My long journey with Division Place Apartments started off in May. I was looking for my very first apartment so my boyfriend, my son, and I could all live together. I saw an ad in The Voice News for the Division Place Apartments and my mother called them. They said that we could come look at the apartments that day, so we went.
We liked the apartments that we were shown, but picked one over the other one. I decided that I wanted to move there, so I paid my non-refunable $75 application fee, and soon after that I gave them a $100 holding deposit for the apartment that I wanted.
Moving day came around and I got my key, and the manager told me that the apartment I would be moving into was not the one I had chosen in the first place because there was something wrong with the other one. I should have thrown a fit, but I didn't because I was all too eager to be getting out of my mother's house and into my own place.
Less than a month after we moved in, I noticed there was mold growing all over my apartment. I notified the managers and they told me to clean it with bleach and it should go away, so I did. It kept coming back. We tried everything to keep the mold from growing... We had a dehumidifier and we bought those moisture bags but nothing worked. I told them that it kept coming back and they told me they would put me on a waiting list for another apartment with two bedrooms (we only had a one bedroom) but they didn't know when one would be available.
In August, one of the other tenants was called into military duty, so that left their two bedroom apartment available. We looked at the place and decided to take it even though there was no tub (who makes an apartment with no tub?) because we needed to get our son out of the mold-infested apartment because he has respiratory problems. The mold was so bad, we had to throw out our couch, mattress, a coffee table, and a dresser.
Truth be told, aside from not having a tub, there was nothing wrong with the second apartment. It was actually pretty nice compared to the first one.
We were not supposed to have to pay our water in the second apartment. During the time we lived there (August '06-October '07) our water got shut off three or four times because the owner ("Nector") failed to pay the water bill.in Richmond, we get billed every three months for our water, and then after a month of you not paying it, that is when they shut it off. One time, they actually asked me to pay for it, and they would take it off my rent. I did end up paying it, and have kept the reciept as proof, but I refused to pay the rest of my rent for that month (the water bill was $460, my rent was $500 at the time.) The owner obviously didn't have a problem with that, I think he was just happy to keep fools like us living there for longer.
In late August '06 I discovered I was pregnant with my second son. He was born in May '07 and not too long after that it was getting ridiculous having to wash him in the sink. I asked the managers when another two bedroom (with a tub) would be available and we moved into one across the parking lot in October. We also got new apartment managers around the same time.
There were a few problems that we were informed of before we moved into this apartment. The two sinks leak underneath, the shower doesn't turn all the way on (as in, the tub faucet still runs when the shower is on), the wind blows through the windows "a little bit." There is no doorjam on the front door, and I asked the managers if it could be fixed. They told me that the tenants that lived here before us had been asking the owner to fix it for four years but he wouldn't.
A few days ago it was raining pretty hard and when my boyfriend and I went to go to bed, the window was leaking water on his head. There was so much water that it soaked through three folded up towels. We moved our bed away from the window and slept in our living room. The water was coming from the window itself and the upper window sill.
I informed the manager about this problem and she sent a guy over to look at it. He said that it would not be able to get fixed until LATE summer. My family and I have to sit here and deal with possibly another mold problem until LATE summer? What kind of crap is that?
I would call the owner and complain, but the manager refuses to give us his phone number.
I am currently looking for a new place for me and my family, but I'm not having any luck because we don't make enough money to meet any apartment complex's income requirements.
I'm not sure who I can contact to get this fixed, or where to go to find another place to live. This whole situation is just ridiculous and I can't believe these people are getting away with not fixing anything in this place. I should have gotten out of here when I had the chance, but now I am out of luck because we don't have any money for a security deposit on a new place.
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