# Ranting about new apartment hassles and dangers!! UGH



## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

We have been in our new apartment for barely a week. We chose this apartment because it was nearby our old place, and only 30 minutes away from my boyfriend's job so we decided to stay in town. We also are very excited to adopt a dog soon and this place does not discriminate against breeds and allows large dogs up to 75lbs. The property and apartment layout itself seems very nice, and so far neighbors have been quiet. The neighborhood is safe and quiet and there's a lot of young families here. It seems almost perfect! If not a little bit expensive. 

We've been here only about 7 days and had a few small things to fix like things that needed painting, or loose sockets needed to be screwed into the wall. But we just keep finding things and it's getting worse and worse. And the property's maintenance guy is awful and seems to have no work ethic or care about how good his services are. How have people not complained enough yet to get this guy fired?? We've been here such a short time and already are kind of hating it knowing that this guy will be responsible for so many things that will need to be done.

Here is a list we've compiled since we moved in:

-The electric stoves SHOCKS us when we touch a burner! WTH??? Very dangerous... That was quite a surprise last night when I was trying to make some food and I got a shock when I just brushed my fingers across to pick something up.

-Repair guy left a mess everytime after "fixing" something. Base moulding in dining room was broken so he filled it with putty stuff, but then didn't paint it. When we asked about it later, he came back and left a note that said he was just waiting for it to dry.. But based on his attitude and other work, it feels like he was just going to leave it if we didn't say anything. He also left paint chips all over the floor where it needed to be repainted and I guess where he had to scrape off old paint.

-A phone wire was cracked and frayed so we asked that to be removed. It was stapled to the wall. Afterwards we found at least 7 sharp metal staples in the bedroom carpet where we walk barefoot! We found a few of them just because we stepped on them.... It's like he just grabbed the cord and yanked and let the staples fly all over?? Or he just plucked them all out and let them drop on the floor and didn't bother to pick them up. He also cut the cord instead of removing it once it got into the closet I'm guessing bc he assumed we wouldn't notice??

-the tub cracked while my boyfriend was using the shower and just cracked right under his foot. It's getting repaired next week, but we have to be out of the unit for at least 8 hours, and we have to take all 8 rats (two separate cages) and the two rabbits with us during that time because of all the fumes..

-The kitchen sink has been dripping after being "repaired" twice by this guy. Getting a new faucet tomorrow installed to see if that helps.

-Toilet was making noise and flushing partially by itself. Had to get some kind of internal plunger flapper thing replaced.

-Hall closet latch is broken, needs fixing. Won't actually close.

-bedroom door was jammed and wouldn't close without slamming.

-haven't tested all the outlets yet, but all the outlets in the bedroom are very loose and plugs just fall out if tapped or just from their own weight.

-wood patio fence has holes and large black paint(?) stains 

-outside water heater closet door won't latch, and is very hard to unstick when trying to open

-Patio was left dirty. Some kind of paper debris stuck on concrete, fence is a mess as stated above, and the little patch of dirt we have in the corner I planned to put some plants in so I soaked and tilled to soil to mix with potting soil, there was a halfway buried tennis ball, and I found countless giant shards of glass, rusty nails and pins, lots of bits of plastic, and loads of plastic bottle caps. It's only a tiny triangle of dirt maybe 5x5x7ft!

There's also lots of little nuisances like the cabinets are dirty, and not much storage space, and the upstairs neighbor's stairs go up RIGHT NEXT to the patio so they can see inside our unit and patio very easily, but I'm mostly just complaining about the repairs and the crappy repair guy here. Some of this stuff isn't just a pain in the butt, it's dangerous (like the shocking electrical stove and staples in our bedroom carpet).

We've started looking into new apartments already or even cheap 1-2 bedroom homes... This is so frustrating! We were so excited to move into our new place and now it's just been a constant stream of crap that keeps getting worse and worse!

Has anyone else ever experienced this kind of stuff or had a terrible couldn't'-care-less maintenance person?

Anyone know of any large dog friendly housing in the sacramento valley area/Davis/Roseville? We don't know this area very well and only stayed in Davis because he went to the UC there.

UGGHHH!!! I hope we can find a better place soon and not have to spend too much money moving everything again!


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## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

Sadly, I've had some similar experiences... 

This is my first apartment ever so I went into this not really knowing what I was doing. The guy I was dealing with was an intern (?) or just worked at the property management company, to this day I have never met my property manager. When I first saw the place, there was no fridge and the stove was really disgusting. I asked if they could both be replaced by the time we move in and the guy said yes. The door locked but it looked like someone had kicked it in and the faucet was leaking. I asked about both of those things and I was told they would be fixed. Move in day comes and we get the keys, still no fridge, stove, or repairs made. I refused to give them the security deposit until everything was fixed however I took the keys and we moved in. I had to demand that the fridge and stove was brought that day. It took a few days for the door to be fixed but they did bring a brand new fridge and stove that day.

