Or otherwise known as Madison, Wisconsin. Landlords in Madison, particularly those who have rental property downtown and near campus, have got it made. They are rolling in the cash, sucking students dry, while students live in old, grimmy apartments not kept up to code. Despite the poor conditions of these apartments, students continue to pay jacked-up rent prices because they need a place to live.
I moved to Madison about 2 years ago. Prior to moving there I lived in Oshkosh, WI. I paid just about $450 a month for a nice apartment. It wasnt new but it was kept up well by the landlord. I never had any problems. When the time came to start looking for an apartment in Madison, I had to settle for a place well below my standards, just to keep rent at about the same price I paid in Oshkosh. I settled on an old 4 bedroom apartment, complete with roommate in an renovated house-turned-apartment-complex.
It was a disaster. Despite the mounds of roommate problems, the apartment itself was a dump. A closet in the kitchen lead to a dusty, dirty, insulation filled attic complete with a piece of insulation nailed to the inside-side of the door which fell off the wall more than it actually insulated the kitchen. The kitchen cupboards were sticky, never been cleaned. And the thermostat and breaker box for half the apartment resided in the apartment below. So..apartment's too hot, too cold and they neighbors wont change it...your S.O.L. or blow a fuse in your room and your neighbors arent home...you're fucked.
This isn't even bad. After finally finding a new apartment, one which ended up doubling my rent and wasn't even close to as nice as my Oshkosh apartment, began the worst landlord (aka rental company) I have ever had. Who was this crappstastic landlord? Well let me tell you: Steve Brown Apartments, one of Madison's largest rental companies, whose even associated with a few UW Madison off-campus living places (for rich kids, of course). I would NEVER recommend anyone to rent through this place, in fact, I'd love to encourage people to go anywhere else but SBA. Here's why:
The Leaky Tub: So the should have been an early warning sign, but here's the story. When I moved into this apartment both the tub and the sink leaked. I put in a maintenance report, someone came, fixed the sink, broke the tub more, telling me "I don't have the proper tools, I will come back within a week to fix it" Well...One week turned to One month turned to Four months... In that four month period I sent in three more maintenance requests and heard nothing. Finally one day my friend, Eric, come over and point out my tub saying "why don't your get that fixed your wasting so much water?" I tell him the story and he enlightens me about this person called "the health inspector" So next morning, I write SBA an email which said something like: I've asked your 4 times to come fix my tub and your have yet to send someone, if you don't send someone within a week I will call the health inspector". The next day someone came to fix the tub.
The Radiator: Ok so win on my part with the tub, but my luck was soon to end. At the end of October an even worse problem began. And it began with a knock on my door one night. It was my neighbor from below. He says water is leaking into his apartment. Oh no! I tell him to call the after hours maintenance (which he doesnt, mind you), and close the door. That's when I notice my living room radiator hanging a good foot away from the water, with only the pipe supporting it. My radiator had pulled away from the wall and broken a water pipe within the wall, flooding the apartment below. So then I called the after hours maintenance, after a rude conversation from the guy on the other end, they tell me they will come fix the problem. I give him permission to leave, leave a note for him to pick up after himself, and leave. (Oh, did I mention that maintenance men for SBA are complete slobs and leave their dirty messes behind for the tenant to clean up? Oh well.. they are fucking slobs and they leave doors open. uh hello.. I have cats. you lose my cat and there will be hell to pay) Anyways. Did he fix the problem. No. He stopped the leak in the wall and tore my radiator off the wall, leaving me with a space heater, saying he'd come back on monday to fix it. Long story short it took exactly one week later for someone to finally fix my radiator. Thankfully we had a mild fall, so I wasn't freezing my ass of in the first week of November without a radiator producing heat in my apartment.
But this is not the end. A lady named Jackie, who works for my apartment, who also needs some manners of her own, tells me I am responsible for the radiator repair because someone "sat" on my radiator. Well no one "sat" on it persay. "leaned against" is a better description but an outward facing radiator properly installed would not give way at the slightest pressure of someone or something leaning on it. But at any rate, Jackie tells me to contact my renters insurance guy. So of course I do that, but renter's insurance is usually for "personal property", so both me and my insurance man were like what the hell is she talking about. Nevertheless, my insurance man sends an adjuster to do some investigating on my apartment. When he arrived the radiator had already been fixed, but I was smart and took some pictures, like this one:
I also showed him the radiator in my bedroom, which was still attached, but who knows how long that will last, as it was already on its own pulling away from the wall.
So he took photos and went on his merry way. A week later I get a letter in the mail from my insurance company saying the radiator way installing improperly and then i am not liable to pay for it.
But even still this was not the end of it. Right around christmas I get a letter from SBA telling me I owe them over $5000 for repairs most of which were not in my apartment but the one below (which I never saw). (oh and merry fucking christmas, love SBA). I was livid. So make an already long story slightly shorter, my insurance denied the claim again twice, each time telling SBA that the radiator was not installed properly but SBA would not budge. My insurance company was about to take them the court, but in the end ended up giving SBA their money, because court would have cost them more money.
In the end I got lucky and didnt have to pay SBA (Thank god for my good renter's insurance company). But here's what irks me the most is that SBA was in the wrong and justice was not served here. They did not deserve to get their money, and they will go on to milk as much money as possible out of their student renters, because they think we are naive. We are not, DONT FORGET YOUR RIGHTS AS A RENTER! Had I been more keen I would have gotten a building inspector in to my apartment asap, but alas, SBA gets their money..
Don't rent from SBA. They will go after your for every little issue and if you do rent with them unfortunately...leave a big paper trail for yourself.
That's my madison slumlord story, but this I'm not the only one with a story. Two friends of mine, Eric and Dan, live in an apartment a few miles away from campus, but slumlord still exist out there. Their problem? Well for one: some very rude, selfish upstairs neighbors, who've kept my friends awake at night, many nights in a row now. They've banged on the ceiling, called the cops, contacted their landlord, but the noise persists. The cause, poorly designed walls and floor, "paper thin", and a landlord who won't take actions into his own hands. As a renter you have the right to a quite place of dwelling and if a persistent problem such as the ones my friend's face isn't solved by the landlords intervention, then my friends can withhold rent, legally speaking. What a pain, but landlords are so lazy in madison they don't do squat about it until they stop getting their money of course.. then it's court and yada yada yada.. It shouldn't have to be this way in the first place.
A second problem (also the consequence of a lazy slumlord): a big slick patch of ice all up and down the drive way. Yup, anyone of those residents could fall and crack their skull open, which would be the landlords fault of course. So why not salt that shit and save yourself the potential lawsuit? LAZY SLUMTASTIC LANDLORDS.
So I know these aren't the only stories out their. And I actually could keep on going, but I'll leave it there.
From Madison? Have a Slumlord Story? Please share. (aka comment it out).
