Apartment Living

Apartment Living has its ups and downs and I’m not talking elevators. If you have ever lived in or are currently living in an apartment, some of what I have to say may sound familiar.

Living in an apartment, there are all sorts of issues you have to deal with, good and bad.

We have been living in our apartment for just under a year. We don’t normally complain about things. There are times when you need to. From the time we moved in the buzzer to let people in has never worked. It hasn’t really been a problem until the past few months. The lobby door has been unlocked (broken by tenants) and anyone can get it. We have talked to management a few times about the buzzer and door. The answer we always get is that they are working on it and there is nothing they can do. About a month or so ago my hubby seen them fixing the door. Great that stops people from getting in that don’t live here. The problem with this is the buzzer system still doesn’t work. Why fix a door if the system to open the door to visitors doesn’t work. Oh and the lobby door is broken again.

I have packages couriered to me quite often, so I need the system to be working. I shouldn’t have to take a bus to pick up packages that were to be delivered to my door. I shouldn’t have to pay more money to pick up a package when I have paid the shipping to have it sent to my door.

How about the water, they post notes by the elevator late at night or early in the morning, assuming that we all leave our apartments everyday. On Friday I had a shower before heading out, I am lucky I was able to. Shortly after that I noticed the water wasn’t working. When I left to take my daughter to camp, there was a sign posted by the elevators saying that the water would be off from 9-5, sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Posting a notice in the late evening does not give us enough notice.

We have 3 elevators in the building, on any given day there is usually only one that works. This is because the cleaners or maintenance have the others on service so they don’t have to wait for the next available one. This causes a crowd of tenants in the lobby and floors waiting for one. This seems to happen when it is time to pick up my daughter at school, making us late.

We have Security in the building, although you would never know it. They come in and lock themselves go into their office never to be seen until the shift is over. In the summer they can be seen going off into the bushes. Never once have I seen them walk the the building or go into the lobby.

During the winter we lost power for 5 days on and off leaving us with no heat or water. Living on the 17th floor, I was literally trapped. If I went down the stairs (in the dark) I would have never made it back up. You can read that story here No Power- Trapped Inside My Apartment

Ok, so it isn’t all that bad if you think about not having to cut the grass or shovel snow. There is a mall a few steps away and my daughters school is just down the street.

It seems to me that most Property Management companies and Landlords are just in it for the money. Repairs and maintenance are rarely looked into and continue to go unfixed. It took almost 4 months to get our taps in the kitchen and bathroom fixed. I heard rumours that in another building in the area, owned by the same property management a family had gone all winter with only a screen door on their balcony and they were cold and sick most of the winter.

If you are looking for help or answers because you are having issues with your building management read up on Landlord Tenant Board frequently asked questions

Have you had issues with a building you have lived in? What did you do? While most would say move if you are having issues, it really isn’t that easy. Finding a new place is hard and it brings up the question, Will this building be different from the last one.