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O/T I hate apartment living Version murderous rage 2.0

wth was I thinking's picture

Long story, but need to vent.
Last week, I got a note from my apartment complex that they were going to be painting people's front doors on Tuesday (22nd) this week. They will need to open the door, but will have a member of complex maintenance there with the painters, please secure your pets if you aren't home, etc, whatever. I am already not comfortable with this. I have only ever lived in houses, this is my first apartment, so I am not used to, and not comfortable with these constant little invasions of privacy. But, what can I do, whatever, I will put my cat up in our room for the day with her water, food, litter, etc...

I come home from work, yesterday, (21st) to see two painters up at the top of the stairs by my front door. As I get closer, I see they are painting MY front door. I see no member of complex maintenance. Painters say, oh is this your house? Here! And they opened my door, and let me in. I was STEAMED. I said thanks, and turned right around and marched down to the admin office. I told the property manager lady that I went up, guys had my apartment unlocked, no member of maintenance was with them, etc... WTF??? I was remarkably calm, no throwing things, no swearing, I'm quite proud of myself. She said she would talk to the maintenance manager, apologized, etc... whatever.

So I went back upstairs. First thing I did was then look for my cat. She is pretty shy, so I was 99.99999% sure she would be hiding under my bed, she doesn't like strangers (or skids). I walk down the hallway, and my bedroom door is closed. I was stunned. My brain wasn't even processing, I thought, did DH come home and close her up in the bedroom? Well that doesn't make any sense... I open the door, and there's my poor cat, huddled in the corner looking totally freaked out.

No food, no water, no litter box in there with her. I was seeing red at this point. I went out, and came across one of the maintenance guys. "oh, I locked your cat in your room for you!"

I laid into him, told him he did NOT need to be in my home without my permission or knowledge, chasing my cat, locking her up without food, etc... Again, remarkably calm, no swearing, no stabbing, I'm proud of myself, lol. He said he had intended to go up and let her out in just a few minutes, but saw I was home.

I went back home, locked the damn door, and called my bff. I needed to talk to someone before I went on a murderous rampage. She was also proud of me for not completely losing my shit on people. I managed to calm down, and the lady in the admin office called me. I told her about the part where the guy chased my 17 year old cat into my bedroom. Where they are not allowed in my apartment without my knowledge or consent unless it is an emergency. How I know it's an apartment, but I do not pay hundreds of dollars a month to have no privacy, I would at least like to be able to pretend that I live in a private residence that isn't an open door free for all any time they feel like coming in. She apologized, and said that she told the maintenance guys that they should hold off on doing the doors a day early unless the residents were home. Yeah, ya think???? I told her the whole thing could have been avoided with a little common sense and courtesy, and a PHONE CALL.

I'm still pissed.

I want a house more than I want a baby, no question. I'm hoping within two years we will be in a home. Lucky for me my stupid ass exH trashed my credit by allowing the house with both our names on it to foreclose. Luckily the rest of MY credit is spotless, and DH has very good credit as well, so hopefully in a couple years we will be able to buy again. I would have taken exH for contempt for the foreclosure, but he has no money, there was no point.

wth was I thinking's picture

My poor cat was on edge all night. She wouldn't leave my side for anything, and when DH got home (he was super pissed too, they're lucky he wasn't home earlier) and we were on the couch, she curled up between us both and just watched the front door. I had to take a magic relax-time pill to calm down, but I was still mad.

Cadence's picture

Talk to a tenant's rights organization in your area.

What they did is equivalent to not informing you of needing to access your apartment. This is normally a standard 24 hour notice (in situations that are not emergencies and painting a door is clearly not an emergency), but they told you they would be there on the 22nd. They did not meet the 24 hour notice, since you were given notice for a different day.

Secondly, they allowed maintenance people unsupervised access to your place without providing you notice.

Both of these are big no nos, and this organization should face some sort of consequence other than one resident complaining. You also might talk to some of your neighbors to find out if they were similarly displeased.

