Initial Business Response /* (1000, 15, 2016/08/30) */
I am writing to find out if you was able to get our fax or email that we have submitted to respond to the complaint issued by *** ***She has since come into our office and paid her account in fullI am wondering if there is going to
be an update on the Revdex.com showing that we did respond and that the consumer did take care of her debt?
*** ***
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/07/07) */
Contact Name and Title: Kari [redacted], Property Man
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@gmail.com
I am the new property manager for Greenleaf Manor Apartments.I took over on 6/15/2015. The previous manager was let...
go due to agregious business pratcies.
I had not heard any complaints from the Hillard/[redacted] residence since taking over.
On 6/26/2015 I received a voice mail from Mr. Hillard asking to schedule his move out inspection and to respond to their request for a pro-ration of rent for the month of July.
On 6/26/2015 I spoke with [redacted] and informed him that we expected him to fufill the terms of his lease and pay rent until July 30,as we did not pro-rate move outs. I let him know then that I was the new manager and had discussed this with our corporate office. I also let him know that becuase of the previous manager's release we had no access to our e-mail since May 20, 2015. I slso discussed our lease break fee of 2 months as outlined in his lease. We were in agreement that only one month would be charged, as this fufilled the terms of his lease. He then informed of many complaints that they had and stated they had photos of us entering their apartment without proper notice and that he had lived with bees during the summer of 2013. I asked if there were maintenance requests submitted for the times we entered , as we do not have a "do not enter without permission " on file for their apartment. Please note that one work order even states OK to enter ( the tenant is asked this when placing a work order with the office). They are under the impression that we are required to give a 24 notice to complete a work order or to enter for any other reason. We will only enter in case of emergency, or if a tenant requests we complete a work order. If we enter for any other reason , such as an inpsection we are required to give a 24 notice. I then read him back the maintenance requests he had given to the office and asked if they were still ongoing.He could not answer, but then stated our pool had not been opened. He stated that he thought they had bees last year but could not be certain without checking his documentation. I then asked if he lived in the apartment during the summer of 2014, as one would certaintly know if they lived with bees. He again stated he could not answer me without checking his photos and other documentation. He said they would just take us to court. I indicated that would be fine as then we would have the opportunity to view thier "evidence".
I then scheduled their move out inspection for 6/29/2015 at 12:15 pm,per his request.
On the morning of 6/29/2015 I received a voice mail from Mr. Hillard stating that he would be unable to meet with me for his move-out inspection and that he would contact me later in the week to reschedule. I still have not heard from either Ms. [redacted] or Mr. Hillard regarding a different date and time.
On 5/20/2015 they spoke with Jan in our office and requested a notice to vacate as they were moving to a house.
The July rent was paid by a check left in our drop box and was paid on time.
At this time they obligation to us ends on July 31st. ast which time we will expect reurn of our keys and garage door opener. They remain in full possesion their apartemnt until that time.
I have enclosed a copy of their lease, all work orders, and their notice to vacate.
OFFER:
We have no offer the consumer, as we have fufilled our obligation according to the terms of our lease.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/07/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Grant H- resident since November 2012
As Kari mentioned, she is new to her role, and is not familiar with the complete history of issues while residing at Greenleaf Manor Apartments. In fact, she is the fifth property manager at this property over the course of the 2 1/2 years I have resided here.
Oddly enough, the previous manager she referenced who was relieved of duty for "egregious activity" was the first of the 5 different property managers that (sometimes) responded to service requests in a timely manner and followed up to ensure tenants were satisfied with any maintenance or repairs.
Being new to her role, Kari has omitted many important details of the issues we have experienced during our residency on the property and I will be happy to share those details with supporting photos and e-mail.
The written notification to vacate was actually provided via e-mail to Sarah / Jan on May 5, 2015. As is typical of the Greenleaf Manor Apartments prior to Sarah becoming property manager, no response was provided. Despite repeated follow ups via the apartment's e-mail address over the course of over 3 weeks, our e-mails were ignored.
