Apartment Woes

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17 Apr 2005, 03:56 PM
Jetman

Apartment Woes

Okay, so I come back from the coffee shop early Wednesday morning about 2AM or so after cramming for a shit kicking hard Chem2 exam.As I walk up to my apartment I see water spraying full blast out of some pipes on the under side of the complex.Dont think anything of it until I get up to my place open the door and well....have you ever seen one of those Starburst commercials where the guy takes a bite of the candy and like a big tidal wave hits him? Yeah, me.
Apparently, the guy above me's water heater backed up or something,a line blew and all of the water just poured down from his apartment through my ceiling.Water was coming out of a vent from the tops of my bathroom and my two closets enough to fill almost the entire apartment with water.I wish I could get my digital camera dry and working or else I'd have some pics to show you guys.Its ridiculous.
Anyways, all of my furniture is crammed into far corners of the apartment,and I'm typing this scrunched up and sitting on top of one of my dressers while dehumidifiers,and loud nosiy mega fans blow under the corners of my pulled up
carpeting to dry it.....And finals week is coming up, I really dont need the distraction :(
A person in one of my classes says I should sue the apartment as this isnt the first time this has happened (the first time the guy in the apartment above me was moving heavy stuff near his water heater and broke one of the lines loose - it wasnt nearly as bad as it is know though),and the maintenance people were supposed to have fixed it but apparently did some "ghetto-rig-shit" and didnt.Surprisngly,the only stuff I have that may have been damaged is my entertainment center,bookshelf,dressers,and other stuff that sits directly on the floor (I lucked out kind of because in the main living room and my other bedroom the carpeting seemed to soak up and absorb all of the water),oh,and stuff in my closets like the camera,etc. so they should at least pay for that,and maybe even credit me a month or two for rent as the place smells mildewy,is loud with the fans, and is pretty much unliveable.

Have any of you ever lived in really shitty apartments or had disastorous things occured that wrecked your place?
17 Apr 2005, 04:24 PM
MarkRyan

Ouch.

No, nothing quite like that has ever happened to me.
17 Apr 2005, 04:54 PM
Fe 26

I live in a shitty dorm with a bunch of shitty ass ghetto assholes. Last week there was stabbing, the week before that there some sort of drug search.
17 Apr 2005, 06:09 PM
xXsarahXx

Oh shit, thats awful!
Ermmm last year, we got evacuated from out flat (me and my foster family) and put in a grotty bedsit for a week, we wernt allowed to go back home.
Why....coz some little bastard threw flour at the walls and celing ( i live in a flat so everyone was evactuated) as a joke and some police officers thought it was asbestos and whats the name of that stuff they were sending in pakaeges a while back...well that shit. Took em a whole week to test it...bastardin kids!
17 Apr 2005, 06:46 PM
g0zen

Anthrax. They thought someone had sprinkled anthrax on your walls. Genius.
17 Apr 2005, 06:59 PM
Thief Silver

I thought it said "Apartment Whores" and thought I'd be reading about your neighboors having whores over.
17 Apr 2005, 07:32 PM
Gohron

I'm probably throwing in with a few guys to rent a house soon, I hope I don't encounter anything like you mentioned. I would definately get the apartment to replace your stuff that was damaged or destroyed.
17 Apr 2005, 07:55 PM
voltz

I'm not having to deal with anything like that now, but the one apartment I lived in awhile back had a leaky roof that just caused a downpour in the kitchen like a mother. I told the landlords to get on it, but they never did and when it came to the end of the lease, I threatened to have the place inspected after they didn't want to return my deposit, which they returned asap. Anyways I still sent someone over, sucks to be them. :evil:

Right now I have to deal with a neighbor who doesn't take peace and quite too seriously as I keep hearing loud thumping like they're wrestling on the floor, chatting loudly, and often times I keep hearing this really queer-assed laugh that makes me want to punch the shit out of whoever's doing it. I figure it's only a matter of time before I get pissed and call management, but that's better then putting a bat in my hand and shutting them up myself.
17 Apr 2005, 08:43 PM
Rhydant

And thats why you get yourself a renter's insurance plan. You can try to sue the apartments, but itll be a long process, and it might end up costing you more than its worth.
17 Apr 2005, 09:29 PM
Jetman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gohron

I'm probably throwing in with a few guys to rent a house soon, I hope I don't encounter anything like you mentioned. I would definately get the apartment to replace your stuff that was damaged or destroyed.

