I signed a 12-month lease with Landseer to rent what seemed to be a lovely apartment at 663 Bishops Lodge Rd near Ft Marcy. After 1 1/2 months, I gave notice.
The following is a list of the problems with the apartment, some of which were handled promptly, some of which took a very long time and a lot of follow-up on my part to get handled, and some of which were not even resolved by the time I moved out:
When I first moved in:
o The thermostat was dead, so I replaced the batteries.
o The gate remote was also dead. This took 9 days to fix, but I had told them it was no rush. When it came back to me, it came with a broken piece that made it more difficult to operate than it would otherwise be.
o The breaker panel was painted shut. If I had not noticed this, that could have been really bad in an emergency situation. This just took two days to get fixed.
o The faucet on the kitchen sink leaked at its base. It actually sprayed water out the side. This took 11 days to resolve. The property managers told me they were waiting on the HOA to shut off the water to the complex; the HOA told me they were waiting on the property manager and plumber to supply information on the plumber's license and insurance. It seemed to me there was a lot of waiting going on while I lived in the apartment without a working kitchen. I was instructed to use the vanity sink. That's not hygienic, but also the bowl is so small that I couldn't really clean a plate or a pan there. And even though I scraped food crumbs off the plate into the trash, there was still enough stuff going down the drain that it soon clogged. Meanwhile, I still had no working kitchen sink. When I called the property manager to ask what we needed to do so I could have a kitchen sink to use over the coming weekend, she said, 'Oh, it'll be a lot longer than that.'
o There was a gap between the counter and the backsplash right behind the kitchen sink, so when this leak was happening, water would just pour into that crack. I mentioned that this would be a great place for mold to grow, and it took 48 days to get resolved.
o The dishwasher had 1/2" of standing water in it after the first time I used it. That took 12 days to fix, but then the air gap for the dishwasher was still clogged, so it leaked more water out into that same spot that needed caulk, and it caused the sink to back up, so the only way to use the kitchen sink was to turn on the disposer anytime I wanted water to drain, and I still couldn't use the dishwasher. The air gap took another 25 days to get fixed.
o The vanity sink had a drain stopper that was stuck in the shut position. That only took one day to fix, but then it was stuck open. That took another 8 days to get fixed.
o The shower dripped water when the tub filler was being used. This wouldn't really matter except the water pours right on the tub filler and then splatters outside the tub. The plumber tried a couple of fixes and then thought a new shower head might be needed. I offered to buy one, but I never heard back from a voice mail or an email I sent the property manager. Right before I moved out, the third plumber to look at the situation told me that it would be a major fix and they'd do it after I moved out which was 51 days after they were notified of this issue. To be fair, I'll mention that in the middle of this time, I had told the property manager that this was not a priority for me since we had more pressing issues, so that may have encouraged the delay.
Later:
o The heat didn't work consistently when the temperatures dropped. It would often work during the day, but not at night when it was most needed. I slept dressed from head to toe with three blankets over me. This took four days to get fixed.
o The closet light fell from the ceiling when I pulled the pull chain to turn it on. This took 11 days to get fixed.
When I finally ran out of patience, the owners understood the circumstances and allowed me to end the lease early.
Landseer, on the other hand, did not take my experience into account and insisted on charging their normal fee of one month's rent plus tax to market the place earlier than expected. This is a fee that makes a lot of sense in most situations when tenants want to terminate a lease early, but considering that the problems with the apartment (and the time it took them to be resolved) were in Landseer's control, this fee seems unfair to me. I would think that Landseer might have wanted to do anything in its power to make things right by their tenant. read more