I signed a lease with Middletown near the end of July this year for a unit within a triplex that they claimed would be ready on the 15th of August. The gentleman who I spoke to (Quenton) told me that it was urgent that I sign the lease as soon as possible because the unit was in high demand, and that someone else was going to take it if I didn’t sign by the end of the day. I was moving from Indianapolis, so I was eager to have everything ready and planned out. I needed to move in that weekend because I was starting my first year at BSU the following Monday. Because someone was occupying the unit at the time, I toured the unit virtually and wasn’t able to get a good look because of the current tenants belongings, but still trusted that they would have it clean by the time I was moving in. They had two weeks between the time the other tenant moved out, and the time I was moving in. Two days before I’m supposed to move, the “manager” texts me and tells me that the unit most likely wouldn’t be ready by the move in date and that I’d have to push it back. Knowing that I have a new job to start the same weekend, and classes starting on Monday, I refuse. I in great detail explained to her that this simply cannot work. She tells me that she is doing everything in her power to have it ready by then. At 8 am the morning of my move in date, the manager calls me to tell me that the unit is not ready. I have almost all of my furniture and belongs packed up on a truck and hired movers there to help me. When I told her this, she said that there’s a “team of people” working on getting this done, and that it should be ready by 5 pm. I lost hundreds of dollars. At 7 pm the unit was done and me and a friend were unable to move in most of my things.
The very first thing to notice about this unit was the overwhelming cat smell. I myself have two cats, and never in my life have I smelled anything this foul. Not only was the unit not clean, the stall shower door was completely rusted and the windows were broken. Not even a day into living at this unit, I realize that it was infested with fleas. So bad that I was covered in flea bites after one night. After speaking with the manager, she revealed that she knew that the unit had been treated for fleas three times before, and that it was supposed to be treated again but there was no time. She said she didn’t want to “scare me away”. If I had known of this issue, I would have obviously never signed this lease. But the manager, knowing that I have two cats(that are registered ESA animals), lets me move in anyways. I was able to pivot into a new unit. Before I moved, I spent days washing literally everything I own and was able to get most of the fleas off my cats. This included spending the night in a hotel because the cats were crying in pain from being bitten, and I was also getting bitten, and another $75 at the 24 hour laundry. All of this happened the first week at a new school. Middletown has given me a rent concession for the $450 I spent on treatment and medicine for me and the cats. I am still actively treating my home and my cats for fleas. Shortly after moving into the new unit, I realize that my cats had stopped eating altogether. I wasn’t able to get them into the vet unit recently, but have since have found that they both have infections due to worms, brought on by the fleas. One of them has lost almost four pounds. They had to have bloodwork done, and now are on strong antibiotics. I’ve sent the vet bill and cost of medication to Middletown, demanding at least a rent concession for that amount, totaling $572 and haven’t heard anything yet. The new unit still does not have hot water, it gets lukewarm at best but is worlds better than the first. They do not respond to the maintenance requests, but they will mark them as complete. After reading through the reviews on Google I realized that I had made a huge mistake. They don’t often answer the phone so the only way to get anything done was to go into the office. Even then I’m treated like the problem.
