You may be thinking "This guy is probably just another disgruntled college student who probably partied all the time and then complained that his landlord charged him for the vomit stains on the carpet".
That's fine; an intelligent person wouldn't trust anything he or she reads on the internet out of blind faith either.
But read the fine print sometime on a lease from AUR. In the clause relating to charges for cleaning the unit, they state that tenants will be charged $25, per person, per hour, with an average crew of 8-10 people. Do the math: that's $200-$250 PER HOUR. They are charging tenants over four dollars A MINUTE to clean units after they leave. Oh, but it gets better.
AUR uses a company called "Iowa City Maintenance" to do all their maintenance and cleaning. And who owns Iowa City Maintenance' Why, it's none other than Jim Clark, owner of AUR; check it out on the Iowa Secretary of State website under the corporation registration. Hooray! No oversight! But, we're not done yet.
On the inspection form used by AUR to inspect rental units, it has "time started", "time ended" and then states that the cleaning crews are to round up to the nearest 15 minutes when billing for time spent cleaning a unit. So, if your cleaning crew finishes at 12:05, it gets rounded off to 12:15 and you get billed for ten minutes of work they didn't do, which, at their rate, costs you an extra 40 bucks. It's anyone's guess whether a cleaning crew in this situation just sits around for the ten minutes they aren't actually cleaning your place, or if they just start on the next unit and overlap billing between the tenants. Hmmmm...
Of course, by law landlords are required to charge a tenant no more than it costs to restore a unit to its original condition, ordinary wear and tear excepted. They are also not allowed to profit from rental deposits. Do we suppose AUR pays their cleaning crews $25 per hour each'
Seems simple right' Don't leave your apartment a mess, you'll recoup your deposit. Here is where the anecdotal part comes in; your choice if you believe it. I am married, a non-traditional student. Never threw a party. Never had more than 5 people in my apartment at one time. Spent an entire day scrubbing the apartment from top to bottom after move-out. Did the move-out inspection with AUR's inspector, who told me quote "This is the cleanest place I have ever seen."
And it still cost me $125 from deposit for "cleaning charges" for AUR to clean the "cleanest place ever".
These people are opportunist scumbags just itching for class action against them. Do not rent from them. Period.
But, if you do, start prepping a small claims case now. You're going to need it.

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