Bad management
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
3/7/2008
Years at this apartment:
2007
-
2008
Being new to Tucson, we took the apartment because we needed an economical place to live while we got established here.
The unit was infested with cockroaches when we moved in, and it took about 6 weeks to get rid of most of them. We didn't want to expose ourselves to more toxic pesticide chemicals than we had to, so we took care of most of it ourselves with those little bait packets that you can put around the place. After 3 months, we still see one or two occasionally, but for the most part they're gone.
Been lucky (so far, knock on wood) with the car not getting broken into, one advantage to having an older model, I suppose.
They also don't seem concerned with fixing a chronic running water problem in an adjoining unit, which I reported to them. Since Tucson is set on the edge of the desert, I wanted to report it, not to mention the fact that it's annoying to hear water running in the pipes at all hours of the day and night.
The management seemed to be reasonable to deal with until this month when I went to the business office on the 3rd of the month, which was a Monday. That means that the 1st fell on a Saturday, so the first business day was Monday. Since they don't hold business hours on Saturdays or Sundays, I waited until Monday, to present the rent check, and did so within 30 minutes (more like 15) of them having arrived at the office.
I was asked if I had brought the additional $50 to pay the late fee, since the lease stipulates that payments on or after the 3rd are late. This, despite the fact that the rent checks that had been left in the drop box over the weekend had just been picked up off of the floor a few minutes before, and placed on the desk. Not even processed yet. I could just as well have dropped the check in the drop box before business hours (20 or 30 minutes before) and they would never have been the wiser.
I didn't happen to have an extra $50 floating around, so I have to wait until my next paycheck to pay the assessed fee, but on Thursday (three days later), they sent out a delinquent fee notice. I saw there were several in the person's hand that delivering them, so it was apparent that they are scalping several renters, thus earning themselves a nice little monthly bonus.
That's a _great_ little trick for collecting a few extra green-backs from your renters ... write a lease so that you can wait until a month having the first on a Saturday rolls around, so that you can assess a late fee.
I was tied up working all day Thursday and Friday, so I didn't have time to drop it off then, figuring I'd wait until the 1st business day after the 1st. And I like to have a receipt for any payments I make, another reason I prefer to personally present the payment, rather than dropping it in the mailbox.
I'll make darn sure that any lease I sign in the future doesn't have such a rigid, two-day only pay window, making me so vulnerable for scalping. IMO, any reasonable management person would be flexible enough to allow a 15-minute lapse in rental payment. IMO, borders on dishonesty, and shows a contempt for the residents.
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