Steinberg & Associates, P.A. - Miami Beach, FL

We rented a Miami Beach apartment managed by Richard Steinberg, owned by his father. Their young property manager, P. Fiallo, took our deposit and rental monies, promised a readied apartment. Weeks later, on move-in day, the apt was unpainted, no kitchen light fixture, greasy cabinets with rusted hardware, huge leak stinking under sink; no bathroom light or medicine cabinet; filthy threadbare carpet left on the bedroom and spongy, molded wall at the A/C. Mr. Fiallo "said do it yourself". With lifelong experience in construction management, we agreed, sent detailed letter to Steinberg on needed repairs, photos and receipts, never heard a word from him, but Fiallo came to us screaming angry. We paid 2 months rent unable to live there for extensive repairs, and also paid to live in a nearby hotel while we managed this renovation job: stripped the beer-soaked carpet, re-built entire BR floor, replaced drywall at A/C, re-finished kitchen cabinets adding new hardware, painted entire apt, refinished/ painted rusted, disintegrating security screens on all windows and doors, and bought light fixtures and medicine cabinet. One month after move-in, we suffered excruciating attacks from side and above neighbors, friends of Fiallo- throwing full cans of food onto their wooden floor above our bedroom during the night sounded like a bomb at 1am; laughing, they stuffed burning cigarettes and paper into our 2 A/C units; several in unison stomped on their floor above us, all hours, so we never had a moments' peace. Denora, Steinberg's secretary, said never call the office to discuss this with him. We were 62 & 68 years old and disabled, suffering this horrific abuse and financial exploitation. With no word, and current on rent, Steinberg filed an eviction against us, after we had already spent about $25,000 renovating the apt so we could live there. Judge didn't bother to look at our rent or construction receipts or photos; we never got a dime back, AND Steinberg stole our deposit. We were told the upstairs tenant who so viciously harassed us moved into our beautiful apt.