Nothing ruins the thrill of moving out of your parents' house like getting stuck with a $400 bill from your apartment complex for broken utilities and cleaning charges, said UNM graduate Marisol Enyart.
Enyart said she moved into an apartment complex five years ago before she began her freshman year.
"Within the first month of moving in, my roommate and I started to have a bug problem that we kept on calling the management about, and the management would say that they would take care of it, but the bugs never went away," Enyart said.
Enyart said she had other apartment problems such as broken blinds and broken kitchen appliances.
"We called them about several different things and they never fixed anything," Enyart said. "After three months of living there, we decided to move out, and upon giving them our 30-day notice, they said that they were not going to give us our deposit back, and they were going to charge us additional money for the very repairs that we asked them to take care of."
Enyart said she called the Law Access New Mexico Hotline, at 505-998-4529, with her legal questions, and they were helpful in clarifying what the tenant/landlord laws are.
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Enyart said there are other resources such as LawHelpNewMexico.org, a legal advice Web site that has information on landlord/tenant issues.
Enyart said she encourages students to learn what their rights are as tenants.
Some steps include:
- Get everything in writing, such as maintenance repair requests. Also, follow up verbal agreements with a written version.
- Protect your security deposit by walking through the unit with the landlord before moving in.
- Record damages to the unit, and make sure you keep a copy. Also do a walk-through with the landlord when you move out to discuss new damages.
- Take pictures for your records to be assured of the condition of the apartment when you arrived and when you left.
Enyart said the apartment complex also added on a large cleaning charge to the final bill.
"We were flabbergasted by it and we couldn't believe it," Enyart said. "We refused to pay it and we gave them our 30-day notice and our change of address and we moved on and we never heard from them again."
Enyart said she recommends tenants make a change-of-address request through the post office, and to keep a receipt of the change.
Student MJ Vargas said she also had a bad renting experience.
"In April, I had put down my deposit, which was $200 to reserve my apartment," Vargas said. "When I went to go check on it, maybe two weeks later, the apartment I had reserved had been given away to somebody else and they didn't have any other available units."
Vargas said the apartment complex told her the units were first-come, first-served even though she had already put a deposit down on it.
"We had to file a withdrawal form with their main office in Phoenix, and then they sent us a reimbursement check," Vargas said.
Enyart said students and renters should beware of what they might be getting themselves into when they are renting from a large apartment complex.
"I was just so excited to get out of my house I was just like 'whatever,'" Enyart said. "You don't realize and it's not fair and they take advantage of that. And I'm sure they make crap-loads of money from people just not knowing."
