Shown a great model, got a run down place that hadn’t been cleaned and nothing’s been fixed …

By Lily

Hello, I’m Lily and I live in Columbus Ohio. Following a divorce I ended up having to short sell my home and look for a place to rent. Over three months in advance I found a place that looked wonderful. The model they showed me was amazing and I was assured the only difference would be that some of them have carpet (the model had hardword floors)

The day I was supposed to move in however, the apartment was not ready. The windows had been painted shut, there were chicken bones in the broken sliding glass door. My fence was falling over into my neighbor’s lot. My closet lights had broken pull strings and blown bulbs. The vents were filthy and painted over. My front door would not secure and had obviously been kicked in with force. My copper range had never been cleaned. Further a bad garbage disposal was leaking into the basement, the upstairs toilet had overflowed and there was water damage in the ceiling below. In the basement a pipe leaked constantly. The window frame in the upstairs master bedroom is separated and there’s a bad draft. I took pictures of everything and went to get the management.

I did a walkthrough WITH the property manager and was assured that it was being cleaned (it wasn’t, but they stole my new lightbulb from the range hood.) I listed off all the things that I mentioned above and was assured that it would be taken care of. They did fix the garbage disposal and my door was not fixed, but a new brace was put on the door. I wasn’t happy, but it was all they legally told me they had to do. The rest of the stuff they would fix eventually.

It’s now three months later and nothing’s been done. I cleaned the place myself, my front door is getting worse, my closet doors fell off, a light fixture that was barely attached by one screw finally fell off (and thanfully didn’t hit me in the head, it was heavy). My "new" dishwasher won’t drain water, and my stove caught on fire once, a burner needed replaced twice.

When I asked if they could get on these things I was informed that they were only doing emergency work orders because they bought a new property and the staff was "getting that one ready". I asked if that meant they took on another property that they didn’t have the staff to manage and was told "Basically yes".

I’m really at the end of my rope and just want to find a new place to live, but I can’t afford movers plus another security deposit. Is there anything at all I can do? Aside from making a blog about this nightmare I haven’t got a clue.

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