2 months later there was a notice posted on the door that a new property management company was now in charge of the complex. Nothing really changed except we got a new maintenance guy. He started out really nice, came by when I asked, gave me his personal phone number, talked crap about the other neighbors (my downstairs are noisy slobs with 3 kids...), fixed everything. 

Then last fall they decided, with the only notice being a note posted on the front door, they were ripping out our gas heaters and replacing them with electric. That was a hellish 3 months. It took forever, they never came by when they were supposed to, I had to shuffle my animals around and take days off from work. It was just a disaster. There was dirt and dust everywhere, gaping holes where the heaters were, some spots on the wall still arent painted over. Just a mess. On top of that, our electricity bill SKYROCKETED and by that I mean it went from $60 to $400 in one month. We didn't expect it to be that expensive and still haven't financially recovered from this winter. We wanted to be out of here by the summer but that cant happen now... 

Apartments suck haha. I really hope yours improves!! For our next place I'm going to be a little pickier and hopefully find something thats privately owned instead of managed...


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## LoveAllSpecies (Jun 2, 2015)

All these terrible apartment experiences make me glad I live in a house. Sadly landlords and others in charge of apartments don't particularly care what living conditions are like for other people, just themselves. If it's really bad, you could try going to a local news station- where I live, the news stations LOVE those stories because it makes them look good when they report and things end up getting fixed. But that would be bad for your relationship with the property maintance person and if its one thing I've learned is don't make miserable people miserable-er.

Um, maybe try this:

tinyhouselistings.com/index.php?s=viewmore

(I'm having trouble with the link, if it doesn't work just type "tiny house listings" into your search engine.)

I imagine there are some around, since tiny houses are trending on the West Coast right now. Some of the ones on this site are definitely WAY too small for two people and a dog, but some may have more square footage. Some are actually cute and nice to look at, so if you see a bunch of ugly trailers keep looking (unless you don't mind an ugly trailer, then its probably the best bang for your buck.)

Just make you have an actual yard where you can go outside. Outside time is important for you and the dog. I hope this helps!


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## RosesAndRats (May 7, 2015)

Some people drive me crazy. Cheap and lazy, most of them. My family and I live in a house that we rent. Not even a month after we moved in we noticed a problem with the sinks. (If you turn any of the sinks on with the full water pressure, except for the kitchen ones, a terrible choppy-rutting noise is immediately heard, and it's loud and embarrassing. The shower heads are ridiculous, so many large water-based appliances leak like crazy, one toilet you have to stand and keep the flusher down so the water goes down the bowl, and we recently found out there's a huge wet spot underneath the house. My older sister informed me recently that this is what attracts roaches. (As if we don't have enough of a bug problem half of the year.)

Getting the people who own the place to fix anything is like pulling tooth and nail. Every once in a while there's a week where I can hear scuffling going on in the walls and ceiling of my bedroom, apparently it's just my room (figures) but I swear I heard a rodent eating something in the ceiling. (Of course I would know what that sounds like.)

And the place is haunted. I don't believe in ghosts, and even if they're real I'm not concerned about them at all, but there have been a few incidents where I couldn't find an explanation. No draft could have opened my nightstand drawer that faces my bed, twice, and everyone else seemed surprised that I even brought it up. (I live in a family of bad liars.) The weirdest thing was the sink faucet turning on while I was in the shower, bathroom door shut, and no one seen coming in. Again, everyone else seemed surprised. So the house is haunted, best explanation. (I thought of a psycho being sneaky enough to live in the house was a possibility, but the more I thought of it, the more my anxiety grew.)


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

The small stuff you will learn to just fix yourself. ;D I've been renting the same place for 4 years now, and while our landlords (private - they are the homeowners) are usually very timely about getting major things fixed, I'd rather just patch a hole and such myself in a tenth of the time. I give them the receipts and they pay for anything over a few dollars (ie. smoke detectors). IMO I would never rent a "commercial" apartment unit - they are way too hit and miss. Homeowners have a lot more on the line with their rentals - if something is leaking, the plumbing is clogged, things are falling apart - it's their home that's being damaged, and that's HUGE motivation to get it fixed ASAP.


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

Apartments suck most of the time. But my grandparents one is so amazing and the staff ate really nice. But yeah I my experience I don't like apartments. And I agree with jaguar on the fact that people renting their home will want to fix it ASAP.


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