Okay, so I knew the place was rundown, but I thought I could stick it out for a year, while I save up to buy a condo. I had NO idea the place was overrun with rodents and bed bugs. I am so sad that I live here! I am trying my hardest to find a way to get out of this lease. This is by far, the worst place I've ever lived, and that includes tiny dorm rooms, and rundown off campus apartments.
For the first month and a half of my lease, I was traveling a lot, so I had no idea how bad things were. However, the first full week of being in the apartment on a daily basis revealed some rather interesting findings. Each time you or your neighbors take a shower, the water tank makes weird noises for about 20 minutes after you're done, and the water in the bathroom has a faint chemical smell. The refrigerator motor is pretty darn loud, and if I don't close both bedroom doors, it wakes me up at night. Since the apartment is full of old appliances that creak and crackle at will, you may be able to understand why I thought the noises coming from my stove were simply more old appliance sounds.
I noticed that my stove would usually make a lot of noise after I prepared a meal, and I thought it was the metal cooling. The noise has been occurring since I moved in, so when I saw a mouse climb out of the back burner of my stove, I almost fainted. The stealthy creature pounced out of stove and ran into the sink. Of course, I immediately reported this issue. There was no shock or surprise on the manager's face, so that let's me know that a mouse in a stove is not a big deal around here. What further reinforced this theory was the fact that the "maintenance" guy (who couldn't even turn off the music he was playing on his phone so I could talk with him), came in and put one glue trap by the water heater, and another by the refrigerator. "The mice are coming out of the stove," I said. He looked at me and said, "yeah", before leaving the apartment. Needless to say, mice continued to come out of the back burner of the stove.
I reported the problem again, stressing that the mice are coming out of the stove. The exterminator came by and dropped rat poison behind the stove. Once again, I was like "Hey, so they are coming out of the stove." He asked for some peanut butter, spread it on a glue trap, and sat it next to the burner. I cringed at this for two reasons: a. I tried that with the trap by the refrigerator, and mouse was able to unhinge himself, leaving behind his tail. b. A live mouse pulling itself apart on a glue trap, squealing and writhing, is disgusting and cruel, and it presents a bit of a moral dilemma-do I kill the rodent, or let it rip its body apart? Personally, I would rather just keep the mice out of the apartment, opposed to murdering the darn thing, or having it eat poison and die somewhere else, where a natural predator may eat the corpse, and in turn, consume the poison and foul up the ecosystem...I asked the exterminator if we should check for holes that needed to be patched, and he told me, "I told them what needed to be patched months ago."
Yes, I looked over the apartment when I first moved in and completed the checklist. However, the only way I would have seen a nest of mice inside of the stove, is if I had dismantled the darn thing. Since no one was living in the apartment at the time, the stove would have likely been a nice nest, but there weren't any food sources, so the mice likely would have nested in the stove, and went elsewhere for food. I have not seen any mice for a few days (after buying my own pest control apparatus), but let's be real. There is rodent waste inside of the stove. Rodents carry diseases. Should I have to tell these people that it's time to find and patch the holes in the apartment, and replace the stove?
I will never, ever have any company while I live here, and I will try my best to find other places to stay while I am stuck in this lease. Please, please heed these words. I don't want anyone else to live under these conditions.
