THE REPAIRS NEVER GET DONE OR SOMETIMES EONS GO BY BEFORE THEY DO

Is your faucet broken? Is your dishwasher not working? Do you have a roach, spider, or other bug problem? Is there some other repair or problem that needs to be taken care of in your apartment?

At Wesley Oaks Apartments in League City, Texas, once you report such a problem to the girls who work in the office, the assistant manager, or to the manager himself (Edward Ruwaldt), it will not get repaired-- or, if on the rare occasion your problem does get addressed, months and months will go by first.

Here are some examples, based on personal, first-hand experience or first-hand conversations with others at the complex:

THE BROKEN DISHWASHER

During the first month or so my fiancé moved in, his dishwasher stopped working. There was also a leak near the hose/sprayer thing on the sink. He reported it. He was told it would be fixed.

After a few weeks went by, the apartment people finally sent around one of their maintenance crew, a kid that was in his early twenties but who looked as though he was 17 years old.

Incidentally, this repair guy, (as well as the other one who was there at the same time as him), was later fired -- a lot of staff there either quits or gets fired. A high turn-over rate of employees is often a sign that a business is incompetent or has other problems.

Anyway.

So the 20 year old repair kid shows up and his "brilliant" solution to the leak caused by the sprayer thing? He placed a plastic sack around it. Not only was that laughable, but it didn't stop the leaking.

The leaking not only caused water puddles on the kitchen floor, but it also went under the kitchen counter top, causing the counter top by the sink to get buckled. The leak also got water into the cabinets under the sink, causing the wood to warp.

The management was informed about all that.

The young repair kid didn't know why the dishwasher wasn't working. Eventually the older repair guy took a look.

He said the motor was burnt out and that he would get a new motor (in the end, I think the solution turned out to be something as simple as re-setting a switch in the washer, a problem discovered by a new repair guy who was hired there. My fiancé and I know nothing about washers, so don't pin that on us).

Months go by but still no repair to the sprayer or washer. Finally, we hear from the repair guy. He still assures us that he is working on getting a motor for the washer.

During this time, as months go by, my fiancé is paying $800 a month rent on this place but having to wash dishes by hand.

After the first few months of the run around, I drafted a letter for my fiancé to mail the manager by certified mail (so that the idiot manager could not lie and claim he never got the letter -- and believe me, he would in fact lie because he and the rest of them are unethical) stating that if they did not repair the things, that we would hire a professional to fix things and then deduct the professional's bill from the upcoming rent.

For some odd reason, my fiancé never mailed this letter. He was usually late paying his rent, and I think he was afraid of doing anything to antagonize management.

When after more time went by, we reminded management of the faulty dishwasher. A new repair guy showed up, informed us that the last two repair men had been fired.

He looked at the dishwasher, said he'd be delighted to get us a new motor, but he could not at that time because the apartment complex people (i.e. the owner and management) were behind on THEIR bills.

That's right. Wesley Oaks was broke and was unable to pay their vendors; they could not purchase new dishwasher motors or anything else.

Not being able to pay off vendors is yet another clue of the ineptness of Wesley Oaks apartments -- it's also a tip-off that they are probably about to go bankrupt.

If you are living in Wesley Oaks right now (as of January 2004), you probably should consider moving out pronto, unless you are holding out hope that they are bought out by new management.

The dishwasher not getting fixed went on for several more months. Finally, about two months before he left the complex for good, my fiancé's dishwasher was fixed.

THE BUG PROBLEM

My fiancé was getting a lot of bugs, creepy crawlies and insects in his aparment, especially different kinds of spiders. During his last weeks there, I noticed that ants were starting to invade.

Management was told about the bug problem -- specifically, the pencil-necked geek boy who is the manager there. "Geek boy" said he's send in the bug sprayer guy the following Thursday, and that we'd want to pull all the furniture out from the walls so that the guy could get poison along the baseboards.

So okay, we hauled all the furniture out from the walls. The next Thursday, no bug guy!

So fiancé tells female employee who stopped to talk to him in administration building that that bug guy was a no-show. Girl promises to send in request again. Bug man is a no show that week as well. He didn't show up until the Thursday or two after that.

SIDE RANT: THE FIRE ANT PROBLEM

Speaking of the bug problem in the apartments, inside the units. Hello! Do something about the fire ant hills on your property, the ones that are all over the grass outside.

BROKEN FAUCET

When my fiancé first moved in, he had a single, female neighbor who lived across from him. If I am recalling correctly, she worked for the post office.

Her stories were our first warning (well, not quite the first warnings, more on this in a moment) that the people who run Wesley Oaks are morons.

She explained to us from the start that the people of Wesley Oaks are bad about making timely repairs and cited the example of her broken bathroom faucet.

Her faucet had been broken for some time, and the management never did send anyone to fix it -- or at least for months and months it went unrepaired. During that time, she was having to use her bathtub faucet for water, for doing things such as brushing her teeth.

FLOODED APARTMENT UNIT

This neighbor of my fiancé's also let us know that her apartment (which was on the first floor) had been flooded months before, after a big storm came through town. Some of her furniture had been ruined, and the apartment people had to replace the carpeting.

I know it's just a matter of time before my fiancé's apartment floods.

I can't count the number of times during rain storms I saw the water from the drainage pipe, rain spout thingy go right up to his patio door and pool up, as his patio was slanted inwards, towards the den area. The apartment people were informed about this and didn't care.

OUR FIRST INDICATIONS

Come to think of it, our very first indications that something was amiss at Wesley Oaks came not from the postal office worker neighbor lady, but came when the fiancé and myself were in their office to inquire about renting an apartment, to take a look around the property, and so on.

As we were standing there in the office / welcome area waiting for the employees to get the right paperwork and sort out their other errands, various residents would come in and gripe.

One woman who came in was very irrate. She told the girl at the front desk that her dishwasher had been broken for months on end. The girl at the desk made some excuse about how the repairman was away on vacation or something, and that as soon as he got back in, she'd send him right over.

The disgruntled resident snorted and said that's basically the same line they had been giving her for months on end.

Awhile later, another resident came in to complain about a broken appliance in her unit (I think it was a garbage disposal). She said it had been broken for a long time and she was sick and tired of waiting for them to do something about it. She was given the obligatory excuses. She finally left.

In hindsight, these incidents should have been a tip off for my fiancé not to take the apartment, but neither one of us had much experience at renting apartments. I thought at the time that these two women were exceptions or it was justs sour grapes. In the future, I'll know better if the same thing ever happens again.

It just never honestly occured to me that a business establishment could be so unprofessionally, unethically, and irresponsibly managed. But I've learned my lesson: people will screw you over at each and every turn. You need to look ahead, be on guard, and protect yourself.

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