My nightmare move...and it isn't even over yet. **Very long**

[kval07]

This is a long story with no end yet, so bear with me.

DF and I signed a lease a few weeks ago to move in to a townhouse owned by the same management company as our two last apartments. We were all set up and told we could pick up our keys on Sunday morning at 9am. Sweet. We have to have our old apt cleaned and keys turned in by 3pm and our Uhaul turned in my 430. We can do 9am just fine.

I show up at 9am, after getting my papers of course, and am told they are changing the locks and they keys aren't ready yet. Okay, minor setback, that's okay. Fifteen minutes later, DF shows up with the Uhaul and is at the townhouse. He doesn't see my car and calls me and I tell him to come up to the office to get his key too. He gets there and we wait another ten minutes to get our keys.

We drive over to the townhouse and I am trying to situate the dogs in the car, opening the windows for them, etc, just until we get in and check out the place. I get out of the car and he is looking at me with this weird look on his face. I ask what it is and he asks if I am sure this is the right place? I say yes, this is the address on our lease, why? He pushes open the door all the way and I look inside and my blood pressure immediately shoots through the roof. The place is a complete dump! Furniture from the last tenants are still in there, holes in the walls, unpainted, FILTHY carpet with huge stains everywhere, stunk to high hell of smoke. I said this can't be right. He goes to check out the basement and I take the top floor. Same thing-one big nasty dump with crap everywhere. I ask DF is he unlocked the door and he tells me no, the door was just unlocked when he got up to it. He just pushed it right open.

I go back out to the car and try to look through the packet of paperwork they gave me to find the office number. I'm so mad I can't see straight so I said screw this, we're going down to the office. I have no clue how I didn't go in their screaming and swearing. I went in there and I said we have a HUGE problem here. S, the leasing manager who we have been working with all along, overhears me and comes out to find out whats up. I tell them "either that is not my new apt or someone here is not doing their job. That place is a frickin dump! It hasn't been touched by anyone because the carpet is filthy, there is furniture in there, trash, anything and everything!" Her and another girl, K, start apologizing saying they don't know what has happened and they'll look in to it right away. They ask us to go have a seat.

DF and I are livid and I am insisting that they gave us keys to the wrong place and he says no way in hell are we moving anything in there. S comes back out and says she figured out the problem. The old tenants didn't move out until the night before. They were supposed to be out on Friday, but they moved out late, so no one had a chance to go in and do what they do after a tenant moves out. I ask why the heck not and why in the world would you give me keys if that place is looking like that. She said she doesn't know, she is sorry, but she's working on getting someone in there right now to rip up the carpet and paint, blah blah blah. Fine.

Then she tells us we can still start moving our stuff in, but we have to work around the painters and people who are working on the carpet. She says we'll have to work on non-carpeted areas and move all of our stuff in to the kitchen. I say, are you kidding me? We have one truck full of stuff, plus atleast one more truck back at the old place and we are doing this ourselves!!! Just the two of us! I said I'm not moving stuff in while work is being done, period. I'd be in their way, they'd be in my way, I have two dogs who can't be around that, AND I'm not moving a whole truck worth of crap in to the kitchen. She says, well, can you move it in the basement?? I say NO, I can't move our 100 pound dressers down the stairs in to the basement only to turn around and try to get them up two flights of stairs to the top floor later!!

Then she says, well, do you want to move your stuff in to a vacant apartment for now? Ugh. Once again, NO, I'm only moving my stuff ONCE today, unless you are going to help me unload the stuff into a vacant apartment, load it back up in to my truck, and then unload it again in my finished apt. Seriously, is she even thinking here??? I put my foot down for about the fifth time and tell her we aren't moving anything in to a dirty, unfinished apartment. She says okay, well how about I give you a call in a little bit and tell you when it will be ready? Okay, but what about our Uhaul? I'm not paying extra for something that isn't my fault? We can't have our old apt cleaned and keys handed back in until all of our stuff is out. She says she can get with the property manager, C, about paying the extra day/late fees and call our old property manager and see about pushing the time back. Okay. We now have until 9am tomorrow to be out of the old place.

