sigh I wish my apartment complex had real maintenance workers .

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

Sorry if I am bitching but I am pissed off because I can't wash my face ,wash my hands and take a shower - I am not dirty but I would like to jump in and do so without having to wait. Why because the maintenance guys did something to the water and now I don't have any water coming and going into my apartment. This stuff always happens right when the rent is due - and it makes us not want to pay any rent. On a hot as day - ANY DAY we need our water.I am on apartments.com looking for new places as I speak.I am not re-newing my lease at the end of the year. This sucks.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

1. Whatever I should have known I would get zero responses.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Damned right, because 8 minutes is too goddamned long to wait for sympathy

Oh, the humanity.



Anyway, I hear you on the shitty maintenance worker thing. I am in an apartment now that, for the first time in my life of renting apartments all over the country, actually hires real qualified independent maintenance people to fix stuff. It's been absolutely wonderful! If I have a plumbing problem, they call a plumber. If it's electrical, they call an electrician. If it's the furnace, they call a furnace guy.

I got so used to every repair being shitty and half-assed in my other apartments, "repairs" that usually caused some other problem, I just accepted it as the way things are. Thankfully, that's only true for 95% of rental properties.

When I moved in here the place was only a year old - I wonder if that has something to do with the landlords hiring qualified people to do maintenance?

So, best of luck to you in your crappy apartment, and good luck in the search for a new one!

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

6. I was'nt being that damn serious.

Anyways ... good going on the 8 minutes thing.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Stuff always goes wrong on weekends and holidays.

And the landlords at the big complexes hire the dopiest people to run things. Once back when I was renting I started getting sewage backing up into my bathtub. It was a Saturday morning and I ran over to the complex office and told the (brand new) manager about it. Then I waited for help. Then I called back. Then I marched over to the office again just before they closed for the weekend and got in her face about it. She said "oh, you didn't say it was an emergency. I assumed it could wait until Monday."

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

7. So sewage in the tub is not an emergency.

There are incompentent people in charge everywhere.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Does your complex have real managers?

If maintenances is doing something planned, there's no excuse for failing to notify the tenants. If it wasn't a planned event, the management needs to tell you how long they expect the situation to last.

I'd be looking for a new place to if they make a habit of doing stuff like this.

[AngryOldDem]

4. Can you call some local government office that regulates rental properties and complain?

Or file a consumer grievance against the landlord?

I ran into similar problems at apartments I have had in the past. The first was when my kitchen sink pipes blew and flooded my kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. After trying to reach maintenance and being blown off, I called back and told them that if they weren't there in an hour, I was calling a plumber and then sending the bill to the property manager. I was trying to ward off MAJOR water damage to my meager belongings at that poing and I didn't give a damn who I pissed off. They were there with bells on WITHIN the hour. The second apartment, I called the city and filed a complant about excessive cigarette smoke coming through the ventilation system from the unit next door. (I can tolerate a little, but this was of such an amount it was difficult to breathe. The complex management basically gave us a big FU after we complained numerous times.)

The best revenge is getting out and discouraging anyone you know from moving into the complex. I will never forget when my then-fiance and two other people were in the rental office of the second apartment I talked about above. A couple of potential tenants walked in and as the property manager had her back to us all, we poor veterans of the complex were actively discouraging the potential tentants from moving in. So obviously, our complaints were not isolated.

If it's that bad, and happens that predictably, I would think there would be a way to break your lease and move before the end of the year. Good luck.