I Hate My Apartment

[Maia]

Sorry this is kinda long but I was wondering what you guys would do or have done in this situation.

For the past MONTH, our a/c or SOMETHING has been leaking out of the wall and puddling under our carpet. Not just a little water, if you are unfortunate enough to step on it, there's an audible "squelch". It goes out from the wall in an irregular 1 1/2 to 2 foot radius. Derek has been blotting it several times daily with a towel we keep hung in the shower for the purpose. The towel basically stays dripping wet 24/7.

Maintenance has come every week since this started. First week the guy said maybe we keep it too cool and the a/c couldn't drain. We keep it 68-70 degrees in here so that is ridiculous. He flushed some type of hose in there and left.

Second week, he comes and says an apartment above us had a major water leak and it was coming down from the ceiling, despite lack of evidence of this happening. Flushed same hose and left.

Third week, we have a carpet company come and leave us one of those industrial floor fans. This seems to me like putting a band aid on a wound that needs stitches. The thing was loud as all get out so we only left it on when we left home. Maintenance guy shows up again another day, pokes around a while, announces he flushed a clog. AGAIN. :hair:

This week maintenance has yet to show up despite more messages left at the office. I wonder if they're giving up on us. The carpet guy showed up again to retrieve his fan.

At this point our place feels and smells damp. We are worried about mold and our pets getting sick. We have no friends or relatives in the area to take them for a while. We just don't know what to do. It seems pretty obvious maintenance doesn't know what it going on and is telling us any crap we want to hear. :banghead:

Luckily our lease ends in less than a year and we can MOVE!!!

 

[alli713]

Wow, yeah, I'd be scared of mold. Have you tried calling whoever owns the apartment? I'm sure they'd be worried about mold too.

 

[Jadebf700]

Look at state laws. I know our state you can legally with hold rent if it is something unsanitary. Of course it says get legal consult first but... Certain laws try to protect people from illnesses from things like that. The first time you see mold or whatever call the state!

 

[mishellyshel]

I was also going to say to contact the owner, because if they are not holding up their end of the contract regarding maintenance that you may be able to get out the lease earlier.

 

[AZChins]

They probably will need to get you some new carpet. Carpet that has been wet that long will start to mold and grow who knows what else. That's just nasty. I hope they fix the problem soon...and if they can't, I would imagine that this could be a lease breaker... ick.

 

[Sandi]

I'd seriously call every hour until I got a hold of someone. You can probably tolerate the heat if the a/c stops working, which I blieve it will soon, but your chins can go downhill fast. If you don't have family and friends then you'll need to be prepared to take your chins and pets to a hotel with a/c. You need to tell your landlord all of this and I would not stop calling until it's fixed. Sorry you are going through that but you've got to be vigilant about this.

 

[Maia]

Derek looked at state laws and there's a notice we can give our apartment complex that gives them 30 days to fix the problem or we can take legal action by withholding rent (paying a court until it's fixed) or we can legally terminate our lease.
Thanks for suggesting we look up state laws, although I really hope it can be fixed before 30 days!!

 

[Laurie]

I had the water heater go out in the apartment above and then my own water heater go out and the landlord never did anything about it. He tried to say the water leak was from a bad garbage disposal and he put in a new one, but the water still filled in the hall. I had to end up tearing up the carpet and removing the padding underneath in order for the floor to dry. I had mold damage behind the stove and in the hallway closet they never fixed.

I recently moved and didn't car one iota the old landlord had to do major repairs on my place because they weren't taken care of when they should have been.

Keep calling, and if there is mold--get out of there!

 

[smhufflepuff]

Sounds like you the apartment folks have been notified a month ago and have consistently failed at fixing it. At this point, I'd look into setting up an escrow account through the court and depositing your next rent check there rather than turning it over to the apartment. Meanwhile, start looking for a new apartment.