HA, FYI I think John below on here is a friend of Alma's who used to pop into her office and is not a tenant of hers! Anyways, all seems lovely when people sign a lease with Alma. It is AFTER you move in when you experience the nightmare. I have rented 6 different apartments in multiple states over the years and I have NEVER encountered anything like I did at this place. I have also always been considered an outstanding tenant and have always gotten my deposit back in full (except from Alma) and had referrals from land lords. The same negative experiences by different people paints the picture. John, nice try with pretending you are a tenant! :)
I leased a duplex from her and it was the worst landlord situation that I have ever had. I was so excited to have found this adorable, sweet, vintage duplex. When i rented it, it was a little wear for tear but nothing that was a deal breaker, after all it was an old house and so the scuffed up wood floors and old tile just added a bit of charm.
When I 1st moved in, there was some miscommunication about putting the utilities in my name. I thought Alma was doing that but that wasn't the case and boy was that a blessing in disguise. Since the utilities got turned off, it required someone to come out & manually turn on the gas. The technician noticed that the laundry room had been mickey moused together (which is how she has things done, cheapest way possible). There were metal & plastic parts touching which is a hazard so that had to be fixed before he would turn the gas on. Also, the vent was not done correctly and so CARBON MONOXIDE was staying IN the laundry room! That "miscommunication" probably saved my life. However, right after that she took out one of the washer/dryers so we had to "share" the other which wasn't the agreement when I signed the lease. Alma would leave these nasty notes on our doors about once a month. The tenant next to me was awful. She was running a day care operation to get some extra $ and although i didn't like the noise I understood her situation. then she had her adult son & his girlfriend move in (keep in mind these are 1 bedroom units!). He would party late at night & they would be rearranging furniture (to create a sleeping space?). Alma could've cared less. Finally they moved out and a very sweet nurse moved in. The side of the house had an area along the walk way for flowers but there was just dirt there when I moved in. I spent 8 long hours manually switching out the dirt for better soil and then planted a bunch of flowers and put down mulch. It looked great. Alma said flowers are ugly and when I moved out she had it all ripped out. There was also this gorgeous large tree in the back that provided shade. One day, i came home to find men in the back yard and I realized they had cut the tree down. 1st of all, as a young female, I want notice when people will be at the property which Alma didn't do and is required by law. So that was really uncomfortable. When I called her to ask why she had it removed she said it was a nuisance. That made no sense whatsoever. I think she cut it down because we used the backyard a lot and she didn't want us to. She just wants your money but she doesn't want you using and enjoying the property that you are paying for. She also would have the sprinklers set to go off 7 days a week, TWICE a day. The grass was then always wet and so you couldn't go out to the lawn in the back yard. The tenants PAY ALL UTILITIES including water. I knew I had agreed to pay for water when I signed the lease but I did not know that she had the sprinklers go off that much. I raised hell about that when she refused to change it b/c I was not willing to pay for that much water and I wanted to use the yards that i was paying RENT for. otherwise, what is the point of a duplex? I would've just rented an apartment. Randomly, she informed me that one unit would start paying all the gas and the other unit paying all the electric. i refused & there was NO reason to be doing that when the units have separate utility boxes. Alma is an older lady that seems sad and bitter and doesn't have family that she talks to so I would take her flowers, bake cookies, and I would leave my rent check in a nice card trying to do something to be nice and maybe make her feel better. EVERY week after I would do something nice she would do something mean. It was like clockwork. The last being that she randomly out of the blue raised my rent $100. I was already maxed at my budget paying a pretty high rent amount PLUS all utilities (including garbage) so I couldn't do another $100/month in rent. I moved out. Clearly, she doesn't want long term tenants which for an investment property doesn't make sense. She also kept a lot of my deposit to repaint which is considered normal wear and tear so is illegal to do so but it wasn't worth the cost of taking off from work to go fight it in small claims court. The sweet nurse also moved out after her lease was up. read more
