JANUARY 2014
DO NOT IGNORE THESE REVIEWS AND MOVE TO CONTINENTAL TOWERS!!!
I am a single female professional who made the mistake of moving into this building 9 months ago. As I was cleaning the apartment my first night there, I was horrified to discover cockroach eggs in my kitchen drawers, as well as dead cockroaches in the kitchen cabinets. After 11pm every night, my apartment would be taken over by live cockroaches crawling everywhere.
I called an exterminator at my own expense and he documented all of the above in a report, including cockroach feces all over the kitchen walls. Turns out that 3 units on my floor were cockroach infested...but later on, I discovered cockroach traps behind every washing machine in the basement, which was not an encouraging sign. Took the landlord to court and was awarded a small sum of money for loss of enjoyment of the premises, but my lease was not broken, even though the judge is on transcript saying that she could not live in such conditions herself.
To this day, my belongings are still in their original moving boxes from 9 months ago and I have not unpacked.
On two separate occasions, tenants have called Alberta Health Services to the building. The first time was regarding cockroach infestations and the unsanitary condition of the garbage chute room (cigarette butts all over the floor, onion peel, chicken bones, etc.)
The second time was regarding the unhygienic condition of the building's stairwells. As mentioned below, the homeless regularly bring their beer into the building and sleep in the stairwells and laundry room, taking people's clothes that have been left in the machines overnight. The stairwells are littered with used condoms and syringes, cigarette butts, discarded booze bottles, and previous tenants' mail that has been opened in the hopes of finding something of value inside.
In the past 6 months, there have been 5 water shutoffs. These water shutoffs last a full day 9am-5pm and each time, management leaves a last-minute note for tenants near the elevators, advising them to collect and store enough water for toilet flushing, washing up, etc.. as if we are living in a third world country.
For the record, we are paying over $1,000 in rent per month.
In general, the building is old and very poorly maintained. Ventilation is inadequate, the hallways are always hot, and you can smell what every tenant is cooking, as well as hear them in your apartment every time they open and close the taps and run the water in their units.
Speaking of water, many tenants have had problems with water infiltration in their units, leading to flooding and damage to their belongings. Not surprisingly, management has recently required all tenants to purchase tenant's insurance before moving in.
Many tenants also have difficulty getting back their security deposit when they move out, with management making outrageous deductions for normal wear and tear (ex. $300 deducted for carpet cleaning).
Needless to say, I will not be renewing my lease at Continental Towers and I am eagerly counting down the 3 months I have left in this dump and very much looking forward to moving into a building where the only thing management doesn't manage is their own pay check! read more
