Below is a letter I wrote to the Equity Residential Properties corporate office. We ended up receiving a call from the vice president of Equity Properties. He apologized and sent us a check for $200. Though I appreciate the gesture, I continue to discourage living at Surprise Lake Village Apartments.



January 1, 2001



Subject: Surprise Lake Village Apartments



On April 7, 2000 my spouse and I moved into one of your properties, Surprise Lake Village located at 2800 Queens Way Milton, WA 98354. We were eager to move into the one bedroom, one den, 1.5 bathroom apartment. Upon move-in, we found ourselves becoming more and more disappointed with our living environment. The condition of the apartment was less than satisfactory. The carpet was extremely old, showing signs of old age with stains and large patches of high traffic evidence (flat carpet). In the den, there was a large hole in the floor under the carpet. The hole was big enough for a person to trip on if unaware of its existence. There were several stains on various patches of carpet, including paint and red dye. The carpet was obviously in dire need of replacement, but was never acted upon.

Other concerns we had with the apartment complex as a part and a whole are as follows:

vIndolent Maintenance Employees: When we notified management we were moving, we gave sufficient notice. We understood that our apartment should be cleaned as thoroughly as possible, and we did this. While cleaning, we found that we did a more thorough job than the maintenance workers who are paid to do the same job. In the kitchen in front of the dishwasher, there was a large square of tile (approximately 4? x 4?) that was obviously carelessly inserted due to a scratched or otherwise damaged tile. When I pulled out the refrigerator to sweep and mop, I found a large square of floor that had no linoleum. Evidently, the maintenance employees were too lazy to acquire a new square of tile, and instead cut a piece from an area they assumed nobody would bother to look at. Seeing this made me feel as if management and maintenance of this property are not concerned about the appearance or overall quality of the apartment, so why should I care' My efforts in cleaning the apartment were reduced significantly after my discovery.

vIncompetent Maintenance Employees: In October, I opened up our closet that holds the water heater only to discover water all over the place. After maintenance took a look at the tank, they determined it required replacement. I decided to stay home from work while they replaced the tank. I have seen a few water heaters installed. However, I have never seen anything like this before. It ended up being an ALL DAY process! I understand it takes time to empty a water tank. Nonetheless, I do not understand how it can take eight hours to replace a water heater. Nor can I understand why it would take three maintenance men to do the job. You would think after so much time and labor, the new water heater would be in perfect working condition. Of all the three men, not one of them thought to turn the tank on! This is a prime example of the incompetence displayed in most Surprise Lake Village employees.

vInsufficient Lighting: There is no lighting near several of the carports located on the property. My car was under one of these ports. It would get so dark at night where I parked my car, I could not even see the keyhole to lock my car door. This is a perfect setting for someone to cause harm to myself or to my vehicle when I was not present.

vElectrical Problems: At least one outlet in each room of the apartment was not in working order. Also, the cable outlet was in need of repair. When we attempted to plug in our cable wire to the outlet, the outlet simply caved into the wall. Problems such as these should have received attention long before we moved in.

vAppliances Missing Accessories: Our oven came with only one oven rack and did not contain a double broiler. Are these items not standard accessories that accompany an oven'



vNo Area for Residents to Wash a Vehicle: For $740 a month in rent (other residents pay much more than this!), it should be a courtesy of the property owner to provide such an area to its tenants.

vOverflowing Trash: There is one centralized trash compactor on the property. Just about every morning and evening, trash and furniture inundate the compactor area. With at least one leasing manager and maintenance employee living on-site, you would think they would be more than eager to prevent a rodent problem. Obviously, this is not the case.



vAbandoned Vehicles: In late June, a trailer with two brand new dirt bikes attached was parked in a covered, but not reserved parking spot near my vehicle. The next day, the wires were cut and the dirt bikes were gone; they had apparently been stolen. The trailer was never claimed and nobody was paying for the covered spot. The abandoned trailer was still sitting in the same parking stall the day we moved out on December 7. This is a crucial example that management pays little or no attention to the crime that occurs on their property.



vExtremely Rude, Unapproachable, and Unprofessional Leasing Manager(s): This is the fourth apartment complex in which I have resided. In all of my rental experiences, I have never come across such a vulgar manager! *** is extremely disrespectful to previous, current, and future residents. She was unpleasant the very first time I had contact with her. She has greeted my spouse with, ?What do you want'? or even a simple ?What'? If we had a package to pick up, she would simply point at it on a shelf behind her desk and make us pick it up ourselves (while she sat at her desk and watched). She made my spouse and I feel as if we were disturbing her by turning in our rent, picking up a package, or asking a simple question. After my second or third unbearable encounter with ***, I began dropping my rent check in the drop box for the sole purpose of avoiding her bad attitude. When I arrived at the rental office to turn in my keys, there was a couple waiting to view a townhouse, a new resident turning in his move-in checklist, and myself. *** was literally yelling at the new resident. She was upset that he filled out an extra sheet of paper to accompany his move in check-list. His justification was that the paperwork provided did not offer enough space to fit everything he saw unacceptable with his apartment. Finally, she snatched the papers from his hands and turned around and walked away, as to dismiss him. When the new resident asked for a copy of the paperwork, she hesitantly did so. *** then approached the couple waiting to view a townhouse with a cold look on her face. She impolitely told the couple that she didn?t know what they were talking about, and that there were no townhouses available. She then proceeded to stomp away, mumbling that she would check her books to see if a townhouse was available or not. ***?s job is to entice prospective residents to relocate to these apartments. However, all she seems to be doing is turning them away with feelings of dissatisfaction and disgust, most likely going on to spread the word of the bad customer service they experienced at the complex. Finally, when it was my turn to hand my keys over to ***, she approached me with a flat out, ?What do you want'? When I told her I was only there to turn in m y keys, she began complaining to me that she didn?t care if the couple waiting to see a townhouse moved in or not. I thought this was a very unprofessional statement to share with a resident, future resident, or anybody for that matter. *** is absolutely the most unprofessional and inept business person I have ever dealt with.

Due to the above reasons, and a significant raise in rent upon the renewal of our lease, my spouse and I decided to move to a more affordable complex that would be willing to treat us like respectable adults and where we would feel safe.

The purpose of this letter is not to ask for any compensation for our extremely disappointing living experience at Surprise Lake Village Apartments. Rather, I felt it would be in your best interest to be informed of how one of your properties is being managed. Perhaps one day the employees and procedures will be more customer-friendly at Surprise Lake Village. However, until then I will continue urging my friends, family, and co-workers to steer clear of Surprise Lake Village Apartments or any other Equity Property when considering relocating.

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