For sure.They will be replacing what I lost...or I will raise all manner of holy hell.

My lease is almost out on this place so I'd like to move into a non- apartment, ie. house with some other roommates or something like you.

I just really HATE moving.It's probably about the worst thing ever.seriously.

Quote:

And thats why you get yourself a renter's insurance plan. You can try to sue the apartments, but itll be a long process, and it might end up costing you more than its worth.

Yeah, I figured as much. I hate even considering jumping on the "sue-happy-bandwagon",but if it could rope me in some cash for my troubles in a short amount of time it'd be worth it.

But it wont so its not.

And I do have renters insurance, but my deductibles a bit high, and everything that was damaged, the apartment better be replacing seeing as its their shitty maintenace crews fault that my place got drenched....
18 Apr 2005, 12:57 AM
gamevet

When I lived in an apartment complex, I awoke one morning to find shit floating in my bathtub. Every time someone flushed the toilet upstairs or used the sink, it came up through my drains. I grabbed a shop vac from my office and saved most of the damage, but it was quite a nightmare.

Another time, I was out of town and my wife came home from work. Someone (I'm sure it was the maintenance people, because they were cleaning up the apartment next door)had broken into our apartment and stole my Dreamcast, Playstation and N64, plus all the games for those systems. Luckily, we had renters insurance and I was able to replace everything. I padded the list a little, to make up for the deductable.
18 Apr 2005, 02:03 AM
soundwave

I agreed to move in with my friend since his roommate was moving out and I had never actually seen the place until a few days before I moved in. I checked it out with some people all excited since this was my first real apartment. The place wasn't horrible or anything but when I checked out what was to be my room I was overcome by the overwhelming stench...of cat pee. Apparently the ex-roommate had kept two cats (there were no pets allowed in the complex) and let them shit and piss anywhere they want. It took countless months to get that smell out.
18 Apr 2005, 04:09 AM
Jetman

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamevet

When I lived in an apartment complex, I awoke one morning to find shit floating in my bathtub. Every time someone flushed the toilet upstairs or used the sink, it came up through my drains. I grabbed a shop vac from my office and saved most of the damage, but it was quite a nightmare.

What the hell. Thats a weird one.So you just 'shopvacced' up all the shit?If I woke up to something like that my first thought would be that a drunken roommate just missed the toilet or something...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamevet

Another time, I was out of town and my wife came home from work. Someone (I'm sure it was the maintenance people, because they were cleaning up the apartment next door)had broken into our apartment and stole my Dreamcast, Playstation and N64, plus all the games for those systems. Luckily, we had renters insurance and I was able to replace everything. I padded the list a little, to make up for the deductable.

Was it a forced entry like they broke through a window? If not then to me that would definitely point to the maintenance people. Was it ever investigated?
18 Apr 2005, 01:50 PM
Dolemite

That sucks, dude. I'd look into your legal options if I were you.
18 Apr 2005, 03:09 PM
Kinopio

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamevet

Luckily, we had renters insurance and I was able to replace everything. I padded the list a little, to make up for the deductable.

Yeah, I did that when my PS2 and gamecube were stolen. Sure, its fraud, but no one will ever know and I deserve the money more than the insurance companies. Jetman, I suggest you do it.

Last september I was moving out of my former apartment into my new one just a few blocks away. I knew that no one was gonna move into that apartment in september so my roomates and I left some of our stuff there, gradually moving it out into our new apartments.
One morning I get a call from my ex-roomate saying the matinence guys need us to get everything out. I tell him to tell them that I'll be there after I get out of class. When I get there everything is gone. I had a closet fool of clothes there, mainly expensive stuff like a suit and dress shoes. I go into the real estate agency and find the matinence guy and ask him where my stuff is. He said it was thrown out. I yelled "fuck!" and stormed out.

I lost a lot of stuff that day. I'd say it was one of the top 5 worst things that ever happened to me.
18 Apr 2005, 03:43 PM
Jetman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinopio

Yeah, I did that when my PS2 and gamecube were stolen. Sure, its fraud, but no one will ever know and I deserve the money more than the insurance companies. Jetman, I suggest you do it.

