Three Stories Regarding Unliveble Conditions and Harassment

_{The following stories involve a single tenant who told me her story. I'm summarizing it here.}

Story One: Harassment

About half a year ago, the Manager came to apartment of tenant at about 9 PM and knocked very hard “scared the shit” out of the tenant. The tenant, a recently widowed mother, was afraid not knowing who was knocking so urgently to see what was the emergency. She went and opened the door only to be surprised by the Manager, half-naked in a bathrobe who immediately began screaming and shouting accusing the tenant of dropping her trash in front of the dumpster. In the midst of her accusations and rant she even yelled at her son. She forced the tenant and her son to go and clean it in the middle of the night.

The Manager made not point to clarify whose trash it was. In fact the trash, which consisted of a pregnancy test and Asian takeout, did not belong to neither the tenant nor her son. Nevertheless, they cleaned most of the mess.

Story Two: Sewage Flood and Unlivable Conditions

Roughly a year ago, issues with the pipes caused sewage to rise from the tenant's toilet and completely covered the bathroom and entered the master bedroom.

The tenant asked for a clean up crew to come and handle the clean up of the sewage. The Managers had cleaners come and clean up; unfortunately, the cleaning crew cleaned the carpet but not the bathroom. Moreover, in the process of starting to clean up the bathroom they removed some things that fell into the sewage in the bathroom.

The tenant complained that the job was left unfinished. After a dispute with the Manager, the cleaning team was sent back.

At this point, the carpet was still dirty and unsanitary. The tenant requested that the carpet be replaced, which was rebuffed by the Manager who said that that was the tenant’s responsibility. A year later, the carpet has yet to be replaced. A formal complaint has been registered with the City of Glendale.

Story Three: Hardwood Floor Issues and Unlivable Conditions

Over a year ago, the tenant's kitchen hardwood floor began to bubble and fringe. The tenant complained to the Management that it needed to be fixed. The Management didn’t even acknowledge the issue. Later the bubble burst, leaving splinters of hardwood exposed to the Tenant, her son, and her pets. Despite having tried to fix it herself, the tenant reports that she has tripped over it many times.

Up till this week, the issue has yet to even be acknowledged by the Management.

Harassing a Tenant, Trust Betrayed

After moving in, the tenant was interested in getting satellite tv, whom he had been informed by the Manager when he signed the contract would be ok if it could be mounted on the balcony.

The tenant decided to order satellite television service, the installation of which required a waiver signed by the management. He tried calling the apartment office for a week and eventually sending this email:

I tried calling the office (several times...over the course of several hours) and your cell phone and on one's picked up. I'm getting satellite TV installed tomorrow and I need you guys to sign a contact OK'ing it. Because I can't get a hold of you, I'm emailing you now in hopes of getting it. When you do, please give me a call at [number redacted]

Eventually he got a call back from the Manager telling the tenant that they could meet together at 9 AM the day the installer was coming to sign the waiver.

Not only was the Manager not available or responsive on their cell phone at 9 AM, but even after the installer came and left hours later. The tenant had been stood up.

Days later the tenant went into the management office to get an explanation for the irresponsible behavior. Rather than meeting the manager, he met an assistant manager who explained that the Manager was rather busy and was also responsible for other apartment houses (despite living at this one). While not being convinced, the tenant told the assistant manager to not pass his concerns along as he didn't want to pursue the issue.

Days later he received phone call at work from the Manager who was screaming something along the lines of:

You have no right to ask about what I was doing!

My job is none of your buisness!

You have no right to tell me how to do my job! I don't come to your work and tell you how to do your job-you can't come to my job and tell me what to do!

I'm supercool, I signed off on your car. I'm not taking packages or signing off on anything else for you again.

The tenant was utterly confused as he had forgotten about the matter. Not only was he just called and harassed at work but his trust was also broken when they had told the assistant manager to not forward their concern regarding the availability of along.

In an email response the tenant asked to meet about the situation which was never followed up on (along with maintance isses that had not been handled since the move in). The tenant did CC their attorney which quickly prompted a change in behavior in the Manager who, while not apologizing, resumed taking packages.

Quick gander at ApartmentReviews.com

Sadly, not every prospective tenant checks www.apartmentratings.com before hunkering down for a one-year lease. Do a Google search and the reviews for Falls of Montrose will appear at the top. Click here to go right there!

