Leasing Agent Forged My Signature On Documents And Is Trying To Keep My Holding Fee

[location: willoughby hills, ohio]

I apologize if this isn’t written well or concise- i’m tired and very angry.

So i have a previous post on this place and it just got better.

Me and my gf applied to an apartment complex last week, putting down $50(ea) application fee and $200 holding fee, this week we get told we have a couple days to sign the lease but that if we sign it and decide not to move in we only lost the holding fee we put down. We ask for this in writing and both the agent and supervisor refuse to email it, write it down, anything. (we recorded the conversation for this)

Today i called them to cancel and decide to not move forward, we didn’t sign anything but the application documents which had all been verifications of income, “we’re not felons never been evicted” type documents. When they ask why i lost the things i found shady and among them was not putting the clause they mentioned in writing, when i said this they said they had a document we signed that had the clause on it.

I asked them to forward it to me and highlight the part, and they did- here’s the thing, Our names are spelt wrong on the document, and the only signature on their isn’t EITHER OF OURS, like it’s so off from both of our signatures that it’s almost comical. I point this out and ask to cancel and get my holding fee back, but they say no- as my printed name (which i can’t spell apparently) at the top and signed at the bottom i agreed to the terms- which included that if i waited more than 48 hours from approval to decline the lease they kept the holding fee.

Again, The signature is LAUGHABLY not mine or my partners, but he insisted it was mine and then hung up.

a paralegal friend of mine encouraged me not to contact upper management, corporate, or anything but to go straight for small claims court- but everything is kind of overwhelming for me, and i’m wondering how bad of an idea it’d be to contact the corporate offices of this company to try and settle this out of court, or if this is def something i should fight for.