The original request was for a move out date of July 12th and a prorated rent payment for July covering the dates we would remain at the property. Via a telephone follow up with Jan due to the e-mails being ignored, I was informed that the apartment did not pro-rate move outs during the middle of the month, but Jan did offer us the option of moving out and terminating the lease at the end of June. There was no mention of any fee for vacating the lease prior to move out. I was skeptical, however, because in the past, the complex would renege on previous agreements by saying "well, it isn't in writing". It is impossible to have something in writing when e-mails are regularly ignored, so the complex seems to intentionally keep very little paper trail to always maintain the upper hand over its tenants.
As expected, the complex would not provide any written confirmation of their agreement to allow the lease to terminate on June 30th, and changed their mind saying we would have to pay for the entire month of July. We weren't able to get in contact by phone with anyone from the office until the Revdex.com claim was filed. Kari is correct in that we paid rent for July on time, just as all other rent payments were made on time. While we did not feel we should have had to pay for July, we did out of concern that the property would attempt to damage our credit, preventing us from finding a more suitable living condition in which issues are not simply ignored or terms of the lease violated.
Kari is also correct that as soon as possible I called to inform her that we would be rescheduling the final walk-through since there was no reason to have the walk-through at the end of June as Greenleaf was requiring us to pay the entire month of July. Because of the concern about what the apartment will try to charge us, we thought this would allow us the opportunity to fill any holes from hanging items and prevent unwarranted charges.
This is where Kari's account of what we experienced differs from reality and she is completely misrepresenting what was discussed during our conversation.
She has not attached even half of the total work orders that were submitted for during the duration of our residency, and she has not attached all pages and addendums to the lease agreement.
There was never a doubt about the issue of bees inside the apartment and I made that perfectly clear to Kari during our conversation. I was in the middle of a week-long work trip at the time of our conversation and simply stated I could not confirm the specific dates that the bees were an issue. There were 5-10 bees inside the residence daily over the course of 2-3 months and I have photographs to corroborate. The bee issue was reported to the property no less than 10 times, and the response was that they sprayed but it was with an herbicide so it probably didn't work. The issue with the bees caused a stressful and dangerous living condition especially considering I am allergic to bees. The apartment was made aware of this, but still did nothing to resolve the issue.
I am not surprised that there is no record of this in the apartment files, as there were many times they entered the apartment without any prior notice and did not leave any type of documentation stating they had entered or explaining what issue they entered to "attempt" to resolve.
As is outlined in the lease, I requested that the complex respect that they would provide 24 hour notice prior to entering the apartment. Jan asked whether the maintenance person would be allowed to work on issues while I was not present and I agreed as long as the 24 hour notice was provided. This would allow the resident to remove any sensitive financial or personal information from plain sight prior to a stranger entering their home. The only reason I agreed to this was because I thought it would allow issues to be resolved more quickly, but I could not have been more wrong. Additionally, the complex NEVER respected the 24 hour advance notification request which is outlined in the terms of the lease.
The issue is that an open repair request could take anywhere from several weeks up to 2 years to be addressed and "closed," so essentially any type of request to bring the residence up to an acceptable living condition was treated as an invitation for maintenance to enter the apartment at will.
Furthermore, we have written confirmation from the previous property manager, Sarah, confirming that the apartment would not be entered without 24 hour prior notice, and, even still, Greenleaf Manor apartments did not honor our request for privacy and a safe and comfortable residence.
Out of concern that our requests were repeatedly being broken, a camera was placed in the residence which again captured maintenance entering the apartment without any prior notice. As was often the case, they did not leave any notice that they had entered the apartment or specified the issue they entered to address.
One of the most severe service request that is nowhere to be found from Kari is when I noticed the in apartment smoke detector was no longer operating correctly. It was a very old unit and I was not surprised that it was no longer functioning. Out of fear of a fire within the building, I notified the apartment immediately. Two weeks later, after no action was taken, I purchased my own smoke detector in order to ensure a safe living environment, as the complex clearly had no concern for my wellbeing. It was only after I informed them that I had purchased my own detector that maintenance entered the apartment, without any prior notice, to replace the old broken detector and take down the detector I had purchased.
It is mandated that every unit within an apartment complex or any type of rental has a fully functioning smoke detector at all times; however, Greenleaf Manor Apartments did not ensure their residents were provided a safe living environment.
