This response was not sent to San Melia directly (sanmelia@avenue5apt.com) but rather sent to me. The purpose is to document what happened while it's still fresh in my mind.
Near the beginning of the year, I had found a note tucked into my door. I read it and it was about my lease coming to term at the end of February and presented me with several choices for renewal. I decided to think about the options for a few days. I did notice that that letter mentioned a different owner company and thought "Hmmm... So somebody bought out chrisken.com". I also noticed that my bank balance, which usually dips around the first of the month when San Melia takes their rent directly from my checking account, had not had the rent deducted yet. You see I watch that to ensure I have enough money in the account so as to avoid having my rent payment fail and late fees charged. I had ~$1600 and my rent's around $1200 so I was not worried, but I was concerned because usually, they take the money like the 1-3rd of the month. Knowing that they were bought out I assumed that they were a little late in doing that because of the change in ownership.
At this time I also wished to request a few things be fixed like the fact that my kitchen faucet was once again stuck in spray mode, the handle on the patio door was loose and the screws were stripped and finally to fix the fireplace which had never worked. Being in Phoenix one rarely needs a fireplace but around the New Year it was particularly cold and I thought a fire would be inviting. I even bought a log from the grocery store before I figured out that the fireplace is actually a gas fireplace and the log was useless. That's when I decided to get these three things fixed. I first went to the website to enter in the request only to receive a 404 not found. Then it clicked to me, "OK, probably because of new management. I'll have to go into the office" and did so around the 7-8th of January. Marlene had taken the order by hand. BTW it's currently the 12th and nothing has been done on this repair order.
On 1/10/19 I went back to the office because 1) I noticed my checking account still hadn't been charged with this month's rent and I wanted to inform them that I would be taking the 7-month lease option. I asked them about the rent and they said they had a bunch of their staff go to all of the apartments with a letter stating that, due to the change in management the normal withdrawal of rent would not be done and that at least for this month you'd have to pay by check and that they were working hard to restore that service. I told Santana that I did not receive any letter on my door and was not aware of any change or that I would have to pay by check this month. He said that sometimes the letters get blown away and even went so far to say that only if I was out of the country and could prove it with receipts that he could wave the late fees. I found that stance quiet heavy-handed given the situation. I told him that I failed to see what my error could possibly be that should cause me to be penalized with late fees and that I'd only be paying the rent and not any late fees. The way I see it is that if this new company, avenue5residential, was in the process of purchasing this property from chrisken that things like this (i.e. what will happen to the people who pay their rent through the old service) should have been properly addressed and while paper notification hand delivered to the door might be one way to handle it, if I never received it then I should not be responsible for late fees. IOW they should at least cut me some slack given it was them, and not me, that caused this problem!
I look at it this way: I did get the letter about the lease renewal but I didn't get the letter stating that I'd have to pay my rent this month manually with a check. If I had then surely I would have attended to it. I'm a responsible person and manage my finances closely. Why would I possibly neglect this if I had received notification? The answer is I would have taken care of the situation properly and I probably would have argued that this should have been accounted for and planned for such that the customers, us renters, did not experience any inconvenience. That's how you properly handle such things. And if you aren't going to handle it properly you should let people slide a bit due to your incompetence.
Santana sent me the following email that said I had to 1) pay via cashiers check or money order. Since I don't have a bank that has a physical presence (Ally bank) this imposes yet another hardship on me - to get a money order - which also cost me $16. Let alone it treats me as if I'm a deadbeat that can't be trusted because they would not simply accept a check as if I'm somehow not good for the money. I resent that treatment mightily! And 2) that $76.73 + 6 * $10.23/day ($61.38) for a totaling of $138.11. Adding on the $16 that I shouldn't have had to pay for a money order for a grand total of $154.11. I will not be paying that because again, I don't feel I had any fault in this messed up situation.
Let alone the fact that it's been at least a week and my service order has never been addressed.
Note: The new Avenue5Residental email is hello@avenue5.com. I may forward this email to them if San Melia doesn't Do the Right Thing(TM).
