The quest for the perfect house can be overwhelming, but it can be efficient and fulfilling with a few criteria in place. It is crucial to consider the status, reputation and personality of your landlord before you sign a yearlong lease.
My junior year, I was faced with the challenge of finding a house with my three best, yet not the most responsible, friends. We decided to live together late in the year, so we had few housing options to choose from. After several weeks of mindless searching and knocking on random doors, we finally found an apartment. We were in no position to turn down any offers, so naturally we took it.
After moving in at the beginning of summer, the problems began almost immediately.
We were sitting in the living room, watching “Jeopardy!”, and next thing we know, three maintenance men entered our home unannounced and uninvited. They proceeded to work in our storage room for over an hour, yelling and using our bathrooms, showing no respect for our personal living boundaries.
Immediately after, we called our property management company to inform them that we refused to let maintenance crew enter our home without forewarning. They said they would do whatever they could to fix the problem and apologized for the intrusion.
The problems didn’t stop there.
As the year progressed, our home was filled with maintenance crews, plumbers and technicians coming in and out of our home as they pleased. They claimed that because our apartment held the water heaters for the entire complex, they needed consistent entry access no matter the time or day.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, about five months into living in our apartments, the water heater broke on a Friday afternoon.
Ironically enough, we got a delayed response from the rental company after we informed them about the water heaters. So the entire complex went without hot water for three days, with the maintenance crew not showing up until Monday night.
There were other problems apparently taking precedence over the hot water in our complex. When rental companies have multiple properties to deal with, it’s difficult to get a quick response.
Problems similar to this persisted throughout the entire year. It was the most intrusive living situation I had ever been a part of.
Needless to say, we decided to move out at the end of the year. However, our rental company owned the house we had lined up. It was a nine-person house and was perfect for parties, so turning it down wasn’t an option. Once again, the problems started immediately.
A few months into the summer, a pipe under our house burst, flooding several of the downstairs rooms. The damage was pretty manageable in most rooms with the exception of one that became unlivable. Again, the rental company made a delayed response.
The occupant of that room had to evacuate and sleep on the couch for the next two weeks, with his belongings sprawled out while we awaited repairs.
The company finally ended up caving into the roommate’s request to compensate financially for his lack of a room for two weeks. It said it fixed the problem as quickly and efficiently as it could have; this is the downside to dealing with a large rental company.
We had the best house and roommates a college student could ask for. But all of our privacy rights and boundaries were crossed on a daily basis by the access that our property management company allowed their maintenance crews to have.
When searching for a house, it is important to consider the length of the lease, the location of the house and the roommates with whom you’ll be living. However, something you should always consider is the credibility and responsibility of your landlord. Do your research to ensure that your landlords address issues promptly and respectfully and that they don’t intrude on your privacy.
[email protected]