Maintenance Record
Saturday, January 13, 2018
12:57 PM
07/25/2017: Leaks in windows during storm
Issue: Significant leaks occurred from windows of bedroom and study, causing much of the surrounding floor to be soaked, especially in the majority of the study.
Personal Impact: Majority of the furniture in the study had to be moved out into main living room for multiple days (07/25 thru 07/31). Large furniture (bed, desk, night stand) in bedroom had to be moved away from the wall for multiple days.
Management's Resolution: Contractor Rainbow replaced large amounts of carpet in both rooms. Window leaks were never addressed. No storms as turbulent/heavy have occurred since.
Compensation: No compensation offered/given.
06/2017 - 08/21/2017: Hot water tank leak (discovered & fixed 08/21)
Issue: Hot water tank was constantly expelling hot water through the unit's spigot, and into the closet drain via an unknown black hose attached to the unit. This is discovered to have been ongoing since move-in, and progressively worsened from 04/2017. Its effect on gas bills became noticeable by 06/2017.
Personal Impact: Enormous hike in gas bills; $30 to $100 monthly bill increase for 06/2017 through 08/2017.
Management's Resolution: Maintenance technicians Gene fixed the issue upon discovery on 08/21/2017 while checking into cause of 8/21 leaks (see below). He removed the rusted black hose attached to the spigot and tightened the associated valve. He also increased the water heater temperature setting to maximum to address our then-infrequent concerns for inconsistent hot water.
Compensation: After presenting exhaustive evidence and several email, phone, and in-person discussions with property manager by both my roommate and I, request for compensation was finally agreed upon after initially being refused on 09/08/2017. A $100 concession was put in place for October's rent. While appreciated, the costs incurred by the hot water leak over the course of at least 3 months were easily more than $200.
08/21/2017: Leaks under sliding glass door/window during storm
Issue: Significant leak occurred from beneath sliding glass door, wetness of carpet expanded at least 6 or more feet from the door.
Personal Impact: Large pieces of main living area furniture (entertainment center, couch, large shelf, cat tower) had to be cluttered into the other side of the room for multiple days (8/21 thru 8/24).
Management's Resolution: Contractor Rainbow shampooed and dried out large portion of carpet. Maintenance suspected issues with porch concrete, but ultimately just needed to re-seal outside caulk beneath sliding door and did so to prevent future leaks.
Compensation: No compensation offered/given.
10/2017: Refrigerator malfunctioning
Issue: Items in the lower portion of our refrigerator were freezing, meanwhile ice cream and other items in our freezer was not staying frozen and would often be soft/partially thawed when attempting to eat/prepare.
Personal Impact: Spoiled and ruined food, such as fruit and ice cream.
Management's Resolution: Older maintenance technician disassembled the back portion of the freezer while putting our frozen goods in the sink to help keep them cool. He adjusted the defrost timer, gave us some tips on where to keep items within the fridge and freezer, then re-assembled everything. The problem has since been resolved.
Compensation: No compensation offered/given.
12/07/2017: Early morning water heater explosion
Issue: Hot water tank busted at bottom sometime in the early morning (6-7AM?), presumably from drastic overnight temperature fluctuation. When discovered around 8:00AM, water was found flowing rapidly from hole. Reported issue to emergency maintenance ASAP.
Personal Impact: Myself and roommate missed 4+ hours of work (At least $100 of total income) addressing the issue. One expensive school textbook ruined by water damage. Much other furniture (cat tower, Christmas tree, large couch, large shelf, entertainment center) had to be stuffed into the opposite corner of living area, partially obstructing bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen for about 5 days. Approx. $9 increase on electric bill caused by fan and dehydrator used on carpet (see screenshot of daily electricity usage). Insurance deductible is $500 and thus useless to us in said scenario.
Management's Resolution: Emergency maintenance came within 30 minutes of call, promptly shut off our water. Maintenance replaced the broken water heater within the same day. Water heater was not fully properly installed, causing a leak onto carpet near closet (see next entry). Contractor Rainbow came out same day, sucked out excessive moisture from carpet, subsequently shampooed carpet. Large, loud fan and dehydrator left in apartment for entirety of the weekend (thru 12/11) until rainbow came back to verify dried carpet.
