The move... my reaction.

I was told that I could go pick up my keys on Friday sometime after 2pm, and that they would have the apartment ready other than some cleaning. Well, when I walked in it looked like a bomb went off. My oven was in my living room, there were boxes of trash sitting in corners, and my bathtub was stained with rust. At that point the leasing office said that they'd have my apartment done by five. Right. Five.

I wondered into the new place around 5:30 to see some progress. There was ONE guy putting up my ceiling fan. Nice. Wonderful. The boxes of trash are still around, and there are still holes in my closets. The ceiling fan was my top priority too. The ceiling fan man then told me that he was leaving at six because he wanted to go home. That's funny so did I.

DH and I then spent three an half hours cleaning our new apartment. We cleaned out bits of drywall off the floor, yellow stuff out of the refrigerator, and someone else's grease out of our new oven. I then went back to my old apartment and took a bath in bleach. I won't tell you what I found in the toilet. This is a family site.

We then proceed to move things in on Saturday. I'm not very strong, so we got in what we could. Due to Dh having to work half a day, we ended up going to sleep around midnight. At 4:30am we figured out we didn't have heat because we were so exhausted. I call the emergency heat line. No one answers. Good times.

6:30am I call again... no answer. Wow.

9:00am I call again... a guy picks up and tells me he'll be right over.

Noon he arrives... I'm so exhausted I can't bring myself to yell at him. His excuse: "I don't know how to work my new phone." Again, I am not going to post my exact words, because I'll get banned for life, but they were amazingly descriptive of his mother. Remember, I have to trust the man who can't work his phone to fix my heater. I love my life.

8pm we move the last box in. The heater works. I discover I forgot to clean out the dishwasher. There is green goo inside of it. I give up. Drink a glass of wine. Smoke. Then log on to TCS for some laughs.

You guys are the best. Thanks for reading my disjointed rant.

Oh sweety...

But you're in now and all is well I hope. I recommend Mr Clean Magic Erasers for the rust stains in the tub. They work wonders.

Oh, I almost forgot. I'll post pictures of how it looked the first night, once I find my camera cable. I'm sure it's in a box... somewhere.

Originally Posted by emily_325

Oh sweety...

But you're in now and all is well I hope. I recommend Mr Clean Magic Erasers for the rust stains in the tub. They work wonders.

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It needs a whole new coat of enamel. The bottom is down to the bare porcelain.

I'll put in a work order tomorrow... so that means it will get done some time in May.

I am so sorry to hear that. You should really ask if you can get your damage deposit automatically returned to you when you move out to cover the fact that you had to do so much (disgusting) cleaning when you moved in. Because, frankly, it was such a mess when you moved in, and you'll obviously leave it in a better condition when you leave that you should be compensated. At least this is what I was told to do when I moved in and was worried about the condition of my place.

Good luck. I hope you end up enjoying your place once everything settles down.

Originally Posted by Pekoe & Nigel

I am so sorry to hear that. You should really ask if you can get your damage deposit automatically returned to you when you move out to cover the fact that you had to do so much (disgusting) cleaning when you moved in. Because, frankly, it was such a mess when you moved in, and you'll obviously leave it in a better condition when you leave that you should be compensated. At least this is what I was told to do when I moved in and was worried about the condition of my place.

Good luck. I hope you end up enjoying your place once everything settles down.

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Oh, I plan on asking for my "cleaning" deposit back, and I want them to take my old apartment as is. The funny thing is, my old apartment is cleaner than the new one they gave me.

I'm thinking of going down pre-coffee/post-half a bottle of red wine with my digital pics asking for a few months rent for free too, but I may think better of it in the morning.

Ouch! Sorry your move started off like that.

I had a similar experience when I moved to a new apartment when I went back to school in the mid 90's.

The apartment was a total pig sty! The bathtub was almost black from not having been cleaned for who knows how long. There were huge spider webs in corners of rooms that were thick with black dirt/grease. The wood floors were filthy and the windows looked like stuff had been thrown on them and allowed to drip down and just left. Plus there was a huge black line along the walls where furniture sat against.

