Review for Home Sweet Home (Hsh Boulder) Apartments

Home Sweet Home Boulder (HSH Boulder) leases what are supposed to be fully furnished condominiums in Boulder Colorado, for long- and short-term periods. Its website boasts that the units are so well appointed that all you have to bring is your clothes.

This is hardly what we found. In the unit we rented for three summer months on Marine Street, just down the street from the University of Colorado, we were given the following when we moved in:

- A filthy couch with a gaping hole in the seat, with springs exposed. The landlord responded by placing a piece of plywood over the hole.
- A broken toilet we finally fixed ourselves a week after the landlord failed to do so.
- A broken, non-working telephone despite the website claim that this was standard with these units. The landlord said her prior tenants brought their own cell phones.
- Windows with no screens, that didn't open properly.
- A filthy oven, along with filthy pans inside.
- A cable television cable emerging from a hole gouged in the wall. The landlord said it was not her responsibility to repair this.
- A broken screen door -- never repaired.
- Kitchen utensils, dishes and glasses of a quality less than you'd expect from a flea market.

At one point, the landlord installed a flat-screen television, which she bought in bulk for all of her units. HSH uses these as a selling point to potential tenants. The landlord initially tried to get us to pay the installation cost, but we said we had no interest in paying for a television in what was supposed to be a furnished apartment, especially since we were there for just three months and wouldn't be spending our time in Colorado watching television. The audacity of asking us to pay to help furnish a "furnished" condominium apparently didn't seem like greed to her.

Some of these things were eventually repaired. Others were not. When we voiced concern about the continuing poor condition of the couch and other aspects of the apartment, the landlord said she should have installed the television after we left.

Finally, we discovered that the landlord did not even have a license from the City of Boulder to rent this unit. This is a city code requirement. We learned this from the City, which was pursuing this lack of a license when we left.

Boulder, Colorado is a wonderful town, and this apartment does not reflect the high quality one can expect with most things in this city at the foot of the Rockies.

The conditions in this unit were appalling, especially with a monthly rent in the "executive rent" range. This was the worst rental experience we have ever had.