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  • Report:  #618208

Complaint Review: American Apartment Management Company Inc. - Knoxville Tennessee

Reported By:
Melanie - Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Submitted:
Updated:

American Apartment Management Company Inc.
900 S. Gay Street, Ste. 1504, Knoxville, 37902 Tennessee, United States of America
Phone:
8655257500
Web:
www.aamci.com
Categories:
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I rent an apartment in a "supposedly" affordable housing apartment complex/Coop.  The Cooperative rents to about 15 section 8 tenants.  It has been managed by the above company for the past four years.  It has and still has serious maintenance and financial problems and complaints by the tenants/coop owners and by the city and its officials, much of which is too lengthy to describe here, but it is the management company for my complex, Arlandria Chiralagua Housing Cooperative and I will describe my experience. 

I have been in my apartment for one year.  From the beginning, I have had nothing but problems with the management on various issues. I moved in June 2009, my first hint of a problem began with the air conditioner that was inoperable and had to be replaced and took a week.

A few weeks later I was bombarded by constant excessively loud music which vibrated my floors and walls in the early mornings and often late at night.  Calls and visits to the rental office for assistance were brushed aside.  There was a lame attempt at a board meeting where I was not in attendance and the manager later called me into the office and claimed I was "hearing things and there was no music."  There were roaches and mice and no pest control for 8 months.  Along came Winter, and the heating system was a nightmare and not renovated or central.  It cost up to $250 to heat the apartment for one month and the rent was $1034 per month.  I am on disability and on section 8, but still had to pay the electric and heat and the 30% of the market rent.  Note, that this apartment was charging market rate rent to HUD and local housing and was not anywhere near renovated or close to being worth it. 

The toilet in overflowed a total of twelve times and each time it was do to a faulty plumbing pipe that the so called plumber never fixed.  All of my towels were ruined trying to get the water off the floor so many times.  The hallways had no lights for about nine months.  I was harassed by a weirdo neighbor guy constantly and had to contact Police, and finally asked to transfer after being assaulted by the same creepy neighbor.  I was treated like the incident did not happen and even laughed at by the manager. In addition, the second apartment did not pass inspection three times due to problems.  The flakey leasing assistant l(again a friend of the board) lied about the first time and the reasons it did not pass.  I was not given any assistance with moving.  I was transferred to the new apartment with a lot of stress and the office acted as if they did some amazingi feat.  I moved in February and the heating system broke two weeks later. The stove (oven part)was also inoperable fand has been since I moved in except for the stove part.  The two maintenance workers who came halfheartedly to check it, managed to totally break the top working part of the stove by pulling out the wires!  They also left screws and dirt on the floor and I had to ask them to come back and fix at least the stove part.  The maintenance workers are atrocious, unreliable and there are only two for a big complex.  This tells you how cheap this company is.

I would call and ask about it off and on and I would get a new lie each time about the part being ordered or that it would be fixed next week.  Then finally after being fed up with their lies, I had to contact code enforcement and then legal aid in which they told them another lie, that they had fixed the stove.  This I did not know. I had to contact code enforcement again and found out that lie and code enforcment told me my new stove along with 28 other new stoves for other tenants would be there the week of July 11th!  I was shocked that this company could neglect so many other tenants as well, although I knew some of the history. I know that they also had to replace only by final code violation enforcement, 100 air conditioners, and other refridgerators of large quantities.  The coop is supposed to be for low income tenants and is largely made up of immigrants and a lot of the mismanagement I believe was the company taking advantage of them.

Another serious problem with this management company is their refusal to at least hire a security guard or fix the locks on the doors of the buidlings and provide keys.  They refuse to assert a minimum amount of managerial responsibility for ground safety. There is constant activity in the hallways and parking lot, boom cars, trash on the grounds, my apartment windows faced the parking lot. and I see it all  Instead of the management office enforcing parts of the lease, they leave it all up to the Police and close the offices on the weekend and do not worry as they enjoy their nice places.  I was told I could break my lease, but it is hard for me to move financially at this time and that is of course why I have not moved yet. I am discusted by this company who claims to be the affordable housing choice.  They are basically absentee landlords located in Tennesee and hire contracted low payed employees and managerial staff.  The managers are focustd on milking the tenants for all they can get and filling up the units with any type tenant. The only time they evict, is when they cannot get paid. This company hires rude, greedy, untrustworthy, lazy, incompetent employees. They have properties in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee etc. They also manage several elderly homes. 