When [redacted] became concerned that there may be black mold within our apartment, there was initially little response, but once the concern reached the corporate maintenance contact, our apartment was once again entered without any prior notice. Any visible signs of the substance that caused concern was removed and drenched in bleach, and there was not any notice left to inform us that the apartment had been entered. If this was in fact toxic black mold, disturbing the black mold releases toxins. Also, nothing was done to ensure additional mold was not hiding behind tiles, etc.
Additionally, we noticed a chemical/bleach burn spot in the main entry that had not previously been there, which seems to have leaked from the bottle or the shoe of maintenance after they entered the residence to try to cover up any potentially hazardous mold. Again, the complex showed no concern for the safety and wellbeing of its tenants and did not provide any feedback on the black substance that was removed or any further course of action that would be taken to ensure we were provided with a safe living environment.
We have photographic evidence, e-mails and text messages from the previous property manager supporting our account of the issues we experienced, and would be happy to provide samples.
In an addendum to the lease, it clearly states that the pool will be open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. This was discussed at the time of move in, and was part of the reason for selecting Greenleaf Manor Apartments as a place of residence. The pool was never opened for more than a few days during the entire duration of my 2 1/2 year residency, and there were no other amenities commonly associated with an apartment rental property.
NOT ENOUGH CHARACTERS REMAINING TO COMPLETE OUR RESPONSE.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 12, 2015/07/27) */
Contact Name and Title: Kari [redacted], Property Manager
I will address these one by one.
1) Grant lived in the community from 10/26/2012 and [redacted] did not join until 2/11/2015 at which time she was added to the lease after being notified from the office that all residents in an apartment must fill out an application and be on the lease. Articles 4 and 5
2.) Regarding all comments concerning communication : Article 23 of the lease states the following ;"NOTICES: Any notice to be given by either party shall be in writing and given by personal delivery to LANDLORD or to YOU, or shall be sent by United States regular first class mail, to the addresses set forth in this lease or to your last know address if filed at the LANDLORD's Office. Any change of address you file at the post office will not be notice to LANDLORD of your change of address. Notice shall be deemed given as of the date deposited at any post office, or in any post office box."
A text message is not a professional way to conduct business, and is certainly of a more personal nature . Although e-mails may have been exchanged again ,this is not considered a notice to the Landlord.
3.) When speaking with Jan ,she was under the impression that your lease ended the 30th of June and thus offered to let you vacate at that time. You needed to stay until the 12th of July and were informed that we could not pro-rate a move out. If you wanted to stay additional time then you would have been required remain on a month to month lease with an additional fee of $50.00 per month. Paragraph 2 of lease. Fortunately your lease did not end until July 31st which allowed to stay your additional days without a month to month fee. You stayed in the apartment until July 11, 2015.
4.) Article 15 states clearly that the landlord may enter your apartment. This was only done at times when a work order was being completed. If you did not wish for us to enter to complete a maintenance request a simple notice in writing ( not email or text) that you wished to be home when the repair was completed is all that was required. Please note some work orders previously submitted state OK to enter. If this had changed for your apartment we were never notified in the office. The ONLY time we would enter was to complete a maintenance request. A 24 hour notice is required if we wish to enter for some other reason such as a furnace filter change or semi annual inspection. These notices are personally delivered to your door as stated in Article 23.
5.) As your previous complaint did not speak of the smoke detector , or any other issues that I had not addressed, I only included the work orders pertaining to your complaint. I am attaching all others.
6.)There is no addendum to the lease that speaks of the pool. The only addendum to the lease is the Rules and Regulations Handbook in Article 29. There is also a separate Security Deposit Agreement incorporated by reference (Article 2). We do have a handout provided to the residents in which we reference the pool. In no way is it a part of our lease. It is an amenity.
7 ) the photos I see of the bugs appear to be fruit flies or drain flies which can be very common in warmer weather. It cannot be determined why they chose this apartment, they are so many factors that contribute to the appearance of these type of flies. It is my understanding that we did attempt to help rid the apartment of them. The bees I understand were only there during 2013 and we attempted to rid the unit of them also.
We have now received notice that utilities were disconnected by the tenant as of
During Grant's residency here ,we did make an exception to allow him to have a 9 month lease at one point, which he then extended to a one year term.
