My wife and I should have known not to move in when we saw our apartment on move in day. You see, the show apartment is immaculate and nice; not mind-blowing, but nice. Once they actually put you in a real unit you notice that the appliances are older than what they showed, the doors donât close the way they should, the heater doesnât work right, and the layout is slightly different (and smaller) than what you were shown. We already paid rent and the non-refundable application fee and had all our stuff in the U-Haul, so we moved in anyway.
Problems arose almost immediately. They said that we could move in on Labor Day, and then when I called a few days before the move in day to ask about move in protocol. They said we couldnât move in then, because it was a holiday. I told them I had a signed document saying we could, so they legally had to let us move in. That made them change their tune, and we were allowed to move in a few days early without paying extra rent. They didnât have our mail or laundry room keys ready for us when we got there though, and it took almost two weeks to get them. Two weeks! There was no excuse for this; we signed the lease two months in advance, and the move-in inspection sheet was turned in that same day. We had to ask them repeatedly on a daily basis for weeks before they would give us the stupid keys.
Then the dishwasher broke within the first week. We asked them to fix it. After a few days maintenance came in and told us they fixed it. Within a few days it was leaking again. This happened four times. I was in the apartment the last time he supposedly âfixedâ it. Turns out, all he was doing was cleaning the machine. I asked him how that was supposed to fix the leaking and he told us âwhen itâs clean it doesnât leak.â We complained to them until we made them get us a different machine.
After the dishwasher debacle, the real problems started. We had a mouse infestation. In less than two months we caught 9 mice. NINE! At first they told us that maintenance would plug up the holes. Instead he came by with some mouse traps and asked âwhere do you want me to put them?â I told him that they were coming out of the stove and to look for holes. âNo, Iâll just give you the traps.â
This went on for weeks upon weeks. We contacted the Rental Protection Agency and the Health Department. That finally got them to pay attention to us. They eventually sent someone in after having the problem for a month, but all he did was put insulation foam over the holes. âAccording to the lease, this is all I can do; I canât modify the apartment in any way,â he said.
They tried to have us move to a different unit in the complex, but we insisted they let us out of the lease early without financial penalty. They resisted, but we were on their case daily for so long that they gave in and allowed us to do so at the six month mark. We still had to live there two months though. In that two weeks, 8 more mice were trapped. That's a grand total of 17 mice if 4 months.
If you are aware of the problems the buildings are having, theyâll confess to it, but if not, they wonât say anything to warn tenants. My next door neighbor was told, for instance, that only his apartment had mice (which was a ludicrous assertion), and another neighbor had bedbugs which the management failed to warn us about. Luckily, they never got into our apartment, but they easily could have.
Do not live here. Unless they undergo a huge renovation AND change their management, donât even consider it. We got out, but I know that others were not so lucky. If you do find yourself here and you need to get out, document everything. Donât take their crap. Theyâll try to bully you, but you have rights. Talk to the Health Department. Keep copies of all your correspondence. Force them to communicate to you in writing. You can get out if you become too much of a headache for them to handle.
laserwolf65
April 18, 2016