Compensation: Management offered for us to stay in a model apartment during runtime of loud equipment. We refused, as it would have been a greater inconvenience for us to be without the majority of our clothes, toiletries, furniture, and other daily-use items. No other compensation offered/given.
12/18/2017: Hot water failure, pt. 1
Issue: Hot water would last no more than several minutes any given day. This applies to showers, faucets, and utilities alike.
Personal Impact: Unpleasant daily bathing experience (not enough hot water to last duration of usual bathing routine) for more than a week. Poor dishwasher performance due to lack of hot water. We gave it time hoping it would fix itself, thinking maybe the new water heater needed time to "warm up." But it did not, and so we reported it on the 18th.
Management's Resolution: A member of the maintenance team, an older man with gray hair, came to our apartment. He took a quick look at our hot water tank and gas heater unit, did not bother to test the water temperature himself, said everything looked fine and left. No solution was achieved.
Compensation: No compensation offered/given.
12/23/2017: Hot water failure, pt. 2
Issue: Same issue with lack of hot water. Additionally, area of wet carpet found in front of water heater closet, approximately 2-3 ft. in radius.
Personal Impact: Same issues with bathing experience and dishwasher performance, now going on another week. We reported it again on the 23rd when the new leak was also discovered.
Management's Resolution: Being the weekend, we were told we would need to wait until Tuesday (day after Christmas) for a solution. Shortly thereafter while looking at the hot water tank ourselves, we found and reported the wet carpet, which was considered an emergency and addressed promptly. Both issues were resolved same-day. A different member of maintenance, Johnny, came and quickly identified both issues:
A drainage pipe for the hot water tank was not properly positioned and was too short, therefore occasional water drips were making their way over the concrete and into the carpet. Johnny installed a new, longer section of pipe to position the opening over the closet drain.
A check valve in the water heater/furnace pipes had clogged completely with sediment, presumably as a byproduct of the hot water tank breach earlier in the month. Johnny and Eric addressed this by replacing the check valve entirely.
Johnny had intended to replace our thermostat with a newer digital model, however both men left the new unit in its box on our dining table and did not install it. I promptly returned the new unit in its box to the front office.
Compensation: Before the need for emergency maintenance was identified and reported, we were offered access to a model apartment to take hot showers there until maintenance could make it in on the 26th. We did not need to take advantage of this since the leak was identified and both issues resolved same-day. No other compensation offered/given.
12/30/2017: Hot water failure, pt. 3 + no heat/hot air
Issue: Hot water once again not lasting more than a few minutes. No hot air whatsoever for the previous several days. Did not identify the hot air issue for a few days until we tried turning our thermostat to the highest setting, which did nothing to heat our apartment in spite of the furnace constantly running.
Personal Impact: Entire week spent with unpleasant bathing experience and very cold living space, no matter how we adjusted the thermostat. An estimated $15 of incurred electricity expenses during the effective dates of 12/25 thru 12/29, presumably due to the furnace constantly running (see screenshot of daily electricity usage).
Management's Resolution: Originally, upon reporting these issues we were told we'd need to wait until 01/02/2018 due to the weekend and holiday. However, within 10 minutes of that call's conclusion, maintenance was at our door that morning. Eric and the previously-mentioned older crew member came, quickly identified the issue as being a jammed-up "taco" hot water pump in the furnace's piping, and replaced the pump. This solved our hot water and air heating issues, at least for the time being.
Compensation: No compensation offered/given.
01/13/2018: Hot water failure, pt. 4 + leak above bathtub ceiling + bathroom tile issues
Issue: Hot water performs very inconsistently, sometimes lasting for plenty of time with minor fluctuations as the furnace stops and starts (normal), but sometimes hot water not lasting more than 5-7 minutes (not normal) for an entire night. Some of the bathroom tile is coming away from the wall, and some of the grout seal is cracked. Additionally, a wet spot we noticed above our bathtub ceiling has been growing in size since last night. Reported as an emergency maintenance request.
