I am going to loss my apartment over a stain!

[haele]

77. Or they're thinking of selling and want to make the place look good for buyers.

That happened at one 60-unit complex we lived in; they had "inspections" and requested everyone clean up - before they put the complex on the market.

The corporation that bought the complex was rumored to be using it to as either a friends of the family or as housing for their workforce (they were a large property development firm) and over the period of eight months began to kick out all the old tenents after they bought it, changing it to a "no pets" (funny thing, the new tenants the new owners moved in had pets - just not the old tenants) or claiming they were going to renovate apartments and needed people to move out. The "renovations" consisted of new paint, new windows, and new carpet - and told us the rent was going up $500 a month in the renovated apartments for the old tenants who might have wanted to stay. Funny thing, all the new tenants seemed to be paying the same amount (or less) than the existing ones, and they all acted as if they were in personal relations with each other, the new manager and the owners.

As for the renovations - they didn't replace any of the appliances, the cabinentry, or fixed anything from what I could see. I know this because by the time we moved out (they gave us thirty days because they were finally getting to "renovate" our side of the complex), I had been given a chance to see some of the "new apartments" they offered for us to move into if we thought we would want to get rid of our cats and pay $1600 a month for a 700 sq. ft 50-year old apartment in a termite-damaged complex that had "charm". None of the other old tenents took that offer either...

They even kicked out a quiet older widow who had been renting there since the building opened that the old owners had gotten some sort of a housing exemption and were recieving subsidies for her apartment just to keep her there. She had moved in as a newlywed, raised her kids, babysat for everyone in the complex, and buried her husband out of that apartment. She said she was moving in with one of her kids - I hope it worked out.

Last time I went past the place, it had really turned into a dump, and according to local crime statistics, there had been a significant increase in the area, especially at that complex. But, I imagine the new owners were able to profit off what they saved in labor costs and write-offs for their other businesses by subsidizing their workforce to live in that complex.


Haele