My husband and I moved into these apartments the day before Halloween. Several days before hand, when we signed the lease, we requested the ability to check out the apartment before all was said and done...and were denied the opportunity. Upon moving in to the apartment, we were handed our keys and a checklist and told to bring it back on Monday. On our walkhrough of the apartment we noticed that the walls around the carpet were damaged, the front door had openings all around it due to the doorjam being warped, there were hundreds of bees swarming the front door and the side of our townhome, the room which we had designated the nursery for our son had a patio, to which the doors did not stay shut due to weathering of the doors and poor locks and no weather stripping. The patio door in our room did the same thing, but at least there was a deadbolt to keep them shut. We also noticed that our AC wasn't working properly, our dishwasher didn't work properly, and after three days of living in our new home, there was a soggy brown spot in the cieling below our bathrooms that had begun to grow a green mold. After several more days of the leakage the spot had grown to cover a 3 by 3 area and the cieling was so wet that you could push it up and move the floor upstairs. The Monday after we moved in, we turned in the list of things that had been going wrong in our new home and they told us some one would get around to it as soon as possible. I am also nine months pregnant mind you and very allergic to bees, so i had to avoid the use of our front door for almost the entire duration of our stay. After several days we also noticed that roaches were in our beds, our cabinets, our laundry and our dining area. We requested the bombing of the apartment home so that we might get the bug problem taken care of, which never happened. We were also told that EPA had been out twice to spray for the bee problem and there wasn't much more they could do. We requested that the honey combs be removed and were told in return that the problem wasn't that bad, that they were just honey bees and wouldn't sting and that the entire complex had a problem due to the amount of trees in the area. When our hot water started coming out brown, the manager came and told us that it was due to galvanized steel pipes and if we let it run long enough the rust and the brown color would stop coming out of the pipes and it would be okay to take a shower or brush our teeth with. That might have been a reasonable explanation if our cold water had been running the smae, but it only happened with the hot water. We wanted out, so we contacted a real estate lawyer and did enough research through the Texas Fairhousing Laws and found a loophole in the system. When we took the problems we were having above the leasing office to the actual company that owned this complex...Gables Residential...a woman there told us that everything would be taken care of, if the problems were that hard to deal with we would be let out of our lease without a mark on our credit and we would recieve half of our deposit back. We gave the leasing office notice that we were leaving, and more problems started to arise. Our move out date is supposed to be tomorrow, and three days ago we lost all water pressure and hot water. Yesterday we started taking loads of our belongings to our new townhome, and returned home to find the paneling on the outside of the apartment removed. We were relieved at first, thinking the bee problem had been taken care of properly and that at least moving our belongings in and out would be safe for me. When we opened our door there were live roaches and bees crawling amongst our things, and what appeared to be at least 500 dead bees and roaches on the carpet in our dining area, on our dining room table, in boxes of our belongings, in my son's car seat! Not to mention the amount of pesticides that were sprayed in there to kill this amount of insects was nauseating and a very hazardous thing for me to be around. There was a large hole in the cieling above the tarp they attempted to lie down to catch the dead insects on, in which live roaches were crawling out of and fresh honey stains all down the wall. This was on Friday and our move out date wasn't until Sunday. What was I supposed to do for the next two days' I went to the office to complain, especially since the mess had just been left there, they said they couldn't get anyone to cover the hole, the roaches were no big deal because it was roach season and that the pesticides used would not harm me because they weren't strong enough. So without hot water, water pressure, a mold problem that was continuing to grow, and now this...this was the last straw. My son is due in three weeks...and what they were doing to us was ridiculous. We weren't demanding anything outrageous, simply that we be treated like human beings. I would never recommend to another living soul that they consider living here, and I am outraged that they even be allowed to stay open. If oyu value your health and the money you work so hard for, please don't even give them a chance.
Recommended: NO
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User Responses
From:
smogglefroggy
Date:
04/08/2005
You are completely right! When I lived there, the townhome next door to me was neglected, and infested with gnats and roaches. It was contaminated with trash and stacks of newspapers for the entire 6 months I lived there. I often saw homeless people coming and going, which is INEXCUSABLE by the front office!! They are so quick to jump on you for anything, but when it comes to the issues that the complex has, its not a big deal to them. It is a very unsafe community, it is EXTREMELY dirty and feels like you're living in the ghetto. I had my car stereo stolen, and the local cops were at the complex at least 5 times a week for some kind of disturbance. When hurricane Allison came through, our carpet was completely soaked in the living room, and it was never completely replaced. I gave them written notice that I was leaving at the end of my lease term, and they are still trying to charge me over a thousand dollars!! This place is a hell hole and unless you are a crackhead or homeless bum, you DONT want to live here.
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