I still want to know why we are even in this situation and she has the balls to say, "Well you did sign a early move in waiver which means that not everything may be done." You've got to be kidding me. You've got to be!!! I said I know what an early move in waiver is and it IS NOT something I signed so that I could move in to an apt that hasn't been touched!! It doesn't mean I move right on in to someone else's filth. This still gets me furious that she said this.

This went on for about twenty minutes and we decide to go back to our old place and see what else we can get done. We drive by the new place and don't see any movement, no cars there working on anything, nothing. S calls me back about a half hour later and says that they are ripping up carpet and painting as we speak and we can start moving our stuff in at 1pm. Around 130, we head back over to the new apt. We pull up to the townhouse and see cars and workers inside and outside so we go inside and find out if its ready. I walk in and one of the guys tells me they are just finishing laying the carpet.

I walk back to the kitchen and another guy asks me if we are there to clean the place. I say no, actually I'm here to move in. We were supposed to be in at 9am. I ask if he knows anything about the painting since it isn't done yet. He says not his job, but he knows the guy whose crews are painting and says they should be over soon. DF asks how long he thinks until we can get in. He shakes his head and says, honestly, probably not until 430 or 5. Wonderful! Just fricking wonderful! We both have to work on Monday, DF has to be up at 330am!!

So we head down to the office again. I see S and tell her that we came back to start moving and they haven't even touched the walls yet. She is completely clueless to this news. She says okay, well I'll figure out when the painters will get in and then I'll give you a call in about a half hour. She also says she walked through the place after we left and can't believe I went in there and wasn't yelling. (yeah, me too) We drive BACK across town to our old place for the second time that day and we've done what we can do so we decide to take a nap. We've both been up since 630 and we thought our day was going to go a lot differently.

I can't sleep because I'm too busy trying to make sure I hear my phone ring. 230...no call...300...no call. At 330, I call the office and speak to someone and let them know I need to talk to S. She's out on the property, but she can give me a call back. I explain the situation, tell her it is time sensitive and I would like a call back asap. Still no call. Finally at 445 I call again and talk to A. She showed us the model when we very first looked at this place. I explain the situation...we haven't even started moving yet, and we both have to work and we need to have our old apt cleaned and keys turned in by 9am the next morning. She says she'll send a manager over to our townhouse to see if the painting is done and give me a call back in five minutes. At 520 I still have no return call so we get in my car and drive across town AGAIN to go to the office and get some face to face answers.

We get there and go straight to our townhouse, door open and unlocked. It is painted and carpeted, but there is trash from the contractors and the place still has not been cleaned. The took out most of the furniture, but left the stuff in the basement, and our washer and dryer aren't there yet either. There are still brown cobwebs on stuff, dirt everywhere. DF goes to lock the door when we leave and neither key even works in the door!

We go to the office and the entrance to the office is closed. I'm not screwing around anymore and I'm good and pissed so I go walk around to the employee entrance. I get in there and there is only one girl working and I ask where S and A are. She says they left for the day!!! At 5pm!!! It is almost 545 now! We tell her our keys don't work and we've been waiting all afternoon for a phone call from someone who can give me an answer. I tell her how mad I am. She says she'll find out the issue with the keys and drop them off to us. I ask why no one called me back? How long have the painters been done and how long ago could we have started moving?? I tell her I want a phone call from C, the property manager in the morning.

DF calls my dad to come over since he is out of work now, and we go run to get something to eat. By the time we start, it is 630pm, and we are moving our stuff in to a dirty apartment. By this time, we are trying to get done before it gets dark so we are just unloading stuff in the kitchen and living room. We still have atleast another truck full of stuff to load up, so one of my sisters stays back with me and we start moving stuff upstairs to make room, since most of our furniture still isn't there yet.

