I know this is probably not the first story about Fairfield students renting houses at the beach and it probably won't be the last, but I feel the need to at least write this and hope to get the attention of someone to shed some light on just how deceptive this specific landlord was and still is.
What should be an exciting time for my daughter and her friends was the start of their senior year at Fairfield University 9/1/2011. The girls were finally released from Fairfield campus on the second lottery. They had already secured a beach rental but lost that because they didn't make the first release. Now in June they scramble to find a rental for all of them. Here is really where the story begins. Two of the girls head to the beach and start calling numbers off rental signs. John C Kucej has several rental signs posted. The girls contact him by phone, no problem with him answering his calls then, later is a different story. They take a look, he promises a new washer and dryer, refinish the floors, retile the disgusting bathroom shower on second floor and of course the house will be cleaned. During the summer, some of the parents just want to take a look and see the house he is charging $63,000 plus security to rent from 9/1/11 to graduation in May 2012. He does not answer the phone nor does he return phone calls. First red flag! Hurricane Irene hits the east coast, we are told the deck washed away and a window needs to be replaced other than that the house will be ready by 8/31/2011. Let me just mention the house is unfurnished and the girls are bringing beds, sofas, tables and chairs on the day of move in. We get a letter or an email stating the house will not be ready until Friday 9/2/11 because of the repairs. We are all understanding people and realizes the after math of Irene was devastating, but when we are told the house will be ready on Friday 9/2/11 and we arrive we are in total shock that this man felt that this house was safe and ready to be moved in. How he sleeps at night is beyond me. I was traveling from URI from moving my other daughter into school and heading towards Ct. Several of the parents called me and said the house was just horrible, the landlord Mr Kucej used profanity to 2 of the parents and drove away with the keys. I tried to be the voice of reason and still had not seen the house so I called Mr Kucej, he returned my call. He explained to me that he was very high strung and should apologize to the parents, I agreed that would be a start, also during that conversation Mr. Kucej said he locked the access to the 3rd floor because if the town inspector saw he was going to let them sleep up there they would be in violation so he will unlock it when we get there. Second red flag!I asked him to meet me at the house when I arrived to fairfield. Upon my arrival from the street all debris, soda bottles and cans were strewn across the lawn, Mr Kucej opened the bilco doors to the basement to show me what he called "pretty water heaters" my response is that is great I don't really care if they are pretty just want them to work. Honestly the water heaters were the nicest thing in the whole house. The storm door to the front door is swung open, because hinges were either broken or not tight, tiled floors were filthy, first floor shower and bath had not been cleaned in I don't know how long, old washer and dryer were still there in desperate need of replacement( which he promised) gas had not been turned on by gas company, the oven was beyond words( I took a picture with my phone no one could believe this without it) cabinets were filthy, baseboard heat throughout the house was missing covers, then what I saw next was unbelievable. Where there used to be a sliding glas door now featured a piece of 8 foot plywood, that did not even fit the opening properly, the deck was gone so the gas grill was now in the living room, the picture window was missing and now had plexy glass in its replacement, the fire place hearth had all loose bricks, and as I am walking through with this man he keeps telling me next week he will have it fixed. I state to him " just so we are all on the same page you are fixing the baseboard, the slider, the hearth, the window, the washer/dryer will be new, the house will be cleaned professionally he looks at me and says "listen lady there is nothing wrong here" wait did you not just go item by item while we walked through and said next week this will be finished? This man has $40,000 of our money! He told one of the parents he would never give us our money back. Can you imagine we are all here with our kids, furniture etc and they now have no where to live and we are all out over $4,000 each. Then I find out he refused to let health inspector in that day, not sure how you can refuse something like that I thought if they were there they get in not an option, PLUS the house is only allowed to have 4 occupants he rented to 8! he has a current ceast and disist order in place from the town, because of the deck, which he told me they issued him a permit that day I found out that was a lie, he never obtained a certificate of occupancy for this rental, he states he has 30 days from time they move in so in the meantime there is a carbon monoxide leak in the house why if not all these kids get sick or even worse and he is within the a lotted timeline. I hope the town of fairfield is not that relaxed with their CO's, there were no smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors in the home, honestly this could have possibly been a tragedy we would be reading about some day. He is an attorney and he knows the law and manipulates to his benefit and takes advantage of the students and families in this area.
As I am standing outside a neighbor walks up and says please do yourself a favor and don't let your daughter move in here, he is a Slumlord, everyone on the street hates him and what he does to these kids and their parents in unbelievable. If you move these kids in someone will report 8 people living there and they will get evicted and he will denie everything and lie. At that point Mr Kucej comes driving up in his Porsche suv and almost hits the man from behind with his car, jumps out of the car and screams at the neighbor I will sue you for slander.
It is now 8pm and we still have not secured housing. Finally we find 2 rentals that will not be available until next Tuesday and Wednesday, we all don't know where we will come up with the additional money but they need a place to live, we couldn't get in touch with the university since it was Friday night of Labor day weekend. We sign the leases and all head home, I went back with my Uhaul of furniture to NJ and the other parents took the trucks and furniture back with them as well. Mr Kucej calls me the next day twice and leaves a message pretending he is returning my call for a beach rental. He is probably trying to rentthe house to someone else and ripp them off as well.
Tuesday I am going back to Fairfield with my daughter's things and moving her in to her new rental, I plan on visiting the Fairfield health dept, engineer, building inspector and town councelman. They are all aware of him I am sure but someone needs to stop him. We are going to have to sue Mr Kucej for the return of our money. This has financially put a strain on all of us. and we may never get our money back and he may sue us for springs rent as well. If anyone can help us I would really appreciate it. I am trying to see if theer are any other families who have experienced the same thing with him. maybe if we get enugh parents together we can make the public aware to not rent from him or at least no what you are getting into before you do. You would think is an attorney and lives several doors down from his houses how can he drive by and know what he has done to them. It is disgusting.
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