Maple Ridge Townhomes

Review: I am guarantor on a lease my daughter has with Maple Ridge Apartments in Blacksburg. We contracted with the owners to have the apartment furnished as part of the rental agreement. When moving into the apartment it was noted that the bar countertop dividing the kitchen and the living space was abnormally high, about 6-9 inches taller than what a normal sit-at counter top should be. The furnished barstools were a normal height but insufficient for the abnormally high counter top, and effectively made the counter top useless as a place to seat and eat.

As this is the designed space to eat at in this apartment, there is no dining table nor space for a dining table, it is a totally unacceptable situation and one that the owners have not provided an acceptable solution to solve. Their only offering was to remove the provided barstools so that we could purchase our own at our own expense.

The issue that makes this worthy of further scrutiny is that this condition as existing for reportedly up to 12 years and there was no disclosure by the owners of the issue at any time prior to the move-in discovery by us. Reportedly, one phase of the apartment complex (of unknown number of units) has this mistake in the building of the sit-at countertops. It was corrected in the construction of other phases of the complex, but nothing has ever been done to retrofit the defective units.

The rented furnishings (bar stools) provided in this unit are unacceptable and inappropriate for their designed use with the existing countertop.

The fact that the situation has existed for 12 years and has not been corrected yet is an outrage. There have without a doubt been queries and complains to the management prior to ours. The fact that there is no action to resolve the issue, no monetary compensation for the defective arrangement, and no upfront disclosure to a potential renter is unacceptable. Renters may be shown a unit when considering a rental but are not a assigned a unit until much later and are not allowed access to their actual unit until move in day. So the first time most new renters realize the situation is during an already stressful move-in prior to starting their school year.Desired Settlement: We desire that the owners provide an acceptable solution to allow for the normal use of the bar countertop as a suitable place to seat and eat. This could be accomplished by a reconstruction of the counter top to a normal and acceptable height, or the purchase and distribution to the units of bar stools which are appropriate for the counter height as it currently exists. This should be done for all the units which suffer from this defect in construction. If no changes in the counter height are made then any prospect renter should be notified in writing prior to being assigned to one of these units, and afforded a reasonable right of refusal on its rental. If no change to the counter top is made and appropriate height bar stools are not provided as part of the rental furnishings then the renters should be monetary compensated to allow for the private purchase of suitable stools.

Business

Response:

We have received your letter regarding complaint ID [redacted]. We offer

certain packages of furniture when a tenant chooses to rent furniture. We

provided the complete furniture package and barstools were a part of the

package for the furnished townhome. It is the tenant's choice if they want

to use the furniture that is provided, or if they like the furniture. We. have

the same bar stools in every unit. We have offered to remove the bar stools

and store them at our cost; however, they have not chosen to do this.

Thank you,

Maple Ridge Townhomes

Management

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

The response

does nothing to resolve the issue. It only highlights what was already stated

in my initial complaint. The company says they have supplied stools and if the tenants

don't like them then the company will store them at no charge. They have totally

ignored the inadequacy of the furniture provided.

This is

like saying " We gave the thirsty man a liquid to drink but he didn't want

it so we took it back", but says nothing about the offered drink being a

glass of vinegar.

I am

amazed that a business of this scale can't admit to a mistake and make right by

its customers.

I

suggested several options in my original letter that would be suitable

solutions and am still requesting that they provide a resolution that addresses

the issue for not only my daughters but for tenants of the other units

suffering the same issue.

My

daughter should not have to spend the next year sitting on the floor in order

to eat dinner with her roommates.

Regards,