Nervous About Moving Out of Apartment... Opinions Please? (apartment complex, lease, tenants)

[MeOrYou]

Okay, here is the situation. I'll try to give most of the story because I think some of the details are important.

I had to relocate to Maryland for my job in March. I scouted around the area (prices were WAY more than I was used to) and found a new apartment community that was allowing one month's free rent if you signed a year lease then. I guess they were really trying to get people moved in, because it was pretty empty when I arrived.

Anyway, I did most of the correspondence via email, and when I was satisfied with it, showed up to sign the lease in March. Of particular importance to me was that my pets would be allowed. At the time, they were an older tabby cat and a 4-month-old large breed puppy. I disclosed all this to the leasing agent at the apartment complex, and we agreed on a pet deposit.

So, at the lease signing, I paid a $400 security deposit, and a $250 pet fee. There is no monthly pet rent. I filled out and signed a pet form, indicating my pets breeds and approximate sizes.

Several things have happened since signing the lease that make me weary about when I move out:

1) Upon moving in, I noticed a few things that I should've noted on the move-in inspection sheet. The first was a smoke alarm that wasn't completely installed in the hallway (it was attached, but just hanging by the wires instead of being installed to the ceiling). I also had to struggle with the folding doors on the laundry closet & master bedroom closet to get them on their rails. The laundry room closet doors were not the correct size, so one side wouldn't expand to close all the way. Also, the bottom of the door was cracked, in such a way that I can't even imagine what would've caused it. The cracks run parallel to the floor, and there are quite a few. It was almost like the bottom had been "shattered", but it's wooden?

I filled out the inspection form, but forgot to turn it in. (To my credit, I was in a state where I knew absolutely nobody, trying to arrange appliance delivery, and working 45 minutes away every day.) I hate myself for it now, but my fiance has fixed the smoke alarm.

2) The original office staff was a bit too quick to blame everything on the tenants. There are places for four dumpsters in the community, but there are only two dumpsters. As more people moved in, the dumpsters are always full. You are not allowed to sit trash in the hallway, so I once took my bagged trash down and sat it beside of the dumpster with some other bagged trash. The next day, I had a note on my door when I came home from work, stating that they had "found" my trash (i.e. they went through the bag and found something with my name on it) and warned me not to do it again. Like I would put the trash beside the dumpster if it wasn't full? Would they rather me leave it inside the building for all to smell?

Now that there is a new staff in the office, we never hear from them at all. Children play in the parking lots and run out in front of cars, people shoot fireworks off at all hours of the night, a fire alarm was pulled in our building, and we never heard from the office staff.

3) Despite being absolutely sure that the management would not enter the apartment without 24 hour's notice or a maintenance emergency, there have been numerous times when it was apparent that our apartment had been entered while we were gone. It actually caused us a major panic one day, because I came home to find both locks engaged (we only lock the bottom). I knew someone had been (or still was) in the apartment, so of course I was unnerved. I looked around and tried to find all our valuables, and couldn't see anything missing. I talked to my fiance, but we both agreed that if thieves had taken something small like a piece of jewelry, we might not notice for a while.

The thought that it might have been the maintenance guys crossed my mind, but then I hadn't received a call/email from them, and there was no note on the door explaining a problem they'd fixed. It wasn't until we glanced up at the ceiling at the back of the hallway that we noticed the entrance to the attic was open (we're on the top floor). So not only did they enter the apartment without us knowing, they didn't leave a note to let us know they'd been there. The wooden piece that covers the attic entrance wasn't closed, so all of our heat/air was flying straight out the hole. The apartment was messy, but the part that bothered me the most was that I didn't have a chance to put away my underwear & bras that had been taken out of the dryer. My jewelry was laying on the counter, and both our laptops were out on the dining room table.

4) Our pup was completely house-trained about a month after I moved in. He was in his large crate anytime my fiance & I were not here. Every now and then, he would have an accident and I would scrub the spot with a spot remover/odor eliminator and a clean towel until dry. A few months ago, he had to have a very expensive surgery to fix a bad hip. The vet instructed us that he was not to be on any tiled surfaces or stairs for 2 months, because if his leg slipped once before completely healed, the $4,000 surgery would be worthless.

Since we would have to go down 2 flights of stairs & across tiles to take him out to pee, we decided to go with another plan. We have designated towels to use when he has to "go". He goes over near the door, and we carry a folded towel over to catch his goings. Every now and then, he will catch us off guard and have an accident, and we bought a carpet cleaning machine just for this purpose. Any time he goes in the floor, we immediately suck it up using the machine, then douse it with carpet cleaner & suck that up to. Periodically, I will shampoo the whole carpet just for good measure.

