Sky Harbor has a split personality. Although the complex is patrolled by security, the area it is in is appalling - in the time I was there, there were three violent murders, three armed robberies, and two shootings within a mile of the place - and that's just what I heard on the news.

About a third of the complex is rented as a hotel - nightly, no lease, very short stays. The rest is rented as regular apartments. This leads to the other part of the split personality. The maintenance - when they get to you - knows what they're doing (if they didn't, then their 'hotel' guests would just find someplace else to stay) and does it quickly. But when it comes to dealing with tenants - and especially tenants' rights - the office staff has no training, no experience, and no clue. Since they deal with their hotel guests daily, and tenants perhaps only annually, this shouldn't come as a surprise. For example - private notices, such as overdue rent, eviction notices, noise complaints, which at any other place would be attached to your door in an envelope, or at least folded, are just stuck to the door for all your neighbors to read.

The rent is due on the first of the month - written into the rental contract - but the office was closed on January 1st. So the office staff prepared notices to give to everyone to tell them to pay their rent a day early, or be subject to late fees. It was only when someone pointed out that this would breach every single contract, and put them at risk of a class-action lawsuit that they backed down.

The eviction notices (you know, the ones you can read as you're walking around the complex) are standard legal forms, specifying the length of notice - usually at least 30 days. More than once I saw a '30 day' notice that gave the tenant until the end of THE SAME DAY to vacate the premises. They can't even read their own legal forms.

If you call the office to make a maintenance request, there is a decent chance it will never make it to the maintenance people - you will have to complain several times, even if the problem is, say, a leaking pipe that is causing damage to their own property (keep note of when you called, and who you spoke to, or you can be expected to pay for the damage that the leak caused while the office staff were forgetting to pass your message on).

Renewing contracts is a nightmare. For some reason they have a policy of 'staggering' the dates when contracts come up for renewal throughout the year. This means that if you want to move out at the end of May, perhaps because you're a student and you're graduating, but they already have enough people whose contracts are ending in May, then they won't let you sign a contract of that length - you'll have to sign a longer or shorter one. This could be a completely different length to the contract that you signed when you moved in. You need to move out in six months, but the only option they will give you is to sign for 11 months, or move out now (ironically, the typical 'please renew your contract' flyers that get sent out as your lease renewal date approaches boast about their 'flexible' contract terms).

In all, if you never have to deal with the office staff, don't plan to sign a lease renewal, and don??t plan to leave the complex except in a car then you should be ok. If you do, you are in serious trouble.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/14/2007
My only comment would be in regards to the rent being due on the 1st, in every place I've lived they have a night drop. Just because the office is closed or the 1st falls on a holiday doesn't automatically mean you get a pass to pay your rent late. You might want to review that statement. Also, I've lived in other complexes that post the notices on the door for all to read. (I recieved a 3 day notice myself) I to was embarrassed, however, as told to me by the attorney who represented the complex, all notices are to be "posted" by law, not dicreetly tucked into an envelope. His other comment was a tad bit more difficult to swallow, and I quote,"If you don't like how the notices are posted, don't put yourself in the position to get one."... Touche'
From: Fynn831	Date: 01/28/2008
They do have a night drop, just like everywhere else. What I was saying is that for the rent due on January 1st, they were planning to require all tenants to pay on December 31st, and then charge late fees if a tenant paid on January 1st, as was written in the lease, using the night drop. According to the fliers, this was because the office was going to be closed on January 1st. There was no expectation of having a 'pass' to pay rent late - just not to be forced to pay it early. I've reviewed the statement, and it seems pretty clear to me. I've never lived in a complex that places private notices to be publicly read, and since the legal requirement is for notices to be 'delivered' and not 'posted', I think the attorney representing the complex that you dealt with was doing his job and protecting their interests, and not yours. To put it simply - he lied. Finally, if 'not putting yourself in a position to get a notice' includes making sure that the office staff apply your rent to the correct account on the correct day, and then forcing them to contact you so you can correct their mistake before they post an eviction notice, then he might be right. If there's the possibility of them screwing up and posting an embarrassing notice for all to read without justification, then I think he's being naive.

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