I moved into Schirm Farms in August. While i was signing the forms and getting my keys, my friends went down to wait for me by the apartment. They found the door was already open. When we did go in, the blinds were filthy, the carpets dirty. There were cobwebs everywhere and on the outside wall there was this white hard foamy stuff sprayed in the corners on the walls (which also was stuck to the carpet) The light over my stove was burnt out. I did my normal walk through (By myself) and marked things down but i called the rental office about the white foamy stuff because i had a dog and did not want her to eat that stuff. They had no clue what it was and actually never got back to me on that. I had also asked them to replace the light bulb over my stove (I'm talking about the one that is inside the hood) The rental office told me it was my responsibility to replace lights inside the apartment.
I explained that i had JUST moved in and expected everything to be working and they would not change it. These were my first clues about the customer service at this place. I found out FROM MY UNCLE that the white foamy stuff is just something people spray in the corners on drafty walls to keep out the wind. Also soon after i moved in, i discovered i had a leak in my glass sliding door. When it rained hard, water would well up all around the frame. I left many different messages about it and they would always come out and put a sealant outside.
The next issue that i had happened in July (i had signed a 15 month lease so I was stuck until Oct) It was a stormy night and had been raining off and on. I was sitting in my living room which is at the back of the apartment. I heard an odd sound that couldve been thunder. But i immediately got scared. I had never heard a gunshot in person before but it also kind of sounded like that. Then i heard an odd sound that sounded like a person screaming. I went to the front of the apartment (my bedroom) and peaked out the window. I saw a man screaming and banging on a door across the way. He was wearing a white shirt and the whole arm was covered in red blood that was rapidly spreading. I HAD heard a gunshot. I was scared to death. I turned of all my lights (i didnt want him coming to my house!) and went into the bathroom with the phone and called 911. The 911 operator told me it had already been reported. I peeked out again and felt better when the police arrived. Any apartment complex Ive lived in has always issued some sort of notice when there is any kind of crime. I called my rental office several times and left messages telling them i was afraid to be outside at nite and they never responded to me at all. I finally found out from a neighbor that the whole thing was because of Drug money and the person who was shot was ok. Also he did not live there, his cousin did and his cousin moved out shortly after.
So then a few months passed and my lease was up in October. At that time, i did not have the means to move and did not want to pack everything up. Plus a friend of mine had moved into the neighborhood. However my friend was paying over $150 less than i was for the same apartment. She had gotten a special that took $25 a month off for the first year and it was fine that i did not have that. But the rest was just ridiculous that hers was so low. So i decided to renew my lease but only if I could get the price i wanted. Usually i work the same hours as the rental office and they close early on saturday and they are not open on sunday. However i happened to have a day off in mid October so I went into the office. At the time there was a nice older lady there but she had no idea how the business was run. I told her i wanted to renew my lease and she said that she would write down what i wanted and then the rental office main lady would just put a new lease on my door and i could sign it and give it back. I thought this didnt seem very professional but i thought i would give it a try. I told the older lady that i wanted my rent to be $625 a month including water. And i would take another 15 month lease if she could do this. Otherwise i only wanted a 12 month lease.
A few days later i came home to my lease on my door. It was for $625 $35 a month in water. (which is ridiculous, i am one person and whenever i had to pay for water myself it was always under $25) so the total is $650. She had made it for 15 months. I called and left messages every day for a week to see i would accept the 650 (grudgingly) but i only wanted a 12 month lease. She never returned my calls. Finally *I* scribbled out all the 15s on the lease and wrote in 12.. I wrote an extra note at the top stating that my lease will be up Oct 31. And i put it in their night drop. I never heard anything about it. I left many messages asking for copies of the lease and finally got it in March. It still had all my marks on it and they had never signed it.
From a few days before Christmas to New years Eve there were no outside lights anywhere in the complex. I did not feel safe and in fact after a few days i tried to have a pizza place deliver and they refused because of the lack of outside lights. I called the rental office after a couple days and this time I actually received a call back from April (btw the way I think at some point the rental staff changed but i have no idea about it because no one ever told the tenants) She left me a message and told me that the power co. Accidentally cut a main line and that she has been trying to get it back on but they dont seem to be in any hurry. It finally came back on about 10 days later. I later found out from a maintenance man that the rental office did not pay their bills and that is why it was shut off. So April blatently lied to me about why it was off. She didnt have to give me a reason, she couldve just said they were working on it.
Around this time the web page that used to be up (www.schirmfarms.com) went down saying "contractual dispute" which probably also meant they did not pay their bill. Now it doesnt even say that anymore.