Update: 01/17/2019: Finally came to my apartment to fix things. Only looked at the air conditioner. Sink's still broken as is the handle on the patio door and the fireplace still doesn't work. As a side note, they left a card from http://fuel.club that has some sort of "mobile gas" thing. It said it was worth $30. I figured well hell I could use $30 of gas. Turns out to be that the $30 only covers some monthly fee or some such and this thing is trying to sell gas such that they come to you. Stupid idea. But you have to wonder why they would leave such at a thing in my apartment. Were they trying to make things better for me? Or are they just into stupid scams?
Near the beginning of the year, I had found a note tucked into my door. I read it and it was about my lease coming to term at the end of February and presented me with several choices for renewal. I decided to think about the options for a few days. I did notice that that letter mentioned a different owner company and thought "Hmmm... So somebody bought out chrisken.com". I also noticed that my bank balance, which usually dips around the first of the month when San Melia takes their rent directly from my checking account, had not had the rent deducted yet. You see I watch that to ensure I have enough money in the account so as to avoid having my rent payment fail and late fees charged. I had ~$1600 and my rent's around $1200 so I was not worried, but I was concerned because usually, they take the money like the 1-3rd of the month. Knowing that they were bought out I assumed that they were a little late in doing that because of the change in ownership.
At this time I also wished to request a few things be fixed like the fact that my kitchen faucet was once again stuck in spray mode, the handle on the patio door was loose and the screws were stripped and finally to fix the fireplace which had never worked. Being in Phoenix one rarely needs a fireplace but around the New Year it was particularly cold and I thought a fire would be inviting. I even bought a log from the grocery store before I figured out that the fireplace is actually a gas fireplace and the log was useless. That's when I decided to get these three things fixed. I first went to the website to enter in the request only to receive a 404 not found. Then it clicked to me, "OK, probably because of new management. I'll have to go into the office" and did so around the 7-8th of January. Marlene had taken the order by hand. BTW it's currently the 12th and nothing has been done on this repair order.
On 1/10/19 I went back to the office because 1) I noticed my checking account still hadn't been charged with this month's rent and I wanted to inform them that I would be taking the 7-month lease option. I asked them about the rent and they said they had a bunch of their staff go to all of the apartments with a letter stating that, due to the change in management the normal withdrawal of rent would not be done and that at least for this month you'd have to pay by check and that they were working hard to restore that service. I told Santana that I did not receive any letter on my door and was not aware of any change or that I would have to pay by check this month. He said that sometimes the letters get blown away and even went so far to say that only if I was out of the country and could prove it with receipts that he could wave the late fees. I found that stance quiet heavy-handed given the situation. I told him that I failed to see what my error could possibly be that should cause me to be penalized with late fees and that I'd only be paying the rent and not any late fees. The way I see it is that if this new company, avenue5residential, was in the process of purchasing this property from chrisken that things like this (i.e. what will happen to the people who pay their rent through the old service) should have been properly addressed and while paper notification hand delivered to the door might be one way to handle it, if I never received it then I should not be responsible for late fees. IOW they should at least cut me some slack given it was them, and not me, that caused this problem!
I look at it this way: I did get the letter about the lease renewal but I didn't get the letter stating that I'd have to pay my rent this month manually with a check. If I had then surely I would have attended to it. I'm a responsible person and manage my finances closely. Why would I possibly neglect this if I had received notification? The answer is I would have taken care of the situation properly and I probably would have argued that this should have been accounted for and planned for such that the customers, us renters, did not experience any inconvenience. That's how you properly handle such things. And if you aren't going to handle it properly you should let people slide a bit due to your incompetence.
Santana sent me the following email that said I had to 1) pay via cashiers check or money order. Since I don't have a bank that has a physical presence (Ally bank) this imposes yet another hardship on me - to get a money order - which also cost me $16. Let alone it treats me as if I'm a deadbeat that can't be trusted because they would not simply accept a check as if I'm somehow not good for the money. I resent that treatment mightily! And 2) that $76.73 + 6 * $10.23/day ($61.38) for a totaling of $138.11. Adding on the $16 that I shouldn't have had to pay for a money order for a grand total of $154.11. I will not be paying that because again, I don't feel I had any fault in this messed up situation.
