apartment inspections

[KellyHabersham]

According to a notice which was left on apartment doors Thursday morning, our management company apparently intends to do apartment inspections sometime on Tuesday of next week. No reason was given, and while the leasing office manager seems pleasant enough, it still sucks having to worry about getting everything sparkling clean because I don't know what they will/won't be checking out, and because if it's discovered that I have more than two cats, I'll be in a lot of trouble.

[Sonoma]

That was a huge incentive for me to buy my own place. We only got "24 hours notice", which translated into the notice being put on the door sometime during the day before the inspection. Instead of being able to sit down & relax after work, it suddenly became a night of cleaning the apartment top to bottom, making sure everything was in order. Plus trying to figure out what to do with the cat, who technically didn't live there. (Managers knew about him, but the owner didn't). Never knew when the management company rep would be there with them.

(story behind the cat. When I moved in, the managers said they no longer allowed pets. When those managers retired, I asked the new manager about getting a cat. They said no problem. I got a cat. Turned out the managers didn't make that decision, it actually was the owner who determined if pets were allowed. By that time, I had the cat, had adopted him some time ago. He wasn't leaving)

Hope everything goes smoothly on your inspection.

[ottid]

Yea, what Sonoma said, you get a whole weekend (and a bit more) to get everything done, my landlord only needs to give me 24 hours notice. What is really fun is when you go "help! my ceiling has collapsed!" and the room is still a bit of a mess (not including the part of the ceiling that has fallen down). Meh, he didn't mind, we are untidy, not unclean

[KellyHabersham]

Well, I've had maitenance people in my apartment recently to fix plumbing and air conditioning issues, so I would think that if there were any major issues with my housekeeping skills (which I'll admit aren't the best) I would've heard about it from the leasing office. But, since I've got several days advance notice, it should be all good.

[telecom_goddess]

Does your management company actually talk to people about housekeeping skills? It seems like most places I've lived people are pigs and the apartment people don't seem to care.

I've dealt with those inspections before and they seem to just be concerned about windows leaking, mold, structural support..etc. The place I'm in now doesn't have a management company, we deal directly with the owners so I don't know if they do inspections or not.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My complex does inspections every year...it's actually the township inspecting for code violations and such. We don't bother to do any extra-special cleaning (maybe straighten up a bit but the place is by no means sparkling). They check for things the complex management is responsible for - structural mainetenance, maybe they check the appliances (I've never actually been home for it, so I don't know), and also to make sure the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are in working order, stuff like that (each apartment has a CO alarm in the dining area and a regular smoke detector outside the bedroom(s), and there is also a smoke alarm in each stairwell that is connected to the rest of the building). (And I suppose if the tenant is causing any kind of code/safety violation they will notify you of that.)

[KellyHabersham]

They did a few years ago - I had a maintenance guy come over to fix a leaky air conditioning problem, and apparently he reported to our then-leasing office manager that my catboxes weren't perfectly clean. Granted, one of my cats DOES have a "urinating outside the catbox" issue, but still.......that had nothing to do with what I'd made a repair request for.

Fortunately, the manager was cool about it, but apparently whatever the maitenance guy had told him, gave the idea that I might not pass a health & welfare check if they should ever need to do one.

[KellyHabersham]

Anyhow, I know that different areas have different policies concerning inspections so it's best to see if there is some sort of legislated Tenancy Act. That Act will cover your ass in so many ways I think most Acts call for a minimum of 24-hours notice before they can enter your place, except in cases of emergency.

Fortunately, management at my complex has always been good about giving at least 24 hours notice......I guess it just bugs me because I would rather NOT have to allow access for whomever does the inspections, but unfortunately I'm stuck renting because I can't afford to own.

[Food Lady]

We usually get 12 hours notice minimum. It's usually a visit from the bug guy, but once it was a structural inspection. My place was an absolute mess that week, and no one said anything.

[CrystalynRose]

I'm a caretaker at my apartment building and our management does yearly inspections of all the apartments to check for cleanliness, but also for fire code violations, to make sure smoke/carbon monoxide detectors are working, there aren't any drips or leaks with the plumbing, that sort of thing. Generally, unless your apartment is really a sty, you're not going to have any problems. A few things to look at though... make sure the batteries in your detectors work, they're usually sticklers for that, and wipe down your counters so there's not any crumbs laying around, especially if ants are a problem. (I know they can be with some apartments if they're partially underground or there are ripped screens.) If you have maintenance concerns, that's definitely the time to bring them up, because they're checking for those too. And as for the cats... perhaps stow them with a friend for a few hours until you can bring them back? I did that once... lol

[KellyHabersham]

Well, two of the cats are listed on my lease, the third cat is not........but since he always hides when I have people over (and they were all at my mom's anyhow because of the air conditioning issue), it wasn't a problem whenever they came to do inspections.

