Stupid Apartments
 

I went home for lunch yesterday and didn't return back until about 9 PM last night. On my door was a notice from the maintenance team that they had been in to do routine preventative maintenance (which I knew would be one day this week based on a note I got last week). Well, that's great, but the only prob was that my door was left unlocked and slightly ajar!!! I probably should have gotten the on-property police officer to accompany me into my apartment, but I went in and everything was fine-- nothing missing. But still! I checked in all of the rooms, cupboards and even in the dishwasher for a would-be burglar. Totally freaked me out. I called management this morning-- this isn't like them and I know it wasn't intentional-- but HELLO! My door was left wide open for about 6 hours into mid-evening!!!!!

That sucks and I wonder if you threatened to move out if would they compensate you somehow.

My complex is really hands-on and good about maintenance and spraying for insects every month and leaving notes saying they were there. Over the last 4 months I've noticed that someone on the pest control staff has been taking my box of matches that I have on my elephant-insence(sp) holder. This has happened 3 separate times. The first two boxes of matches were tokens that I had gotten from roadtrips to Las Vegas and Philly and the last box of matches were just from the local Friday's.

It's not so much the matches that bothers me but the idea of someone thinking to take even the smallest thing from my apartment. I know the person had to think I wouldn't notice something so small because he didn't touch the more valuable small items that I have laying around. I didn't call the office because I don't want the maintenance staff to get pissed off over something seemingly small and decide to make my life a living hell. There have been no other incidents so I will just chill out--although I haven't seen any of their little notes in a month or so, so I hope they haven't forgotten about me.

I know what you mean
 

Oooooooo!!! I feel your pain!! I was renting an apartment last summer that was undergoing a lot of renovation and construction. I went to work in the morning (about 5 minutes from where I lived) and later that morning, about an hour and a half later, had to come home to get some papers I had left at home. I walked down the hall and noticed my apartment door was completely gone - off its hinges!! And there was some guy on the floor, cutting a section of carpeting (they were laying new carpeting in the hallway that day - but hadn't told me). And in full view of anyone who cared to walk by was my laptop and a brand new box of checks, among other things. I was pissed!! Of course I went off on the guy working on the floor - why wasn't I told (no notice at all), etc. and he started "ma'am-ing" me ("I'm sorry ma'am"..."We didn't know you'd be coming back, ma'am"...) which made me even MORE incensed.

I had become pretty good friends with the landlady and called her right away to complain, but I didn't get the sense she knew what a seriously big deal this was for me. I decided to let it go because I liked her, and because it was only a temporary living arrangement for the summer - but still!! :mad:

From my experience, apartments don't give a crap what you think once you've signed their lease. Don't hold your breath waiting for compensation. You can threaten to move out, and they won't care. If you break your lease, they'll threaten legal action against you. I am glad i am moving out of this place.

find a new place on Craigslist

Well.... It's not worth moving b/c I'm moving again in 6 months so I'm just going to sit still for a little while longer... Still annoying. They apologized... a discount on rent would have been nice compensation for my pain and suffering but I am not going to make a federal case of it right now.

Go to House of Pies!

Or De Gallaria! Good shopping there

Only if you meet me there! :p

I still have yet to go to the House of Pies...

HA...I asked for them to knock off some rent b/c they had to come out and fix my A/C three times during a warm part of the year. They just said "we don't do that". That's great customer service right there. Maybe some of the attorneys on here could tell us what kind of recourse we may have for the future?

Read your lease.

I don't know if it's ok for your apartment, but the ones that I lived at, we were allowed to change the locks (as a matter of fact, for the sake of my family, we do, because we don't know who has a copy of our keys). And by the end of your lease, then you give them the keys. But make sure that you're the ONLY one that has the keys when you're living.

You're really lucky that nothing was missing from your apartment.

Oh, boy, do I understand! I just moved out of the place I'd lived for a couple years, and to be honest, I don't know why I waited that long to get the heck out. One summer the landlord was installing central air/heating, and of course the only entrance to the attic was in my apartment. My closet, to be specific. I don't know how many times I came home to find my stuff from the closet strewn around on the couch, the floor, or just hastily shoved back in there because the workers were too lazy to put it back like I had it. The worst was when I came home to shower and change clothes for my grad school interview, and my apartment was full of strange men. When I asked them why my landlord had not informed me that they would be in there, they responded with, "Well, he doesn't know." He doesn't know? He doesn't know???? The idea of some random A/C people running around with keys to my place and coming inside without the landlord knowing anything about it did not sit well with me. I wrote a little love letter to my landlord and they paid the first few months of my electric bill (before the A/C was installed, all bills were included in the rent), but I still had to deal with the parade of people going and coming at random. At least they never left the door open, though. :p