Tones Of Home's picture

Actually, maintenance is not required by law to accompany vendors. Im a property manager myself and this was not handled very professionally but no laws were actually broken.

Disneyfan's picture

THIS

Disneyfan's picture

Just because you pay rent and they did something stupid, doesn't mean you make up a LIE to get back at them. Your suggestion is much worse than what the management office did.

You suggestion can result in someone getting fired and possibly ending up in jail.

zerostepdrama's picture

But in your original scenario you are setting up the painter to get in trouble for supposedly stealing something.

The painter, who is probably a 3rd party contractor, isnt at fault. Its the mgmt company's fault. They are the one OP should be dealing with and mad at. Not the painter.

Honestly I have lived in apartments all my life, except for now I own my home, but I wouldnt even be that upset about what happened. Things happen. They were a day early. Miscommunication.

zerostepdrama's picture

Reporting valuables are gone is essentially saying that they came up missing while the painters were there....

zerostepdrama's picture

Exactly!

wth was I thinking's picture

It was the complex maintenance guy that did it. I am sure he knows as well as anyone else that he is not allowed in an apartment without consent. What I gathered from the property manager, was that the maintenance dept. took it upon themselves to start the painting a day early without notifying anyone. This was a complete failure on both parties, management and maintenance. The painters were outside contractors and just doing what they were told, I have no interest in causing them problems.

zerostepdrama's picture

I am sure the mgmt knew what was going on. Its kind of hard not to.

Either way, it sounds like a miscommunication and hopefully they will get it resolved.

Calypso1977's picture

wow, ive lived in apartments most of my adult life and ive never had this issue.

id be freaked too, but as someone else said, at least they were cognizant of your cat.

i would address a letter to corporate detailing everything (enclose the notice if you still have it) and CC the local management office.

Drac0's picture

Reading this makes me sooooo glad I own a home now. I lived in an appartment complex for a while. I hated it. I think I ran the entire gauntlet of appartment living woes:

Leaky plumbing
Nosy neighbors
uncontrolled pets
Neighbors arguing in the middle of the night
Neighbors having loud sex
Neighbors arguing and then having make-up sex
Laundry machines either broken or constantly used
Neighbor accusing me of stealing her roses
Ready to start WWIII over parking spots
Bugs and rodents
Break-ins
Central Heating breaking down in the middle of winter
Smell of neighbor's lousy cooking
entrance area constantly smelling like an ashtray
Poorly lit hallways and stairwells
Neighbors asking to borrow money, sugar, cooking ware, chairs, tools, etc.
Doors and pantries that don't close properly
electrical outlets that don't work because the contacts were painted over

And would you believe after all the above mess, the building manager tried to evict me? Long story short, woman in an adjacent unit was convinced I was throwing a Greek-style orgy every week. Turns out it wasn't me but another neighbor.

wth was I thinking's picture

Holy hell, LOL. That's all awful. I really haven't had other (major) issues here, it's a nice complex. I was also very particular about which unit we got when we moved in, since I have always been a house dweller. It's second floor with no one above us, and we only share one wall with a neighbor, and its the wall along the kitchen/dining room/ skid room, so it is very rare we hear anything. It helps that our neighbor on that side is just a lady and her well behaved teenage son. It's just this utter lack of privacy that is beginning to get to me. I miss having my own yard with a fence, my own grill, my own driveway, windows that don't look out into common areas...

Dizzy's picture

"Greek-style" orgy?! LOL..."Greek" is slang for back door, if you know what I mean. Makes sense, though, if she thought you were being really loud. Lol

zerostepdrama's picture

When I moved to the city I am now in. I was still back in college town. So one weekend I moved some stuff into my new apartment. Bought all new bathroom stuff, decorations, etc set it up. Had some books, games, closet stuff, winter jackets, etc.

I go back to college town. Do some more packing,etc and planned on staying there from now on with just 1 more trip back to college town for some big furniture. Come back to new apartment (2 1/2 hours away) a few days later and ALL of my stuff was gone.

