🚀 go-pugleaf

Each time I rent an apartment in Boulder I'm surprised yet again by the
lack of professionalism of Boulder's property managment. This is 
easily the worst case I've seen of a "seller's market" attitude.

My current problem revolves around my landlord's management company
ignoring my explicit statement that I want a clean quiet and 
private living space. And for 615$/month for a one bedroom apartment,
I would expect to not only get this, but everything short of limousine
service and a red carpet.

Instead, I find that the people showing me the apartment have 
conveniently forgotten that they told me there were not students living
in the building. They've also forogotten how important my privacy is by
conveniently forgetting to mention to me that they have a "pre-leasing"
policy.

This means that even though I have 6 months to go on my lease, if I
do not sign next years' lease, they will start showing my apartment
for lease *6 months* ahead of the end of my lease!

So now, if I don't want strangers parading through my home, I need to
take time off of work to be there for a "showing", and the people
scheduled for the showing don't show up for 75% of the showings.

So much for clean, quiet and private. And this kind of treatment is not
unusual in Boulder.

I think the only reason this is happening is because Joe Tenant (you
and me) don't expect them to hold high professional standards.

My warning to every renter

-Get *everything* in writing. Any detail that you think would be
  trivial, is subject to simply being forgotton by the management
   company.

-Post your experiences on the net, justlike this, so others know 
  the problems that can happen, and which companies to avoid.

-*Demand* service from your landlord. You pay them a huge some of money
  for not just a roof over your head, but for service. Call them on 
  their negligence.

-If you have problems, be the squeaky wheel. Write the Boulder City
   Council, the City Attorney, and the local paper editors. The more
   people who declare unwillingness to tolerate such widespread 
   abuse, the more likely we are to affect the market.

If anyone has other input, suggestions, or bad experiences about their
landlords, I would welcome their email. Iwould like to set up a
repository of information on local slum-lord misdeeds so we can fix this
problem.

thank you for reading, and here's to solidarity.

-David




-- 
David Knapp   
Energy and Minerals Applied Research Center (EMARC)            (303)
492-7113
Department of Geological Sciences
http://lolita.colorado.edu/david.html
University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0250
david@lolita.colorado.edu