The statements provided here describe our own personal experience as tenants of the Hill Crest Apartments in West Seattle.
One of us had already rented at Hill Crest (a one bedroom apartment with working light switches on the fourth floor). To make the moving process easier, we decided to move in to a two bedroom unit within this same apartment complex. The current manager showed us a unit that was not available, but promised that there was another available unit “exactly” the same size and layout with a “beautiful” view one floor down. She promised us that we could move our belongings in before the beginning of the month, but only if we repainted both the fourth floor apartment and the new unit. We repainted the old apartment, but then we were not allowed to move belongings into our new unit ahead of time. This was extremely frustrating, as the painting was supposed to be a trade-off for early access.
Later, the manager had us sign the lease and the walkthrough papers before ever showing us our new apartment.
When we finally accessed the unit, it looked like it had not been cleaned: the carpet was attracting fruit flies, there were cup marks on the counters, there was oil smeared in the sink, and there were a myriad of other items strewn about from previous occupants. The bedroom light switches also didn’t work. When we mentioned this to the manager, she stated that none of them work in the entire building. We know this not to be true, as the fourth floor apartment has working switches. And the “beautiful” view we were promised—well, if you want a perfect view of your neighbor’s garage, then sure. We went back down to the office (no more than 15 minutes after being given the keys) to speak to the manager about the condition, size and layout of our new apartment. We wanted to discuss with her how the apartment was not what we were promised, but she had already closed up for the day. When we did run into her and told her that the apartment seemed smaller than the one she showed us, she became defensive and said that no, it was actually “bigger.”
Since we were unhappy with the conflicting information we were getting from the manager, we wrote an in-depth letter of inquiry to the management company stating our concerns. We asked for schematics of both the unit we were shown and our current unit, so that we could be sure that we hadn’t been misled about the size of the unit. We believe we have the right to know the size of the apartment that we are paying for.
We also discussed to condition of the unit, a key deposit that we ended up having to pay twice, and other concerns surrounding our disenchanting move-in.
The management company, Epic Asset Management, did respond to our letter. But this brief response did not address in any detail the majority of questions and concerns we expressed in our formal inquiry. Their letter also failed to recognize that there were two of us, and that maybe their new tenant would appreciate being addressed as well.in an attempt to find someone who would give us some straight answers, we tried to contact Bill Austin, the head of Epic, twice. It has been weeks and we have not received any response.
We feel very disappointed with our experience thus far. Had we known that we would receive this kind of treatment, we would have never signed this lease. We would appreciate being able to contact someone who is willing to address us respectfully and provide us with suitable and appropriate answers to our questions and concerns.
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