I have scheduled their walk through for July 30th at 11:00 am. [redacted] has asked that she not have to clean the main bath as she believes there may be mold,. Since I have never been advised of this by the tenant, I informed her that I would notify the corporate office that she will leave that main bathroom as is.
I am attaching ALL work orders from apartment C-110 from October 2012 forward, so that no further surprises will be added to this complaint.
I am also attaching once again ALL lease papers signed by the tenants, and the "guidelines" that are speaking of regarding the pool
OFFER:
We have no settlement to offer the consumer. They have now fulfilled the terms of their lease, which is a legal contract signed by both parties.
Although we have the right to enter once notice is given to attempt to lease the apartment,according to Article 15, we have respected the tenant's wishes and made no entry to show the apartment.
We will do the walk through as requested by [redacted] on the 30th of July and forward their deposition to them at the address left with us.
The deposit on hand with us is $99.00 and is [redacted] name.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 15, 2015/08/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Final walk-through was completed on Thursday July 29th, at 12:15 with Kari. She was unable to sign anything because Randy from Corporate did not attend the walk-through and he instructed her not to sign anything.
At the time of walk-through, we noted that the apartment was cleaned, all holes were filled and the apartment was returned in good shape.
Kari noted that on the initial move in sheet there was information noting the spots and even paint on the carpet and that I agreed to live with the condition of the carpet based on the knowledge that the carpet would be replaced after I vacated the apartment.
Kari also noted the poor condition of the carpet in the kitchen which was promised to be replaced at the time of move in, however, after 2 years 9 months living at the apartment, it was never replaced.
Kari also noted the black substance under the sink in the main bathroom which the apartment was made aware of on several occasions in writing. Due to concern that the substance may be black mold, we did not spend significant time in that room to clean.
We are now awaiting notice from the apartment as to what if any charges they will be requesting. We do not anticipate any significant charges considering the good condition of the unit at the time of move out.
In response to Kari's previous response:
#3: We were absolutely not residing at the apartment beyond June 30th. While we may have been at the unit on July 11th to clean or remove any remaining items, we were not residing at the residence as we made our future living plans based on Jan's offer to end the terms of the lease on June 30th. We did schedule the transfer of utilities for the end of June when we were under the impression we would be let out of the lease at that time.
#4: We requested on several occasions that 24 hour notice would be provided prior to entry into the apartment. This was especially important as we were not able to be there every time the unit was entered, and we wanted advance notice the someone would be entering our apartment as outlined in the lease as well as state law. Our apartment was entered on several occasions without any prior notice, and there was no standing work order on several of those occasions. When we discussed this with the previous property manager, Sarah, she apologized but said she was not surprised as maintenance had done the same thing to her! There were many times that the apartment was entered and there was not any type of notice left to let us know it had been entered. The door padlock was left unlocked and blinds were left open on those occasions. This led me to install a camera to be able to prove this was happening, and the camera captured maintenance entering the apartment without any prior notice. There was no documentation left that they had entered, and without the camera, we would have had no idea our privacy was once again violated.
#5: Smoke detector took several weeks and several follow ups to be replaced. This is in direct violation of what is required by a landlord to provide its tenant with a safe living condition.
#6: I have the "Welcome to Greenleaf Manor Apartments" page which was attached to the lease addendum and given to the tenant at the time of move in. It directly states that the pool will be open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It was open only a few weeks in the 2 years and 9 months I resided at the complex.
#7: The office was notified on several occasions that there was a serious issue with drain flies. We do not care why they choose our apartment, we wanted a living environment free from the health and safety concern posed by a bug infestation. The complex did absolutely nothing to try to resolve this issue, just as they did nothing to try to resolve the bee infestation. For the bees, I was told by Kay, the manager at the time, that "We tried to spray, but it was more of a plant killer spray so I don't know if it worked."
For the drain flies, we were first told that an exterminator would be coming out to the apartment. When attempting several follow ups to find out when this would be happening, our requests were ignored. We were then given a single "bug bomb" which was completely inadequate as it was a single room treatment and did absolutely nothing to address the problem. We were also told by maintenance that we could try pouring bleach down the drain. We later told by the property managers to try vinegar and baking soda because that might work.
That is far from an attempt to help rid the apartment of the bug infestation.