By the time we get done with the next load, it is after 10pm. Everyone goes home and we still have to clean the old apartment and deal with dogs who are upset about being locked up in their crates and neglected all day. (I felt so bad about them all day. We tried to take Chester to my dad's house to play with his dog since we knew Roscoe would be okay in the crate. Chester wouldn't play at all and my dad said he just sat on the couch, wouldn't let anyone touch him, and stared out the window for the three hours he was there. He finally called and told me he was worried about Chester and he just wasn't happy there. My heart broke so I told him to just bring him back.)

By the time we clean the place, turn in the keys, and get the Uhaul turned in, and get "home" it is almost 130am. DF had to get up at 330 to go to work. I couldn't even find any of my stuff for work-clothes, badge, shoes, nothing. I had anticipated being done at a decent hour and starting to unpack my important boxes, but that didn't happen. I ended up calling in to work the next day. It looked like our apt had been hit by a tornado. My dogs had nowhere to go either, and I couldn't leave them home like that.

I was up at 645 to start cleaning and unpacking. DF came home mad because after he got done loading truck, UPS asked him to drive and he had to say no because he only had 2 hours of sleep. As a seasonal driver, you are supposed to be able to drive whenever they ask. Lost pay there, and lost pay for me too.

He takes a nap and we get to work. We took the front door off the hinges to try to maneuver our queen size box spring up the stairs, so I put the dogs out on the patio. We couldn't get the box spring upstairs so now we have to take the bed to his parents house. Our dogs got out from under the fence around the patio and DF just so happened to see some girl driving away with Roscoe in her lap!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank god he happened to be looking out the door at that time. He runs after her and asks her what the heck she is doing and she says oh is this your dog. He tells her yeah and she says are you sure? She says, oh, and hands him back over. He has tags on and everything. I couldn't believe it!

I go down to the office and ask to speak to C, the property manager. She's not on site. Go figure. I say I want a phone call back and I still want an explanation for how we came to get keys (that didn't work) to an apartment that was clearly not ready for us. I get a VM from K (who seems to be the only one who can call me back) saying she spoke with C and both her and the maintenance manager will be by that afternoon to do a walk thru and talk to me. Around 430 still nothing, so I call down and talk to K again and say we are going out, what's the time frame because I don't want to miss them. She says she doesn't know but can I leave my list of what needs to be done on the door in case we miss them. Sure.

We leave for dinner, I totally forget to leave the list, and no one shows up anyway. We go to Comcast to get internet and we can't even get it because the prior tenant has a delinquent account and they haven't closed it out yet. That's awesome. They can't do anything without a copy of our lease and both DF and I called on separate days asking what exactly we needed (address provided too) and were never told about the lease.

Next day (yesterday) still no contact at all from C, the property manager. No apology, no hey how's it going what can I do for you? no nothing. S stops by to see if we are all in. I say yeah, I had to take the day off from work as you can see this place is a wreck. She asks if there is anything she can do. I tell her no, we are waiting on C and the maint manager to come by, that's about it. She says, oh, well I know you are on her list of people to see today. She never showed up.

We go to dinner last night again (still can't get to the kitchen) and swing by Comcast afterwards. We get up to the counter and have the same lady as the night before. She pulls up our account and looks all confused. She says I was just in this account. She describes the couple and I realize we were in the same room as the people who started this whole mess. DF and I both saw them...their appearance definitely matches their dirty living style. We get the internet setup finally.

Today, still no call and now I can't think about anything else all day. I'm just still completely livid at the whole situation and how no one is giving me answers and how the property manager can't find time to talk to me. I come home from work on my lunch and go straight to the office. S is there and I ask for C. Oh she isn't in. Okay, that's fine. Who is her boss then? Why? Why do you need to know? she asks. I say, well, she can't seem to find the time to stop by or even call me and she has had three days to do it. If she can't find time, maybe her boss will. She says she'll go back and call C. While she does that, K (the nice one I like) starts talking to me so that I can't hear the phone conversation. S comes back out and says that C will be over today. I tell her great, I'll be home from work after 5 and I want a phone call from her with an exact time she will be there because I sure wouldn't want to miss her. She asks what the problem is.

