I have resided at Gramercy Park Condos since 2007. I resigned a year lease in August of 2008 for my 2 bedroom condo.
In 2007 my roommate and I experience a large leak in the guest bathroom above the bathtub. Water was streaming through the ceiling causing a large sag in the sheetrock. We contacted management and they came and cut a large square hole in the ceiling. They did not fix the problem, as water continued to leak. It took the maintenance group 3 weeks to fix our leak. During those three weeks the leak continued to get worse and sheetrock continued to fall down all over the bathroom making it impossible to bathe or use the toilet. A stench smelling of mold and mildew also developed causing health issues for us, as well. This was only our first problem with Gramercy Park Condos.
For several months in 2008 my roommate and I experienced loud noise from our upstairs neighbors. They were so loud, they would keep us awake during sleeping hours until about 3:00 am, every night. As a resident, I (Carrie Schultz) did speak with the upstairs neighbors to try and resolve the problem. When that did not work, I went to the leasing office to speak with management. They instructed me to write them a certified letter. I did write them at least two certified letters, phoned in at least three complaints, and did have the police come to the neighbors' apartment at 1:00 am on December 17th. After speaking with the leasing office again after the 17th, the leasing office Manager, Claudia, told my roommate and I there was nothing that they could do, as going thru a legal battle with the neighbors would be too costly and would take too much time. I then asked them if my roommate and I could move to another unit in the building to finish out our lease, as we were not going to tolerate the noise. They did have a one bedroom apartment open on the top floor of the building, so I put in my 30 days notice to move out of my two bedroom apartment.
I leased my two bedroom apartment for $1300.00 dollars a month plus a $2.00 trash fee in 2007 and the amount remained the same when I resigned the lease in 2008. The leasing office told me that the leasing agent that signed us up in 2007 gave us the wrong rent amount for the 2 bedroom apartment, and in turn would be charging us the SAME amount of rent for a one bedroom. This is ridiculous! My roommate and I had to downgrade to a one bedroom apartment due to a nuisance that the apartment management would not address, and they are charging us the same amount of rent! To add insult to injury, nothing has been done to fix the problem with the noisy neighbors, so the problem will continue for the new residents.
Upon moving in to our new one bedroom apartment on Saturday morning, January 3, the toilet did not work, the A/C did not work, and the clothing rod in the closet broke immediately. The worst part about the toilet not working, was that someone used the toilet weeks before us moving in and did not flush the toilet (most likely because the toilet was broken). The urine had sat in the toilet fermenting for what looked and smelled like weeks. Furthermore, when I notified the leasing office Manager, Claudia, on that Saturday about the toilet, she told me that the toilet would not be able to be fixed until Monday, January 5th. This was the only toilet in our one bedroom apartment, meaning that we would have to go down two flights of stairs every time we needed to use the restroom. Fortunately, I still had the key to the two bedroom unit, as we had just moved that day. Otherwise we would have had NO restroom facility. This poses a very serious health risk to us.
I would like for this complaint to be addressed, as I am certain that I am not the only resident who is exhausted with the poor management. I meet a new resident every day that has a complaint about how poorly the apartment complex is taken care of. I would like the option to break my lease as soon as I can find another place to live with no penalties incurred. I would appreciate help you can offer. We are desperate at this point and someone needs to hold the apartment management accountable for their lack of action in resolving these unacceptable violations.
Carrie
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.