20 November 2008, 6:26 pm
Long story short, the housing company that owns this apartment complex is terrible at fixing broken things and basic upkeep of the apartment complex. The water randomly shuts off, the power goes out for hours at a time and it takes about 3 hours for emergency maintenence to respond, fire alarms go off randomly when there is no fire, and everyone must stand outside in the cold or rain for hours until maintenence comes, power surges during summer-times prevent me from running a computer or tv or AC at the same time, ACs don't even have a enough power to keep a room mildly cool even when it's the only thing running, and the only elevator is never ever working (I live on the top floor and the railings in the staircase are falling off the walls). I've called about these problems constantly and either: No one comes out to fix them EVER; someone comes out to fix it 2 weeks later and it breaks again the same day; someone comes out just to tell me there is nothing they can do. Last year around this time there was a horrible stentch on our floor and I called for 3 weeks, every other day, to the office phone and their emergency phone (because it was so bad), begging someone to come out. When someone finally came I went with them to search the other rooms for the source, and we found that my next door neighbor had killed himself over a month ago and his body was rotting in his room (the one right next to ours). His head was resting on his radiator (this was during the winter) so his brains were being fried. What a lovely smell that was. I complained about them not doing anything about it sooner and told them they should have responded to my first call. They told me neither office (including the emergency one) had any records of me calling prior to my LAST call. I've been calling every day for the past 2 weeks to get the elevator fixed and it's still broken. I've already sent a letter to the Division Manager (the guy the lease says to write to if our complaints aren't being answered) telling him about these problems, and how nothing is being done, and how I believe I am entitled to a safe living environment. What are my rights? Can this company seriously get away with not keeping this building up to par? Aren't they obligated to at least provide us with properly working electricity and an elevator? (all utilities are included in the rent). Is there ANY legal action I can take to force them to get their act together? (I'm not sure I can do anything about the dead body event, since it occured about a year ago...I should have sued them then). I sued my last landlord for making rediculous deductions to the security deposit on my last residence and for witholding it for more than 30 days. They told me that they doubted I would take them to court...the next day I filed the lawsuit. Their lawyer contacted me and begged me to settle outside of the courts, and I got my full settlement. I'm prepared to do it again, I feel like I deserve to live in a safe environment with working utilities and ameneties...it's what i'm paying for right?... Read More »
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