It was disgusting!

I spent 2 days doing intensive cleaning and spent $50.00 on floor wax alone. I contacted the agency and told them that the apartment was filthy. The caretaker insisted she cleaned it. The only thing that was clean were the fridge and stove.

I was given $150.00 off of my next months rent as compensation for having to clean my apartment and for the supplies that I purchased.

I always clean a new place when I move in before I unpack anything because you just don't know how other people clean and if they use the same rag from the toilet on the counters etc. However, recleaning what someone else has cleaned is a whole lot different than having to do an intensive cleaning from scratch which the caretaker or a cleaning company should have done.

At the very least you should get some compensation for having to have cleaned your own place.

Oh...man that sucks!! Seriously....why should you pay any damage deposit? IMO, it can't be much worse than when you moved it!

Originally Posted by lookingglass

Oh, I plan on asking for my "cleaning" deposit back, and I want them to take my old apartment as is. The funny thing is, my old apartment is cleaner than the new one they gave me.

I'm thinking of going down pre-coffee/post-half a bottle of red wine with my digital pics asking for a few months rent for free too, but I may think better of it in the morning.

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Ya know something? You can actaully ask for money off your rent if you spent money on cleaners to clean you new apt. Just show them the receipts.(if they ask, give them copies and keep the originals). Make sure those pics are dated, if not, get copies of them with the dates on the back or they might not give you anything back when you move out since you have no actual proof that the apt was that way when you moved in.( pics without dates can't be used as proof because they could say those are recent and charge you for it) Trust me, I've lived in slumlords buildings and know some of their tricks. Poor thing, You've had a hard day.

OMG how horrible! makes me really glad I'm not in an apartment hope it only gets better from here!

I feel for you. Some of the apartments i have seen in the building here are about like you describe. Thankfully, the full time supers do a wonderful job cleaning them from the front door in. The last apartment I moved out of, after packing everything, I took a bleach solution to the walls, comet too the frigde, stove, counters, sinks, and bathtub, and a vacuum to the carpet before turing in the keys. But i left it in pretty good condition. I see the apartments in the building I am in when we do annual inspections, and I cringe on entry, and cannot wait to get out and get a shower.
Hoping things are settling down for you now, and you enjoy your new place. Sounds like a heck of a weekend you had.

Yup, I always take pictures, moving and moving out, making sure they are dated.
If you have pictures of the move-in conditions, I would take them to the landlord and ask "what the..."

That stinks though, I'm sorry you are having a rought start to the new place.

All I can say to you Heather is this..............

OMG! How horrible! And wow...just wow.

When I left my old apartment for this new place (it's technically a house), it was pristine! So much so, the woman doing the walkthrough with me asked if I actually spent time there. I also told her I had two cats and she was floored. Couldn't believe that the apartment ever had cats, or a human, living in it, it was that clean.

I do not understand people who don't clean a place before they leave it. *sigh* I'm sorry that you had to deal with that.

That really stinks! I would be so ticked off! I would be saying stuff about his mom too!

I guess my pictures did something. I now have THREE people in my apartment trying to fix all the stuff that went wrong. This is too funny.

I still want them to take my old place as is. I'm sick of cleaning.

Really sorry to hear this
Hopefully once they have finished fixing stuff and a couple of hours cleaning it will all feel worth it

Ugh, renting is the pits. Hopefully everything is back to normal soon

Oh wow! That is aweful! I hope you demand them take off something money wise. Ya'll should have not had to lift a finger in there-it should have been clean and tidy when they knew ya'll we're moving in. That is just unacceptable. Shoot, i'd need a drink after that too lol i don't blame you!

for you! Moving is a total drag isn't it?

My place was a total filth-box when I started moving in, too. The cleaning crew just happened to be in my building (my management company owns several in the area) at that very moment and they cleaned it for me (and did a good job, thankfully). Otherwise, I probably would have had a similar experience. I gave up asking them to de-roachify my place when we had some roaches over the summer. Gracie gets them faster than they ever will!