As stated previously, our sole goal is to move on from this bad experience, and we await the notice / deposition from the complex to finally be able to do so.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 15, 2016/08/30) */
I am writing to find out if you was able to get our fax or email that we have submitted to respond to the complaint issued by *** ***She has since come into our office and paid her account in fullI am wondering if there is going to
be an update on the Revdex.com showing that we did respond and that the consumer did take care of her debt?
*** ***
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/07/07) */
Contact Name and Title: Kari [redacted], Property Man
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@gmail.com
I am the new property manager for Greenleaf Manor Apartments.I took over on 6/15/2015. The previous manager was let...
go due to agregious business pratcies.
I had not heard any complaints from the Hillard/[redacted] residence since taking over.
On 6/26/2015 I received a voice mail from Mr. Hillard asking to schedule his move out inspection and to respond to their request for a pro-ration of rent for the month of July.
On 6/26/2015 I spoke with [redacted] and informed him that we expected him to fufill the terms of his lease and pay rent until July 30,as we did not pro-rate move outs. I let him know then that I was the new manager and had discussed this with our corporate office. I also let him know that becuase of the previous manager's release we had no access to our e-mail since May 20, 2015. I slso discussed our lease break fee of 2 months as outlined in his lease. We were in agreement that only one month would be charged, as this fufilled the terms of his lease. He then informed of many complaints that they had and stated they had photos of us entering their apartment without proper notice and that he had lived with bees during the summer of 2013. I asked if there were maintenance requests submitted for the times we entered , as we do not have a "do not enter without permission " on file for their apartment. Please note that one work order even states OK to enter ( the tenant is asked this when placing a work order with the office). They are under the impression that we are required to give a 24 notice to complete a work order or to enter for any other reason. We will only enter in case of emergency, or if a tenant requests we complete a work order. If we enter for any other reason , such as an inpsection we are required to give a 24 notice. I then read him back the maintenance requests he had given to the office and asked if they were still ongoing.He could not answer, but then stated our pool had not been opened. He stated that he thought they had bees last year but could not be certain without checking his documentation. I then asked if he lived in the apartment during the summer of 2014, as one would certaintly know if they lived with bees. He again stated he could not answer me without checking his photos and other documentation. He said they would just take us to court. I indicated that would be fine as then we would have the opportunity to view thier "evidence".
I then scheduled their move out inspection for 6/29/2015 at 12:15 pm,per his request.
On the morning of 6/29/2015 I received a voice mail from Mr. Hillard stating that he would be unable to meet with me for his move-out inspection and that he would contact me later in the week to reschedule. I still have not heard from either Ms. [redacted] or Mr. Hillard regarding a different date and time.
On 5/20/2015 they spoke with Jan in our office and requested a notice to vacate as they were moving to a house.
The July rent was paid by a check left in our drop box and was paid on time.
At this time they obligation to us ends on July 31st. ast which time we will expect reurn of our keys and garage door opener. They remain in full possesion their apartemnt until that time.
I have enclosed a copy of their lease, all work orders, and their notice to vacate.
OFFER:
We have no offer the consumer, as we have fufilled our obligation according to the terms of our lease.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/07/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Grant H- resident since November 2012
As Kari mentioned, she is new to her role, and is not familiar with the complete history of issues while residing at Greenleaf Manor Apartments. In fact, she is the fifth property manager at this property over the course of the 2 1/2 years I have resided here.
Oddly enough, the previous manager she referenced who was relieved of duty for "egregious activity" was the first of the 5 different property managers that (sometimes) responded to service requests in a timely manner and followed up to ensure tenants were satisfied with any maintenance or repairs.
Being new to her role, Kari has omitted many important details of the issues we have experienced during our residency on the property and I will be happy to share those details with supporting photos and e-mail.
The written notification to vacate was actually provided via e-mail to Sarah / Jan on May 5, 2015. As is typical of the Greenleaf Manor Apartments prior to Sarah becoming property manager, no response was provided. Despite repeated follow ups via the apartment's e-mail address over the course of over 3 weeks, our e-mails were ignored.
