Gentian Oaks

One resident's horror stories

From: -Anonymous-
Date posted: 7/1/2006
Years at this apartment: 2001-01-01 - 2006-01-01
3 responses

I have lived here for 5 years and am vacating next month. Let me tell you my horror stories so you will know the real facts behind this place. It all started with a change in the property manageer - there was a nice old couple until November 2005 that managed and maintained the property and lived on the premises, and they were replaced by this lady who is the most incompetent manager I have ever seen.

Not only is she incompetent, she actually has the audacity to say that it is all the residents' fault if she makes a mistake! And the people who own the property in Florida are worse to deal with. Let me give you some instances:

(1) I paid January 2006 rent on December 15, 2005 because I was leaving town for the holidays and would not be back until January 7, 2006. I monitored my bank account and my check was cashed by the third week of December. I called long-distance and left a message for the manager about the check. No call back... When I came back in January, there was a big, yellow notice of eviction pinned to my door for everyone to see!

When I called the manager, she was unavailable - she was not in the office during office hours, there was no note saying when she would be back, and there was no answer to my phone messages. This is a very common problem in this propoerty - you can never locate the manager in person or by the office phone. So I called the owners in Florida. I talked to the immediate supervisor, and she said that the manager was the nicest person she worked with and I was a dolt and an idiot for even implying that she had made a mistake - how could such a wonderful person possibly be wrong, this is what the supervisor in Florida said to me!!!

(2) The leasing office is supposed to be open from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday. The message on the office telephone says 9 am to 5 pm. Saturdays is 10 am to 2 pm. But I have gone to the office several days in a row at different times only to find it closed with no indication of whether the manager intends to return that day or when. For example, I went at 3:30 pm and 4: 30 pm yesterday, no manager. I called at 11:15 am today, no answer.

(3) There are 2 bushes that are intruding on my doorway and blocking the sunlight from my plants. I told the manager at the end of May and requested her to send in maintenance to cut them down. As of date, July 1, 2006, no one has come. When I called today and spoke to her, she said that it may take another 2 weeks because the yard men were making their way, cutting trees and bushes, in numerical order of apartments. A month and a half to cut 2 bushes, a task that ordinarily takes 10 seconds!!

(4) I gave a written notice to the manager that I would vacate the premises on July 31, 2006. Despite this, a man unlocked my apartment door on June 29, 2006 without knocking or announcing his presence. Fortunately, I was home and dressed! I asked him why he didn't knock and he showed me a list of the apartments given to him by the manager that had to be re-keyed for their front door locks. My apartment was on that list!

I told the guy (he said he was a maintenance guy) that I was not vacating until the end of July and he said that the manager had given him the information. When I thought that I would normally have been at work during the time when he came in (at 10:20 am on a Thursday), I shuddered at the planned horror that would have awaited me when I came home at 8 pm and found myself homeless!

As if this weren't bad enough, it got worse quickly. I waited to see if there would be any apology forthcoming from the manager. Nope. When I got nothing, I called her on Friday and asked her for a receipt for my rent. She said she would provide it but made no mention of the re-keying fiasco. Then I called her Saturday and asked her why she had sent the maintenance guy on Thursday to re-key my apartment. And what did she say?

She said that it was a common mistake made by apartment managers all over the country every single day. She said she had already talked with her supervisors and the owners from Florida and they apologized. I said that no one had apologized to me and she said they apologized to each other!!! I said I would have been homeless if not for the lucky chance that made me stay at home that morning - she said I could have called her when I found myself homeless!!! Getting hold of her during normal and stated office hours is next to impossible, now I am supposed to call her at 8 pm and expect her to come running to help me? Wow, I didn't know imaginations could be stretched this far.

Dear reader, I hope by now you're convinced that I'm not exaggerating when I called the manager incompetent and said that she covers up her mistakes by blaming the residents. I was supposed to understand that being left homeless was a common thing done by all apartment managers across the country to residents every single day, so it was not a big deal anyway!!! And I was such an idiot for not understanding this simple fact!

I asked the manager for receipt for my rent payment and she promised to give it to me yesterday - of course, the promise was not kept. When I called her today, she said she is going to give it to me today. I reiterate: I never had such problems with the simplest things before this lady started "managing" the property. Only in the last 8 months have I seen noise levels and litter soar to new highs. Only now I have seen about 5 apartments (in a 35-apartment property) lie vacant, all at the same time.

Only in the last 8 months have I seen even written notices disregarded. Only in the last 8 months has a rent check been cashed and then the resident was served with an eviction notice. Only in the last 8 months have I seen this astounding combination of incompetence and arrogance. Only in the last 8 months have I seen the massive cover-up practised by supervisors and owners in Florida. Only in the last 8 months have I seen residents, the primary consumers, treated like dirt and being asked to believe that this was normal and "common" treatment all across the country.

You have been warned! If you still prefer to live here, know that worse things may happen in the absence of checks and balances. These are only a few things that I wanted to write about - there are lots more things but space is limited and I don't want to go on and on. Did I tell you about all the washers and dryers being taken off the property for replacement without a single notice to anyone?! We were all laundry-less for about 6 weeks when they re-appeared, again without any notice! I'm just very happy to be getting out of here soon. I thought of signing my name to this, but I don't want to get more harrassment in the one month that I still have to live here.

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