Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Torch Carrying Mob - Assignment 1

It appears I will have to round up a torch carrying mob to address the problems I am having with company Westco Equities, Inc, the owners of my last apartment. Apparently, my roommate and I dirtied up the apartment so much that they had to take $375 of our $500 deposit out for cleaning and repairs. What did we do in the 9 months that we were there that would warrant such a cost. Lets see:

1- TOOK OUR SHOES OFF BEFORE ENTERING
So that is why they charged us for heavy rather than moderate carpet cleaning!
2- KEPT THE COMMON AREAS GENERALLY CLEAN
I hear cleaning the kitchen and about every week actually makes it dirtier and allows stains
to form. Vacuuming releases rather than sucks up dust.
3- RARELY SPENT ANYTIME IN THE APARTMENT
I suppose all the time I spent at work, school and the man's, and my roommate spent at work and her boyfriend's, allowed for someone else to live in and dirty up the apartment. Should have made sure I locked the door
4- SPENT TOO MUCH TIME WRITING PAPERS
When I was at home, I was usually working on a paper. An activity that generates a huge mess. My computer must have had to spit out dirt to balance the crap I was usually writing about.

So you get the point. My roommate and I kept a pretty clean apartment and when we moved out we did a deep clean. There were a few things we missed. We forgot all about cleaning the spider webs above the patio. Probably, because we were never on the patio, but, we take the blame because it was still a required clean. We also didn't wax the floor. I have no idea how to wax properly and will pay the extra money to have the vendors clean it. I didn't know, however, that waxing and spider web cleanup would cost $150. It must have taken them hours. Perhaps one of the cleaners got stuck in a web.

Having worked in the apartment leasing business for a short while, I know that Westco doesn't pocket the money; they do pay for the cleaning and repairs. However, I also know that they will pay their cleaning, painting, etc., vendors for whatever they ask for when the cost is covered by the tenant. Westco gets an improved apartment for free and the vendors make a easy steal with inflated parts and labor costs. The interests of the former tenants are not considered.

Former tenants of crappy owned apartments unite! You have nothing to loose but your positive rental record, you have a deposit to win!

1 comment:

Steve Ryan said...

So... it's now 2010 and your post is 5 years old. Guess what? It's only gotten worse as far as WestCo Equities / Lee Brand. Did you live in the Woodlands in Fresno? They want a $600 deposit for Dish.. which according to FCC it appears that's illegal. They got a $700 from us for the dog, this year they waived the $35 pet rent (how nice) and already had a $700 deposit from about 10 years ago when my gf originally moved in.

Interesting.. seems they've been gouging going on 5 years now!