The original request was for a move out date of July 12th and a prorated rent payment for July covering the dates we would remain at the property. Via a telephone follow up with Jan due to the e-mails being ignored, I was informed that the apartment did not pro-rate move outs during the middle of the month, but Jan did offer us the option of moving out and terminating the lease at the end of June. There was no mention of any fee for vacating the lease prior to move out. I was skeptical, however, because in the past, the complex would renege on previous agreements by saying "well, it isn't in writing". It is impossible to have something in writing when e-mails are regularly ignored, so the complex seems to intentionally keep very little paper trail to always maintain the upper hand over its tenants.
As expected, the complex would not provide any written confirmation of their agreement to allow the lease to terminate on June 30th, and changed their mind saying we would have to pay for the entire month of July. We weren't able to get in contact by phone with anyone from the office until the Revdex.com claim was filed. Kari is correct in that we paid rent for July on time, just as all other rent payments were made on time. While we did not feel we should have had to pay for July, we did out of concern that the property would attempt to damage our credit, preventing us from finding a more suitable living condition in which issues are not simply ignored or terms of the lease violated.
Kari is also correct that as soon as possible I called to inform her that we would be rescheduling the final walk-through since there was no reason to have the walk-through at the end of June as Greenleaf was requiring us to pay the entire month of July. Because of the concern about what the apartment will try to charge us, we thought this would allow us the opportunity to fill any holes from hanging items and prevent unwarranted charges.
This is where Kari's account of what we experienced differs from reality and she is completely misrepresenting what was discussed during our conversation.
She has not attached even half of the total work orders that were submitted for during the duration of our residency, and she has not attached all pages and addendums to the lease agreement.
There was never a doubt about the issue of bees inside the apartment and I made that perfectly clear to Kari during our conversation. I was in the middle of a week-long work trip at the time of our conversation and simply stated I could not confirm the specific dates that the bees were an issue. There were 5-10 bees inside the residence daily over the course of 2-3 months and I have photographs to corroborate. The bee issue was reported to the property no less than 10 times, and the response was that they sprayed but it was with an herbicide so it probably didn't work. The issue with the bees caused a stressful and dangerous living condition especially considering I am allergic to bees. The apartment was made aware of this, but still did nothing to resolve the issue.
I am not surprised that there is no record of this in the apartment files, as there were many times they entered the apartment without any prior notice and did not leave any type of documentation stating they had entered or explaining what issue they entered to "attempt" to resolve.
As is outlined in the lease, I requested that the complex respect that they would provide 24 hour notice prior to entering the apartment. Jan asked whether the maintenance person would be allowed to work on issues while I was not present and I agreed as long as the 24 hour notice was provided. This would allow the resident to remove any sensitive financial or personal information from plain sight prior to a stranger entering their home. The only reason I agreed to this was because I thought it would allow issues to be resolved more quickly, but I could not have been more wrong. Additionally, the complex NEVER respected the 24 hour advance notification request which is outlined in the terms of the lease.
The issue is that an open repair request could take anywhere from several weeks up to 2 years to be addressed and "closed," so essentially any type of request to bring the residence up to an acceptable living condition was treated as an invitation for maintenance to enter the apartment at will.
Furthermore, we have written confirmation from the previous property manager, Sarah, confirming that the apartment would not be entered without 24 hour prior notice, and, even still, Greenleaf Manor apartments did not honor our request for privacy and a safe and comfortable residence.
Out of concern that our requests were repeatedly being broken, a camera was placed in the residence which again captured maintenance entering the apartment without any prior notice. As was often the case, they did not leave any notice that they had entered the apartment or specified the issue they entered to address.
One of the most severe service request that is nowhere to be found from Kari is when I noticed the in apartment smoke detector was no longer operating correctly. It was a very old unit and I was not surprised that it was no longer functioning. Out of fear of a fire within the building, I notified the apartment immediately. Two weeks later, after no action was taken, I purchased my own smoke detector in order to ensure a safe living environment, as the complex clearly had no concern for my wellbeing. It was only after I informed them that I had purchased my own detector that maintenance entered the apartment, without any prior notice, to replace the old broken detector and take down the detector I had purchased.
It is mandated that every unit within an apartment complex or any type of rental has a fully functioning smoke detector at all times; however, Greenleaf Manor Apartments did not ensure their residents were provided a safe living environment.
