67%
overall rating:
Parking:
Maintenance:
Construction:
Noise:
Grounds:
Safety:
Office Staff:
Be careful...
From: erinhaslett917@hotmail.comDate posted: 4/1/2008
Years at this apartment: 2006-01-01 - 2007-01-01
4 responses
We moved into Crystal Park because of the family like syle living and although the rent was extremely high we decided to go for it and overall besides some small issues; mostly with the staff being unpleasant; we liked living there. However, my husband works for the government (like most tenants I knew were) and he got relocated unexpectedly over 500 miles away. We had two weeks to move and only two months on our lease left after two years of living there. We weren't bad tenants; we always paid on time, never had complaints, however we were told by the unprofessional, condescending property manager that if we could pay their lease breaking fee equal to one months rent, $1300.00 plus our two months in full (almost $4000 in total) that not only would they take us to court but "some people in the past had to claim bankrupty because of the fees that were owed to them". They wouldn't consider any of our pleas; we offered our $1300 security deposit and $400 pet deposit if we could walk away but the property manager wouldn't budge.
After one year of not hearing anything,we got a letter from a lawyer sueing us. Little did we know our account was in collection for a year, totally ruining our credit. Did I mention for a whole year we never heard once from them? We ended up having to settle out of court; all over two months left on a lease in a situation where we had no choice but to move 500 miles away. Moral of the story, WATCH OUT, if you are government worker or if you need to leave unexpectedly for any reason, they will not be helpful. I would not recommend this apartment complex.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
I'm the author!
User Responses |
|
| From: armywife323161 | Date: 01/24/2010 |
|
If you are a government worker you should have a clause in any lease you sign saying that if the government causes you to move you will be released from your lease with no penalties. I can't believe no one else has ever told you this.
|
|
| From: Anonymous | Date: 08/07/2010 |
|
They told you when you tried to break your lease what your responsibilities were, so don't act surprised that you went to collections. It's not the property manager's job to hunt you down for your money either after you move out. She told you to pay, and you didn't, so you got sent to collections. You don't seem like someone who's easy to work with either, as if you feel entitled to whatever you want, so this is most likely more a case of you throwing a tantrum because you didn't get what you want. Next time respect the documents that you have signed and are legally bound to honor. Also, Army Wife is right... if you show proper documentation of deployment/job transfer, you are allowed to break your lease. I guess you didn't do that either. Great job.
|
|
| From: airportandie | Date: 01/11/2011 |
|
Read your lease. ALL rental complexes are this way. They have a vested interest in the monies they get for their budge and can't afford to have tenants up and leave regardless of the reason. Some have clauses for Military leasees, but if the move was due to a Fed Govt move, which generally isn't at the Government request since most won't pay a PCS move, you're out of luck for being given a break. Further, an annual lease gives you a financial break on the market rent, which a month-to-month will pay. So, if you knew the possibility of moving not at your choice, a month-to-month would have been your choice. And if only 2 months left, you could have stayed while he went on and found new housing. Doing that plus relocating can take up to 60 days. Sorry, but sympathy here.
|
|
| From: ehaslett | Date: 01/11/2011 |
|
First of all, since he got hired in the government we have always asked for a break lease clause and always get the same response. "only for military not for government". Even before we lived in that apartment we did this, just in case.
Second, this was a contract issue where all the lower level employees got a 50% pay cut and they downsized my husbands area so that is why we had to move. It was take it or leave the job all together type situation. We gave the property manager all the documents saying that this was the case. We got a letter from his employer saying that this was an involuntary move, loss of pay and the time line given.
There was no moving money from the government at all. Why didn't I just stay? We literally couldn't afford to pay the rent there anymore even if I wanted to. Because his pay was cut in half and had literally two weeks to move (and the new pay to take effect) we couldnÂ?t afford anything. We had to pay $1000 for a truck plus the new fees to move into our next housing. So no we couldnÂ?t afford another $4000 in their crazy fees.
Third, it wasnÂ?t like we tried getting off without losing anything. We gave up our security deposit, a pet deposit with no fight at all, we told them to take it. They said they couldnÂ?t use it for anything but damages to the apartment which apparently wasnÂ?t true because we never got a check back. (not that we wanted it back) We gave them his parents address (because at the time of moving our stuff into the truck we still didnÂ?t have a place to live yet) and figured when we got a check we would write it back for the full amount back to them but never got anything. We also left the place squeaky clean. They could have easily rented that apartment quickly and had minimal loss. We were moving out in two months anyway so if they couldnÂ?t rent it out they were going to loss the money anyway. Even if they just made us pay the following months rent in payments we could have dealt with that. But it was a $1300 for two months plus another $1300 in a fee to break the lease. Why did they need the extra $1300? PLUS security and pet deposit. That is $4500 IÂ?m sorry call me crazy but this is a bit extreme to me. In my opinion it should have gone down like this. Come to apartment check out damages, when they saw there was none they should have said ok we will take your deposit money for the last months rent but you need to pay just the other month. That why they get the full lease money and get to rent the apartment. But that wasnÂ?t given to me as an option. Nothing was. It was just pay up.
My biggest issue is that life happens. people need to understand that sometimes things are out of your control. ItÂ?s not like we just signed the lease. We were there for almost two full years and only had two months left. This move came out of nowhere. We had no notice and it wasnÂ?t even an option. This never happened before in this agency's history so forced moves werenÂ?t really something we had planned for. Moves were always paid for and by the employeesÂ? request. Not the other way around. If it was option at any time we would have gone month to month, but going month to month is a lot more expensive and we wouldnÂ?t have been able to live there anyway if that was the case. Again pay was cut by 50% in the following paycheck for all lower level employees.
After we found out we were being sued, I spoke to two lawyers, one in MD and one in NC (where we were sent to) and both of them said it was absolutely ridiculous however neither could do anything about it because the apartment complex got a NC lawyer to sue us and the NC lawyer didnÂ?t really know MD law so he couldnÂ?t touch it even though he said he never heard of such crap before. Also the MD lawyer said that he could got us out of it because of our circumstances but since they got a NC lawyer he could touch it.
Bottom line is that life is tricky and rules have to be broken sometimes. Every situation is different and we were put in a sticky situation and should have been given some kind of sympathy. They were always super sweet until this moment and then we were given the cold shoulder and just down right bitchyness. No concern at all. Just "oh well" pay up".
|
|
Free estimates on moving trucks
Find apartment share/roommates
Up to: Crystal Park
Frederick apartments
Disclaimer: No attempt has been made to verify or assure the accuracy of the claims made by the author of this opinion or responses. You must judge the truthfulness of any review and accept responsibility for your use of this information.
E-mail successfully sent to Crystal Park
