License to steal in Virginia

briefly, the facts:

• From Jan. 2012 through Aug. 2013 we rented a house in Culpeper VA
• the owners turned the house over to VHS Management Inc. to manage
• all rent payments and maintenance requests went to VHS Management, Inc.
• we did not have any contact info for the owners/landlords 
• the rental agreement was a fill-in-the-blanks Northern Virginia Association of Realtors standard agreement (the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors standard rental agreement is the most one-sided contract that I have ever seen--99% "tenant must...", 1% "landlord must...")
• the roof leaked for two months onto our kitchen table
• the 1% of the standard lease that contains landlord responsibilities says: "14. Landlord Maintenance. Except as otherwise noted, the Landlord shall maintain the Premises in good repair and tenantable condition and shall be responsible for repairs not due to the fault or negligence of the Tenant."
• After one month of the roof leaking onto our kitchen table we filed a "Tenant Assertion and Complaint" with the General District Court in Culpeper VA
• the judge dismissed our complaint because we "didn't serve the owners". (As stated above, we don't have, nor did we ever have, contact info for the owners.)
• VHS Management Inc. informed us that our lease would not be renewed and we moved in August 2013
• In Sept. 2013 we received a check from VHS Management Inc. for refund of our security deposit and propane gas that we bought but did not use. The check was $50. short. We notified VHS Management Inc. that the check was $50. short.
• Two months later in Nov. 2013, not having received the $50 owed to us, or even a response to our notification to VHS Management Inc. that the refund was $50 short, we filed a complaint with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
• In March 2014 we were informed that VPOR dismissed our complaint.

taken from: 

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA 
REAL ESTATE BOARD 
REAL ESTATE REGULATIONS 
Last Updated April 1, 2008 

STATUTES 
Title 54.1, Chapter 21 

Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation 
9960 Mayland Drive, Suite 400 
Richmond, VA 23233 
(804) 367-8500 
www.dpor.viginia.gov 

PART IV. 
STANDARDS OF PRACTICE AND CONDUCT 

18 VAC 135-20-260. Unworthiness and incompetence. 

Actions constituting unworthy and incompetent conduct include: 

10. Failing to act as a real estate broker or salesperson in such a manner as to safeguard the interests of the public; and

11. Engaging in improper, fraudulent, or dishonest conduct.

WHAT A CROCK OF....!!!
TENNANTS BEWARE!!! 
Virginia is not a consumer-friendly state. 
Realtors/property managers in Virginia have license to steal with impunity (from seniors and others).

Taken from my email to the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation investigator dated Feb. 21, 2014: 

“The purpose of licensing laws is to protect the public. If the average tenant must spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars trying to get the landlord through the landlord's licensed agent to do what is clearly stated in the lease as their responsibility, then licensing laws have failed the public. Further, if the landlord's licensed agent gyps the tenant out of $50.00, and the licensing board doesn't take action to prevent the landlord's licensed agent from gypping other people in the future, and the tenant's only recourse is to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars pursuing the matter, then the licensing board has failed to protect the public.”