Really? It seems like it'd be a pain in the ass of a process to go through, and I dont want my already low rates to sky-rocket or anything,but I'll look into it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolemite

I'd look into your legal options if I were you.

I dont know, Dole.Like Rydant was saying earlier in the thread it could take a while for me to see a return or benefit from doing something like that. I have enough on my plate class and work wise to worry about and put money into legal options.But I do hate letting them get away with this bullshit.I'll ask around....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinopio

Last september I was moving out of my former apartment into my new one just a few blocks away. I knew that no one was gonna move into that apartment in september so my roomates and I left some of our stuff there, gradually moving it out into our new apartments.
One morning I get a call from my ex-roomate saying the matinence guys need us to get everything out. I tell him to tell them that I'll be there after I get out of class. When I get there everything is gone. I had a closet fool of clothes there, mainly expensive stuff like a suit and dress shoes. I go into the real estate agency and find the matinence guy and ask him where my stuff is. He said it was thrown out. I yelled "fuck!" and stormed out.

I lost a lot of stuff that day. I'd say it was one of the top 5 worst things that ever happened to me.

That would suck.

I've never had my clothes or anything thrown out then stolen, but I've had some of my clothes stolen from the laundry room here.
The apartment used to have an area out front with a picnic table, a grill set-up,etc. so residents could throw little mini-keggers and stuff out front during game season. Well, on weekdays some bums and homeless dudes would always chill over there in the shade. I'd occasionally say 'Hi' to them and give them whatever leftover fast food I had or something -- I didnt mind them being out there too much UNTIL I got my clothes stolen. Apparently there was a rash of stolen clothes issues from a lot of people here,and it was generally believed that the homeless guys were doing it.So the apartment got rid of the tables and stuff ,and the bums disappeared.
I didnt think they had stolen my stuff, I just thought it was some punk in the apartments who had jacked my shit, and I vowed if I saw anyone wearing anything similar to my clothes, I would throw a serious ass-whooping their way.A couple of weeks later, I get home from work and see one of those same homless guys digging through the dumpster wearing what appears to be my shit. It was kind of weird because he had my same pants on and my green "Getting Lucky In Kentucky" T-shirt on - He was like a dirty,hairy alterniverse version of me. I did think about rolling him and getting my stuff back - that may have been an all-time low in my life, kicking the shit out of a bum and stealing "his" clothes though. So instead I just walked by,said "nice shirt" and went on my way, to which he replied, "not really, greens not my color" :|

owned by a bum.
18 Apr 2005, 06:35 PM
voltz

HAHAHA!!! Totally.
18 Apr 2005, 06:39 PM
Drewbacca

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jetman

Okay, so I come back from the coffee shop early Wednesday morning about 2AM or so after cramming for a shit kicking hard Chem2 exam.As I walk up to my apartment I see water spraying full blast out of some pipes on the under side of the complex.Dont think anything of it until I get up to my place open the door and well....have you ever seen one of those Starburst commercials where the guy takes a bite of the candy and like a big tidal wave hits him? Yeah, me.

Aside from all of the water damage and headaches, this sounds like it may have been fun. You should report this to the newspapers or local news. I can see the headline now:

"Tsunami jumps local man!"
18 Apr 2005, 07:09 PM
gamevet

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jetman

What the hell. Thats a weird one.So you just 'shopvacced' up all the shit?If I woke up to something like that my first thought would be that a drunken roommate just missed the toilet or something...

If only it was that easy. The amount of stuff flowing from the toilets, sinks and tubs was overflowing onto the floor. I just kept it at bay. I could hear the washing machine running upstairs and as it drained, all the flow came through my pipes. The main drain for the building was blocked by rocks, some kids threw into a relief cover.

Quote:

Was it a forced entry like they broke through a window? If not then to me that would definitely point to the maintenance people. Was it ever investigated?

They broke out a window in the master bedroom. I knew they didn't actually climb through that window, because the desk would have collapsed under the weight and my monitor would have fell to the floor.

They didn't break into my apartment to steal anything else. My wife's jewelry went untouched and none of my stereo equipment was stolen. They came for the videogames and nothing else. It was a staked out job and the same maintenance man was on all of our service tickets.

