My Move-Out, but not Move-In Day in Ames

[Rogue52]

So, today is August 2nd. All of us off-campus students should be in our new apartments and be settling in getting ready for another football season and maybe start thinking about classes.

Not me. I lived out on Billy Sunday Rd. this past year at South Duff Community Park. I was never a big fan, so we decided to move across town to Westwood Village owned by Haverkamp. We wanted a first floor unit with a walkout as we have a dog. Haverkamp assigned us a first floor unit with walkout patio and assured us TWICE over the phone that this was the case.

We move out of the current apartment at 9:00 AM on July 31st and can't move in to the new apartment until 3:00 PM. Most of our stuff is in a storage unit at this time. We hang around town until about 2:00 PM and then head over to Haverkamp's offices to pick up a key. We get to the apartment and it's not a first floor unit! I call Haverkamp up to complain saying we were assured by the office that it was in fact a first floor unit. I said we would have never moved if we were going to have to take a second floor unit. (There are a lot more details I'm leaving out, but you get the jist). Haverkamp finally agrees to void the lease. We return the keys and got a check for our deposit.

So, now it's 4:00 PM on July 31st and we have no where to stay. We called up a couple places to look at a few duplexes. Luckily, the landlords agree to show the units on one of the busiest days of the year. We find one we like, but wouldn't be able to move in until Monday, August 4th. Unfortunately, we need a place to stay until then. So, I haul my fiance, dog, cat, and myself back to my parents place in Davenport to spend the weekend. We submit the application yesterday and thankfully were approved. We now move in Monday afternoon back in Ames.

I got a call from Haverkamp Friday that it was a mistake in documentation in the office and the person that wanted the second floor unit had complained as well. They figured out their mistake and gave them the second floor unit. Unfortunately for them, they had already voided my lease and paid me back the deposit, so I was not forced to take the first floor unit. They offered it to me, but I said I had already found a duplex to move into starting Monday. They weren't to happy about it, but I really don't understand why.

In the end, it's all for the better, but Haverkamp really made it a stressful couple days and we lost a whole weekend of moving in. I lost two days of work already and will have to miss Monday as well.

[mplscyclone]

I don't want to throw any stones, but I lived in a Haverkamp property for 2 years.... Worst landlords ever.... Never completed maintienence requests. I had something like this happen where our apartment flooded and we needed the "wood" floor replaced... They did the wrong apartment. It wasn't until a week before I realized they weren't coming and they tried to say they already did it... I was like "no the apartment is still all wet and the boards are coming up"... It took them another week just to come out to do it.

You are better off without them. It's their bad and they are out the money. Just glad you were able to find a decent place to live!

[cloneu]

I have heard and seen lots of bad moves from landlords in Ames, mostly Jensen. But I would recommend Total Property Mgmt. I lived in TPM apartments for 2 years, on Welch and Campus Ave. and don't recall ever having any complaints. Best of luck on your move!

[SeattleClone]

Ahh, good ol' Ames property management. They don't care, because they don't have to. I hope you told Haverkamp to go **** themselves when they called back. That is ridiculous that they weren't too happy about it, it was THEIR mistake...

[Broodwich]

When I got an apartment on Mortensen from Ev Cochrane the same thing happened. I had a lease on an apartment in a complex on Pinon. They give me the keys, I open the door and there are people and a dog in the apartment I was renting. They said they had decided to stay.

I ended up with a gross single bedroom in a multi-dwelling house. It cost more, there was a huge bleach stain on the carpet. Like SeattleClone said, "They don't care because they don't have to." I have rented in West Des Moines, Ames, Story City and Iowa City. The landlords in Ames are by far the worst. All of the chips are stacked in their favor.

My recommendation: Rent for as short of a period of time as possible. If you can afford a $90,000 house somewhere, do it. The freedom, comfort and fact that you are paying yourself every month makes it a no-brainer. I rented for far too long.

Also for those of you who rent, I would make a minimal effort to recoup your deposits. As a working man time I needed to take off from work to clean my apartment to the unattainable standards that these turds keep plus the expense ended up costing more than recovering the deposit money. Landlords see deposits as a cookie-jar to keep their business costs low. It's not my job to offset the costs of doing business and routine maintenance.

