I personally witnessed all these events.
About October, wife and I arrived in Richland WA with arrangements to let a furnished Corporate suite from Paragon. We had previously stayed in the same location under different management (the apartment complex managed it at that time) in 2003 and it was Extraordinary-both furnishings and Staff. (Robert Youngs Washington Square I and II or Slums I and II, as I refer to them)
We checked in with Paragon on a Sunday PM. I sat at the couch to catch up on E-mail after 3 days on the road. Had the doors wide open and furnace blower on to freshen the place up. The apartment smelled of chemicals. About 15 minutes later, I began to have uncontrolled coughing fits (I never do that) and had to evacuate the suite. My wife was outside bringing luggage in and was not affected. The coughing fits lasted 3 WEEKS.
We evacuated and phoned Paragon, who apologised and of course, attempted to blame me for the incident citing that "I must have breathing problems". Paragon gave us two coupons to a local restaurant. I promised myself to not do business with them again. The Suite had carpet cleaning chemicals in the carpet (very strong, carpets were cleaned and the suite not aired out, carpets were still wet with chemicals) and dirt and cigarette smoke residue inside the heating system - I opened the furnace and saw thick brown mold and dirt inside and took the air filter for evidence. Part of my background is HVAC engineering and years of furnace install and service, so Im an expert on the subject.
Unfortunately, I didnt keep my promise, I went back and rented a Suite in another building (Robert Youngs Slums II), they gave me a reduced rate at Slums II for my trouble. A rather good rate, so I assumed to let bygones be bygones and give benefit of the doubt.
A few months later, the washing machine was badly out of balance, so I contacted Paragon, who dispatched Slums II maintanence, who hadnt a clue how to balance a washing machine. The first Slums II maintanence man attempted to VISUALLY adjust the machine. He failed, so a second came, and I had to show him how to do the job and LET HIM BORROW TOOLS.
Later yet, the washer began leaking water on the floor, took 2 or 3 times to fix that. I told Slums II maintanence that a certain hose was leaking on back of the machine (I had seen the leak) but he ignored me and said the shutoff valve needed replacing. Finally they replaced the entire washer, and the hose LEAKED AGAIN.
Later, I checked the hot water heater closet for various hazards and discovered the electric HWH was not GROUNDED. The ground wire was around the Green screw, but the screw was not tightened. An ohmmeter check showed no contact between the wire and HWH. Im also an electrical engineer and have many years experience in appliance instal/service. A loose ground wire on a HWH is a potential fatal shock hazard if the HWH heating elements crack and conduct electricify to the inside of the water heater tank. This current can flow to the faucets and KILL a human. That system behind a 15 amp circuit breaker can source on the order of 10,000 AMPS for a short duration. Humans die at currents on the order of 0.01 Amps applied in certain ways. Someone in the shower at the time such a fault ocurrs has NO chance of survival.
I wrote a letter to the Slums II Manager and Paragon informing them of a potentially deadly shock hazard and demanded it be repaired immediately. Slums II Maintanence came and went as I was out. I returned and discovered the ground screw was NOT tightened and the HWH NOT GROUNDED.
I emailed Paragon and told them I wanted to complain to Paragons Owner. Paragons Owner called me, literaly in a shouting RAGE and threatened to call the Richland Police to throw my wife and myself out in the STREETS.
The Paragon Owner stated that the screw was tightened, I asked him if hed seen it. No. I told him it was not, and to send Maintanence.
I HAD TO TEACH THE SLUMS II MAN HOW TO TIGHTEN A SCREW. The screw was a thread-cutting screw and he didnt have the experience to crank down hard on the screwdriver to cut the threads.
Now lets talk about the Illegal Aliens (Mexicans) they hire and how they created a fire hazard.
It was amazing how quickly the Mexicans disappeared when I mentioned to Paragon I was offended by them hiring cheap Mexican labor. Didnt see them for months. This is a plague in Tri Cities.
I came back one Monday after Housekeeping had stacked FLAMMABLES ON TOP OF THE TOASTER. Hot pads and loaf of bread. Also, during cleaning someone had bumped a stove surface element knob to just on the verge of being "ON". If there had been flammables on the element and the knob had tripped to "ON" there would have been a fire.
I asked one of Paragons housekeepers what chemical they were spraying during cleaning. She replied "Windex." Windex is blue, the cleaner they were spraying was ORANGE.
The bottle was labelled "Oasis -EcoLabs" I got the product ID and called the manufacturer - Paragon was using an INDUSTRIAL SPRAY CLEANER that was ONLY certified for use with proper training, which they didnt have. The chemical was, oddly enough, in a properly labelled bottle. The housekeepers sprayed this Industrial chemical around as AIR FRESHNER.
When moving in, I complimented Paragon on how clean the place was. I later retracted that compliment when I went around cleaning, and found a lot of dirt. After staying there a few monthsi, I observed that Paragons housekeeping never cleaned the suite, they just sprayed chemicals around, wiped with a cloth, ran a FILTHY vacuum cleaner (I had to open the sliding doors after they would leave to let the dust blow out and SAW the vacuum cleaner spewing dust out of clogged filters). They NEVER in a YEAR mopped the floors (I did that).
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