Do NOT rent from these slumlords.
Background: my FIL is a NC building inspector and my father is an electrician and firefighter, so we have knowledge of building, fire, and electrical code.
There were a few things in need of repair, and stupidly we believed they would be fixed prior to our moving in:
1. Bathroom fan. If there's no bathroom window, there must be an exhaust fan. They finally fixed it, but only because I read them the code.
2. Windows. Four windows in the house were nearly impossible to open--annoying downstairs, dangerous upstairs. Once finally open, they would slam right back down. The manager literally told me they would get us "some sticks to prop open the windows in case of fire." I threatened a lawsuit, so they replaced them, after 8 months of fighting.
3. Front door lock. The top half of the front door is glass, making it unsafe to have a turn lock for a deadbolt. The doorknob itself was really loose. Mr. Cherry asked my husband for toothpicks because he wanted to shove them next to the doorknob to hold it steady. We ended up fixing the knob and deadbolt ourselves.
4. Mailbox. The lid would not close. After the 3rd letter from the mailman threatening to stop delivering our mail "if we couldn't do any better", Mr. Cherry told me he got a mailbox from the dump. It had no flag, so we had to threaten that our rent check probably wouldn't be picked up to get it fixed.
5. Kitchen floor. They promised new laminate if the kitchen floor could not be cleaned. After 3 weeks of watching me refuse to walk in my own kitchen without shoes, my husband replaced the floor himself.
6. General cleaning. This never happened. My mother literally spent 3 hours cleaning the refrigerator and countless hours scrubbing down the kitchen cabinets. We replaced the cigarette burn-covered toilet seats, the tile in the bathrooms was disgusting, the caulk around the bathroom sinks was brown, even the mirrors were covered in a greasy film.
Over the time we were there we had new issues as well:
1. Shower. When we moved in, there was a small hole in the the shower, that they sealed with silicone gel. Slowly, we noticed that the hole had split bigger, and a long crack was forming. One Saturday night, my husband was soaking his knee in the tub and I came downstairs to find the kitchen floor soaked from water leaking through the ceiling. No one responded to the emergency call we made, so on Monday I called again. First, they told us to use the other shower--RIGHT. There was ONE. They finally agreed to send their handyman out to fix it. His "solution" was to use plastic flashing on the bottom of our tub and attach it with silicone and duct tape. It was like this for over a month until the flashing broke free and I nearly fell in the shower one day.
2. Grass. Phyllis (front desk) told us the grass was cut regularly, but if it got too high, we could call and they'd cut it. Phyllis quit about 3 months after we moved in, probably because she had a conscience and couldn't live with the unethical business practices. Apparently, "regularly" meant once a month. There was one slightly rainy period where it was almost 2 months between times that the lawn folks came. When we called about the grass, we were told the landscapers would be there "tomorrow". Eventually, we bought our own mower, and handled it ourselves.
3. Refrigerator. The bottom section on the door of the refrigerator had a broken bar. A pre-move in repair was promised, but again, this wasn't vital, so we dropped it. Then, the refrigerator stopped working. They did not believe us, literally told us we were making it up. After 3 days of our relentless calls, they finally came to "check on it". They told us they would have to talk to the owner. They called the following Monday and said a fridge would be delivered on Thursday. On Friday, since no fridge arrived, I called and was told Home Depot must be backlogged, it would probably be delivered today. I called my local HD to get a delivery estimate, but they had no purchase history in Cherry's, ours, or the owner's name. I called every HD and Lowes within a 60 mile radius, and both corporate offices before asking why Cherry lied to me. I was again told I was making it up, and it didn't need to be replaced. My husband told them if we did not have a refrigerator by Monday we would purchase one and would be turning in the receipt as the following month or two's rent.
I know the above is lengthy, and if you actually read this, I am sure you are asking yourself why we didn't just move. We tried. We were told if we broke our lease, we would forfeit our security deposit and would be responsible for paying rent until a new tenant was found--potentially a year's worth of rent. I can not encourage you enough to not consider renting. They are truly slumlords and quite frankly, I do not know how they can sleep at night. read more