We had a detective on the case and the maintenance guy's record was clean.
18 Apr 2005, 09:02 PM
VIDEODROME

In an apartment I used to live in something backed up in the vacant apartment on the floor above me and it basically started to rain in my bathroom. Luckily I set up something to divert the water into the bathtub. The management was nice about it though. They had my carpets shampood for free.

Also one time when someone was visiting me their car was broken into. They drove a Civic and someone had almost managed to hotwire it.

Lots of crazies apparently lived there. One woman resident stabbed another with a screw driver because she slashed her car tires. In another case some guy was shot in a stairwell.

Recently about a year after I had been moved out my former apartment complex made the news because a car had rammed into one of the apartment buildings and hit a gas line wich resulted in an inferno burning down one of their buildings. . Forutunately no one was killed.
18 Apr 2005, 10:08 PM
gamevet

Quote:

Originally Posted by VIDEODROME

Also one time when someone was visiting me their car was broken into. They drove a Civic and someone had almost managed to hotwire it.

Lots of crazies apparently lived there. One woman resident stabbed another with a screw driver because she slashed her car tires. In another case some guy was shot in a stairwell.

Recently about a year after I had been moved out my former apartment complex made the news because a car had rammed into one of the apartment buildings and hit a gas line wich resulted in an inferno burning down one of their buildings. . Forutunately no one was killed.

Damn and I thought that Detroit was the place not to be!
18 Apr 2005, 11:52 PM
Jetman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew

Aside from all of the water damage and headaches, this sounds like it may have been fun. You should report this to the newspapers or local news. I can see the headline now:

"Tsunami jumps local man!"

:yuck: Not really,man. It was too early/late and I was too stressed and tired to deal with it.When I called emergency maintenance they finally showed at around 3AM to fix and stop the water flow from upstairs (that little fucker up there had a slightly damp closet....and thats it), and after they did that they wanted to get the 24 hour carpet cleaner guys to come in and go to town on my place.I basically told him thanks,but fuck off with that carpet cleaner shit for now....I'm tired,and have a test in the morning....to which he argued with me telling me that the apartment wouldnt be pleased if they couldnt clean everything up immediately :doubt: - I said something like "fuck them" and slammed the door in his face.......but,, yeah...no fun....I did chuckle a bit when my CD's I had on the floor floated by me when I walked in, but thats about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamevet

If only it was that easy. The amount of stuff flowing from the toilets, sinks and tubs was overflowing onto the floor. I just kept it at bay. I could hear the washing machine running upstairs and as it drained, all the flow came through my pipes. The main drain for the building was blocked by rocks, some kids threw into a relief cover.

Thats terrible.At least you kept it from spreading to other parts of the house.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamevet

We had a detective on the case and the maintenance guy's record was clean.

That sucks. I always worry about that in my place too, as new maintenance guys, bug spray contractors, and even "realtors" who show interested people the apartments all seem to have free roam in my apartment.One of the "realtor" guys even walked in on me with a family in tow as I was sleeping in bed with my gf (we were under the covers but still - wtf?).
So if my place was ransacked I wouldnt know where to start.
19 Apr 2005, 12:06 AM
Drewbacca

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jetman

:yuck: Not really,man. It was too early/late and I was too stressed and tired to deal with it.When I called emergency maintenance they finally showed at around 3AM to fix and stop the water flow from upstairs (that little fucker up there had a slightly damp closet....and thats it), and after they did that they wanted to get the 24 hour carpet cleaner guys to come in and go to town on my place.I basically told him thanks,but fuck off with that carpet cleaner shit for now....I'm tired,and have a test in the morning....to which he argued with me telling me that the apartment wouldnt be pleased if they couldnt clean everything up immediately :doubt: - I said something like "fuck them" and slammed the door in his face.......but,, yeah...no fun....I did chuckle a bit when my CD's I had on the floor floated by me when I walked in, but thats about it.

I know, but you made it seem like when you opened the door you were bombarded with a wall of refreshing delightful water. I was just saying that it sounded refreshing and fun. I was wrong.
19 Apr 2005, 12:11 AM
Jetman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew

I know, but you made it seem like when you opened the door you were bombarded with a wall of refreshing delightful water. I was just saying that it sounded refreshing and fun. I was wrong.

:lol: Good point. Guess I should have made a different comparison....

http://www.epilog.de/Film/D_De/_Bild...A_2004_B01.jpg