Apartment living- grrr

[matrix82]

Okay, now my shower doesn't work at all in my apartment, the switch that turns on the shower does not work at all. Am I being reasonable in now asking for this whole list of repairs, most of which are items broken since move in. This is supposedly a luxury apartment, costing $200 more per month than comparable units owned by the same company in the same neighborhood. The fixtures are 28 years old, original to the building.Bathroom:

Bathtub Caulking (peeling since moved in on June 15^th 2012, needs to be recaulked)
Bathtub Hot Water Tap drips
Bathtub drains very slowly (since move in on June 15^th, 2012 bathtub has drained more slowly, even with the use of a drain catcher to catch hair, and one bottle of draino every two weeks has made no improvement)
Bathtub switch to turn on shower (very hard to use since move in date, now does not work at all, August 24th, 2012)
Bathtub large rust stain around drain getting larger (rust stain existing since move in date, growing larger and no amount of cleaning reduces stain)

Toilet lever cracked (toilet lever missing chunk of plastic since move in date of June 15^th 2012 requesting new toilet lever)

Sink caulking between sink and countertop (caulking needs to be redone, it appears to be warped since move in date of June 15^th 2012, also chips in enamel in sink starting to rust- chips existing since move in)

Kitchen

Oven rubber seal (large portion of rubber seal missing on the oven seal meaning uneven heating- noted on Damage check in, June 15^th 2012)

Counter peeling and coming apart at edges

Patio

Balcony screen (does not stay on track, hard to close and open at times)

[matrix82]

We rented the apartment because we were assured it was an adult only building. Which has proved to be wrong. Every weekend I know it's not an adult building by the party boys, who I call Whooo Boys, as they scream Whooo from their patio. It is a concrete building so quieter than most at least.

Are my repairs reasonable? I really want a working bathroom at least.

[KrazE]

Type up a professional letter that provides the timelines where you have requested repairs and send it via registered letter. I don't know what province you live in, but tenants have rights, and part of that is for repairs to be completed in a timely fashion.

[momof3heathens]

We must live in the same building. Pretty much word for word what is wrong with this place except we have an even more ghetto toilet. Have to flush by lifting the chain now. Landlord has tried fixing it but the owners keep giving him cheap stuff to work with and it just breaks again and again.

[Shwa Girl]

We rented the apartment because we were assured it was an adult only building. Which has proved to be wrong. Every weekend I know it's not an adult building by the party boys, who I call Whooo Boys, as they scream Whooo from their patio. It is a concrete building so quieter than most at least.

Are my repairs reasonable? I really want a working bathroom at least.

Not just problems with parties in apartments. Condos too.
Smackutwice posted that there were parties in her condo every weekend, it seemed. They left the bottles in the hall. So she took them back to the store and made money.

[c_mcarthur]

I live in an apartment too and my landlord is pretty good with keeping up with repairs.
That being said, when we first moved in it was january, so come march when snow started to melt, and it was getting warmer, we were having TONS of bug come thru the crack in the wall along the bottom, so my bf grabbed the caulk and caulked up the entire apartment. no more bugs yay.

My bathtub used to drain super slow too, but once we told the super he fixed it right away.

My only real complaint is that you have to flush the toliet twice 90% of the time. LOL

and my landlord is really hard to understand, he has a really thick greek accent and its kinda hard to talk to him LOL
he called me at the end of july and told me that hes going on vacation till sept 8th so I dont have to pay my september rent till the 9th. LOL must be nice to be able to go away for a month.

Anyway I hope you get your apartment issues sorted out.

[FallenPixels]

You make me appreciate my landlord even more, we moved from a building for many of these reasons, they were selling anyway but we could have stayed their longer and likely stayed with the new owners but we were so over asking them to do stuff. Knowing they were selling it, they had even less motivation to fix stuff

We moved in with 2 kitchen cupboard doors missing, they were still missing years later

[alicia]

Oh that would drive me absolutely insane - that is one of the perks of going with a larger company rather than someone who just own a low-rise etc.