When [redacted] became concerned that there may be black mold within our apartment, there was initially little response, but once the concern reached the corporate maintenance contact, our apartment was once again entered without any prior notice. Any visible signs of the substance that caused concern was removed and drenched in bleach, and there was not any notice left to inform us that the apartment had been entered. If this was in fact toxic black mold, disturbing the black mold releases toxins. Also, nothing was done to ensure additional mold was not hiding behind tiles, etc.
Additionally, we noticed a chemical/bleach burn spot in the main entry that had not previously been there, which seems to have leaked from the bottle or the shoe of maintenance after they entered the residence to try to cover up any potentially hazardous mold. Again, the complex showed no concern for the safety and wellbeing of its tenants and did not provide any feedback on the black substance that was removed or any further course of action that would be taken to ensure we were provided with a safe living environment.
We have photographic evidence, e-mails and text messages from the previous property manager supporting our account of the issues we experienced, and would be happy to provide samples.
In an addendum to the lease, it clearly states that the pool will be open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. This was discussed at the time of move in, and was part of the reason for selecting Greenleaf Manor Apartments as a place of residence. The pool was never opened for more than a few days during the entire duration of my 2 1/2 year residency, and there were no other amenities commonly associated with an apartment rental property.
NOT ENOUGH CHARACTERS REMAINING TO COMPLETE OUR RESPONSE.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 12, 2015/07/27) */
Contact Name and Title: Kari [redacted], Property Manager
I will address these one by one.
1) Grant lived in the community from 10/26/2012 and [redacted] did not join until 2/11/2015 at which time she was added to the lease after being notified from the office that all residents in an apartment must fill out an application and be on the lease. Articles 4 and 5
2.) Regarding all comments concerning communication : Article 23 of the lease states the following ;"NOTICES: Any notice to be given by either party shall be in writing and given by personal delivery to LANDLORD or to YOU, or shall be sent by United States regular first class mail, to the addresses set forth in this lease or to your last know address if filed at the LANDLORD's Office. Any change of address you file at the post office will not be notice to LANDLORD of your change of address. Notice shall be deemed given as of the date deposited at any post office, or in any post office box."
A text message is not a professional way to conduct business, and is certainly of a more personal nature . Although e-mails may have been exchanged again ,this is not considered a notice to the Landlord.
3.) When speaking with Jan ,she was under the impression that your lease ended the 30th of June and thus offered to let you vacate at that time. You needed to stay until the 12th of July and were informed that we could not pro-rate a move out. If you wanted to stay additional time then you would have been required remain on a month to month lease with an additional fee of $50.00 per month. Paragraph 2 of lease. Fortunately your lease did not end until July 31st which allowed to stay your additional days without a month to month fee. You stayed in the apartment until July 11, 2015.
4.) Article 15 states clearly that the landlord may enter your apartment. This was only done at times when a work order was being completed. If you did not wish for us to enter to complete a maintenance request a simple notice in writing ( not email or text) that you wished to be home when the repair was completed is all that was required. Please note some work orders previously submitted state OK to enter. If this had changed for your apartment we were never notified in the office. The ONLY time we would enter was to complete a maintenance request. A 24 hour notice is required if we wish to enter for some other reason such as a furnace filter change or semi annual inspection. These notices are personally delivered to your door as stated in Article 23.
5.) As your previous complaint did not speak of the smoke detector , or any other issues that I had not addressed, I only included the work orders pertaining to your complaint. I am attaching all others.
6.)There is no addendum to the lease that speaks of the pool. The only addendum to the lease is the Rules and Regulations Handbook in Article 29. There is also a separate Security Deposit Agreement incorporated by reference (Article 2). We do have a handout provided to the residents in which we reference the pool. In no way is it a part of our lease. It is an amenity.
7 ) the photos I see of the bugs appear to be fruit flies or drain flies which can be very common in warmer weather. It cannot be determined why they chose this apartment, they are so many factors that contribute to the appearance of these type of flies. It is my understanding that we did attempt to help rid the apartment of them. The bees I understand were only there during 2013 and we attempted to rid the unit of them also.
We have now received notice that utilities were disconnected by the tenant as of
During Grant's residency here ,we did make an exception to allow him to have a 9 month lease at one point, which he then extended to a one year term.
I have scheduled their walk through for July 30th at 11:00 am. [redacted] has asked that she not have to clean the main bath as she believes there may be mold,. Since I have never been advised of this by the tenant, I informed her that I would notify the corporate office that she will leave that main bathroom as is.
