From May through July of me and my new wife lived in an apartment in Somerset, Wisconsin, managed and possibly owned by Applegate Properties. It was small, but a good starter apartment for us.
However, when we moved in, it was FILTHY. There were mounds of mice excrement behind the stove and filling several of the drawers, the windows were covered in a grimy film left behind by smokers (even though it was a non-smoking apartment), and the carpet and walls were yellowed from exposure to cigarette smoke. We cleaned for days before it was even Slightly acceptable.
Even though we had lived (and cleaned) in that apartment for over 14 months when we moved out, our clothes still had a distinct leftover odor from secondhand smoke from the previous tenants.
Our last night there, we vacuumed, washed the windows, cleaned the stove and refrigerator, swept and mopped the floors, and finally cleaned the carpets with a Rug Doctor that we had rented. That apartment had not been that clean in over a year for sure. It was a dozen times better how we left it than how we had found it.
However, when we turned in all of our paperwork to receive our security deposit back, they sent us a check that was Missing over $160 from our original amount! When we called to complain, they merely stated that it was "to cover the cost of professionally cleaning the carpets".
Unfortunately for them, they were in violation of Wisconsin Administrative Code ATCP 134.06, which states that this is an illegal practice in the state of Wisconsin. Additionally, according to this statute, tenants have a six-year time frame in which they can go back and claim their monies from the prior withholdings from their security deposit.
As of this date (4-26-10), Applegate Properties has still not refunded our security deposit, despite repeated calls and requests for them to do so. So we decided to out them on it!
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