***END RANT***

[SeattleClone]

I've had apartments where I've spent hours cleaning trying to get it perfect, and apartments where I've just locked the door behind me when I walked out with my last box. My refund usually ended up being about the same either way. The one exception was my last apartment in Seattle. If you ever move to Seattle for some reason, I recommend West Seattle Apartments. They were pretty good management and extremely fair with the refund. It was one of those cases where I locked the door behind me when I took my last box out. 2 weeks later I got my refund with all but $35 for an hour of cleaning.

[ia8manfan]

When you signed the lease several months ago, it should say exactly what apartment you are going to be in. Ask for a copy of it. Then if there is a problem, you got it in paper to stick it in their face.

On a side note, I lived in four places in Ames and ALWAYS got my full deposit back. I lived in two apartments and two houses, landlords were Jensen, Haverkamp, etc. They key is we always moved out mid-school year for some reason, (graduation, found subleasors, etc.), and after 30 days if you dont get your deposit, you automatically get your full amount back under Iowa Code. We lived in a house on Knapp, trashed it and partied in it, subleased it out to frat guys in January, and got full deposit cause the landlord forgot to pay. I moved to an empty duplex for the semester and paid cheap rent cause it was empty.

[cloneu]

Originally Posted by SeattleClone

I've had apartments where I've spent hours cleaning trying to get it perfect, and apartments where I've just locked the door behind me when I walked out with my last box. My refund usually ended up being about the same either way. The one exception was my last apartment in Seattle. If you ever move to Seattle for some reason, I recommend West Seattle Apartments. They were pretty good management and extremely fair with the refund. It was one of those cases where I locked the door behind me when I took my last box out. 2 weeks later I got my refund with all but $35 for an hour of cleaning.

I have been pretty lucky on deposit refunds. Twice in college I moved out of a place where a couple of the people living there stayed and I was given my whole deposit back for very minimal cleaning.

[Cyclone62]

We got $100 dollars of our $1200 deposit on our first house in Ames... Martin Prop. charged us nearly $200 for trash sitting on the curb when we moved out. I would recommend never renting from them.

[ia8manfan]

Originally Posted by Cyclone62

We got $100 dollars of our $1200 deposit on our first house in Ames... Martin Prop. charged us nearly $200 for trash sitting on the curb when we moved out. I would recommend never renting from them.

Did you live on Hunt St.? I know Martin screwed a lot of people who lived on Hunt. We had them on Knapp and they treated us pretty decently. We only got fined once, and they told us they would drop it if we renewed (we were gonna do it anyway)

[Cyclone62]

Originally Posted by ia8manfan

Did you live on Hunt St.? I know Martin screwed a lot of people who lived on Hunt. We had them on Knapp and they treated us pretty decently. We only got fined once, and they told us they would drop it if we renewed (we were gonna do it anyway)

Lived on Ontario. Our front door broke in December and we told them to fix it, then they fined us for it at the end of the lease when they never came to fix it. I just can't stomach them after that stuff.

[SeattleClone]

Originally Posted by Cyclone62

We got $100 dollars of our $1200 deposit on our first house in Ames... Martin Prop. charged us nearly $200 for trash sitting on the curb when we moved out. I would recommend never renting from them.

I also got a huge extra trash charge from Martin when I moved out of my place on Wilmoth, but then again I did have about half the contents of my apartment sitting on the curb, including a couch that I had to cut in half to get out of the living room. I was getting ready to move to Seattle, and only taking things that I could fit in my car, while still being able to see out of half the windshield and the driver's side window. Surprisingly enough, I didn't get charged for the hole we punched in the hallway ceiling, forcing the aforementioned couch into the living room...

[LindenCy]

Glad I never rented in Ames.

[Flag Guy]

Rented from 1st Property Management... not too many troubles with them (we'll see what I get back for a deposit here but...) They were pretty good about fixing maintence problems that we reported, apartment was clean when we moved in (could still smell the paint from them repainting the walls), etc.

Biggest complaint I had was they did a ****** job of clearing the sidewalks and parking lot after it snowed, otherwise no real problems. I was on Hyland Ave so my rent was a bit higher though

[mwitt]

Some of these stories is why I like living in Freddy. Pretty reliable landlord.