When I and my roommate showed up to move in on August 1, 2005 (the day our lease started), we were told there would be delays due to cleaning. The managment of Four Seasons Apartments strung us along, moving the day we could move in back a few days at a time. We were not given any warning that there would be a delay, and the apartment did not offer to put us up in a hotel, in fact it refused to do so. We lived out of cars and stayed with my brother.
We finally were given keys on August 19. When we entered the apartment, we found that it had not been cleaned and that the previous tenant was sleeping on the floor. The apartment had not changed the locks, and so he had come back in during the night. We could not move in that day.
On August 20 we were finally able to move in. THREE WEEKS AFTER OUR LEASE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE STARTED. The apartment had not been cleaned. The carpet has large black stains on it, as if perhaps the previous tenants were mechanics and had spilled oil. There was no hot water in the bathroom sink until late November - more than two months and seven maintenance requests after we moved in.
Apartment management attempted to charge us for the three weeks when our lease was running but we were not yet able to move in. After three weeks of calling corporate head quarters and arguing we were finally cleared not to pay for time when we had not been living in the apartment.
The apartment I share with my roommate has had a bad smell to it since we moved in. Our kitchen cabinets are in poor repair. The doors of the cabinets do not stay closed. There are two holes in the plaster on the walls, both of which are larger than two inches across. Our stove dates to the mid-70s. For our first two months in the apartment only one burner on it worked. Now with repairs three of four burners work. Maintenance requests tend to be "lost." However unfilled maintenance requests are hardly my biggest concern.
Admittedly the apartment had less control over the parking lot and surrounding area, however to the extent they can do something they don't. The previous tenant (the one who had been living in our room when we were given keys) lived in his car in the parking lot from August 19 until mid-October. In early October he asked me if he could live with my roommate and me. He also asked me out. He lived in the parking lot until he was arrested for something unrelated to his living arrangements (so we heard from the Four Seasons property manager who had heard from his friends). The apartment complex did not ask him to leave or do anything to make his living there inconvenient. Apartment management did not seem at all concerned about the situation and did not take it seriously.
The parking lot is very poorly lit. It has a security gate, but the gate is never used. I have been pan handled within 6 feet of my apartment door. Panhandlers have walked into my neighbors' apartment and demanded money. I see people picking through the dumpster looking for goodies more often than I see people throwing things away. (And it is not a good dumpster for diving.)
At least once a week someone is arrested on the street in front of the apartment. Flashing blue lights do not mean a speeding ticket around here. It is somewhat awkward to walk past when there is yelling involved, because you never know what may happen.
By early October my roommate and I were trying to get out of our lease. We had not even been in the apartment for 5 weeks before we were trying to leave. Apartment management was rude to us. We were not allowed to transfer our lease to another property owned by the same company.
It is now mid-December. I have had four windows on my car smashed and two door panels beaten in. (Parking is available, but I recommend parking elsewhere and walking to your car.) For all I know I now have a stalker complements of Four Seasons Apartments.
Remember that vandalism and break-ins need to be factored into your cost of living. If you add these to rent here, for me, it would have been cheaper to have paid $800 a month to live where the apartment is kept safe. I have spent more than a 40 hour work week calling police waiting for police to arrive and filling out police reports. Not being able to move in when my lease started was also a hassle. If you value your time, then consider this before you sign a lease at Four Seasons. Please, if you know anyone who is thinking about living in Four Seasons, tell them to email me (wvr05@fsu.edu). We should get together and chat. This is in no way shape or form a safe place to live.
-Wilhelmina Randtke
*April update* (The above was originally posted around Dec 18.)
I am still living in the Four Seasons Apartments. I last saw my "stalker" 5 weeks ago. I spent a large amount of time at the beginning of this semester trying to get out of my lease. I saw a lawyer who told me what it would cost to sue to get out of my lease (it's unpredictable and tends to be high). He also told me that once in court apartments tend to file a motion here and a motion there. Each motion gets a 10 day time period to respond, so it is easy to draw the trial out until the lease ends anyway.