I am attaching ALL work orders from apartment C-110 from October 2012 forward, so that no further surprises will be added to this complaint.
I am also attaching once again ALL lease papers signed by the tenants, and the "guidelines" that are speaking of regarding the pool
OFFER:
We have no settlement to offer the consumer. They have now fulfilled the terms of their lease, which is a legal contract signed by both parties.
Although we have the right to enter once notice is given to attempt to lease the apartment,according to Article 15, we have respected the tenant's wishes and made no entry to show the apartment.
We will do the walk through as requested by [redacted] on the 30th of July and forward their deposition to them at the address left with us.
The deposit on hand with us is $99.00 and is [redacted] name.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 15, 2015/08/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Final walk-through was completed on Thursday July 29th, at 12:15 with Kari. She was unable to sign anything because Randy from Corporate did not attend the walk-through and he instructed her not to sign anything.
At the time of walk-through, we noted that the apartment was cleaned, all holes were filled and the apartment was returned in good shape.
Kari noted that on the initial move in sheet there was information noting the spots and even paint on the carpet and that I agreed to live with the condition of the carpet based on the knowledge that the carpet would be replaced after I vacated the apartment.
Kari also noted the poor condition of the carpet in the kitchen which was promised to be replaced at the time of move in, however, after 2 years 9 months living at the apartment, it was never replaced.
Kari also noted the black substance under the sink in the main bathroom which the apartment was made aware of on several occasions in writing. Due to concern that the substance may be black mold, we did not spend significant time in that room to clean.
We are now awaiting notice from the apartment as to what if any charges they will be requesting. We do not anticipate any significant charges considering the good condition of the unit at the time of move out.
In response to Kari's previous response:
#3: We were absolutely not residing at the apartment beyond June 30th. While we may have been at the unit on July 11th to clean or remove any remaining items, we were not residing at the residence as we made our future living plans based on Jan's offer to end the terms of the lease on June 30th. We did schedule the transfer of utilities for the end of June when we were under the impression we would be let out of the lease at that time.
#4: We requested on several occasions that 24 hour notice would be provided prior to entry into the apartment. This was especially important as we were not able to be there every time the unit was entered, and we wanted advance notice the someone would be entering our apartment as outlined in the lease as well as state law. Our apartment was entered on several occasions without any prior notice, and there was no standing work order on several of those occasions. When we discussed this with the previous property manager, Sarah, she apologized but said she was not surprised as maintenance had done the same thing to her! There were many times that the apartment was entered and there was not any type of notice left to let us know it had been entered. The door padlock was left unlocked and blinds were left open on those occasions. This led me to install a camera to be able to prove this was happening, and the camera captured maintenance entering the apartment without any prior notice. There was no documentation left that they had entered, and without the camera, we would have had no idea our privacy was once again violated.
#5: Smoke detector took several weeks and several follow ups to be replaced. This is in direct violation of what is required by a landlord to provide its tenant with a safe living condition.
#6: I have the "Welcome to Greenleaf Manor Apartments" page which was attached to the lease addendum and given to the tenant at the time of move in. It directly states that the pool will be open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It was open only a few weeks in the 2 years and 9 months I resided at the complex.
#7: The office was notified on several occasions that there was a serious issue with drain flies. We do not care why they choose our apartment, we wanted a living environment free from the health and safety concern posed by a bug infestation. The complex did absolutely nothing to try to resolve this issue, just as they did nothing to try to resolve the bee infestation. For the bees, I was told by Kay, the manager at the time, that "We tried to spray, but it was more of a plant killer spray so I don't know if it worked."
For the drain flies, we were first told that an exterminator would be coming out to the apartment. When attempting several follow ups to find out when this would be happening, our requests were ignored. We were then given a single "bug bomb" which was completely inadequate as it was a single room treatment and did absolutely nothing to address the problem. We were also told by maintenance that we could try pouring bleach down the drain. We later told by the property managers to try vinegar and baking soda because that might work.
That is far from an attempt to help rid the apartment of the bug infestation.
As stated previously, our sole goal is to move on from this bad experience, and we await the notice / deposition from the complex to finally be able to do so.