Los Altos Apartments (UDR) Non renewal of lease for unjust and fraudulent reason Altamonte Springs Florida

This is the letter I wrote to the community where we rent our apaprtment. This sums up exactly what the problem is.

First and foremost, when we came to see these apartments before agreeing to move in, we were shown a model that was certainly  not what we were given. We addressed the fact that there was a bait and switch (something that has been brought to my attention by other residents as being common practice here). Upon moving in, we found that there were MANY things wrong with our apartment.

The refrigerator had many missing pieces, which I will agree was replaced shortly thereafter. However, the replacement refrigerator had a defective ice maker. Also, the doors were installed backwards. I addressed it with Wilson, who was the maintenance manager at the time. They sent someone to fix the doors and "attempt" to repair the ice maker. I was advised that a new one was to be ordered and indeed it was. A maintenance worker came to install it and, not surprisingly, it did NOT work. They stated that it may be the water line. So, they went a purchased a new water line. They came and installed the water line and it still did  not work.

After several other attempts, I finally got tired of having people in here who could not get things done right and decided to look at it myself. Low and behold.....the maintenance worker NEVER TURNED THE WATER LINE ON. This appeared to work for approximately a month or two. Then, once again, the ice maker stopped working. A new maintenance worker came in and looked at it. He said that he was going to order another one and come in to replace it. I even told him to feel free to come in when I was not here so he can work on it. Well, he NEVER came and still.......NO ICE MAKER. This, though, is the tip of the iceberg.

When we moved in, we were in disbelief of how the thermostat wiring was done. It was a complete rig and blatant code violation. We addressed this with maintenance, office, management, and even UDR headquarters. Someone came in and installed a new thermostat. Well, not surprisingly, it DID NOT work. Luckily, XXX is AC certified and did AC work in Miami, so he fixed it himself. However, the wire was still out of code. After months of discussion and false promises of having someone come in, someone was subcontracted and fixed the wire to bring it up to code.

The next dilemma was the issue with the cabinets. The kitchen cabinets were in deplorable condition and were completely moldy. This situation was the biggest headache for me because a quick fix was the recommended solution; just repaint them. Someone came in and repainted the cabinets. Once again, the job was done so poorly that you could see the dried up paint dripping and paint did NOT cover the mold. i mentioned my allergy to mold, advised of the health concern that I had with these cabinets, contacted the maintenance manager (which at this time was a new gentleman), contacted the Community Director, which was someone else at the time too (Joy, perhaps), and contacted UDR Headquarters. After months, and months, and months of attempts, finally they were replaced and I was very appreciative of that.

Another concern that I addressed was the problem with the water pressure in the master bathroom. I contacted on many occasions regarding low water pressure in the master shower. You would either take a scalding hot shower or none at all. It took someone weeks to come look at this. Someone would repair it and two months later we were in the same situation. Someone came and fixed it again. However, just a few days ago it started happening again. I was getting ready to send a request until I found out about not being offered a renewal.

Another problem we addressed, which I am sure is one of the main reasons we are not being offered a renewal is because of our concern with the gates in the community. Late 2012, the gates were broken for several weeks at a time. We addressed our concern, as we pay for a gated community for a reason...added safety and security. On two occasions we had someone trespass onto the property to harass me. The last time it happened was on December 23, 2012. This date, someone trespassed onto the property and attacked me. This caused me to have severe anxiety and a complete panic attack requiring 2 days of hospitalization. I spoke with police regarding this and pressed charges against the individual.

However, it did not result in any arrests. One of the reasons I was told was that when this person came on to the property, the gates were broken and wide open. I went to the leasing office and addressed this with them and received nothing more than an apology and a false promise that it would get repaired as soon as possible. There came a time where the gate was broken for over a month. At some point, Daniel and I wrote an email stating that if the gate would not be fixed as soon as possible, a class action lawsuit would be brought, as we are paying for a gated community and our security is being compromised.

At this point, I feel that the reason we are not being renewed stems from one of two things:
1. Los Altos simply does not want to deal with residents who request too much work of them. Especially, when wrongdoings is pointed out to them and a class action lawsuit is mentioned.
2. Los Altos wants us to leave the apartment so they can renovate this apartment and rent it out a higher rate.
Quite frankly, if the latter is the true motive, I can respect that much more than some excuse as to why they do not want to renew. Furthermore, before I knew their reason as to why they do not want to renew, I had discussed the matter with Daniel and had come to an agreement that we would have been willing to move to a renovated one, even if it was at a slightly higher rate and return this one to allow for renovations.

The fact that they are claiming that XXX has been verbally abusive to them is absolutely absurd. I will not deny that he has been upset, has voiced his opinion, has had several disagreements with them regarding all of the hassles that we have had to deal with, and has mentioned the incompetence of certain staff members will not be denied. However, if there was ever any offense taken regarding how he has communicated with staff member, this should have been addressed earlier and a solution to rectify could have been discussed.

I believe this is very cowardly and an extremely unethical business practice. I truly feel that this is Los Altos's way of taking posession of this apartment in order to renovate and rent at a higher fee. As mentioned before, I can respect that, as everyone is in the business of making money. However, I will have greater respect and appreciation if we are told the truth. If this is indeed because of the alleged verbal abuse, then I would have most certainly appreciated being told when it occurred in order to rectify it.

I will have you know that XXX and I have never been nuisance residents, we have never been late on our payments, and have even fixed things in the apartment ourselves because we simply did not want to deal with another work order request that would remain unfulfilled (we bought our own towel bars and shower curtain rods, as the master bath did not have any of these things)

i assure you that this matter will not remain without being reviewed by our attorney for legal advise as to what our legal rights are and what measures we can take to remedy the situation or be compensated. We are being unjustly forced to leave our apartment. Furthermore, it wasn't until I advised a gentleman at the office just a few days ago regarding the fact that we had not received a renewal offer that we were notified. Otherwise, I feel that this too would have been overlooked. Our lease is up on October 5th and we are just being notified. I understand that we have until the end of November to vacate, but this is still, what I feel to be, short notice.

Please understand that I would have been more than willing to sit down and discuss the matter and negotiate an alternative, but we are not being given a choice and therefore feel that we need to pursue legal action. I have attached my payment history so you can see that we have never paid late (with the exception of one time that we paid a day late and paid the late fees associated without a fuss). I would attach all of the serice requests, but oddly enough, I am now unable to access the link to even make a service request.

Please contact me to further discuss this matter, as I feel that this situation is completely unjust and without merit.