GIVE ME MY FREAKIN' KEYS!!!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Susan and I just signed a lease for a new apt, for which we were supposed to get the keys today.
As you might guess, since this is categorized under “The Rants,” we did not *exactly* get keys as promised. Susan went out of her way, despite having not slept for a great many days, to drive down to the rental company’s main office in Inglewood. That is NOT close. After waiting for a long time, they gave her the keys.
We decided to meet at the apartment tonight at 7 pm so we can begin the sterilization process. As you may or may not know, I’m paranoid of other peoples’ cooties. I’m fine with my own cooties, but your cooties are disgusting. We met at the apartment, which is also not particularly close to either school or work or home only to find that THE KEYS DID NOT WORK. Some genius gave us the wrong ones!
Now if we were leisurely people, this might not be such a bad thing. But we’re two overbooked, overstressed, overly type-A personalities. This did not go over well. We tried to call the 24 hour maintenance to open the place. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone. We called the leasing agent. “We can’t send anyone over to open the apartment. And no, we can’t give you keys that work. Silly girls. What were you thinking?” At which point we considered breaking down the door. You figure it’s their mistake, they should fix it!
What I would really like them to do is meet us at the apartment with the keys so they can PROVE to us that the keys work. They keep saying, “No, you have to come pick them up from us in the land far far away through trials and traffic tribulations.” Funny, they had a way of sending someone to show off the apartment. How hard could it be to meet us there to give us keys?
Is there no recourse for action? I’m just a little upset. Ok, *really* upset. I wasted 1.5 hours of my busy night just driving there and back and trying not to yell at the guy for not having this all in working order on the day of our “move in.” Thank goodness we didn’t actually have a truck with all of our stuff in it ready to be moved in! I immediately began plotting an escape from our already-signed lease. Surely there must be a legal loophole! Of course, I have absolutely no knowledge of law, so that was a very short thought cycle.
All I can say is if this is the way it’s going to be throughout our tenure at the new apartment, I’m going to have a conniption. Any of you legal people out there know what I might do in the case that they’re really not cooperating and continue to follow this course of negligence? Help!
I’m gonna calm down. Have some nice hot tea. Already had a full own turkey dinner to soothe my soul. I guess we can hope and pray that tomorrow is a better day.
Hmm. . . I don’t know how the people in LA lease their properties, but the “wonderful” people in the Irvine Company seem to try to kiss my butt all the time. Probably because they know I’m stuck and will raise the rent another “few hundred dollars” next leasing cycle. I don’t know any legal ways of getting out of a contract, but there must be some sort of loophole. Otherwise there is always mysteriously placing natto and frozen shrimp into their office. Ninja style. . . of course.
Posted by on 10/15 at 09:44 PMMan, I feel for you guys. That is so infuriating. I’ll ask Nathan what he thinks.
Posted by on 10/16 at 11:11 AMhey kat, usually at the time of signing a lease when you write the check for security deposit, first month rent and key and clicker deposit the keys and clicker should be given to you then, unless there is some other arrangement i.e. another tenant is in the process of moving and new locks will be installed, etc, as far as getting out of a signed lease for getting the wrong keys, the frustration of not getting good service, etc. they will argue that this was in the realm of a reasonable mistake. i would personally on my unit have gone out with the right keys. but some of the larger management companies will have you come back to get the “right key” this happened to me recently when i had to get an extra gate clicker for one of my places, picked up the clicker in one city went to my unit and it didn’t work. had to go back to the co. “ oh it was coded wrong” here’s the right one had to drive back to my unit, very frustrating with all those extra trips.
unfortunately , this i don’t think will come under breach of contract. i hope your future dealings with the co. are more pleasant
surprised i didn’t get a call to break in to your place haha i’ve broken into jon and yvette’s, kimi’s, mona wong’s, etc. i hope you have a better rest of the week, love, gary
Posted by on 10/18 at 04:17 AMHey Girl. The Nate Dawg says there is no breach of contract when you haven’t moved into the place yet. Breach of contract can only occur if something (usually) catastrophic has happened in the apartment which would require you and Suz to move out, even temporarily. For instance, if you guys had the right keys, opened the door, and the roof fell in. Something like that. Until then, as long as the place is habitable, you’ll just have to grit your teeth and hope all future dealings will not be so frustratingly unprofessional.
Posted by on 10/18 at 12:56 PM