Let alone the fact that it's been at least a week and my service order has never been addressed.
Note: The new Avenue5Residental email is hello@avenue5.com. I may forward this email to them if San Melia doesn't Do the Right Thing(TM).
Update: 01/17/2019: Finally came to my apartment to fix things. Only looked at the air conditioner. Sink's still broken as is the handle on the patio door and the fireplace still doesn't work. As a side note, they left a card from http://fuel.club that has some sort of "mobile gas" thing. It said it was worth $30. I figured well hell I could use $30 of gas. Turns out to be that the $30 only covers some monthly fee or some such and this thing is trying to sell gas such that they come to you. Stupid idea. But you have to wonder why they would leave such at a thing in my apartment. Were they trying to make things better for me? Or are they just into stupid scams?
On 1/10/19 10:17 AM, Property - San Melia wrote:
(BTW BULL-FUCKING-SHIT! I don't give a shit that you claim this is confidential and I'm allowed to copy or disclose its contents to anyone! You cannot dictate to me what I can do with an email you placed in my inbox, which I run and pay for. As evidence for my defiance, the contents of your fucking email is displayed right here!).Hi Andrew.In regards to our conversation this morning:About renewing your lease for 7 months: With all new leases we do require (declaration page) of renters insurance, it needs to reflect at least $100,000 liability coverage. (We do need to be listed on your policy - San Melia - as additional insured.) This must be provided 1st before we can draw up any renewals.Also about rent not being paid yet: Your total due for today is: rent $1,221.46 + $76.73 late fee on the 4th + 6 days at $10.23 a day late fees = $1,359.57 due today in cashier’s check or money order.Feel free to call the office with any questions.
o: 480.219.2733 f: 480.219.5159
14435 S. 48th Street
Phoenix AZ 85044
www.liveatsanmelia.com | Facebook | Twitter
PROFESSIONALLY MANAGED BY AVENUE5 RESIDENTIAL | AVENUE5.COM
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Andrew DeFaria
Nebraska: At least the cows are sane.
Update: On or around Jan 28th I mentioned to Melina in the office that things will still not fixed and it was fixed around Jan 29th. Sure had to wait for a long time. Still, it doesn't seem like the fireplace works at all or perhaps I just don't know how to work it. There's some metal thing in the wall that looks like if I had a key or something I could turn it and perhaps gas would start coming out. Not sure how to ignite the gas.
Feb 2, 2019: Looks like San Melia's web page is up but there is no section to check to see what I owe, whether or not direct payment is up and working again nor any place to request service. I'm hoping they bring those back up sometime. Meantime, I guess I need to pay my rent by hand again today!
Feb 6, 2019: Received letter in my door documenting charges saying I owe $196.77. Taking the $154.11 off that leaves $42.66. Sent check to San Melia for that exact amount (I will not be paying the $154.11) and set up an automatic repeating payment to San Melia for the 1st of the month for the amount of $1221.56.
Andrew DeFaria
Nebraska: At least the cows are sane.
Update: On or around Jan 28th I mentioned to Melina in the office that things will still not fixed and it was fixed around Jan 29th. Sure had to wait for a long time. Still, it doesn't seem like the fireplace works at all or perhaps I just don't know how to work it. There's some metal thing in the wall that looks like if I had a key or something I could turn it and perhaps gas would start coming out. Not sure how to ignite the gas.
Feb 2, 2019: Looks like San Melia's web page is up but there is no section to check to see what I owe, whether or not direct payment is up and working again nor any place to request service. I'm hoping they bring those back up sometime. Meantime, I guess I need to pay my rent by hand again today!
Feb 6, 2019: Received letter in my door documenting charges saying I owe $196.77. Taking the $154.11 off that leaves $42.66. Sent check to San Melia for that exact amount (I will not be paying the $154.11) and set up an automatic repeating payment to San Melia for the 1st of the month for the amount of $1221.56.
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