After living in the Vanderbilt apartment for two years and keeping my apartment in impeccable condition, I decided to transfer to another apartment within the same apartment complex. Before the transfer, the Vanderbilt sent the apartment manager through my apartment for a pre-transfer inspection. The ONLY things noted on inspection by the manager was a spot on the carpet in the entry way and another spot on the carpet in the MASTER bedroom underneath the window. It was stated that both of these spots looked as if they would come out during the professional carpet cleaning that would take place after my move.
When I moved out I cleaned the entire apartment, which had been filthy when I originally moved in. The apartment looked great. I was told that I would get a statement from the office regarding my original deposit of $420. I received the statement approximately 2 weeks later with charges of $133.13 and $175.80 against my deposit. The $133.13 charge description was a repair for both the master and guest bathtubs and the $175.80 charge was to replace the carpet in the GUEST bedroom.
I stopped by the leasing office to see whom I could talk to regarding the charges. The woman working said that I would need to take my issues to someone at the main office. I called the main office to talk to the contact she gave me. After speaking with this person and arguing about the validity of the charges, he told me that the charges originated at the leasing office so I would have to take my issues to the manager at the leasing office. Then I called the manager at the leasing office and started to discuss my charges with her but she proceeded to tell me that I was going to have to talk to somebody at the main office (which I had just talked to) because she didn't have anything to do with the charges on my statement. I made it clear that she needed to figure out who in her company could help me with my problems.
The $133.13 charge for the bathtub repairs is for "chips in the bathtubs that needed to be repaired". The chips in the bathtubs were not made by either my roommate or myself. One of the "amenities" of our apartment complex is that you can have your wallpaper in the bathrooms or kitchen replaced. My roommate and I chose to have the wallpaper in our bathrooms removed and then just get the walls painted white. First of all, it took me over a year and 4 different trips to the leasing office for them to even respond to my request. When the work was finally completed, there was paint on our shower curtains, on the mirrors, on the toilets, and on the woodwork. Also, there were big chips in both of our bathtubs. There was an obvious attempt by the workers to repair the chips with a little spackling—not a good repair job. BUT, based on the rest of the work that these people had done, we assumed it was the "best effort".
My roommate and I did not report the chips to the leasing office because we thought the people doing the painting and wall paper removal were the regular maintenance people in the apartment complex and that it wouldn't do us any good since they had obviously tried to fix the damage they did anyway. Now, after the fact, the apartment complex has stated that it is "common sense" to report any damage that a maintenance man does. If that's the case, then I think it would be appropriate for the leasing office to leave a form to fill out regarding the performance of the maintenance.instead, I'm getting charged for damage that their own careless people did!
As for the carpet, note that the carpet that needed to be replaced was in the GUEST bedroom, which was not noted as a problem in the original walk through. The Vanderbilt claims that there was an orange spot in the carpet that could not be removed with the regular carpet cleaning. A SPOT!!! Since when does a spot constitute replacing the carpet for the entire room?! They claim that it is their company policy to replace the carpet in the entire room if the spot is in a main walkway. Wait a minute! If the spot was in a main walkway, why was it not noted in the first walk through? Also, there is no need for the renter to have to pay the expense for their "company policy"! If there is a spot, the renter should only have to pay for the cost to patch out the carpet, not to replace the carpet for the entire room! The carpet was in great condition!
I know a couple that used to live in one of the apartments at this same complex. When they moved out, the Vanderbilt tried to take all of their deposit and then make them pay $800 on top of the deposit to replace all the carpet in their apartment due to two spots that couldn't be removed! These people are just out to rip all of us innocent renters off!
On top of all this, later on in the evening when I returned home from work after talking to the Vanderbilt all day about these bogus charges, I went to pull my car in my garage that I have had for over a year at the apartment complex. When I tried to use my garage opener it did not work. I figured the battery was dead so I got out my car to use the key to the garage. When the door opened, none of my things were in my garage.instead, there were somebody else's things in there! Since it was past business hours, there was nobody to contact that evening at the apartment complex.
I had to stay home from work in the morning to wait until the leasing office opened at 9:00 to go over and express my anger with my missing property and also the violation of my lease and my privacy. As it turns out, the leasing office said that my name had been erased from the garage book so my garage had been cleaned out by the maintenance people and rented to somebody else. They first wanted to rent me a different garage but I refused, as that was my garage that I have had for over a year and I had just re-signed the lease for it 3 weeks prior. The new people they rented the garage to could not remove their belongings for another day so I had to go another night without a garage. This is not the first time this apartment complex has made this same "mistake". A friend of mine was given the keys to a garage that had somebody else's things in it and was kind enough to go back to the leasing office immediately and tell them the situation. Their response was that they thought that person had already moved out. What kind of leasing records are these people keeping, anyway?! How is anybody supposed to feel that his or her property is safe?
I would NEVER recommend this apartment complex to anybody!!! Every person I have talked to in this complex is rude. Their goal is not customer service at the Vanderbilt. If you are looking for an apartment where the staff is enjoyable and tries to make you feel welcome, do NOT live in the Vanderbilt!
Denise
Omaha, Nebraska
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