Cindy Harriman
3/5
I thought last year and that I am a legal aid would be a huge help to me. I really did. I thought I stood a chance at getting somebody to help me. I don’t know what you have to do to receive help from Iowa legal aid, but I have gone through them twice I was fortunate enough to get a legal advocate. And she has been fantastic. but the intake attorney they send you to Tony Almquist. He is kind of a jerk. I reached out to them because I was being evicted wrongfully evicted, because when it happened was not my fault, and this was from the Homesteads company, just a heads up, don’t rent from them. But anyway, he sounded surprised whenever he asked me “you don’t have $830? “ and I’m like “no “ like I just have money hidden somewhere and I can just pull it out and just pay. I was unfortunately going through a divorce at the same time so my mind was elsewhere as well, and communication was not a big factor during our divorce unfortunately and I have been a stay at home mom and a house by for 18 years, so I became very accustomed to my now ex paying everything and I had no idea that he did not pay September’s rent so one thing led to the other. We ended up in court with the rental company. The landlady stated that they would work with my ex, but not me the Judge even asked would they give me more time or did they just want me out and Megan Youngblood said she just wanted me out. Maybe they can help in some cases but I have never had an income, so I was really surprised that they couldn’t help me, but their reasoning as to why they couldn’t help me is because they had too many caseloads. And honestly, my legal aid advocate has been a lot more help than I think any attorney could ever possibly be. And she’s doing this out of her own free time she doesn’t have to do this. It’s unfortunate that people that really really need the help. Can’t get it because what can you do? When your left alone and you’ve never dealt with anything on your own before what can you do?
Also, when we went to court with the rental company, I had a attorney there who I was told was supposed to represent me via Legal Aide. Her name is Ruby. I get there for court and she tells me that “yeah I don’t think we’re gonna have a very good chance of winning this” It sounds like they’re already winning” the day before she told me that and our biggest leverage was the fact that the sheriff never handed me the paperwork And I never signed for anything. What happened that defense? I have no idea. The judge even got up in the middle of the hearing your help somebody with a computer problem. And I’m pretty sure that the Homesteads group this was a judge that they have dealt with many many many times. So it was one of those cases it’s pretty much who you know I am a thing. I am appealing my eviction because I was never on the lease. I never signed it then he stuck an eviction on both me and my ex. I’ve never been on my own before, and now I’m like how am I supposed to get on my own with an eviction on my record? I’m going to try Legal Aide one more time because I have to take the landlord and file a civil suit because of how they removed everything out of the house at the house to say it was a disaster is an understatement, but I have video as well as pictures as well as evidence from past issues we had over the years. Bottom line, DO NOT rent from Homesteads Group. That’s my kid looking at everything in the last picture and yes they were doing this while he was there!!!! The wood is a part of my grandfathers furniture. It was not like that at all that furniture is way older than me and I’m 40 years old. He had it when I was a kid so I imagine he had it well before I was ever even born, and it’s kind of like family, heirloom furniture, I was going to sand down and re-stain it. They also put belongings in with garbage and every single, and one end table I had upstairs one of the legs is broken off, so we just left the other one there.
