Preface to the situation: I am a student in a college town notorious for seedy property managers that try to screw naive students. I won't go into the horror stories I have personally experienced and heard off-hand; I am of the opinion most of these landlords are straight-up extortionists.
Anyway:
At 8:30AM today, I received an email from the landlord saying:
Hello. I will be stopping by your apartment today around 10AM. I need to check the four apartments in the front of the building.
None of us replied to the email, and left for classes/work.
At about noon, we receive the following email:
Hello. We had a report from another apartment that they are having a roach issue in their apartment. I came to visit all four apartments today to check things out. While your apartment isn't the worst I have seen I still need to ask that you do some more cleaning. We are having all four apartments treated on Tuesday as a precautionary. I need all the floors cleaned, baseboards scrubbed down and the kitchen thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. We have to have the apartment cleaned and disinfect thoroughly in order for the treatment to work on Tuesday. I will coming by all four apartments again on Monday around 10AM to check to be sure they are cleaned and in order. If the apartment is not fully cleaned and all trash and derbies removed I will have to hire someone to clean it (at your expense). Please call me today if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Here is some background on the apartments: we know from the previous tenants (two of whom still live with us) that these apartments have never been cleaned. The tenants before them, as well, confirmed this. To say that these apartments were filthy when we moved in is an understatement. They were disgusting. In my room alone you could not walk on the floors without shoes or you would get splinters/cut your foot open. I had to redo the floors and documented everything. I scrubbed the walls with Lysol, they were so dirty. My other roommate also has photos of how dirty the apartment was when he moved in.
It took us weeks to clean the place enough to make it livable. What the landlord is requesting of us (all the floors cleaned, baseboards scrubbed down, kitchen cleaned and disinfected) is an enormous project. She's giving us two days since she says she's coming back Monday. Certain areas of the kitchen will require us to move a refrigerator, stove, freezer just to get to all the areas that are still dirty. Funnily enough, I mopped the floors two days ago in many areas--she should have seen what the place looked like before. I've also removed black mold from the bathroom and scrubbed down tiling. I have work obligations and studying to do: I do not have time to clean for hours on end, nor do I believe it's my responsibility to do so because a different tenant saw a bug.
The more I think about it, the more I'm positive we physically cannot accomplish what the landlord is asking. Just the "cleaning the floors" part. The carpets are BLACK with years of dirt/grime, no doubt originally whitish. We would need professional equipment and cleaning supplies for that alone.
We're not sure what to say to the landlord. We've had horrible experiences with the property managers in this area before and I strongly suspect they are trying to take advantage of us. We really need advice: I'm not sure how much they would charge us for this professional cleaning crew, but money is really tight for all of us.
Thank you in advance for any advice.
Submitted August 26, 2017 at 06:01AM by Allen4083 http://ift.tt/2w5lOBw legaladvice
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