Sigh...she knows, but I explain again anyway. I tell her the place is a mess, was never cleaned, my dogs were eating cigarette butts off the back patio, I got a carpet staple stuck in my foot because again, no one cleaned!! I have no covers on my switches or outlets, I walk in my kitchen and get black feet. She says well when I was over there yesterday you said everything was good. I said, no, I said I didn't need anything from you because I was waiting on C and the maint manager. She says no I didn't say that AND that the place WAS cleaned!!! Now she has set me off and now I'm not even trying to be quiet. I tell her I'm sick of her BS and don't f*in lie to me. I am the one who has been living there since Sunday and I know what clean is. She still insists it was cleaned. I say fine, I would love to see your documentation, and she says okay. I tell her go get it since I know for a fact it doesn't exist! She says, Krystle, I know it was cleaned and I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. I said there was piss on my toilet seat when I got there and if the place was cleaned it wouldn't be there!!!!

She's trying to brush me off without giving me C's boss's name and I'm not having it. She finally gives it to me. I go home and tell DF that she says this place was cleaned and now he is mad too, can't believe she lied right to my face. I tell him to get on the phone with his mom and get her lawyer's #, call him and tell him the situation and ask him what we can do. We weren't able to get pictures when we very first came in because of course all of our stuff was packed.

I leave to go back for work and I'm on the phone with the mgt company, explaining the situation to the girl who answered. I tell her I know they are required by law to give me a copy of the inventory/damage checklist completed after the previous people moved out, but does she know how long they have to comply? I know it doesn't exist. S even told me no one had been in there since they had moved out Saturday night. She says she doesn't know but I need to talk to the regional manager, who isn't in today. She names the woman who S gave me the number for. I ask if she can take a message letting this woman know I want to come in to the office to talk about this since I don't want to do it over the phone. (don't really want to type it right now either....lol) She takes my name, number and message and then transfers me to her VM. I leave a vm with the basics of the situation and I'm so mad I forgot to give her my dang #. Good thing I had this girl take a message.

Then DF calls me later when I'm on break and said five minutes after I left, C the property manager came over!! Well no sh*t!! All it took was for me to ask for her boss. He said she walked through and he told her what needed to be fixed/replaced and she said it would all get done. She says no way should this have happened and she never knew I wanted to talk to her. (My saved VM from K stating she and the maint manager will be by contradicts this.)

So anyway, here I sit, still with no w/d, still in a dirty house and still haven't talked to the property manager myself. I specifically said I wanted to be there to talk to C. I have to wait for the regional mgr to call me back. I'm still so mad about this whole situation. It is such BS and I'm so peeved that everyone has been blowing me off.

DFs mom said on Sunday we should get atleast a month's rent out of this, possibly two. At the time I thought she was overreacting a bit, but after all of this, I'm thinking why not? All the lost wages and stress DF and I have gone through...staples in my foot...black feet from the kitchen...digging cigarette butts out of my dog's mouth...can't even clean the place because I haven't had the time or energy to unpack it all...no return calls...this is just completely unacceptable. I want to choke the living sh-- out of this S girl for being such a witch. Lying to my face!!!!!!!!! Ugh, I AM SO MAD!!!!!!



If you made it to the end of this horrendously long story, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Frugal Bee]

If it were me, I would confront them that they have not fulfilled their end of the lease and would be looking for a new place. Even if it cost me money, I would move rather than trying to deal with the likes of these people. In the future, when you are looking at an apartment and they show you a model apartment, I would ask the person showing you the apartment if you can see the actual apartment that you will be getting. This way if it is too big of a dump,has missing appliances, too loud of neighbors, you can just decide not to live there. After all who knows if they left that big of mess, what kind of roaches or vermin could still be there after they are gone. I'm sorry this has happened to you and I hope your next moving experience goes much better.