Another thing happened over the winter of 2009. We had some pretty bad snow and ice storms in december, january and february. No effort was made to clear any walkways and when the company they hired to clear the roadways came through, they just buried many cars in the snow. My friend has a handicapped space and her space was not cleared for 4 days after a particularly bad snow storm and the only way she was finally able to get out of the space was that it became unseasonably warm for a few days and melted the snow.in february when i was taking my rent payment to the rental office, i slipped and fell right outside their door which was not cleared either. Often to get my car from my apartment, i had to crawl because it was so slippery. I left many messages asking when it was going to be cleared and received no response.
Also in that same winter throughout december, january and february, my heat kept going off. I would wake up in the middle of the night freezing. I finally noticed that there was a code on the side of the machine in the closet so i called and let them know the code. They came out 4 times each time they just threw the circuit breaker and reset it and it came on and they said nothing is wrong iwth it. Finally it went out around 8pm when i was home and they were available to come. Because i was there, he more thoroughly checked it and turns out. The burner was broken in half! This is something he shouldve checked right away. He put a new burner in and it worked fine.
Around this same time, my refrigerator stopped working. I thought it had just stopped for a few hours. I called and said i needed it fixed right away and they did come out... But t hey threw away all my food. Some of the stuff did not even need to be refrigerated but they threw it away anyway. I called and complained and after much debate i demanded a $50 credit to buy new groceries. That came off the rent paid at the end of january for february.
Then at the end of February, almost in retaliation, i get a note on my door from the office. It tells me that they found a bag of my trash in front of the dumpster and they were going to charge me $25. If i did not pay the $25 they would not accept my rent and if they would not accept my rent i would be evicted. I was LIVID!!! I had never been late on my rent EVER and i couldnt imagine they would evict me over something so stupid. So i left several messages at the office. I wanted to know how they knew the trash was mine and how they knew it didnt just fall out of the dumpster when the trash truck picked it up. After several messages the maintenance man called me back and was very smart aleck to me (the same man who was so nice when he fixed my heat) and said that they went through the trash (WHO DOES THAT!) and they found a bunch of magazines with my name on it and it was deliberately sitting outside the dumpster, not laying there like it couldve fallen. They never showed me the proof. But i had been in the hospital for 2 days and had a few friends and my parents at my apartment taking care of things for me. One of them could've done it without knowing where to sit it. The dumpster is odd. There is only 1 small dumpster for a 260 unit apartment complex. You have to walk up a long hill (which is icy in the winter) and open a door and through the trash in the side of the dumpster. It is always too full. I went ahead and paid but they have lost me as a customer. This was the final straw and no matter how much i hate to move, i hate this place worse.
The most recent thing that happened was i had received a notice on my door stating from feb 24-march 3 they would be changing the locks on our doors. It never happened, so i figured it was another thing they just did half heartedly and forgot about (kind of like mowing the grass) I came home at 10pm on April 21. I was tired, carrying a bunch of stuff and just wanted to go crawl into bed. Plus it was chilly out. There was a note on my door stating the locks had been changed and to call maintenance for my key. There was no warning, no notification from the rental office that it was going to happen that week instead. Nothing! So i called and luckily within 15 minutes the maintenance man came out. It was a different guy than before and i asked him why it was done now instead of back in march. His excuse was that he hurt his back and couldnt work. He did not know why the rental office never let the tenants know.
Also my leak in my patio door had gotten worse and worse over the months until it looked like it had mold growing it. Finally in february i decided to write a letter about it to the rental office. The rental office responded immediately and said someone would be out to fix it. They didnt come out until March 24. They repainted it and took down part of my blinds that cover the door. They left their spackling and paint tools on my dining room table. They did not come back for a couple days, so i called. The rental office told me she was not aware of the maintenance being at my apartment at all (which means he probably lied to her and told her he fixed it back in february) but she would have him come out that friday night. He never cameout until the following tues April 7. So that entire time my blinds would not close and i did not feel safe in my own apartment.
All ive mentioned is reasons why the rental office is so horrible. I never even mentioned the apartment itself! At first glance, it looks pretty. But the salmon pink on the walls gets tiresome after a while. Also the living room has 3 windows plus a glass sliding door. That room gets freezing in the winter no matter how high you put your heat. The 2 bedrooms at the other end of the building are always warm even when the air conditioner is on. There is literally no storage in the kitchen. The cupboards are tiny! I can hear my neighbors running down the stairs and stombing around upstairs all day long. I have birds that nest every year in my exhaust fan for my bathroom. I can hear them chirping loudly whenever i am in the bathroom. There are other things wrong too but at this point, I really do not care anymore. My lease is up at the end of Oct and I will be out of this complex so fast my head will spin! A new person moved in across from me and I wanted to tell her so bad not to move in, but I didn't. I did notice however that her porch light (which is their responsibilty) was burnt out before she moved in and has still not been fixed. I would think for a brand new tenant they would want to have everything looking nice.
Thanks for letting me rant.
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