My son and I lived with rats for months before management took the necessary steps to get rid of them. I called when a rat (about the size of a large guinea pig) ran over my foot while I was on the toilet. I was told they don't do exterminating calls on the weekend and I would have to wait three days for someone to come out.
When they did come out, they laid a single trap. When I called to asked why in the hell they didn't put out more traps, find where the rats were getting in and close up the holes the apt. manager said, "You just told me you saw A rat, not a bunch of rats so I told them to set one trap." After a couple of months of me screaming and crying about living in a place infested with rats (the rats woke us up at night running around the house and interrupted my son having dinner running under the dinner table) they agreed to move the large appliances, go into the attic and patch up the holes where the rodents were getting in. Days passed. Still nothing. There's more stupid reactions from management and infuriating details, but long story short - I threatened with an attorney and they finally fixed the problem and took $200 off my rent. The money off was because we couldn't eat in our own kitchen (although the manager said she didn't understand why we couldn't - gross).
Besides the rats (I found out from another tenant that he has rats, too, but he just named the main rat and lives with it - uck), there's the noise. If you live here, be prepared to hear band practice nightly starting about 2 am. The other night someone dragged their drum set outside in the wee hours and stood outside and played reveille on the bugle at about 2 am. Seriously.
While my mother was visiting, she found a vagrant passed out in the laundry room. There is no security here so we had to call Austin police.
They will also tell you that the apts. have CHA. This is true, technically. However, the air is on during part of the year and the heat is on the other half. You have no say in when it is switched over. Also, the heat is either on or off. You can't adjust the temp., just on or off. This means that if you turn the heat on and go to bed, you have to get up and turn it off in the middle of the night or you'll cook. What's particularly annoying about this is you still pay A LOT for power. You don't pay only your power bill. They take the bill for the whole building and divide it evenly. When I moved in I was told the average bill was about $80/mth. I haven't had a bill under $100 (lived here 9 mths). I've run the heat three times in the last month, no w/d and my bill was $121!
Smaller problems are the tiles coming up in the kitchen, the bath tub coating peeling away, sink holes under the tiles in the bathroom, rusty metal sticking out of the front steps, and other things you might not notice when first renting.
Oh, and by the way, it's expensive. $850 for a small two bedroom. Rats are complimentary.
Of course, we'll be moving as soon as our lease is up. There is one good thing - location. So, when my son and I see a rat or trip over a vagrant sleeping in the laundry, we just say to ourselves, "Location, location, location."