[meems]

OH man...all I can do is offer a big hug!

[kval07]

If it were me, I would confront them that they have not fulfilled their end of the lease and would be looking for a new place. Even if it cost me money, I would move rather than trying to deal with the likes of these people. In the future, when you are looking at an apartment and they show you a model apartment, I would ask the person showing you the apartment if you can see the actual apartment that you will be getting. This way if it is too big of a dump,has missing appliances, too loud of neighbors, you can just decide not to live there. After all who knows if they left that big of mess, what kind of roaches or vermin could still be there after they are gone. I'm sorry this has happened to you and I hope your next moving experience goes much better.

Thanks, to you and meems. (And thanks for reading, lol.)

We actually did ask to look at the actual apt we would be moving in to. They showed us one, but we found out later that it wasn't the one we chose. We signed the lease about two weeks after we looked at them. Everything is the same I guess, just the serious cigarette smell added in. It was just the whole handover to us that has gone miserably. I'm thinking they didn't show us THE one because if we had walked in we would have said no. There is no way they would have sold it. Granted, new carpet and a layer of paint worked miracles on this place and it looks a million times better.

I am still really disappointed. This is the the 3rd place under this management company we have lived in and we never had these problems before. We actually go to the same office as some apts we lived in a few years ago, and they were AWESOME. I would call maintenance and the guy would ALWAYS be there within 24 hours, at the latest! A lot of times he would be there within a half hour.

We are still in the process of looking for a house and this is just making us look harder so we ARE trying. But it was really hard for us to find somewhere that would accomodate our two dogs, while not being a dirty place to live and not costing an arm and a leg. It would cost the same to buy a house right now as it does to pay what we pay right now. :shrug7:

I have read over the lease and can't find anything pertaining to our situation. I can't find anything online stating how long they have to give us the inventory/damage checklist from the prior tenants. That's the best I can even come up with. I can't find anything else to even help us and I've looked up landlord AND tenant laws. If I don't hear back from the regional manager, I'm just going to drive over there after work tomorrow.

[everprincess]

Oh I hope this gets better for you. I think you should find another place if they can't do something immediately for you.

[roxygirlie1021]

I don't know how you have handled this whole situation so well - hugs to you and I hope everything gets straightened out soon! It's hard enough to move as it is!

[christinalkc]

Wow.... I am almost positive that we are renting from the same property and dealing with the same property manager, we're having problems too.

Anyways, I am terribly sorry about what happened. I am surprised they did not give you the check list thing. I thought that is something that you should receive before you move your things in.

I hope you get everything sorted out soon and yes, you and your DF deserve at least a 2 months off your rent, although I am pretty sure they will find all sort of excuses not to compensate..(the early move in waiver thing is one of them) Just be prepared to "counter-attack" with any evidence you can find!

Good luck!!

[wvmommy]

Oh wow....I can't imagine the stress you must be under. I agree, you should definitely get a couple months rent from this. That is completely unbelievable!!

[meggers]

If I didn't know you, I wouldn't believe you. It is really that unbelievable. Of course you should get some compensation & I'm hoping they give you 6 months! And ohhhh, you've got dog thieves for neighbors? I'm so glad DF caught her. I know you guys would've been heartbroken.

*HUG*HUG*HUG*HUG*HUG*

& for C, K, S, A, the thieving dog heathen & whoever else...

*SLAP*SLAP*SLAP*SLAP*SLAP*

[jillynoodle]

ughhhhhh u poor thing!!! moving is stressful enough without all that going on!!! i cant offer much advice just want to commend u on sticking to it and speaking up and not giving up till it gets resolved. you must be exhausted and they are probably figuring you will just lay back after a while, good for u though and i hope you do get something in return for all your lost time, wages, stress and everything else...ughhh!!!!hang in there!!!