Since I began residency in the "wonderful" Courtyard Apartments, I have been treated to a number of amenities such as a condescending property manager, lack-luster maintenence, a dirt patch dog walking area with complimentary broken glass, and random acts of violence that are swept under the rug.
Now that I have your attention I will cover each one of these in detail. Let's begin with the friendly face that represent the Courtyard Apartments. Trudy, the apartment manager, has the luxury of spending less than 30 hours a week at this slum. Leasing office hours are 10:00 am-5:00 pm Monday thru Friday. This time also does not include the 1 hours she takes for lunch every day. When I filed the official request to have my A/C fixed (which will be discussed below) I found her to be completely apathetic and unprofessional. I would like to share a small piece of the dialogue that occured:
WS: "Trudy, what is the status of the repair on my A/C.
Trudy: "Well these things take time, and the cost has to be approved by corporate."
WS: "Well do we atleast have a rough ETA... It is at least 15 degrees hotter in the apartment than it is outside"
Trudy: "Oh, I highly doubt that... You're just going to have to bare with it until we can get it fixed."
Which brings me to my next complaint, the "maintenece" of the apartments. A red flag should have went up when prior to signing the lease I requested to see the apartment I was about to be renting or get a tour of a model.instead I was treated to "Well this is what it looks like..."
My A/C stopped working as early as 03/06/07. I though perhaps it was just the filter. When I took time out of work to go to the office to get a new filter (see above for office hours) I was handed a cheap filter that was not even the right size. When I told her it was not the right size she instructed me that the grounds didn't have a case of the right size and I would just have to cut this one to make it fit.
Needless to say the problem was not the filter. After the A/C had been running all day on Wednesday (03/07/07) I called down to the office; this was at 4:55 pm. Trudy, of course, had already left for the day. I wrote a formal request, marked it as urgent, and dropped it off in the office on Thursday (03/08/07).
On Friday (03/09/07) the above conversation occurred. A new unit was not installed until the following Friday (03/16/07). Imagine my suprise to find that after letting the A/C run for at least 9 hours (it is unknown how long it was on prior to my return home) it was still not 1 degree cooler in my apartment.
I should also mention that when I was delivered the great news of my A/C being fixed I was also told that "We were going to put you up in a hotel." How convenient that this was not offered until after the A/C was supposedly fixed.
It is now Saturday (03/17/07) and after the third visit from a technician in one week, it is finally working. During the whole debacle I asked Trudy about compensation for the inconvenience and the possibility of being let out of the lease. Her replies were "I'll have to check with corporate, " and "absolutely not" respectively.
Now let us talk about the "dog-walking area" that residents are supposed to use. It is a 12 square foot area (estimated) of dirt. As if this was not bad enough, it is located immediately next to 2 of the 4 dumpsters for the property. It is littered with food wrappers, dirty diapers and broken glass. Needless to say noone on the property takes their dog there.
The final and most intriguing complaint revolves around an incident that occurred 2 weeks ago (03/02/07) and involved a shooting that occurred in the apartment parking lot directly behind my apartment. Just as a quick sidenote - I was raised in a military family; as such I have been exposed to firearms my entire life. During the course of the shooting someone fired 13 shots, (which usually means an illegal high-capacity magazine) reloaded and fired 5 more. The Police came and failed to locate the shooter.
When I asked Trudy about the shooting I was told "There was no shooting because noone was shot." I was absolutely floored by this statement. She addressed it later due to a letter I wrote the corporate company that manages the property. When she addressed the issue at this later date, she said that management could not do anything because noone filed a police report.
I want to thank anyone that has taken the time to read my report/vent. I just hope this article can a) help initiate some sort of action, b) serve as a warning to anyone thinking of moving into the apartment community, and c) raise awareness as to the conditions residents currently are experiencing.
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