Personal Impact: Unreliable water temperature in shower. The wet spot would be no big deal, but Gene from maintenance demolished the ceiling without moving or covering any of our toiletries, rugs, or towels. Now all of our shampoos and conditioners, toilet paper, many rugs and towels, and many of my roommate's expensive makeup brushes and products are covered in the sheetrock debris.
Management's Resolution: After the emergency maintenance technician, Gene, destroyed the bathroom ceiling and got sheetrock debris and powder all over the floor, shower, and our toiletries and other belongings, the maintenance supervisor Eric went to the upstairs neighbor's apartment and discovered that their bathtub drain's seal had worn over time and failed, was leaking. He was able to replace the seal within minutes and returned downstairs. The ceiling then needed to be patched up on Monday (in two days), meanwhile our other issues such as hot water and the bathroom tile would not be addressed until the ceiling work is done.
Spoke to Allison at the office around 4:30PM; she has been very accommodating and helpful. She assured me that it can be arranged that all three issues should be taken care of at the same time, so as to minimize the downtime for our shower and hot water. She also mentioned that they would try to nail down a timeline for these events, and provide greater detail in an email sometime Sunday or Monday.
We did not receive contact (email or phone call) by 12PM Monday (01/15), so contacted the office via phone. They informed me that the contractor (painters) would be coming by later that afternoon.
Office called us at 2PM to verify that the painters were an hour out from arriving at our apartment. They patched up the ceiling around 3PM.
The painters returned the afternoon of 01/17 to apply the last layer of paint/spackling to the ceiling. We did not receive any further contact from the office about our other reported issues.
Compensation: After explaining situation to Allison and making the request, we were given keys to a 2-BR model apartment (BLDG 2, Apt. 118) to use its shower until our shower is patched up.
01/20/2018: Hot water failure, pt. 4 + leak above bathtub ceiling + bathroom tile issues
Issue: Hot water performs very inconsistently, sometimes lasting for plenty of time with minor fluctuations as the furnace stops and starts (normal), but sometimes hot water not lasting more than 5-7 minutes (not normal) for an entire night. Some of the bathroom tile is coming away from the wall, and some of the grout seal is cracked. Additionally, a wet spot we noticed above our bathtub ceiling has been growing in size since last night. Reported as an emergency maintenance request.
Personal Impact: Unreliable water temperature in shower. The wet spot would be no big deal, but Gene from maintenance demolished the ceiling without moving or covering any of our toiletries, rugs, or towels. Now all of our shampoos and conditioners, toilet paper, many rugs and towels, and many of my roommate's expensive makeup brushes and products are covered in the sheetrock debris.
Management's Resolution: After the emergency maintenance technician, Gene, destroyed the bathroom ceiling and got sheetrock debris and powder all over the floor, shower, and our toiletries and other belongings, the maintenance supervisor Eric went to the upstairs neighbor's apartment and discovered that their bathtub drain's seal had worn over time and failed, was leaking. He was able to replace the seal within minutes and returned downstairs. The ceiling then needed to be patched up on Monday (in two days), meanwhile our other issues such as hot water and the bathroom tile would not be addressed until the ceiling work is done.
Spoke to Allison at the office around 4:30PM; she has been very accommodating and helpful. She assured me that it can be arranged that all three issues should be taken care of at the same time, so as to minimize the downtime for our shower and hot water. She also mentioned that they would try to nail down a timeline for these events, and provide greater detail in an email sometime Sunday or Monday.
Compensation: After explaining situation to Allison and making the request, we were given keys to a 2-BR model apartment (BLDG 2, Apt. 118) to use its shower until our shower is patched up. While the gesture was appreciated, we never took advantage of the opportunity as we both dreaded the idea of packing up our things, walking/driving out in the freezing cold to the model apartment, showering in an unfamiliar space, then going back out in the cold with wet hair etc. to get back home.