I was like WTF??? I was so upset. I had my cat with me. No litter box. I was a mess.

Come to find out the mgmt office never listed my apartment as OCCUPIED and somehow the clean out crew came in and thought the stuff was left from a prior tenant who moved out (??? the whole story never made sense to me) and they threw all of my stuff away.

The mgmt office then said I could have free pet rent for a year and 1 month rent free and she did send the maintanince guy out to replace some of my stuff. However she never documented the free rent and like a month later she was fired. So the office kept saying I was behind on my rent and I dealt with that for like 3 months. It was a nightmare.

I should have gotten everything in writting and been a bigger bitch about it and gotten more for free because I surely didnt get back what I had lost. But I was young and very over whelmed and stressed and upset when it initially happened. New BIG city, alone. I wasn't thinking clearly.

wth was I thinking's picture

Wow. That's devastating. I don't get how some people can be so terrible at their jobs. Well, she was fired shortly after, so maybe that explains it!

zerostepdrama's picture

Goodness where did you live?

I lived in an apartment in college and came home to the SWAT team trying to aprehend a serial rapist who had been living in the next building over. A few months later my apartment was broken into, so I ended up moving.

The next apartment I moved in to, I came home one night to the neighbor jacking off in the hall way, hall light removed and him staring at me with a creepy freakin look. That was probably one of the worse experiences. Moved out of that place soon after.

Apartment I lived out before I bought my house: we had a really bad ice storm that ruined the roof. When it melted it basically "rained" inside my apartment. The walls and carpet where replaced, but it took them over a month to even get in there and start the repairs. Meanwhile there was mold and nasty carpet, etc. And when they did the work, the apartment was tore up and BS was only 3 or 4 at the time. It was a mess!

libra2libra83's picture

The last apartment we lived in had a mold problem that wouldn't go away. The really scary black mold too. We brought it to our apartment manager's attention, telling them that we had cleaned the mold a couple of times, bought a dehumidifier to lower the water in the air, yet we still had problems with it growing everywhere and on everything.

The apartments tried to tell us that it was our fault the mold was growing, they had never had anyone complain about it before, and that we could either buy multiple fans to run them all day long, or keep our windows open 24/365.

Come to find out that almost every apartment had this problem. We lived there for another 6 months until my SD kept getting infections in her lungs, and I had multiple skin problems develop. We moved, and haven't had any medical issues since.

The apartments tried to take us to court for repairs due to mold. They lost.

zerostepdrama's picture

Neither of you ladies had to see a soft penis with a man feverishly trying to get it up all while staring at you with crazy drug induced eyes.

It took me a minute to understand what was going on.

Bleach to eyes.....

ETA and he looked like Duncan Clark- I think that is his name- the guy from The Green Mile.

wth was I thinking's picture

What. The. FUCK? OMG please tell me you raised hell. I would have lost it!

I have no problem if I know they are coming, I've granted permission to come in and fix stuff when I'm not home, but I KNOW they are going to be there! What if I had left out lingerie, or money, or personal documents, naked pictures, who the hell knows, its my house! I leave in the morning with the expectation that there will not be strangers in there without my knowledge/consent. I do not like this feeling that my own home is now no longer 'sacred' I guess you could say. It's upsetting, and it has left me feeling nearly as violated as the time my old house was broken into.

Stepmonster26's picture

Yeah I hate to break it to you hun but YES THEY CAN. They gave you fair notice that they would enter the apartment. That is ALL they need. YOU are RENTING, so you have to follow their rules. You knew they were entering so why didn't you put your cat away?? As some who's husband works maintenance, you need to get over this and understand that they are trying to help (keeping your place looking nice). And loose pets are dangerous (cats included!).

Next time take some time off or something if it bothers you that much. And if you can't handle this. Buy your own home. Landlords are not required to abide by YOUR rules.

smdh