5) About a week after I moved in, I broke out the vacuum for the first time. The carpet was brand new, as we are the first people to live in the apartment. I put it on the highest setting, because I doubted that there was much dirt to pick up already, and I was afraid the new carpet would clog up the hoses. After I got done, I noticed a faint line in the middle of the living room floor. My first thought was that it looked like a seam where the carpet pieces came together, but I dismissed it. I thought it must be just where I had vacuumed in a line. I didn't think anything else about it, and when we bought a rug to match our new furniture, we put it down in the middle of the floor, where the line was. A month ago, we were moving the rug to vacuum underneath, and I noticed the line is worse! My fiance says it's definitely the seam in the carpet, and I have no idea what could've caused it. You can see the line, faintly in some places, and almost a bare spot in others, all the way across the living room.

6) I wasn't really aware of the different types of paints before I moved here. I've realized now that there is flat paint everywhere in the apartment, except on the doors, which look slightly more "shiny". I've noticed now that in the kitchen, above the stove, you can see dark circles on the paint where steam has risen. Handprints on the wall from children visiting can't be wiped off without removing paint and leaving a dark spot.

7) I'm not sure what the walls are made of - but it's not very strong. When I was vacuuming in the dining room, preparing for a visit from our family from out of state, I noticed what looked like a black smudge on the wall. I bent down to see what it was, and touched it with my finger to see if it would just wipe off. My finger went through the wall! It was like it was soggy or something, that's how easily my finger poked a hole in the wall.

So - if anyone was awesome enough to read all that, what do you think? Am I going to get charged for these things upon move-out? I checked my lease, and there is nothing about entering apartments without notice, either way. I know the leasing agent told me that they gave 24 hour's notice, but I can't find it written down.

Will they try to charge me for pet urine or the carpet because it has a line? What about the closet door, even though I don't even know how they can say anybody caused the types of cracks that are there. What about the paint, how am I supposed to get the walls clean without leaving dark marks where the paint rubs off?

Any help, advice, opinions, etc. would be appreciated!!!

[babigyrl5]

Oh wow, sorry you had such a bad experience. As far as the pet urine, if it soaked through the padding they will charge you to recarpet everything. Happened to me. At first they werent going to charge me for the carpet because every 3-4 years they put new carpet in but since it went through the padding I had to pay. The line...Im not sure how they will take that. Hopefully many people have this problem and they wont charge everyone for their cheap mistake. I would buy some mighty putty and fix the hole and repant it or they may charge you for that too. They automatically have to paint the walls when new tenants come so you wont be responsible for the prints and circles. Its kinda an unspoken rule to give 24hr notice and if its an emergency (once the people under me's ceiling was leaking so they came in my apartment the moment they got the maintenance call) they should leave a note they were there. My turtle was either stolen or the mainetenance guy left the balcony door open and he walked out and fell off because one time when they came in I never saw my turtle again. I asked the leasing office to have them ask the guy who came but of course they knew nothing so hoepfull no one is stealing from you. The trash by the bin was so uncalled for- they could have kept the note to themselves and I hope everyone else who put it outside the dumpster got anote too (man Id hate to be the guy to go through the trash, sheesh! shred your important documents cuz thats identity theft waiting to happen if they go that far...) anbd last I would have called maintenance to fix the off track/mis sized doors asap. At my first aartment the same thing hapened to me and I had to keep calling maintenance to fix my stuff until they finally replaced it (no charge to me) good luck, I hope everything works out!

[mquintana]

The downfall is that about the pet urine, more than likely, even though you clean it immediately, it has gone through to the padding in which, yes, you will be charged. If you pull back the carpet you can actually see the stains under the carpet and on the padding (shampooing only cleans the surface). As for the carpet and the seam issue, seems as though they never really replaced the whole surface, but just rooms, so you should've reported that in vaccuming the floor, the seams have begun to come up. Everything that is wrong physically, you can have maintenance come in and fix. As for entering your apartment, there is more than likely a clause in your lease that they have a right to enter without notice upon and emergency, but if there is no emergency, you should get letter or phone call. In this situation what I would do is contact corporate and complain through them. You might want to report this community to the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and even though people say it does nothing, after continuous complaints, YES, it does (speaking from experience). I would complain about the other residents on a daily until a general letter is generated and put out in regards to the noise issues. If it continues, start calling the authorities and start bringing in the police reports. You will want to mention this to corporate as well along with the trash issues. For now on, regardless if the dumpster is full, throw your trash in the dumpster. They do look through the trash to see who's it is. The last option (that does nothing but warn people not to move there) is get on www.apartmentratings.com and write a bad review. You can also go on www.apartmentreviews.com and so the same thing. I wish you the best of luck!

(I am an assistant property manager)