In The Beginning...

Let me start today with the rental application. On the rental application, I had to list previous places I had lived and give the phone numbers for the people who ran the building. Pretty typical stuff. It took them over a week to verify what sort of tenant I was because they couldn't get a hold of the one building I lived in. The first one gave me a glowing review. It was the best building I've lived in to date (Fairfield Management Ltd. and they are an AWESOME company). But anyways, they couldn't get a hold of the second one so they "weren't sure about us". **rolls her eyes**. Finally, I told them that the second building I lived in was mis-managed and about how I had been broken into during the time I was there. So she decided that it was fine the way it was and approved us. While we were signing our lease, there was another guy in there who used his welfare cheques as proof of income. She had made a big stink about us being students and our income but yet welfare people were allowed? I guess it's sort of logical as most people on welfare make more than a student does.

Our rent was $645.00 per month payable at the beginning of the month. We were given a discount for moving in on short notice. We moved in within two weeks of finding the place. So we paid our last month's rent plus a little extra (two days I think) as well as first month's rent.

We have our lease...I won't scan it because it's too long and annoying. But we have one. It states that parking is free and that we can have pets. It also states a fee for an air conditioner that must be placed in a window that is approved by the landlord. Actually, let me scan that part...okay my lease is lost. Oh well I'll find it I'm sure.

We had made arrangements to pay for a couple of extra days so that I could pick up the keys prior to moving in. Not a problem. On the day I went to pick up the keys, they had no idea who I was and didn't want to give me the keys. I finally managed to convince them that I had paid for a couple of extra days so that I could have the keys. Grrrr.

When we moved in, we noticed right away that the apartment didn't smell like paint. Then we could tell that it hadn't been painted at all. So there's one thing they told us was going to happen and didn't. We were told we would be assigned a locker at a later date. This locker issue has been an on-going problem.

After a week or so, my husband and I noticed that the back door to the building wasn't latching properly and that you could gain access to the building by pulling on the bottom of the door. So we went and reported it. Six months later it still wasn't fixed and even to this day if you don't latch it properly, it can be opened from the outside.

About a month or so after we moved in, we decided we should ask about our locker. We went down and they were very unorganized pulling out a binder and trying to figure out what locker was available. They assigned us one in Locker Room 2...I think it was bin 5. We went down to put some belongings in and we found the latch was broken so we couldn't put a lock on it. We reported this to the landlord. We even filled out a work order. A month later, it's still not fixed. We asked again. Then we went down to check on it and found the latch was fixed but it had been assigned to someone else! I was mad! So we were assigned Bin 1 in Locker Room 2 about 9 months after we moved in.

The building is never cleaned. Someone told me that there is a cleaning lady and I've never seen her. At the building owned by Fairfield Management Ltd. the super cleaned the hallways every single week. This place?! HA! The hallways are dirty with debris in them for months at a time...the stairwells are worse. There are black marks on the wall, general grime and often garbage and cigarette butts left in there. One time, someone had spit all over the back of the door. It stayed there for a good month!

Oh and then there was the time that someone puked in the hallway and it stayed there for 3 days before another tenant in the building cleaned it up. I'll do a tour soon to show the exact condition of the hallways.

Anyways all of this is just the pre-amble to the big issues!