The following is a letter I wrote to Vineyard management on April 30, 2009. I have lived in many apartments in the Colorado Springs area and this is by far the worst I have ever experienced. The floor plans and area is what drew me to these apartments. The two bedroom/ two bath apartment plan has the most square footage in this area vs. other properties 2/2 plan. Other than that there is nothing else I can say positive about my experience here. Please read my following letter to management and consider the issues that other tenants have had before signing a lease here.
This letter is to officially inform you that we will not be renewing our lease at the end of our current term ending on May 31, 2009. We will not be renewing our lease due to the considerable amount of issues we have had upon moving to the property and while living here. The obscene amount of problems, unreasonable types of issues and the unacceptable blatant lack of management s concern to properly address and correct these issues have all been the determining factors in our decision to leave Vineyard Apartments.
The day I viewed Vineyard Apartments I placed a deposit for a two bedroom two bathroom unit on the first floor. I was told that the apartment was available and my deposit would hold it until I moved in that weekend Saturday April 12, 2008. I scheduled movers for that day and set a time to sign my lease that day. The day I showed up I was shown an apartment on the first floor which was not the floor model that I had placed a deposit for. The office staff sent me away so that they could find an apartment for me to move into. They promised that they would call me in 45minutes. Two hours later they still had not found an apartment for me and I had movers waiting for me. I ended up having to pay my movers extra for waiting around, a cancellation fee, a fee for having my furniture in their truck overnight, and eventually had to schedule them for the next day. The office personnel finally found me an apartment that a person had moved out of early. This apartment was on the second floor; not the first floor that I was originally guaranteed. The apartment had not been cleaned, the carpets were filthy, the tub was so black it had to soak in bleach overnight, there was urine circling both toilets, etc It was disgusting! On top of all of that, I was told that the apartment was not going to be cleaned in time for me to move in because the manager would not approve the weekend fee for the apartment being cleaned. Due to how incredibly filthy the apartment was I had to clean it and hire an housekeeper to help me clean it in time so that I could move my furniture in the next day. As with all of our issues, I never so much as received an apology. I still can not believe that any manager would be satisfied in knowing that this was the experience of anyone moving into a property that they manage.
We have had too many maintenance issues to count; of which only a handful were ever documented correctly through your office and produce an actual work order. Every maintenance issue that we have ever had has taken several calls to the office to have anything repaired. There have been 3 separate issue in which ------- has actually called us to let us know that someone is on their way to correct the matter, my husband and I purposely stayed home or left work to be present and no one showed up. One instance ------- said that she didn t know the maintenance man had called in sick, another time he left for an appointment, and once she couldn t find him. I still fail to understand why she would call us and state someone is on their way when there was clearly no one ever on their way. Once again we never received an apology for being lied to and having to go out of our way to stay home waiting on a work day.
We also fail to understand how it is that you can consciously take money from new occupants for a remote gate opener when you are fully aware that the gate has been fully functional maybe a total of two weeks within the last year. Not only did I pay this ridiculous fee for something you knew did not work, but I specifically asked if the gate was secured and if there were passcodes for every unit to enter through the gate. I was assured this was the case. As you are fully aware, this is NOT the case. The gate is anything but secured. Everyone (including a 16 year old employee of mine who says that his whole school knows the code for parties) knows the code to the gate. There is only one code, but it is never needed being that the gate is always open. I know that I am not the only person to complain regarding the gate and for some reason you continue to take peoples money for a remote and continue to advertise as a gated community when it is clearly not.
I also fail to understand how it is that your company refuses properly care for the stairs and sidewalks when they are iced over. I have fallen down my stairs twice. Both incidences resulted in bruising. I consider your company to be very lucky that that was the extent of my injuries. As you are well aware, when it snows and the ground is iced over it takes days for anything to be shoveled here. I consider this not to only be a huge hassle for tenants, but also a liability for your company. Three days after one particular heavy snow fall, I was happy to see that the sidewalks were finally being shoveled. When I reached my car I noticed that all of the snow had been shoveled behind my car. Being that my car was very low to the ground, I could not reverse with all the snow and ice that had been shoveled up against the rear of it. I asked the guy shoveling the snow about it and he said, I can t do anything about it, but you can use my shovel. I actually had to go back into my apartment to change out of my work clothes, shovel my own car out of the snow due to the incompetence of your staff who decided to shovel all the snow behind my car, go back upstairs to change back into my work clothes causing me to be late. I called the office to complain, but of course no one ever called me back and I never received an apology.