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4 Updates & Rebuttals

Artsywoman1963

Alexandria,
Virginia,
USA
Security Deposit Greed

#2Author of original report

Wed, July 21, 2010

I am happy to say I am finally moving out of this mismanaged complex!  I went to speak with the property manager a few days ago regarding how much notice I needed to give and to see if my incorrect lease had been corrected.  Not surprisingly the lease had not been corrected and they had put it off for a month. I took a friend along with me as a witness, in case I needed to later support any future issues.  The company has $867.00 of my security deposit.  I owed $241.00 on the balance prior to the new manager being hired.  The old property manager had assured me that I did not need to worry about the balance as I had so many problems with my apartment and noise etc.  I made the mistake of not getting this agreement in writing.  Anyway, I told the property manager I was moving and we agreed on two weeks notice as adequate considering the problems I have/had here.  In addition, he asked me to pay the $241.00 security balance. I asked if he could deduct that from my security deposit on hand and he at first said no until I began a litany of major problems with the apartment, the broken stove, rats, unsafe lighting, crime, trash, lack of maintenance etc. He then gave in and I was very happy to be set free of this nightmare.  I wrote a letter up the same day and gave it to him and although I did not want to have the $241 deducted, I felt it was not worth struggling with, I just wanted to get out.  I had been thru enough.


Artsywoman1963

Alexandria,
Virginia,
USA
Security Deposit Greed

#3Author of original report

Wed, July 21, 2010

I am happy to say I am finally moving out of this mismanaged complex!  I went to speak with the property manager a few days ago regarding how much notice I needed to give and to see if my incorrect lease had been corrected.  Not surprisingly the lease had not been corrected and they had put it off for a month. I took a friend along with me as a witness, in case I needed to later support any future issues.  The company has $867.00 of my security deposit.  I owed $241.00 on the balance prior to the new manager being hired.  The old property manager had assured me that I did not need to worry about the balance as I had so many problems with my apartment and noise etc.  I made the mistake of not getting this agreement in writing.  Anyway, I told the property manager I was moving and we agreed on two weeks notice as adequate considering the problems I have/had here.  In addition, he asked me to pay the $241.00 security balance. I asked if he could deduct that from my security deposit on hand and he at first said no until I began a litany of major problems with the apartment, the broken stove, rats, unsafe lighting, crime, trash, lack of maintenance etc. He then gave in and I was very happy to be set free of this nightmare.  I wrote a letter up the same day and gave it to him and although I did not want to have the $241 deducted, I felt it was not worth struggling with, I just wanted to get out.  I had been thru enough.


Artsywoman1963

Alexandria,
Virginia,
USA
The Greed Goes On...

#4Author of original report

Thu, July 01, 2010

The day after my new stove finally arrived after 3 months of literally hard work on my part, contacting the management office, code enforcement, legal aid, city council, housing, and HUD I received a call from the property manager at my complex requesting a payment of my small past due installment of a $1000 deposit security that I originally was paying on, but was written off by the former property manager of the complex seven months ago. The amount is $241.00.  I have not spoken with him about this yet, as I am speaking with legal aid regarding this first, as I find it interesting that they are asking for this now.  They were fined by code enforcement and also to me, my lease was breached by them, as my stove did not work for three months and my entire heating system broke in March, in addition to having mice in my apartment.  I feel they want me to pay for the stove!

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Artsywoman1963

Alexandria,
Virginia,
USA
New Stove Arrives After Final Complaint to City Council

#5Author of original report

Tue, June 29, 2010

I finally received a shiny, new stove after 96 days of requesting repairs and hearing lies, the City Council must have had some power, as it was quickly delivered and I am happy to say it works. It took a Village and a lot of work, which I still feel is the fault of the cheap company and their desire to do the least possible.  I still feel the company and its employees have no concern for its tenants, their main goal is to crunch the numbers and make the cash.  Only when you are the squeaky wheel, will you receive what you deserve and pay for.

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