My husband and I moved to Farmbrooke Manor in Clinton Township after learning we were going to have a baby in 2000. The two bedroom townhouse was nice in size and we thought an ideal place to just be starting out. We had no issues with the leasing or the move-in, and we were very careful to turn in the report where you note anything that needs to be fixed.
Things seemed to be fine. But that was short-lived. Our next door neighbors were SO loud. They would blare their TV and stereo so loud it would rattle my entire apartment. I would bang on the walls, they would just cuss at me and turn it up louder. I complained to management, only to be told they had to have 3 complaints on file before they would send the tenant a letter. Well shoot I filled that 3 complaint requirement in a week, no lie! We lived there 6 months and I had 20 police reports on file for the noise, which I showed to management, where the officers even cited the people next door were in violation of the noise ordinances.
The police got sick of me calling and said after awhile that Brookline had to handle the situation. After all, I had a "quiet enjoyment" clause in my lease! My daughter was born in July and she was constantly being woken up at 3 am by the noisy neighbors. I finally had enough, and my family decided to terminate our one year lease after just 6 months.
We stopped paying the rent, stating that THEY were in violation of not enforcing the quiet enjoyment clause and why in heaven's name should I have to pay $650 a month for an apartment where me and my daughter can't even sleep? Where we have to have the TV on full blast in order to hear it over the neighbors? The only real structural problem we had was the windows, they leaked upstairs when it rained. They tried tarring them several times but after that didnt work they were forced to do some work on the roof and the gutters.
Still, it took WEEKS of complaints to get anything done. They served us with an eviction notice, and I was told at the hearing if I wanted to present the police reports and such I would have to schedule a hearing in another court.
About a month after we turned in our move-out sheet and keys I went back to see if the apartment had been rented. There were lights on everywhere and a cat in the window. Soon after that I got a bill from Brookline for $1,900! I looked at it in disbelief, we were being charged for 3 months worth of rent! Our lease stated that if we terminated early we would be responsible for the rent until the lease was up OR until the apartment had been re-rented. Why was I being charged for 3 months when they had obviously re-rented the apartment already??!
We fought and fought and it eventually went to collections, and rather then have that crap on our credit we settled via the collection company for $1200.
Bottom line, Brookline refused to help with the noise issues, claiming they sent notices and "if it happens again we'll take more strict action" and did NOTHING. Then they tried to stiff us for rent that we shouldn't have owed according to our lease. I wouldn't recommend anyone move into one of their communities!
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