When I lived in a small 10 unit building, we had problems with our sinks baking up when they were doing plumbing work on the flat roof, my entire ceiling had the outer layer of gyp-rock come off because of water in the ceiling from the same flat roof leaking. When I moved out (my roommate's boyfriend moved in and they kept the place) it still hadn't been fixed after six months. Her bedroom light didn't work for honestly 10 months, we had mice and they had to get an exterminator for the building, and... let's see, that's all I can remember for now.

Granted, we gave it a bit more leeway because it was a small company, we were 22 at the time and out on our own for the first time so we didn't know quite how to ask for our rights. That's not right, but I personally don't expect the same service from the person who owns three low-rise buildings compared to say Killam or Timbercreek.

I would get on them with your list, for sure. Also, if your shower doesn't turn on and you need it to, generally in older buildings the "widget" with the teeth in the faucet has been worn down and won't grip the peg for the water (or, the peg could be stripped). If it's a hot and cold tap then you could remove it off the one that works and turn it on/off with removing the handle. Additionally, they sell the little "widget" pieces at Canadian Tire, two for $5. I know it's not your responsibility, but if you need the shower, get them to reimburse you after you're all clean?

[FallenPixels]

Actually, I found the larger company to be less reliable

When we moved into our old building, it was owned by a local company, we had amazing supers and work was done quickly (apart from our kitchen doors)

They were bought out by a bigger company and nothing got done, within 18 months, 20% of the people moved out bc the new supers (and they went through plenty of them) were rude, stuff didnt get done, they all claimed not to be on duty. Even dropping rent off to them was a hassle and you had to give it to them in person bc ppl often got letters stating they were in arrears bc they didnt sort it etc. One time we got a letter stating they were taking us to the landlord tenant board for non payment of rent, and I got the super to check and the last two cheques were sitting in a filing cabinet bc they were busy

[matrix82]

Oh that would drive me absolutely insane - that is one of the perks of going with a larger company rather than someone who just own a low-rise etc.

When I lived in a small 10 unit building, we had problems with our sinks baking up when they were doing plumbing work on the flat roof, my entire ceiling had the outer layer of gyp-rock come off because of water in the ceiling from the same flat roof leaking. When I moved out (my roommate's boyfriend moved in and they kept the place) it still hadn't been fixed after six months. Her bedroom light didn't work for honestly 10 months, we had mice and they had to get an exterminator for the building, and... let's see, that's all I can remember for now.

Granted, we gave it a bit more leeway because it was a small company, we were 22 at the time and out on our own for the first time so we didn't know quite how to ask for our rights. That's not right, but I personally don't expect the same service from the person who owns three low-rise buildings compared to say Killam or Timbercreek.

I would get on them with your list, for sure. Also, if your shower doesn't turn on and you need it to, generally in older buildings the "widget" with the teeth in the faucet has been worn down and won't grip the peg for the water (or, the peg could be stripped). If it's a hot and cold tap then you could remove it off the one that works and turn it on/off with removing the handle. Additionally, they sell the little "widget" pieces at Canadian Tire, two for $5. I know it's not your responsibility, but if you need the shower, get them to reimburse you after you're all clean?

I am with a larger company, my building is 151 units alone and there are at least 10 other buildings in this city owned by the company. I am with Killam Properties, in a Killam Select Property (I think it is select for breaking down). So far it's been a headache.

They needed a check for our first month (not the damage deposit, but the 1st month's rent) as we were told the Pre-authorized payment wouldn't be set up quick enough. So I give the check, to find out the pre-authorized payment also came out (so two months payments out at once), so I have to run around to get a letter from them to give to my bank to get either the check or pre-auth reversed. Then two weeks later I get a notice saying I owed $25 in NSF's (from the bank reversing the Pre-authorization, even though they had that month's rent), glitch in the system of some sort. A couple phone calls to sort that out with the building supers and management.