But anyhow, I haven't heard anything from management regarding a problem, so I'm assuming there isn't one.......just have to keep an eye on my air unit for a bit.

[JLG]

My apartment building has many inspections a year. So far I have had three.

Some of them are random and they don't tell you what units they will be inspecting. It sucks when I spend all night after work cleaning and they don't inspect my apartment.

This last inspection they told me my windows and oven needed to be cleaned better. They gave me a week and came back to inspect it again.

They give us 24 hours notice but for me that is not enough, especially if I have closing shifts at work.

[Bella_Vixen]

Back when we were living in the apartmentment complex from hell, we got a 12/24 hour notice that they were going to do a check on the smoke detector.

Panic time.

We weren't the greatest of housekeepers. We cleaned up the worst of the mess, threw everything into the bedrooms and bathrooms, and closed the doors. The apartment had 1 smoke dectector, in the hallway. NOT in the bedrooms or bathrooms.

We almost got evicted, because they looked in the bedrooms and almost had a cow. It wasn't horrible, but things would have looked better if we had had more notice (namely, I saw the notice when I got home at 10pm, and the earliest they would have started the inspections was 8am. ). We had to go through weekly inspections for a month to prove we weren't inviting a mouse/roach convention into the building.

And yet, they never managed to come fix my shower in the master bathroom.

[Kogarashi]

When I lived in singles' apartments with three other girls, inspections were monthly. They'd give us a couple days warning as well as a checklist of what to get done, and my roommates and I would divvy things up. I suspect the list was as extensive as it was beause half the complex was single guys, who in that town were notorious for trashing their apartments.

We usually did quite well, except for the floor of the shower. It was stained grey from years upon years of people living there. I got bathroom duties when we divvied the work each month, and no matter how hard I scrubbed at it with whatever cleaners and the stiffest brush we could find, there was no getting rid of that stain. It never failed, the managment lady would look at it, say "That's not clean enough; I'll be back tomorrow," and leave. I'd clean it again for good measure, she'd be back the next day, and still tsk at it. Then she'd take some cleaner and the brush, scrub at it for a bit, and go, "Oh." And check us off. Not a word otherwise. And she'd do it again next month, and the month after that, and the month after that.... This went on for over a year before management companies changed and she was replaced.

Then, of course, there was the time we borrowed the complex's old vaccuum to do the floors for inspections, and the cord exploded when I plugged it in. The cord itself flew off, leaving just the plug in the socket. Yeah, that was fun. I still remember the tingle in my arm when I plugged it in.

Management at that place was always on us for the tiniest detail, yet it took them the better part of two months and an article in a few local papers for them to finally repair a gaping hole and massive water leak in the ceiling near the (indoor) mailboxes thanks to their roofing contractors leaving the half-shingled roof uncovered right before a huge thunderstorm. Our apartment also went the better part of a year before we realized we were supposed to have an end table and didn't (apartments were furnished). When our very old couch broke by one of the legs, causing it to tip and forcing us to prop it up on a brick, the maintenance guy asked if we'd been jumping on it. Again, when one of the cheap molded plastic-and-metal chairs collapsed under me when I went to sit on it (welding came undone), he asked if I'd been jumping on it.

And then we got in trouble for an illegal cat two of my roommates adopted and kept for a month (though it's partly my and my other roommate's fault, as we didn't object and thought he was quite cute). Oops.

Here at our current apartment, inspections are three times a year and you can opt out of one of those three. Of course, it's grad housing intended for families, so they're a bit more lenient. They seem to understand that kids complicate cleaning. Smoke and CO dectectors are checked more frequently, but they give us at least two days' notice via e-mail. Now if they'd just come fix the broken door that's been scheduled for over a month....

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I lived in singles' apartments with three other girls, inspections were monthly.

That's ridiculous. What do they think, their tenants are 10 years old? I would not want to live in a place that doesn't treat me like an adult.

I suspect the list was as extensive as it was beause half the complex was single guys, who in that town were notorious for trashing their apartments.

This is the reason the college I went to no longer has an all-male dorm. Of course, when they converted the guys' dorm (there was only one to begin with, as the school is about 65% female) to coed, they had to also convert one of the all-female dorms as well. Ironically, the female dorm they chose to convert was the one nicknamed "The Nunnery" (I lived there for 3 years, too. It's weird to think of it being coed.)