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After the horrifying incident with the mouse, I sent an email (which I would like to describe as scathing) to my rental office. It seemed like a good opportunity to address several other issues while I was at it. The email must have been effective because I got a call the very next day. (I imagine the prompt response might have been due to the fact that I sent the email not only to the rental office, but also cc’d their corporate headquarters. The internet makes it so easy to get that information.)

In response to my complaint about the mouse, they said that since I’d just had a pest treatment a few days before the sighting, it was probably a case of “all the mice running for cover in places they haven’t normally been going.” Which is possible, I suppose. I haven’t seen anything since then, but I’m keeping a sharp eye out.

One of my other complaints was about some water damage in my apartment. In mid-December, I noticed that a water bubble had appeared on the ceiling above my shower (it must have originated from the apartment above mine). I immediately called the office, and followed up with them a few days later when I hadn’t heard anything. The response: “Thanks for letting us know! We’ll send someone out right away.” And then nothing. The water bubble was ugly, but after that initial leak it didn’t get any worse. When I went to the office a few days before Christmas to pick up a package they were holding for me, I mentioned it again. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” was the response. “We’ll address that right away.” And, to their credit, they did: someone came out to look at it that very afternoon. “We’ll be back in a few days to fix it,” he said. And then…nothing for four weeks.

In response to my email, I got a call from the maintenance supervisor. Within a few days, the supervisor had contacted the outside company that takes care of their building repairs and two nice gentlemen came over to fix my ceiling. It now looks brand new.

The other issue concerned my neighbors. They play their music extremely loud. The people across the hall from me, the ones above me, and also the people in the next building from mine over whose apartment is on the other side of my bedroom wall. There’s a difference between enjoying your music and blasting it at full-volume. This doesn’t just happen occasionally; if it did, it would be a different story. It’s very distracting, and sometimes prevents me from falling asleep at night (usually on the weekends), and wakes me up in the morning (both on weekends and during the week). I’ve been putting up with it for over four months—I haven’t said anything, hoping that it would all just magically go away. Well, to hell with that.

The office told me they would address the noise complaint by putting notices on the doors of my neighbors. Their policy is to first notify the offenders, and if there are any more complaints in a certain period of time, they have to move out within 30 days. I don’t know how strictly they uphold that—and I don’t necessarily want to see anyone evicted—but, boy, are these people loud. If it comes down to it and I need to prove my case, I have a video camera—and I’m not afraid to use it.