(Original post: October 2007) We've had a few problems with our apartment since moving into Natural Falls Apartments but most have been taken care of by maintenance. However, since the day we've moved in, the grout in the kitchen has been coming up making it nearly impossible to keep the floor clean. We brought this to the front office's attention and they sent someone on two occasions to fix the problem but it was never completely fixed. Maintenance came to the conclusion that the tiles we're incorrectly laid and they would have to get the company who originally laid the tile to come out and replace the tile. That was one year and four months ago and still no one has come out to replace the tile which has started to crack due to it being laid wrong. This irks me a bit but it's easy to overlook it when we have a far worse problem; namely the sewage that keeps backing up into our bathtub. This has happened at least 10 times since we've lived here. The first couple times it happened I figured it was a problem that would be fixed immediately since it's considered a health hazard. I couldn't have been more wrong. It has progressively gotten worse and it seems to me that maintenance is just putting a band-aid over a major problem. It happened AGAIN today so I notified the front office and told the manager how annoyed I was that this keeps happening. He said they had someone already taking care of the problem which is good but I'm almost certain that the problem hasn't really been fixed and based on my experience of living here it will happen again. I don't mind cleaning up messes but cleaning up human feces is just disgusting and something a renter should NEVER have to be exposed to, let alone clean up! And this isn't just a little sewage with water coming up through the drain. It's fairly sized, solid pieces of human waste, along with toilet paper and sewage water making its way into our bathtub. I have cleaned this mess up so many times that the bleach that I use to disinfect the tub has started to eat away at the material around the drain. I would NOT recommend Natural Falls Apartments to anyone. If you have considered making this your home I would highly suggest looking elsewhere.

(Update: Nov-16-2007) So guess what' The sewage backed up into the bathtub AGAIN. That's right. AGAIN. So what are we up to now' 11 or 12 times this has happened' This is ridiculous. I'm planning on calling the office and getting someone to come over and clean the sewage from my bathtub this time. I refuse to clean this up again. They keep leaving little notes on everyone's door saying this problem is due to "improper garbage disposal". What' Are people in the complex throwing food down the toilet' I don't get this. That doesn't make sense. There isn't food coming up in my bathtub. It's fecal matter, toilet paper, and sewage water. This is really frustrating and I'm concerned for me and my husband's health.

On another note they finally fixed the floor in the kitchen. It looks very nice now.

(Update 11-16-07 5:21 pm) I just called the front office about 20 min ago to remind them that I called around 10am or 11 this morning to have someone come out and clean the sewage out of my bathtub. A woman answered this time and she seemed to be unaware of the problem. She said she would have someone look into it and I asked "So will someone be out tonight'" And she replied, "No, not tonight..." She basically said due to heating issues and water issues in two other buildings(not mine) on the property they wouldn't be able to get to my problem tonight since it wasn't considered to be as important compared to no heat and no water. Geez...this place is falling apart. I promptly replied "So you're saying I'm going to have to have sewage in my shower overnight'" She then asked for my phone number, and said she would have someone call me. Uh...okay. If I would've known it would've taken them this long I would've clean the shower myself this morning. My husband then called them back a few minutes later and spoke to the manager. The manager said someone would be over shortly. 10 min later the maintenance guy comes by to clean up my bathtub. He wasn't in there very long but when I inspected the bathroom it appeared that the bulk of the sewage (the toilet paper, sewage water and bits of feces) had gone down the drain. I still felt uneasy. Not wanting to take any chances I filled the tub with hot water and bleach. I no longer feel comfortable enough to sit down and taking a bath. For now on I plan to stand and take a shower. Even then I wonder if my feet will be contaminated in some way.

((UPDATE WEDNESDAY DEC. 5, 2007)) My husband and I went out of town on Monday and when we came back Wednesday evening the entry hall of the apartment building smelled of sewage and cleaning product. When we entered our apartment and looked into our bathtub sure enough sewage had flowed up into it once again and then went down the drain, leaving sewage residue in the bathtub.

(UPDATE SUNDAY DEC. 9, 2007) Sewage came up in bathtub again. It smells awful.

User Responses
From: fedup1975	Date: 12/17/2007
Complain to the Village of Woodridge. This is a major health hazard
From: hflachs	Date: 12/17/2007
Just wondering which apartment building you guys live in. Our water in our kitchen has been turned off since Friday (14th). It's now Monday the 17th and not only do we have no kitchen water but now we're without all water. We were told it was due to a sewer collapse on the first floor. Could you be our first floor neighbors?
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/10/2008
My God. I have problems with my tub clogging every couple of weeks. I thought it was just my issue, maybe because of my long hair or something. I never imagined it might be something like THAT! I lived with cockroaches for a full year...they'd come out to spray once, and considered that good enough. I told the girl that they had to come out for 6-8 weeks to get rid of the roaches and she snottily informed me that "the exterminator knows what he's doing." Well, apparently he didn't if I lived with cockroaches for a full year! I had to threaten to call the city and insist that they to come out every week for 6 weeks before the problem finally seems to have been solved. Then I found out the roaches were there since before I moved in. I've also made numerous complaints about my loud upstairs neighbors, but they continue being loud.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/20/2008
I havent had any problems with my bath tub, other than the drain dosent work well and i cant take a bath without the water draining. However, I have been wondering about my bathroom sink. I keep smelling a sewage odor when i turn on the foset. I guess now i know why
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/06/2008
My sink was back flushing today again. The guy came and did everything. He brought his machine and ultimately he pulled out a couple of sanitary napkins and showed us. It was not us. WHY BLAME THE APARTMENT? I was doing the same till 10 minutes back. If people dont have any semblance of sense of responsibility and throw stuff like these into the flush, than this is bound to happen. People put everything into Garbage disposal too, get a small basket from home Depot, it will help a lot... and act sensibly...
From: muse79	Date: 12/08/2008
In response to the comment above...no one living in my unit placed feminine products down the toilet (I learned not to do that stuff in 6th grade health class) and we DID NOT HAVE A GARBAGE DISPOSAL IN OUR APARTMENT so everything was thrown into our trash can. My problem wasn't just a sink backing up a little....my entire bathtub was flooded with human waste and the hallway outside our apartment was flooded with sewage water. At the time, there was carpet out in the hallway so imagine the smell. They did an awful job cleaning it up and the smell remained until they finally got enough common sense to replace the carpet with tile flooring. When I lived at Natural Falls (thank God we moved) this incident happened more than 10 times, and they tried to blame the residents at first (kids throwing stuff down the toilet, improper garbage disposal, etc). But guess what? The problem ended up being that the entire sewage system below the apartment complex had collapsed. I will and do blame the apartment because it took them 4-5 months to finally fix the problem and it wasn't them cleaning up the mess everytime...it was me. Any good business would've offered to at least clean up the mess. I didn't even get an "I'm sorry". I stand by what I've stated before...I would never recommend this place to anyone. The management is awful and the maintenance does a horrible job. hflachs: We were in the 7900 Janes Ave bldg. I believe that was building 1?? We were on the first floor so we could've possibly been your neighbor.

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