With many reviews and comments, it becomes pretty clear why the Falls of Montrose warrants its 7% approval. Let's take a look at a few.

Here's an Anonymous poster with the most recent review on 1/25/09

"We have found the manager, [name redacted], to be extremely unhelpful. We have had plaster falling onto our car for months and this has not been addressed despite several requests. There are about a dozen old appliances outside of our window without any apparent plan for them to be removed. We would not recommend this apt complex to anyone that we want to keep as friends."

So the Falls is billeted as a tranquil place-well, an Anonymous commenter for that post begs to differ:

"The kids and dogs run wild and loud. If you like the loud rumbling of skateboarding and rollerskating on the overhead walkways(same volume and sound as when people are moving and using dollies and carts)you'll be in paradise."

The follow statement is from about a year ago by yet another anonymous poster:

"Starpoint Properties needs all tenants so they can renovate and charge higher rents. They refuse to pay tenants what the city requires to do this. Instead they harass them and don't follow through on simple commonplace things that landlords are supposed to do. They have come into my home for bogus reasons and left a mess that I am supposed to clean up. Yesterday they took over the tenant parking area for painting all day and just went ahead and taped up the cars there with plastic sheeting- they didn't tell any tenants about this, just did it. I had to back up and find a spot on the street."

Another poster chimes in with a refernce to the lawsuit:

"A criminal case was filed by the city of Glendale against Starpoint Mgmt. A number of former tenants have filed claims against the company in small claims court. The management has demonstrated innumerable times that the only thing that matters to them is money. What more can I tell you to warn you against this place' What was once a nice, friendly, family community has been turned into a dressed up dive. Don't even bother renting a place near the pool or BBQ area unless you're hard of hearing, not even the din of the waterfalls will drown out the noise. Don't bother complaining to the on-site manager that a neighbor's dog barks throughout the night and keeps you up - they won't do anything about it. I lived through the hell of "renovations" and was treated less than human. Then they continually hiked my rent until I left. I couldn't be more relieved to be out of there. Do yourself a favor and find a place where the management cares about you and takes care of any issues as they arise. You deserve better than this place."

It's worth noting that Falls of Montrose is an LLC of Starpoint Properties, which has appears to have a tainted record based on two tenants of another Starpoint properties adding to the conservation:

"I can also relate to the anger and frustration. I am trying, but to no avail, to get my substantial deposit from Starpoint. I was a tenant in one of the properties they acquired in May of 2007. We also had numerous problems with workers, evictions, and code violations. This is a company that is not tenant right friendly in any way shape or form. Be very careful of the entire management staff. Also, all tenants residing at 2211 E. Washington were given evictions with the date of Dec. 31, 2007! Nice holiday gift from your landlord!"

And this one, too:

"I lived at the Starpoint property (now managed by Miller and Desatnik) on Magnolia Blvd in Valley Village for 15 years. Miller and Desatnik tried to bill tenants for the work that Starpoint did to the apartment. We had problems with them constantly working at odd hours, wanting entry into the premises for B.S. reasons (how many times do you need to see a "floor plan"??) It got so bad we went to Radio Shack and bought a motion detecting sensor for the door so we would know if the basatrds were entering while we were still home. Starpoint would "show" apartments to potential tenants that were still occupied by current tenants while the current tenants were not home. This inconvenienced everybody in the entire complex. They even turned a supply closet into another apartment!!! They are getting at least $800 a month for that, no mailbox, no parking space! Miller and Desatnik is no better than Starpoint was. We got pictures of all the messes the workers hired by Starpoint left. So when Miller and Desatnik tried to bill us for the "improvements" that Starpoint made, every tenant wrote to the Los Angeles Housing Department to oppose the rental increase. It was overturned forunately. You just can't polish a turd! 23 notices on my door in 2 months, and a whole lot of aggravation from Starpoint"

Here's an excellent response in defense of the Falls. Yet another Anonymous poster, but one must wonder what interest they have in post this:

"You ignorant people! So what is wrong with big dogs? Wine refrigerator...great idea!! but you people probably drink 40's anyway and would not understand the concept....and for you kayaklvr08 just because you make minimum wage and can not afford the place....... stop talking s******* and if buy a house...oh yeah...you can not afford it!!!!looser :)"

Keep it classy, guys!