Shortly after moving into my newly renovated bottom floor apartment I discovered I had a mouse problem. IT TOOK 5 MOS. TO GET RID OF THE MICE because the office personnel did not take it serious even though I constantly complained. The complex has a worthless extermination company called "Brown Exterminating Co." which I never met and don't believe are a real business. I say this because the office refused to give me the company's phone no., my son and I never met the exterminators on any occassion, the co. never left literature/brochures/business cards after performing their work, and all they ever did was leave me sticky orange cardboard (foldable boxes) which contained no poison, to try to catch the mice. Even when the mice dug the first hole through my closet wall from behind my tub and I crammed poison and reynolds wrap in the hole, all the "exterminator" did was leave two more sticky cardboards beside the hole! When I complained that I needed the exterminator to use professional poison and/or traps to catch the mice, the office said the exterminator could not use poison and that they did not want to use poison incase someones pet were to get the mice. The office cared more about the neighbor's pets than the fact I was living with filthy mice! I found that concept hard to believe. I honestly believe the office staff have relatives or friends they pay to pretend to be an extermination company. The only way I got rid of the mice was to call THE HANOVER OFFICE OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS and two building inspectors came out and made the apartment fix the problem. It only took the inspectors 10 minutes to find the way the mice were getting into the apartment! There were openings on the outside and inside of my apartment where the heat pump valves enter the bldg. There was a direct path from the outside into my utility closet. Even though I complained to the office that I saw the mice come in and out of the utility closet near my hot water tank and w/d, they never bothered to try to fix the problem until they were forced to by the county bldg inspector. By the time the county came out, the mice had made other openings into the apartment to include coming through a large crack in the foundation of the apartment, under the carpet in the master bedroom closet; holes they made through the closet walls directly behind the bathroom tubs, and in cracks behind the kitchen stove and dishwasher. When my apartment was renovated with new carpet, appliances and light fixtures, (of which the rent was increased $100/mo to quickly recoup the costs) the staff did not bother to seal in large cracks between the walls and floors, leaving large enough spaces for mice and air to come through. Then after dealing with all this mess, I asked the office mgr to see if I could get a reduction in my rent for a couple of months in consideration of the trouble I had gone through with having mice for 5 months. The mgr had the nerve of saying, I told you we were sorry; like that made it all better. Since I insisted on her checking with upper management to see if I could get some reduction in my rent, she said she would get back with me. Instead of getting a call back, I received a letter in the mail from her. The letter was signed by her, but it obviously had not been written by her because she writes poorly and this letter had no obvious grammatical errors or typos. Every month the newsletters are full of words misused like there and their, or typos, so I know she got help with the letter. But the biggest thing about the letter was that it was full of mistruths. The mgr stated that it was my fault I had the "vermin" and that the complex had not had a "vermin" problem before me. She stated that my concerns had been quickly addressed. There was no mention of the fact that the county told them the cause of the problem and that they had to fix it to avoid being written up for it. Since they agreed to quickly fix the problem they did not write them up; however since I received the letter I requested and received a letter from the lead bldg inspector stating that the cause of the mice problem was not caused by me. Needless to say, the office refused to give me any reduction in my rent.

To make my distaste for this apartment complex even worse, instead of the office making sure the pool was ready for the opening of the summer season, they procrastinated and the pool just opened today, 6/16/09. Too bad it wasn't open for people to enjoy for Memorial Day weekend, and for my family to enjoy last week when they came to visit. The office was quick to tell the tenants that complained that the pool was not part of the lease. Our argument though is that people pick their apartments based partially on the amenities they offer. The price of an apartment is based on many factors, including the cost to provide those amenities. To advertise you have an amenity, and then not do all you can do to have that benefit available is false advertising and evil spirited.

In addition to the mice, now my neighbors found a copperhead snake is hiding under the cement steps to my apartment bldg. The opening was partially hidden by the cement drain that is under the water drain on the side of the bldg, located beside my open fenced patio. A copperhead snake is poisonous and could easily bite someone near the bldg. The kids and adults have to be extra careful now. In addition, I have a rabbit which prior to the snake being seen, I would occassionally bring out on a bunny leash, and let him run/relax in the bushes in front of my patio. Now I can't do that because the snake opening is beside the bushes in front of my patio. I also can't sit on my patio, because the patio has an open fencing and the snake could come right onto the porch! It was bad enough with the small lizard like creatures and the frogs. The neighbors think the reason we have so many critters/creatures is that there is a swamp area behind the trees near our bldg since we are located in the back of the complex.

Other nuisances are the other creatures that are on the property.

People with large dogs do not carry pooper scoopers to clean up behind their pets when they bring them out to use the bathroom. Some are so inconsiderate that they let them pee/poop close to the entrances to the bldgs and don't clean it up!

The bldgs were remodeled on the outside however the internal structure of the bldg is old. You can hear through the vents noises from the 3rd floor to the first floor. I did not realize this until the tenants on the 2nd floor moved out and then I realized the children running constantly were from 2 floors up! You can also hear through the walls and you hear the water when people take baths, flush the toilets, and wash clothes. It is also very noisy if you sleep in the bedroom facing the side of the bldgs because there are 6 heat pumps on each side of the bldg (one for ea apartment).

Maintenance respond quickly to repairs, but they don't fix things well sometimes requiring repeat repairs, such as constantly rehanging the sliding doors on the closets.

The best things about this apartment is the tenants are friendly; the grounds are kept clean and grass cut often; there is plenty of parking; and now the new Hanover Public Library just opened which is right before the entrance to the apartment complex.

User Responses
From: spiritbee76	Date: 08/13/2009
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!! the lady seem so nice there too..I was apartment shopping...this story here has done it in for me. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! this is a nightmare

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