Review for San Juan Apartments

Even though this was my first time looking for an apartment, I should have taken a clue from the broken call boxes (who knows how long they haven't worked for?) and just left. But since it was one of the few apartments in my price range, I stayed and looked. At first glance, I liked what I saw, and the manager promised that the stove would be fixed before I moved in (fixed as in, it didn't work, PERIOD). I looed at some other apartments later that week, but they were either way to small or way too expensive, so I went with the San Juan. Besides, the layout was nice, it had a full (though small) kitchen, and the courtyard was pretty.

After I moved in, I realized what I had done. I knew that there was going to be construction across the street soon, but I didn't know they'd be closing off the entire street, or that the construction would start as early as 7 AM on some days. And since they're building a new addition to Harborview, I don't think they'll be done before my lease is up, meaning I can't even park in front of the building to move.

The construction is nothing compared to other problems with my apartment. There is a giant gap under my front door that I didn't notice until it started getting cold. Not only does the cold get in my apartment, so do a multitude of giant spiders and cockroaches. I've put in a maintenence request to fix it (in addition to my wobbly toilet that leaks all over my bathroom floor) and while I was told these would get fixed on Thursday morning, at the latest, here it is, Thursday afternoon, and I still have water all over my bathroom floor, and cockroaches all over my kitchen.

I should explain the wobbly toilet. Everytime I sit on it, it wobbles. It's not firmly screwed to the floor. This bothers me, as I don't believe toilets should wobble. My apartment manager said it's fine, and instructed me to prop it up with cardboard. So I do, but when it's not wobbling, it leaks all over the floor.

The stove did finally get fixed. After a week and a half of living there, the maintenance people finally came to fix it... while I was in the shower. I ended up having to hang around in my bathrobe while they fixed it, tracking dirt all over my carpet.

Being incredibly stressed, I just wanted to take a bath. So I tried. Only, the water doesn't get hot enough (the best I've ever done was mildly warm), and doesn't say warm for long enough to fill the tub even half way. I told this to the apartment manager, and he said the hot water tanks were pretty small. But too small to fill the bathtub? Why even put a bathtub in the apartment?

My upstairs neighbor blasts music at 2 am, and I've taken to banging my ceiling to get him to turn it down. I find the manager isn't often present, and I don't even know if there is a quiet hours rule.

One thing I do like about the apartment is that it's a controlled access. You need a key to get into the courtyard, and to get access to all of the apartments. But the callbox is broken, so if visitors are coming over, they need to call you before hand and let you know so you can wait for them and let them in. The gates don't really do much, though, because when I've been leaving or coming home on multiple occasions, I've witnessed various people climbing over it, either because they forgot their keys, or they were insane, convinced somebody there had robbed them, and proceeded to knock on every single door and demand that the tenants call the police for her.

All in all, I've learned a lot from my experience here, and I can't wait until my lease is up. Unless you absolutely cannot afford anything else, do yourself a favor, and stay faaaar away.