STILLWATER, Okla. (KFOR) – Nearly half a dozen previous tenants of Campbell Property Management in Stillwater are frustrated and say that they feel stiffed when they leave units owned by Campbell.

Some have shown videos and pictures of it looking cleaner than before they moved in and still they saw no deposit money after.

“I just would like to know where all of my money has gone,” said Lauren Stuber.

Stuber and her husband moved into the Vintage in 2022 and said they paid around $600 in a deposit. However, the apartment they put that deposit on had many issues.

“There were ants in the hallway, dirt everywhere, there was hair in the bathroom,” said Stuber. “We didn’t end up thinking anything of it we just ended up cleaning it ourselves.”

Despite the dirt and damage, Stuber said that they paid the deposit and just wrote down everything that was already broken. She said that she hoped because she wrote the issues down she wouldn’t have to pay for any of it when they left.

When it was time for them to leave, Stuber said they cleaned it thoroughly and in a video obtained by KFOR, the apartment looked better than before.

“I swear, we cleaned it and left it better than it was. That’s what you’re supposed to do,” said Stuber. “I, at first, was charged $300 on top of them taking the money out of the deposit we put in. So, technically I owed them that money.”

When she called, Stuber said that she only ended up speaking with the receptionist who would never put her in touch with upper management. Eventually, after several phone calls with the receptionist at Campbell Property Management Stuber said that they agreed to send $70.

“I wanted to know where all of my money went, I wanted a list of where those payments had gone,” said Stuber. “I get that we didn’t hire a professional carpet cleaning crew, okay? But, what about the rest?”

Another complaint was that Stuber said it took nearly 80 days before she received the money.

Many other previous tenants KFOR spoke with had similar stories. They signed up and paid the deposit for a property of Campbell’s. They said that the place had either damage or dirt but they cleaned it themselves. When it was time to leave some said that management took all of the deposit and left nothing.

A KFOR employee said that they had a similar story and shared images before and after. The employee said that on move-in day they took pictures of ants, holes in the wall, and brown muck in the dishwasher. A year later, the tenant had made improvements on what it used to look like but Campbell’s still tried taking nearly half of their security deposit.

KFOR interviewed Jill Mozarko the Office Manager at Campbell’s and Bryce Campbell about the issues brought forth by previous tenants:

What do you have to say about previous tenants frustrated that they don’t receive their deposits back no matter what?

“Well I hear a lot of slander,” said Campbell.

“As for Lauren, she did get her deposit back but there was a mistake at the beginning (the extra $300). We sent it out within 45 days which is the law. It was sent out, the Post Office might not have gotten it to her in 45 days but we can’t control that. That’s a problem we have all the time but we can’t control that,” said Mozarko.

Lauren and others have complained that communication just isn’t there with management and previous tenants.

“No, I don’t believe so. She has talked with several of our front desk girls and she was very sweet and very nice to Lauren. I saw that there were mistakes that we made on our end so I issued her a refund for that and she ended up getting, I think $70 back,” said Mozarko.

If there was nothing wrong with the place at all why is she only getting $70?

“There was the carpet cleaning that was taken out and that preparation fee that was it,” said Mozarko.

She and others said that they had taken pictures beforehand of what the apartment looked like and when they left, it looked better and still aren’t getting any deposit, why?

“I can walk you through the list of people saying that and within an hour I can show you videos of how they left their unit and how trashed it was. How they destroyed the unit and how it was not in good condition yet they are going online trashing us,” said Mozarko.

One person showed that there were holes in the wall when they moved in, as well as brown muck in the dishwasher and ants.

“I don’t think we’ve ever gotten a call about ants. And that’s the other issue is that we don’t hear about these things. Lauren might be one out of 500 people who can’t seem to get ahold of me this summer. I know that sounds like an excuse,” said Mozarko.

In the end, Mozarko said that if any tenant, including Lauren, has a problem with payments or deposits or information, that they can contact her anytime at her email. However, everyone that KFOR had spoken with had said that getting in touch with her is difficult, if not impossible.

“I will work with Lauren if she wants,” said Mozarko. “Let her know that if she wants an itemized list of what items we paid for with the money then I have no problem giving it to her.”