Complaint Review: Oakmont Apartments

I chose Oakmont apartments as my new place of residence after my divorce.
When signing my 7 month lease with Oakmont in April 2011 I was advised that they were set up so that I could get service with a particular company and the installation fee would be waived.  There was absolutely no indication that service could not be provided by any other company.  I am an employee with a telecommunications company and am able to receive home phone and internet service at minimal cost to no charge.  When contacting my company to set up my service, I was advised that Oakmont was under a contract with another company and that my company was not allowed to step foot on the property because of that contract.   I spoke with the office manager and her boss who was located at the corporate office in Tulsa since this information was not provided to me in the lease agreement.  Both advised me that is was not their fault that my company would not break the contract and come out.  Due to my line of work and my need for internet service at home, I was forced to spend an additional $100+ per month through the company that they were contracted so that I could have my needed services. 

 After living at Oakmont in my 1 bedroom apartment for less than 2 weeks, my daughter decided that she wanted to come and live with me.  I contact the office who told me that in order to move into a larger 2 bedroom apartment I would have to pay a $100 transfer fee and also the deposit on the new apartment in order to transfer.  They also explained that they would refund my deposit on my 1 bedroom after I moved from that unit.  This information was not disclosed in my lease.  When I questioned the office they explained to me that they do not put that stuff in the lease because its only discussed if and when it happens.   I declined to move because I did not have the money.

 In May we were woken by the fire alarms in our apartment going off.  There was not smoke so we evacuated the apartment and called the leasing office.  They sent a maintenance man to the apartment who could not figure out how to make them stop.  He opened the breaker box and shut off all the breakers in the apartment.  This still did not stop them.  He had to leave the apartment to go get a later and then come back.  He finally was able to reset them but failed to change the batteries or find the cause of the issue. Also when signing my lease, I was advised that there was a $300 pet deposit ($150 non refundable) but that they would allow me to pay that out.  I was never advised of a specific time line in which I had to do this.  I quickly found that this is not the case. 

After a short time there a received a notice of eviction on my door advising that I was past due on my rent.  When I called the office they explained that it was a mistake and that my rent that I had paid was applied to my pet deposit and that I should have had that paid for already.  I came up with $100 of that deposit as quickly as possible.  The very next month I got another call stating that my pet deposit had still not been paid.   They continued to take rent and water bills that I had paid and applied them toward that deposit which resulted in late fees.  These fees were eventually removed but not after yet another notice of eviction which I was also told was a mistake.  On several occasions I would go to the office and they would print out a copy of all the charges and payments on my account.  None of the billing made any sense and even the office staff had a hard time explaining it.  They would tell me that they would have to call the corporate office to find out what was going on.  I even made the statement more than once that I spoke with the office staff more than my own family. 

 In June of 2011 I found out that the following month I was going to have the money to move into a larger unit.  I contacted the office to make sure that there was a unit available.  They again advised me of the $150 transfer fee and the deposit on the new apartment.  They also told me what the prorated amount was going to be.  This amount did not make sense to me.  At this time I was in the middle of my half month free promotion.  They advised me that since I only paid for half the month of June in the 1 bedroom, I would have to pay the difference in the half month on that apartment and the full month on the larger unit.  I could not understand why the promotion would not carryover to the new unit.  I had to contact the corporate office in Tulsa again to get this figured out.  She also figured this amount the same way until I explained it twice and she finally understood what I was saying and corrected it.  She notified the leasing office to correct it.

 In July of 2011 I was finally able to move into a 2 bedroom unit.  I went down to the office and paid what I was told was the remainder of my owed pet deposit ,the transfer fee to move, the deposit and prorated rent on the new apartment and I also purchased to remotes for myself and my daughter to use to get into the gates at the complex for $25. The normal fee for the remotes was $25 each however the manager explained that after all I had been through she would only charge me for one. At this time I was told that I would have to sign a 12 month lease in order to transfer apartments.  I was not advised of this the two previous times that my transfer had been discussed.  I explained that I would sign a new 6 month lease but not a year.  They were able to accommodate that finally after calling the corporate office.  We moved into the new apartment on July 2nd, 2011.  After moving in I noticed that there were some issues with the unit.  There were some damage to mini blinds, a crack inside one of the kitchen cabinets and also severe water damage above the shower in the master bath which someone had attempted to just paint over.  I advised the office immediately of the damage.  I was advised by the office manager that she would send someone to look at it.  No one ever came to look or fix the damage.  I complained again in August.  I was also advised that someone would come to look at it so that it could be fixed.  Again no one came to the apartment.  I also had an issue with the hot water not getting very hot.  I went to the office and she told me that she would send someone and that never happened either.  I adjusted the hot water heater myself. Over the course of the remainder of our time at Oakmont, the gate remote my daughter had possession of did not work.  We returned it to the office on multiple occasions; they would supposedly reprogram it and then call us to come pick it up.  At one point they replaced the new one we had with an old used on that still did not work.   They did not get her a working remote until the end of August. 

 I received another eviction notice in August.  When I called the office they advised me that when I moved into the new apartment in July that they did not charge me for the transfer fee because when I had last spoken with the main office in Tulsa they advised me that they would let me pay that out.  I did not know this and thought that the checks I wrote in July totaling $989.96 included that fee based on the information given to me when I signed the new lease.  On August 25th I paid the $100 that they said was not included. 
On September 6th I went into the office to pay my rent for September and the water bill that would be due.  The agent explained to me that since my rent was not paid already there would be $75 late fee and also that I still owed $50 toward the transfer fee.  I explained that it was only $100 and that I paid that on 8/25/2011 and had the check to prove it.  I was then advised that it was $150 not the $100 that I had been told twice before by the leasing office and once before by the corporate office.  

 I was very upset at this time and explained that I would pay him right then for the September rent and the water bill that was due but I was not going to pay for the late fee or the additional $50 fee for the transfer.  He explained to me that he was not allowed to take a partial payment and therefore if I did not pay the total balance he could not accept my payment.  I left the office and called the corporate office again.  I received the same information from them but was advised to go back and at least pay the partial amount.  I refused.  I made an attempt to pay that when I was there and they declined to take my money.  The corporate office was very unhelpful through this entire situation and only seemed to make matters worse.  I would call them only for them to call the office manager and advise her of my complaints which she had already heard.  She would then call me and tell me the same things that she did before. 
I finally made the decision to move out a few days later due to all of the billing issues, hidden charges and billing issues.  After several unwarranted eviction notices (not because I was not paying my rent) I had to protect my family and make sure that we had a place to live. 

 I received a letter from Oakmont sometime in December advising me that I owed them in the amount of somewhere around $2500.  I called the corporate office again and was told that it would be looked into and she would get back to me.  Several days later I was contacted once again by the complex manager who said she would look over it and call me back.  I never received a call back.  The next letter that I received was from your firm advising that I owe them an amount somewhere in the $2100 range.  That tells me that some of the charges were adjusted.

 I do not feel that I should be responsible for these charges.  The apartment was clean and empty when I left.  I had 3 others with me moving and cleaning.   There was no damage other than what was there when I moved in.  They have kept my full pet deposit and security deposit which I do not care about.   Because of their careless billing practices, constant eviction notices and failure to put anything important in writing I had no other choice but to move from Oakmont Apartments.