When we moved in, we put about four things hanging in the closet, and the whole rod comes crashing down taking a chunk of the wall with it. The building is 28 years old, some work has been done to it, but there is a lot of work needing to be done. I think I had better luck with the landlord who only owned a handful of buildings.

[Moeshamrock]

I too get frustrated with landlords. When my NEW toilet broke and I had to flush by using the chain inside the tank, it took a week and I got a new one. That one broke in a couple of months. Didn't want to call again as the first time it took 2 hours to fix, I attached a twist tie to the arm and the chain and it works good now. The door going out side kept sticking, after a whole afternoon of working on it, he found that the inside of the door was rotted and took out all the wood. Now having a hollow door, winter winds come through not to mention the huge gaps between the door and the door frame. Snow was coming in the apt when the door was closed!!! I put insulation foam around the door and on the hollow part of the door. Worked great, looked crappy but I was warm. Then the floor tile was breaking up and had sinking spots. I dollar store press & stick tiles to replace them (3 for $1). Only to find out the wood underneath was rotted. The fridge went next. Took over a week in August to get an old used one (with mold in the door) to replace the broken one. Lived out of a cooler and ate takeout (expensive) while most of my food went bad. During this time they were busy entertaining to get me a replacement fridge. Finally last straw...the caulking in the shower was coming loose. I decided to fix myself as every job he tries to do takes most of the day and I needed to time the caulking to dry so I could shower. When I started to cut off the loose caulking, some of the other good caulking came away. Huge mold everywhere!!!! I strayed down the shower weekly with bleach, so he must have just caulked over existing mold instead of cleaning it!!! No wonder I'd been so sick since living there!!! Black mold was so thick in places where the caulking was still stuck to the walls and floor.

In short most landlords don't want to be bothered and just do poor work. Since moving I feel better and the new land lord is great. Good land lords are out there, just hard to find.

[luckbealady]

I was living in a townhouse while I was in school. When I did the first walkthrough I noticed there were no smoke detectors on the main floor. The landlord told me it was because the current tenants kept taking it down and she would make sure it got put back up before I moved in.

A few months later I complained a couple of times about our oven. It was cooking too hot. She gave me an oven thermometer and told me to just take off the dial and put it back to the matching temperature to the thermometer. The oven was cooking around 200 degrees hotter than the dial setting. Taking off the dial and matching it to the thermometer didn't change anything.

Fast forward a year and she is selling the house. I overhear her on the walkthrough with potential buyers say "Yeah, they kept taking the smoke detector down and I don't know where they put it." Um no, you never had one there to start with.

Oven never did get fixed either. Boy was I happy to move into an apartment where the building managers took pride in making sure things are in working order for tenants. My landlord even fixed my bathroom tap, which was producing a very loud noise whenever the hot water was turned on without me asking. He noticed the issue when he was checking the smoke detectors with the fire department (I was away for a couple of weeks so I wasn't around during his entry notice period).

[Safyre]

I am with a larger company, my building is 151 units alone and there are at least 10 other buildings in this city owned by the company. I am with Killam Properties, in a Killam Select Property (I think it is select for breaking down).

Please tell me that I am not the only one amused by a management company with the name "Killam" (Kill'em?)

[matrix82]

The shower has been fixed. I am told the other things are on a list, and they will get to them when there is time (funny thing is these things have been broken since I moved in June 15th). Still waiting for them to come and snake the drain.

[MrsSunshine]

can you not with hold Septembers payment until they are done?
I feel for ya.
While cleaning my tub my hand went through the wall. (tile) it was a weekend, hubby took care of it to protect the wall in behind (no leaks) and we then reported it. finally a year later we received a new tub surround. no new tub but for now im happy.
we try to take care of the little things. but there are so many things we 'let go' after 16 years here.. meh not a biggie. were not a tenant/landlord. so work done here is contractual and isnt' exactly done in a timely fashion or to the best standards. it justs gets done.
hope the rest of your issues get worked out soon,