does it say that we were a 'very challenged family'? We transitioned quite nicely, thanks so much! Besides the issues with this 'landlord', we had zero problems or stresses about our move. My husband was MEDICALLY RETIRED. Please, explain what stress you think we had? Finding new work? Furthering education for a promotion? Please don't make assumptions, you don't know us. The other side of the story that you are looking for is just a person search away. You have her name and her city/state. It isn't hard to put those things together and get in touch. I never said it was a 'prominent neighborhood'. It isn't. It is middle class. Sylvia is NOT MILITARY and therefore is NOT OUR FELLOW MILITARY. Sylvia Ellingwood ASKED me to repaint the house. There is my permission! My family and I are very happy, have little to no stress, few challenges and great compensation for my husband's service and sacrifice. Those are all assumptions you made and therefore invalid. It states in my complaint that it was my husband that was transitioning, so please read carefully and fully understand what it is that you are responding to. We fully appreciate all of the kindness that we have gotten, this was NOT kindness. It was an easy way to make a quick buck and mess someone over. What weakness are you referring to? I purposefully waited a long time (over a year!) before writing my complaint so that there was little to no emotion attached to it. You are right, let us be kinder to each other and stop trying to scam the people protecting you. Sylvia, if you would like to keep saying that I am making slanderous statements, please prove ANY OF IT WRONG. I can support every claim I have made. Can you?
I would like for you to get in contact with me and get all the information that you have I will be taking her to court. She has done many things illegally as a landlord. Just while I have been here which is why she is terminating my rental contract.
I found out from a family across the street so she's been pulling Rent fraud for a long time.
She raised rent on me after having me use snap home repairs to replace the insulation lost to the fire
This complaint states desire for a month to month rent. Landlord agrees to accept pets, drops rent $160./mo. in a prominent neighborhood with good neighbors as stated by the complainer and agrees to a month to month rent in a much desired area so as to accomodate a FELLOW MILITARY FAMILY. Complainter stated subject's son was also at the same army medical facility. Complainter states they painted the house. Who gave permission for this? Question arises as to why the landlord was serving eviction papers. Eviction papers are usually reserved for non-payment of rent, unlawful use of the premises, disturbance of neighbors and or damages to property. Sorry, but in reading this it appears this complaint was made by an unhappy, over stressed, over challenged, probably underpaid, stressed to the max spouse. From the complaint it is unclear who was transitioning. Our servicemen and women have paid dearly for the privileges of keeping us free. They should be thanked by all of us. On the other hand they must recognise and appreciate kindness when it is shown. This complaint is slanderous and while possible short comings from complaintants expectations it shows only weakness of character from the writer. Hopefully it was just a bad day when written. Let's be kinder to each other and see good where there is good. Boston Strong.
This post is criminally negligent and seriously defames subject landlord who it appears has no way of responding. So serious are the accusations it was noted that there isbut one complaint against this landlord. I have searched and found no others. It's indeed unfortunate the complaintant was so displeased. He/she does state that the property was in a very good area and neighbors were pleasant. It's my personal belief that the majority of Americans do milyseek to help returning vets, especially those who have been injured. It is a great challenge toeet all their needs and their problems are many. It would seem in reading this tirade against this landlord that there were serious adjustment issues for this young and very challenged family. Let's hear the other side of this story before rushing to judgement.
I myself am residing at that exact address years later the landlord degrades her other tenants she has divulged information to me about other tenants that I know for a fact violates privacy laws. She calls her tenants deadbeats. She used me to have insulation put into the house through snap home repairs program after the previous renters had a house fire. I myself installed the ceiling in the East end of the house as well as painted the house. What does person says matches the owner to a T dot for dot word for word. This woman is extremely vile. She told me the neighbor to the east was a rude [censored] the man was nothing but pleasant when I met him.
this woman uses tenants to fix up the property so that they can live in it for a little while and then kicks them out so she can raise the rent for someone else. My starting rent was $1, 085. I had to clean up from the fire from the insulation debris that was pulled out by the fire department from the roofer that never finished the roofing job. This is not a rush to judgement