Complaint Review: Shadowlake Management Company Inc.

My wife and I moved to New Orleans on short notice and found some very nice apartments to live in. What we did not know is that we would end up having ineffectual management coupled with ineffective maintainence. So far, since we moved in on or about 7/02:

We have a loft (15+ feet high):

1. Lights burnt out for a week. Every time I complained, they said they had to go to another emergency but ours would be fixed soon.

2. Lights burnt out because we had an electrical problem. The first time I complained it took a while for someone to look at one loft light that seemed to be popping and sizzling. They (maint), stated that there were some burnt wires, but everything was ok and it was fixed. When our lights kept dimming and then getting real bright (which then the bulp would "pop" and the filiment would go out) we called again. The new electrician stated that the wattage was too high in our apartment (124/6 vs 120) and that all the other electrician did was wrap the burnt wires in electrical tape! So that's what that smell was...

3. We complained about our fireplace flue in Sept/October '01 and again and again... It is now March '02 and it's still not fixed.

4. I complained about the bathroom fan sounding like it was about to explode. They said it was now fixed. It started doing the same thing again. When I looked at it, the motor had not been replaced as they said it was (the screws heads still had rust on them. If you were to break the screw, the rust would come off and you could tell something was done). The next maint. guy wrote a note for us not to use it while he got a new part because it was dangerous. So about 3 days later we have a new one.

5. WASPS!!! Well this is the straw that broke the camels back. We seem to have an infestation of wasps. Every day when I come home there seems to be about 3-10 wasps flying around my house (BTW, 409 is much better to use than any wasp spray!). When I first complained about this, they said they would try and have someone to look at it. They said Orkin came by and found one nest and killed it and it should be taken care of. Nope. More wasps. It takes over a week to have someone even come over to look at our apartment. And I happened to be home. They were just normal maint. guys who didn't even know where to look. I told them the wasps were prob coming from my bathroom. They walked in and then just left. Maybe spending 4 minutes in there. I called and complained about a week after that because we kept getting more wasps, and nothing has been done.

All this time I have been leaving messages with the actual property managers (not the on-site managers) to try and resolve this. I do not get calls back and they seem to not care what happens. I sent a letter to them offering a buy out of my lease, but not at the amount that the lease had stipulated. Mainly because of the breach of contract. In all the weeks that it took for them to respond to my complaints, they offer to move me to a different apartment. Not because they were actually reading their lease, but because I made mention of it in my letter. When a member of the management finally called me back to counter offer on what I wanted, she offered that we would forfiet our deposits ($400) and just move at the end of March since we had paid for that month. I asked for that in writing and she said she had to wait for her superior to come back from out of town because she couldn't sign the letter. Well, a week later I get a letter "confirming" our conversation. Guess who signed the letter... The same one who said she couldn't sign it in the first place. In her letter, she stated that she would allow us to pay $560 and then forfeit our $400 deposit and pay for all damages. Hmmmm, lets do a little math here. 560+400+200 (average damages taken from deposits at the complex)= $1160. Our original buy out was... You guessed it, right at $1160. However, if we were to just perform the original buy out, we would pay $1160 and get about $200 back from our deposit. That makes it $960! Their "offer in good faith" actually is more than my buy out... Further, the other day I went back to the on site office to complain about the wasps and took the manager to the side of my building so she could see the dozens of wasps flying in and out of the crevice in the roof DIRECTLY ABOVE MY BATHROOM WINDOW. She said she called a roofer and that there is no way they could come in that way. Well, they need to explain that to the wasps. My neighbors seem to have the same problem. After taking a que from them, I started to put the waps corpses in a ziplock bag. All in all, they have provided no relief, have been very non-cooperative and have not acted in good faith according to their lease. I submitted my 30 days on Feb 28th but have yet to recieve an actual offer that sounds reasonable. As a matter of fact, in the 30+ days that have elapse since I complained about this latest fiasco, I have only spoken to the property managers (each) ONCE. Even though I have sent numerous fax's and made as many phone calls. So, since my attempts have been refuted in regard to them actually fulfilling their contract in good faith, maybe this will show them that it would be in their company's best interest.

Placito
New Orleans, Louisiana