Not only is it obvious that your company is not concerned with the cleanliness of the apartments when new tenants move in, but also the grounds of the property itself. As you are aware, there is only one dumpster for the entire property. The trash is always piled up outside of the dumpster itself, the stench is unreal, and trash blows out of it constantly. I have asked about the trash situation and have been told that there is nothing else you can do about it. I refuse to believe that you cannot order more pick up days for the trash or come up with any other solutions to properly contain the trash. Two months ago I called your office to inform you that there was cat litter and feces pour out all along the top of the stairs of my building leading to mine and three other apartments. Obviously, it was stinking up the corridor and the granules were a hazard going up and down the stairs. I was told that someone would be cleaning it up immediately. It was not cleaned that day. I called the following day and was told that no one was staffed for that kind of work being that it was a Saturday. Finally on Monday someone did sweep the feces off of the top off the stairs; however they swept them off the ledge onto the bottom of the stairs. So your office did take the time to relocate the feces from the top level to the bottom level after three days.
On three occasions, the refrigerator in our apartment stopped working. On of the occasions that a maintenance man came to switch out the refrigerator, he tracked snow and mud onto our carpets. There was a huge track going through our living room and the mud was so thick that I could not get the stain out of the carpet. Being that we are clean people and that I was not going to be fined at the end of our lease for your maintenance man staining the carpet, I actually had to pay to get the carpets cleaned in order to get the stain out. That day after having the carpets cleaned, the refrigerator went out again. I called the after hours line and the maintenance man said he would come up to take a look at it. I informed him that I had just had the carpets cleaned and would be asking him to remove his shoes or put a barrier over his shoes upon entering the apartment. His response was, Yeah, I m not going to do that. I explained to him that I had to get my carpets cleaned due to the last time he came to my apartment and he said that policy did not required him to take off his shoes. I told the manager ------ about this and she laughed. During the conversation with the maintenance man he said that he would not have a refrigerator available until the next day. I had just gone grocery shopping and I asked him what he expected me to do with all of my food. He said that it wasn t his problem. I obviously became upset and he said he would call me back. He called back and stated he that he had a fridge he could bring up, but he needed my husband to go and get it with him to move it. My husband told him that he didn t mind doing it but he was concerned that it could be a liability for the apartments if he was hurt. I was happily surprised that the manager ------ ended up helping the maintenance man bring the fridge up to our apartment. My husband ended up having to move the refrigerator in our apartment out and the new one in due to the fact that the maintenance man still refused to remove his shoes or use a barrier to avoid re-staining my still wet carpet.
During the process of our fridge being replaced and ice maker being repaired, we were lied to many times by your office staff regarding the status of repairing the issues, when the issues were being repaired, and status of parts being ordered. We were told many times by the office staff that parts were being ordered or had to be ordered to make the repairs; however the maintenance men never were aware of these orders nor were any parts ever ordered for the repairs to take place. The fridge and ice maker were always repaired with parts from other fridges on the property. Basically, I have learned that it is constant practice of your staff to lie to tenants and hold them off as long as possible.
There is also a huge pigeon population problem at this property that you have lied about trying to control and have failed to take action to do anything about. When I initially moved into my apartment the balcony had a group of pigeons living on it. The feces covered the entire balcony and were literally over a foot high. I reported it to the office and made it clear that it was not my duty to clean pigeon feces. Four days after I moved in someone was sent to clean the balcony. The balcony was cleaned by sweeping all the feces off the ledge and onto the sidewalk that leads to the building. The sidewalk was never cleaned. I was assured that week that the pigeon problem was being handled and that an expert was coming in to evaluate the best way to relocate the pigeons. Being that the pigeon s are still overwhelmingly present I assume that this has never happened. I was told by the office that the only way to keep them off my balcony was to by a netting to place over my balcony, but that it was against the property policy for me to do so. As you are aware, the pigeon s feces are a disgusting issue. The feces continue to cover the buildings, balconies, and cars.
As we are coming close to our lease ending, there many things I have reported to the office in my apartment that have not been fixed. The linoleum tiles in the kitchen are still coming up, the cabinet in my bathroom is detached from the wall and coming down, the carpet is coming up where the carpet meets the linoleum, and the carpet nail strips are exposed.
The most disturbing incident occurred the first day a maintenance man came into my apartment. He came to fix some of the initial problems in my apartment. When I first opened the door he made the comment, Wow, am I lucky today or what' I get to work and have a view! I asked him what he was talking about and he said that it wasn t everyday that a woman like me moved in. Than he immediately said that he wouldn t be able to get everything done for me today but he would caulk the tiles in the shower. He went to the bathroom. A few minutes later he came out and I asked him if he was done. He said that he wasn t he was just taking a break to enjoy the view. I asked him if there was another maintenance man that was working that day. He ignored my question and started to tell me that he was from Texas and that he was very wealthy from a ranch that he has down there. I asked him how much longer until he was finished and he said never if he could help it and went back into the bathroom. A few minutes later he came out and said that he had to let everything dry and would be back later to trim back the caulking. I said ok and approached the front to let him out. He placed his hand on my shoulder and said, unless to are in need of any other services. I jumped back and told him that that he needed to leave. Instead of leaving or even acknowledging that I had asked him to leave he said, come on give an old man a hug. I get hugs from all the new tenants. He actually attempted to hug me. I pushed back from him and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing and he started laughing and said, I knew you were a feisty one. He then left. I furiously went to the office and reported this. I was told that the manager, ------, would be notified the next day. I told them that under no circumstances was this man allowed back in my home and that for any future repairs I expected a different maintenance man. I was NEVER contacted by the manager and was told by office personnel that he had other complaints. Regardless of this situation this man was sent to my apartment several times for repairs. I have continuously informed the office that he is not to come to my apartment and have been told on several occasions that no one else would be available for weeks. I cannot understand why the manager has continued to keep this man employed and why it is that she does not think that it is an issue for tenants to be sexually harassed by this man. I have even told the office that there are other accounts of this man harassing others reported on apartmentratings.com and have been told that those comments were left during a different management team. However, this man continues to be employed here.
