I have had multiple issues with my landlord/property management company. I will separate the issues with bullet points. 1. Habitability is the first and main issue. When I first moved in there were issues. For one there were plenty of things broken that I complained about. Small things, no big deal. But the big issue is that there was no gas in the apartment. When I tried to get the gas turned on, I could not because of some issue with the apartment. Which means I could not get heat or use the stove/oven which prevented me from cooking. This went on for months and I ended up getting sick as I signed my lease at the end of November and it was extremely cold and the front door was broken, letting in even more cold air in. Only after pulling teeth was I able to get an electric stove in replacement of the gas one (temporarily) only after a few months of complaining. During this time everyone in my household was unable to cook at all, and I had to cook outside of my home or eat out. As far as the heater, they never got it fixed, even though I complained relentlessly. The issue with the gas was that the meter was missing, I guess stolen by the previous tenants. They wouldn't add a new one until the management called them which they refused to do for months. When they finally did speak to the gas company, I had them come out immediately. They started the gas service, but said that they couldn't get the heater to work because there was a missing/broken valve. Management refused to fix that for months as well. I was only able to get someone to "fix it" almost a year later, coming up on the end of the lease, in which I decided I would be moving out because I could not take the crappy management. Coming up on my last month, November 2017, they finally sent someone to fix the heater and the door. The guy they sent was in no way a professional in regard to the heater and door repairs, as he said it himself. So, he "fixed" the valve and the door. While the door was fixed just fine the heater was not. I never turned on the heater because he told me to wait a few days to turn on the heater, and when I do to open all the doors and windows because there was a HUGE pile of dust in the heater (I guess from non-use) and that needed to air out, because the dust would burn when the heater was turned on. I came home the next day to a faint smell of gas in the house, but I figured someone may have just been cooking right before I came home. The next day I came home, same thing which is when I started getting concerned. So, the next day on my way home from work, I told management who told me to tell the gas company, which I did, and they came out that same day. They said whoever installed the valve, did so incorrectly, as it did not fit which was causing a leak of gas into the apartment, so they did an emergency cut off on the gas. I let management know that they still need to send someone to fix the heater, in which they got angry claiming that the gas company was trying to get money out of them by not fixing it themselves and saying that they weren't going to fix anything because it wasn't "red tagged" even though I gave them a receipt of the visit which stated that it was shut off for hazardous conditions. So, they never sent someone to repair the problem after that.
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There was also an issue with them allowing people into my apartment without my permission or knowledge. The building was bought out about halfway through my lease, and they decided to rekey the building for "security," which included the handles on the apartment. Mind you, the building was never inspected before the purchase and no one knew that it was bought out until a month after. I was in my bedroom with the door closed, barely dressed, when I heard some faint noises coming from the living room. I walked out of my room to find some man in my living room messing with my doors, who didn't say anything or identify himself to me. I closed and locked my bedroom door and was about to call the police but when I look at my phone I see that management had texted me literally 5 minutes prior to let me know they would be there, and explained the whole rekeying thing (the first time I heard about it). So, I got dressed and went out there to watch him change the locks. I was confused why he wouldn't knock or verify that someone was home before entering the apartment and start changing the locks. Well, apparently management was okay with this, even though I should have been given 24 hour's notice since this was not an emergency repair, or a repair at all, and if I wasn't home, I would not have been able to get into my apartment because I would have had the old keys. So they ask for my ID in order to give me the keys to my own apartment even though I was in the apartment when they started changing the locks. So after this, I left to work. When I came home a few days later, 3 of the 4 locks were not working. So I let management know (these were used locks and handles). They sent someone out to fix it, fine. Then, 1 still wasn't working so I made another complaint, which to my knowledge they never fixed, and they never told me they would fix it. A few weeks later I notice that the door does not close at all now and there is some paint damage by the door. I could not figure out where this came from as I am never even on that side of the house unless I am leaving or coming in. Fast forward to the gas and door repair that I mentioned above, that is when the actually broken door got fixed, after I told them they would be responsible if anyone broke into our house and stole anything (somehow there were drugs being done on the property and homeless people gained access somehow). A week before we moved out, the locksmith came back to fix the door. I asked him what he was talking about in which he told me the story that I, nor anyone else, had any idea about. He said that he came to fix the locks the second time and that he thought something was wrong with the door and that's why the locks weren't working (remember when I said the door was slightly broken when we moved in letting cold air into the house) and so he took it upon himself to take the door off the hinges, which led to the door falling on him and him having to call for help. When he was able to reattach it, that's when the paint was scratched off by the door and the door was actually broken (unable to close). So this is the second time he has come to the house unannounced to work on things when no one was home without any notice.
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Security Deposit: Okay, so the onsite manager did an initial walkthrough of the house and noted that everything was clean except some fingerprints on the walls, in which he did another final walkthrough and checked off that everything was clean. I have this in writing, signed. Upon moving out, everything was fine, and clean and exactly how we came in (with the exception of the refrigerator which was the only thing that wasn't clean). I received the letter about my security deposit to find half of it ($1000) missing and the following reasons as why : $600 cleaning and re-glazing bathtub (should not have to pay for them to hook up the place for the next tenant), $130 kitchen drawer/broken toilet seats (drawer was broken by the guy that supposedly fixed it the first time and they never responded to any maintenance requests for them to re fix it, I have copies of the maintenance requests; The toilet seats weren't broken, but I also complained about the toilet seats wobbling when I first moved in and they never came to fix and claimed that it is not something that is really broken and I basically had to deal with it), $139 service fee (no idea what this is and it isn't mentioned in the lease). I feel that these things were taking out of the security deposit in bad faith and an effort to punish me for insisting that they keep the maintenance up on the unit, up until the point of saying I would call the department of health for multiple reasons (gas leak, no heat, and roaches). Also, there was no check for the half of the deposit and it has been past 21 days, there was only a list of what I guess they would deduct from the non-existent check.
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Bait and Switch: When I first came to look at the apartment, they showed me one on the other side, everything was perfect (no broken door, everything seemed to be working fine). When it came time to sign the lease, we were in another apartment even after verifying with the manager that we would be taking the apartment with the vaulted ceilings on the third level. After the lease was signed, I was given the keys and I don't remember exactly what the manager said that made me realize that she was giving me the apartment that we were standing in, not the one upstairs. I had never seen this apartment, but when I questioned her she said "Oh, they're all the same anyways," and left. When I was uncomfortable with this I texted her, and let her know I would not be moving in and canceled my check I gave her. She got upset and said she would move to have me evicted regardless of the fact that that wasn't the apartment she showed me and that I have 1 day to rewrite the check.
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I also have issue with the fact that there were drug deals going on in the laundry room, as well as at the front gate. Management did nothing to rectify the problem, in fact they went out of the way to ignore them (from all the tenants, not just my unit).
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Parking space not given in an appropriate amount of time.
Rent was $1650. Deposit was $2000
Submitted December 26, 2017 at 01:21AM by brookelynn915 http://ift.tt/2ztkOFR legaladvice
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