Near the end of 2007 our apartment complex was bought out by Archstone. They either replaced our building manager, or he coincidentally was offered a better opportunity somewhere else. Actually I'm not sure the details regarding his leave, but I wouldn't be surprised if Archstone planned it. Point is: he was a wonderful and kind manager... And our new manager is a nightmare. She runs this place with an iron fist and I suspect it is under orders from above in the Archstone corporate heirarchy. It's been suggested that they intend to drive out all the current tenants so they can do as they please with the property. It doesn't make much sense, but the bottom line is: we are being abused.
The first sign of decay came several months ago with a storm in which the large wooden sign outside our apartment was blown down. It remains unfixed to this day. Second sign of this place going to hell was the pool. The drains stopped functioning properly and it is on the brink of overflowing.
The third symptom of complete and utter delapidation was the trash. One day I go to take the trash out and find a week's worth of garbage piled in a mountain and overflowing from the dumpster. A tenant had posted notes informing us of what happened. Apparently someone had thrown a way a mattress and the trash collectors were unable to dispose of it according to their policy, so they stopped collecting ALL of the trash. This continued for between two and three weeks and the filth spread out into the alleyway where rats and roaches began to gather.
Our new manager, Tomika Locke (no, it's not an Asian name... She's black) had been contacted by many of the tenants who were complaining about the trash and to them she apparently responded with indifference and stated that it was beyond her control and blamed the tenants for the mattress while not lifting a finger to work toward a solution. This is according to that tenant's statement.
At that point I was still giving her the benefit of the doubt, since I hadn't even met her and I'm not that quick to judge. Then the 3-day notices came. About half of the tenants (including us) got 3-day notices on our door to pay or quit (meaning be evicted). No prior courtesy calls to inform us of outstanding fees... Nothing. She had found a detail regarding city tax that she claims our previous manager had overlooked and used that as an excuse to threaten us. The fee amount stated was different for each tenant. I still don't know if this was legit, but I payed it to avoid conflict or credit issues.
Following this, a pipe broke and began leaking in one of the entrances and it went on for over a week before it was fixed. Meanwhile, we suspect the water heater has been turned down to reduce heating costs, resulting in none of us have hot showers anymore. Furthermore our building is having pest infestation issues as a result of the garbage accumulation. Also none of the locks work properly in the entrances, which is virtually an invitation to burglars.
After about 20 people contacted the Board of Health, something was finally done about the garbage. But according to some tenants, Tomika became bitter toward us for reporting it and hit many of us with a second wave of 3-day notices for one reason or another.
This week the latest assaults have come in the the form of notices informing us that we may no longer keep any personal belongings outside of our doors (not even a lawnchair or a BBQ grill) and finally a 50-something dollar rent increase, which I'm not even sure is within the legal terms of our contract (I'm looking into it).
On a final note, I was informed that since they moved in, Tomika's boyfriend has on at least one occasion caused some sort of a drunken public disturbance that resulted in the police being called. Absolutely unacceptable!
This kind of mismanagement and mistreatment is absurd. And before I move out of this dump I am posting this report so that someone might be spared the miserable lifestyle that Archstone subjects its customers to. Technically it may not qualify as a scam, but I believe it reflects accurately the corporate policy and attitude or Archstone Apartments.
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