Has anyone here ever been a landlord, or worked as a property manager? I'm wondering if people who had those jobs might have input, but would appreciate input from others, too. Since I've lived in this apartment complex there have been 3 different owners; current owner bought the place a little more than a year ago, the first landlords were wonderful people too, but this issue occurred shortly after the second landlord bought the buildings and turned overseeing the buildings to management companies. To explain as briefly as possible: apartment "sprung a leak." I contacted the then-manager and explained the problem. As the leaking continued to worsen, it set off back-and-forth communications between that particular manager and myself- me updating him on the situation, him saying someone would be over to check on it, but no one ever showed up. This went on for months, and then he stopped replying entirely. There was nothing I could do until a new company took over and assisted me in moving. So, for around 9 months, I stayed in a soaking-wet, mold-filled apartment, water gushing in (a couple times there was almost a foot of water on the floor until it soaked down into the flooring), virtually everything I owned was destroyed, and so forth; and my youngest was still a student and lived there most of that time also. No one ever took responsibility for this situation, and while the owner still owned the place I was afraid to take any action because I was fairly certain they'd evict me if I did. The owner went out of his/her/their way to be "invisible and anonymous"- I was never able to find out who owned the buildings. When the property manager sent emails, he used the management company owner's email account, so there was no way to contact the person in charge of the management company either. I think it's a safe bet to say that neither the landlord nor the management company owner know anything about what I went through simply because the manager repeatedly brushed off my requests for assistance. Do you think there's anything I can do- and if so, what?
Your story is the reason I myself hesitate to give up my home and move into an apartment. Good and bad landlords and if I do make a decision to move then I will carefully research first where I move to. Here in Canada there is a Landlord and Tenants Court when problems come up.
I too live in an apartment complex and I despise 'management' who's sole interest is themselves Janice - over here we have Citizens Advice a charity run organisation Living here, I found other outlets too online that give advice to residents Hope you find the help you need
That is a terrible thing for them to do, @Janice Martin , and there should have been some sort of law that forbids this treatment from apartment managers. Most states have a Landlord-Tenant law, and usually some sort of an association that helps regulate these kinds of things. Since management companies have no real interest in the property like the actual owner would have, they often just want to collect the rents and get their commissions. Plus, they have to show paperwork on money spent for repairs, so if they don't show that to the landlord that they had to make repairs or spend money, then it looks better for them, at least in their opinion. Sometimes, it is just the repairman who is not doing his job right that creates this problem, and the management company thinks that things are being fixed and repaired and they are not being fixed or even looked at. I think that it is better to rent a place that is being managed by the owner, because they (usually) do really care about the property being maintained. In any case, look up landlord/tenant law for your state online, and that should help you get some better answers.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/renters-rights I believe you should be able to be compensated for your property damage and loss @Janice Martin.
This is why I handle talking to management about repairing things. I'm much more outgoing than my wife is about this requesting repairs. IOW, I'm nice, but firm. We've lived in this apartment since Jan 2009 and management knows this as well as sometimes I remind them of it. We've really never had a problem getting thing done.
Check landlord tenant laws for your state. Review your lease, even if you are month to month. There is a process called Rent Escrow where you pay your rent to the court and they schedule a mediation. Hitting owner/manager in the wallet will definitely get action. Btw prior to using Rent Escrow you need to summarize and shorten your complaint considerably. Good luck.
@Janice Martin "..... Has anyone here ever been a landlord,......" Yes, when my wife & I bought a house in Phoenix while on a "house-hunting" trip funded by my ne employer-to-be, we had no idea the nice comfortable home with pool in the back yard was situated in one of the "war zones". We lived there 3 months, then negotiated purchase of a place in a much more rural area. Put the first place up for sale; no luck. Offered it up for rent. A nice, single man rented it, offering to do routine maintenance chores for free. Seemed like a good interim thing, we needed the rent money, having 2 mortgage payments. It lasted a year. the guy proved to be OK, but left leaving us again in dire straits. We tried selling, again. No luck. A young co-worker of mine bought it, we lost a couple thousand bucks, but were glad to be out from under it. Landlord? Never again. Frank
Only thing is, she doesn't want to be evicted. And, even if (a BIG "if") they don't evict her, they can make things even worse for her. Most of us are just too old to take that kind of hassle. Going thru legal stuff isn't always the best choice.
Janice Martin.. if you live in the states...there should be an organization, in your state that handles this. Here it is called Texas Apartment association. Renters do have rights, so I would continue to see what is variable in your area. We also have had apartment bought and sold in the last five years,and the new owners not as good has the past ones. However, nothing compared to this. Also, many people here,get fed up about many things, and contact their local news stations. Companies do not like being on the news unless something good. Also several of our stations here have Investigating News, that handles this type of problem.
Thank you all, I really appreciate the input and advice. I checked the BBB listings, and found quite a few people have made complaints about the management company.
Okay to check BBB, but they have no authority. All they do is take complaints, send reply to person who complained, and then put everything in a file.
Today, the people down the street from us are being evicted by the sheriff's department. It is a sad situation, and I feel sorry for the people being evicted, and also for the landlord. These people moved in last fall with a 6 month lease which would have ended in March; but they have not paid any rent since December of last year, even though they both have good jobs. At first, they just had excuses (car trouble, etc.), but when they didn't even try to pay the rent, the landlord finally had to serve an eviction notice, which they ignored. The next step was to go to court for an eviction , and they didn't even bother to show up at court, and after that they had almost another month to move before the sheriff showed up at the house to have everything put out on the edge of the street. That happened this morning, and they were furious, tried to say they had not been given any kind of notice, and totally ignored the part that the landlord had let them stay for almost a half year before finally having them evicted by the sheriff department. So, this morning, all of their stuff is being taken out of the house, enforced by several deputies. Naturally, they are saying that they would have been all moved by this weekend; but apparently they hadn't even started packing boxes to move; so I doubt that they would have moved if the landlord had given them the extra few days to do it. What I don't understand is why they didn't even try to pay their rent when they could have done so. Even partial payments would have kept them going and made the landlord feel better. They both have good jobs, and drive nice cars; so you would have thought that they would either pay the rent, or moved, and not let it come to this. I feel sorry that it has come to this, even though I know that they have brought it all on themselves.
Unless there's a very good reason we don't know about, I really don't feel sorry for these people. If they had the money...they should have paid rent. I think the landlord tried his best to give them ample warnings....no excuses.
They also have several large dogs, and if no one had been home, the sheriff would have had to call animal control, had the dogs netted and taken to the dog pound, where they would have stayed until someone paid the fines to get them back out. This morning, the lady drove off to work like nothing was happening, and when we saw the daughter drive out with her car, the landlord waved her down to let her know that the sheriff was on the way, and they needed to at least get the animals out. The daughter called her mother, who came back home, and then started raving because her daughter was crying about everything, and that the landlord had no right to tell the daughter (who is college age). I said that she would have been crying even worse if they had come home to find everything out on the street and the dogs impounded. She then told me to stay out of it, it was none of my business. I guess it wasn't; but still, I think that the landlord did the best thing to let the daughter know. I offered to let them put the dogs in our yard until they could move them somewhere else, but she just tied them to the fence. We have known the landlord ever since we moved out here, and actually rented from him for quite a while, and he is the one who Bobby helps out with handyman work when something needs done at one of the rentals, which are all close to where we live. He has always been good hearted, and worked with renters who were having money problems, but were at least trying to pay the rent.