By Kylie Smith
Apartments near the Texas Tech campus are popular among students, mainly because of their convenient location. But tenants say there is a price to be paid beyond just rent.
For starters, maintenance problems are frequent and can take some time to get resolved.
Sara Van-Sickle, a junior finance major from Austin and a resident of The Suites at Overton Park, said it took about a month and a half to get a broken window fixed.
“They deleted my first maintenance request and then I put it in again, and they finally took care of it,” Van-Sickle said.
The Village at Overton Park is one of many apartment complexes residents have complaints about.
Cody Bruce, junior management information systems major from Austin, lives at University Trails. When he moved in this August, a drawer was missing in the kitchen. Bruce said they put in a work order to have a new drawer installed, but as of December, the drawer is still missing.
Van-Sickle said her apartment was a disaster when she moved in this August.
“A lot of things coming in were already broken and/or not even cleaned,” Van-Sickle said.
Alexis Priddy, a junior energy commerce major from Houston, and her roommate Andrea Arnao, a junior advertising major, also from Houston, said their air conditioning went out at The Suites earlier this year. They had multiple repair specialists look at their unit and tell them nothing is wrong, even though their rooms were muggy from the lack of air conditioning.
The apartment provided them with window units until they could fix the problem, which took two months. Arnao said management refused to get her a window unit, claiming there were no more left. She said her mom called corporate, and the next day, a window unit appeared.
Priddy said she’s also had concerns about the management’s behavior and accountability. When she and Arnao had problems with their third roommate, management’s involvement made it worse, causing unnecessary drama.
“The manager here was telling Paige [the third roommate] one thing and telling me something else, so she was trying to work both sides of it,” Priddy said. “She was causing issues, too, telling me that Paige said stuff about me and telling Paige that I said stuff about her. It was just very unprofessional and not handled the right way.”
A comparison of student apartment complexes prepared by staff at The Ranch earlier this year.
(Nicole Molter/The Hub@TTU)
Many tenants also believe the management does not care about them or their well-being.
For example, Natalie Kendrick, a media and communications graduate student from Cedar Park, Texas, is frustrated that both The Village and The Suites, where she currently lives, have not always been quick to respond when she requests repairs or expresses concerns.
When Kendrick’s fridge broke after she had lived in her apartment for only two months, The Villages refused responsibility.
“They blamed it on us, saying we had too much food in the fridge,” Kendrick said. “When it was out, they didn’t get to us for about four days to even come look at it, and that meant we lost everything in our fridge.”
Priddy and Arnao agreed, saying The Suites would also try to turn things around on the residents.
“They were trying to make us feel like we were making a big deal about it and trying to make us feel stupid about it,” Priddy said.
Most of the apartment complexes located across from Texas Tech are less than 15 years old, when Delbert McDougal began renovating the North Overton area. Rents in the North Overton area range from $519 to $1040 a month.
When maintenance workers do show up, the timing is often inappropriate or unannounced, violating residents’ privacy.
Arnao said maintenance guys would sometimes abruptly enter her apartment unannounced.
“I had just got out of the shower, and I didn’t hear a knock or ring — nothing,” Arnao said. “The guy just walks in, doesn’t even knock on my bedroom door, just walks in.”
Kendrick recounted a similar experience. She was frightened when she found workers walking around unannounced on her second-story patio at The Suites. She was also annoyed that they moved her furniture into a closet on her balcony — without letting her know — and never moved it back.
Many tenants have also faced problems when trying to renew their leases.
Priddy said the apartment tried to raise Arnao’s and her rent. Arnao said she was rudely informed that she and Priddy would not be receiving the lower rate they had been offered at first and that rent would go up for both of them. Their parents called the corporate offices and never got responses, so the roommates talked to the manager.
“She said that they were telling us the wrong rate the whole time,” Priddy said. “So there is no communication between corporate, the manager and then the employees.”
Kendrick also had issues when she re-signed at The Village at Overton Park two years ago. She said she was told not to worry too much about cleaning her first apartment because there would be a cleaning crew coming in. She still cleaned the apartment and made sure there was no damage. About two months later she received a bill for over $200 in cleaning fees.
When she went to talk to the manager to express her unhappiness, “the manager got a huge attitude with me, in front of everybody,” she said.
Things look different from the other side of the issue.
Cole Bengford, an accounting graduate student from Georgetown, Texas, worked as a leasing agent for University Fountains. He said most of the complaints the office received were about utilities.
“Ironically, all utilities out of the American Campus Homes facilities are managed by Lubbock Power and Light and have nothing to do with the apartment complexes,” he offered.
Mac Davis Lane between The Centre and The Villages
His advice to tenants who are unhappy with the management: Be courteous.
“Yelling will make solving the problem more difficult,” Bengford said. “Things don’t get resolved when you yell.”
Now, some tenants say, they feel once burned, twice shy. But the hassle of finding another place and moving outweighs existing problems.
Van-Sickle said she is staying at The Suites because she does not want to move her furniture. Bruce said he is likely to stay at the same apartment because he knows there aren’t many better options.
If and when she moves, Van-Sickle said, she would definitely double-check that everything is well-built in the next place she rents.
Kendrick agreed, saying she probably wouldn’t live in an apartment again unless she had to.
Added Kendrick: “I would rather live with a landlord that I can actually connect with, know on a personal level, and there’s that trust level there — back and forth — instead of an apartment complex where I don’t get to know [them], and they don’t care at all.”
About JOUR 3312
