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!

Edited on: Sunday, October 28th, 2012 11:53 am

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

is there anything i can do about this ?

By Steve

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

the very first day i stayed there was an extremely loud clanking noise in the walls, it is so loud n frequent (no longer than 1 minute of silence) that i couldnt sleep in the bedroom.
i said ok maybe the next day will be better, but no im still not able to sleep in the bedroom to this day because of this noise that sometimes vibrates the floor its so loud.
so i called the offices n told them about it and issued what they call a "work order" for maitance to address n fix the problem. well, they did not do anything, they didnt even show up at the building to even consider it. 
i called 2 weeks later to complain about the same problem and issue another work order. i asked if they did anything last time n the woman at the office said the head mait guy said there was nothing they could do about it and it was the kind of heating they have. bullshit i say. they say its a steam radiator n the noise is the steam hitting the water in the pipes or something like that, then they blamed the weather for it. on top of that the woman said that the people that lived here before me never complained about it (so what i dont care about the ppl that lived here before me, this is now not then) and no other tenants called about it. so they refused my second work order for the same problem. refusing to even consider looking into it. the noise is still present, its going on right now while i write this.
however my girlfriend (we both live here) seen somebody in the hallways n asked them if they herd the noise and they said they do indeed have the same problem and they called the office a few weeks ago about it, the office told them somebody would look into it, but nothing has been done.
so is there anything i can do about this or am i stuck with this ?

Edited on: Thursday, March 29th, 2012 11:40 am

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