Is there anything I can do about this?

By Nicole in Ohio

Hello!

First time poster here, so I hope you can bear with me.

I am extremely frustrated with our landlord/apartment situation right now.  Our lease isn’t up until July, so I’m hoping there is something that we can do.

Each month we pay rent, a "utility surcharge", and for a parking spot next to the building.  Heat and water is included, we pay our own electric and gas for cooking.

Things were never "super great" here, but for the price is was about what you could expect and better than the last apartment we rented.  Now it is getting to the point where it is worse – and we’ve lived here a year and a half!

First:  We pay extra to have a parking spot next to the building instead of across a busy street.  Because of limited availability of these spots, the spots are assigned.  It is not unusual for "my" spot to be taken by someone else – either someone else paying to pay in the lot or even those who are not!  Plus people illegally park against the back of the building, making it difficult to back out.  Have called the superindent numerous times to no avail.

In addition to this, the parking lot is a death trap.  The plow job (we live in Ohio, Cleveland suburb, so think SNOW) is so terrible that I’ve gotten stuck trying to back out.  The city trash collectors haven’t even emptied the trash dumpsters in two weeks because they couldn’t get through the lot to access them.  Now that we’ve had a mini thaw it’s become an ice rink, dangerous for both driving and walking.  If we’re lucky, they might shovel the sidewalks – but half the time it’s not until a significant amount has accumulated.

Second:  The hot water.  Apparently the management company has decided to "cut back" on the hot water due to expenses.  Which means we haven’t even had better than a lukewarm shower in two weeks.  Tonight I couldn’t even wash my dishes after dinner because the water was so cold – no hot water at all!  I have kids, we have to bathe them sometime!  I’ve even tried taking a shower at noon, when most people would be at work, and gotten slightly better than tepid water.

Third:  The upkeep on the place is terrible!  Lights go out in the main hallways and no one replaces them for weeks.  We had a "brown out" for over 15 hours last month because they didn’t even bother to call the power company about it until 10 hours in.  Paint peeling in the hallways, the basement (where the laundry room is) smells like mold and cat urine…

Add to this the fact that that they threatened to evict us because my kids playing made "too much noise" – totally disregarding the dang dogs in the building that bark at all hours of the day and the drunken college students that come home at 3 AM.  My kids are in bed by 830-9 at night and don’t get up until after 8 AM – and trust me, we don’t have any crazy loud toys in the house!  We filed a discrimination complaint with the state’s civil right’s commission but haven’t heard anything back since mediation was refused…while they have stopped the threats to us they now ignore any complaints we make as well.

We cannot move until our lease is up – is there anything we can do in the meantime?  Even if it won’t improve our standard of living over the next few months, I’m to the point where I want to be a royal pain in their arses for all the crap we’ve had to put up with.

Thanks in advance!

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Holy Cow, we couldn't find any other related post. Sorry. :(

is there anything i can do about this ?

By Steve

ok i just moved into the apartment last month (owned by horizon realty)

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Holy Cow, we couldn't find any other related post. Sorry. :(