Dangerous and unsanitary

By apugh91

I’m wondering if I have a case here. I’m pretty sure I do.

We moved into this apartment in early, early August. We signed something in the lease that said there was not a bug problem and that any bugs were our fault. As we unpacked dishes, we noticed a dead cockroach in the cabinet, but dismissed it as an accident. Near the same time, I verbally reported our dishwasher to be broken.
Move forward to October. We have been robbed twice. Called the police both times, the only time they did come they took thirty minutes about it and didn’t fingerprint or come inside, just mumbled about renters insurance and left. Over 500 dollars in cash has been taken. The deadbolt is always locked so the only way they could have robbed us would be picking the deadbolt or popping the window. I go to the landlady, file a paper complaint about the dishwasher, get scolded for noise complaints, explain calmly that all we do in our apartment is watch movies after ten, or play video games, go to talk to neighbors who complained, and discover that they’re not even underneath us. They’re underneath the vacant apartment next to us, which, upon investigation, we discover is being squatted in. 
Oh, they also promised a fumigation within two weeks and did not. I requested a fumigation because there were cockroaches everywhere, was promised it, and never got it.
Move forward to today, January 5. On December 20, someone finally came and looked at the dishwasher. Turns out it’s been broken the entire time that we’ve lived here. Someone also came and sprayed roach killer on the floor. Didn’t work. Two weeks later we’ve put down combat and yesterday we were robbed between the hours of five am and ten am. Got the landlady, she came and saw fresh scratch marks outside our window, which is very easy to pop open (we checked), and asked if we had called the police. We said no, because I had picked up the wallet that had been robbed and everyone’s fingerprints were all over it, and there was nothing else for them to see. She told us to clean our dirty dishes, which have been piling up a little (think still all in the sink) because of the broken dishwasher. We explained the dishwasher situation. Got a "oh we fired the old maintenance man, we have a new one now, and he’ll come change your locks today and he’ll be walking the property to keep it safer". She then proceeded to pull this line on us that she has pulled every time we have been robbed. Instead of admitting that her property is completely unsafe, she asked if one of our friends would rob us. No, they wouldn’t. Well, she knows better. She’s a great judge of character. She believes that one of our friends copied our key, came inside, opened the window as a decoy, emptied my wallet, and walked back out the door, locking it behind them. Totally reasonable, seeing as we have people trying to climb in our window and pick our doors all the time. We informed her of this and her only answer was to call the police. Call them basically every night, then. 
So we’ve lived her five months. Paid on time and in full every time. Kept the apartment as clean as possible without a working dishwasher and mostly broken toilet. Lived with a cockroach infestation, with police at the complex most every night, being robbed four times, and getting noise complaints on nights that we weren’t even home and/or nights that we were asleep in bed by the time that the complaints were made. I’m frustrated as hell. Is there anything we can do?

Edited on: Thursday, January 5th, 2012 1:20 pm

One Response to “Dangerous and unsanitary”

My response: (We welcome stories, examples, explanations, answers and a touch of your personality)
 

jc

May 19th, 2012 8:17 pm

If your dishwasher is broke dont let your dishes pile up in the sink. That is gross! Thats why you have roaches or you live next to mexicans. True story


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