I have been absolutely appalled by the lack of attention, professionalism, and intelligence that the management presents here. It is obvious that you either have no idea how to manage a property or frankly do not care. During the 13 month lease we have had here, we have been late once on our rent. Now I am being told that we owe almost $800.00 in late fees when we still paid our rent. I have asked the office to explain how these charges are even possible and office personnel has stated that because the rent was not received on the first we now owe this amount for what they state is market rate rent. According to my lease agreement in the Move-In or Renewal Concession Agreement the monthly market rent is $1186.00 which is a difference of $311.00. The agreement states that if the rent is not paid by the 1st the difference of the monthly market rent is due. It does not state that management can make up the monthly market rate at any point and charge that amount as the late fee. However; in the Greystone Community Policies it states that if rent is received after the third of the month it is considered late and the late fee is $25.00 plus $5.00 a day. Then the Apartment lease contract states that if rent is not paid on or before the 4th of the month the late charge is $75.00 and $10.00 a day. So basically the management can assess any part of the late rent agreement they feel at any point and make up the amounts as they go along. I find this policy to be questionable at the very least and I will be having a conversation to question the legality of the entire agreement with an attorney later this month as well as the sexual harassment issue, and the fact that the management here has not complied with the responsibilities of the property manager/owner as outlined in the lease agreement and as required by law.
The issues that we have outlined in this letter are not all of the incidents and issues we have endured during our lease term. They are simply the issues I feel that the public and potential tenants have the right to know. I will be sending this letter to the BBB as well as uploading the letter with additional comments to apartmentratings.com
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User Responses
From: Pararescue	Date: 05/04/2009
I am glad that I missed out on the opportunity to rent from these people. I am not the sort to take things to litigation cause it usually gets rectified. But I have taken a Rental company to court before for less, so I would suggest you take these people to court and give them a wake-up call. Thanks for letting everyone know :-)
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/16/2009
Anonymous, Yes, I have taken legal action and am continuing those proceedings. Shame on you for judging me. Legally speaking I have not defamed anyone. In order to do so you must state names which this site does not allow. Once again, shame on you for not being educated before accussing me of "defamatory statements." I do realize that not everyone has had bad experiences here. I am also aware of many who have had bad experiences. Many of which are recent and do include experiences during the current staff manager. I am happy that you have had a great experience there. I find it very ignorant of you that you judge me for my experiences. It is possible for people to have different experiences. Your judgement and ignorance regarding my complaints that have nothing to do with you lead me to believe that you are just another staff member posting on here as a tenant. How else could you have an opinion on my experiences? As a business owner myself I believe that consumers have the right to know of all customers experiences both positive and negative. Mine was negative. Yours is positive. Potential tenants have the right to read both. I don't have a leg to stand on....I have a platform.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/16/2009
I'm sorry to hear that your experience at The Vineyards was so terrible. Did you take any legal action? If it is as bad as you claim it to be, I definitely would. However, I think your story is uncommon. Most of the negative posts on this site are older and when the Management and Maintenance were different. As for the Maintenance person who allegedly sexually harrassed you, did you file a legal complaint about that? If not, then all you are doing is making defamatory statements about a person. Shame on you. And as a current and happy tenant at The Vineyards, it can't be as bad as you claim because people are still moving in on a regular basis. And if your claims were true, why didn't you just break your lease and have them take you to court. You could've presented all of your info there. Or maybe you don't really have a leg to stand on?
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/19/2009
I seen the title of your comment and found it funny so I thought I would read it. When I got to the comments about sexual harassment I looked at my husband and said "I bet its O". Only because I had a similar encounter with this maintenance man. He differently made me feel uncomfortable. Luckily I only needed maintenance once. Other than that it hasn't been to bad as long as we avoided the office.
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/29/2009
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ENLIGHTENING REVIEW !!!! I can't believe some of the ignorant comments left below it - I actually was considering this place to move into - NOT anymore !! Scratch that one off of the list. So glad I found this site and your informative honest and thorough review - made the difference in me making a HUGE mistake. Thank you, and so so sorry you had to endure this experience.

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