Management was unscrupulous!

I rented a 1 bedroom apartment on the second floor from June 1999 until June 2000 for $1599 / mo. My rent increase was jacked up by $400 / mo ($2000) when I was up for a renewal. I opted for a month to month - which was an additional $300 (now $2300). I also moved in a dog (golden retriever) for that transitional month - because this apartment 'catered' to dog owners at a time that finding dog friendly apartments was very difficult - and added $85 to my rent for that month ($35 add'l deposit and $50 pet increase). You're reading this correctly: From $1599 to $2385 / month for a shoddy 1 bedroom apartment!

They offered a free carpet cleaning (no strings attached), which they renegged on after I told them I decided to move out. Instead, keeping about half my deposit on a SPOTLESS (no exaggeration) apartment. They claimed they had to bomb my apartment for fleas because of the dog, as well as clean the carpet. My recommendation is to *NOT* clean your apartment when you move out because they will claim to have done that for you anyway, and use it as an excuse to keep your deposit. I also recommend that you take photos of the apartment when you move in, and of how it looked when you moved out. That's what I did, and the leverage I used to get back about $80 extra. I couldn't prove it had no fleas or ticks.

My washer / dryer were very old and small. The washer, that had enough capacity for about 3 pair of pants, broke about a week before I moved out. They tried to withhold some of my deposit because of discoloration due to leaks through to the ceiling / walls in the bedroom. I've rented for a long time, and I've never rented an apartment that didn't return my deposit at the end. Not only did they refuse to return it, they acted like I was nuts to expect any money back! All this after I paid my rent on time every month, and never generated any complaints from neighbors - (I was there only about 1/2 the time).

My feeling is that they took advantage of pet owners. That they took advantage of renters during the dot-com boom. If youre interested in renting, beware that there is no rental protection in that area (Foster City) like there is in San Francisco.

Also, I've come back to this board and read some of the *good* comments some so-called tenents have made. The rent has certainly dropped substantially since I've lived here (I wonder why'''). Unless they randomly treat some tenants better than others, those posts must be coming from the management trying to jack up their score.

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