Recently, I have added to their ever-growing list of complaints. The following is the letter written to the USDA and the Office of the Inspector General, which is of course closed due to the government shut down, and makes me a bit nervous due to the things that have been going on.. I fear an eviction due to the crazy things happening and this whole thing is starting to give me an ulcer. Always seems if it isn't one thing, it's another... but, I have faith that good things are happening, and this too will resolve itself.
Dear Mr. Brown,
As per our conversation earlier this week, I would like
to inform you of some of the goings on at our apartment complex. At
this time we do want to make a
complaint about these conditions!
My name is Julia Wood; We live in the
Show Low Apartments in Show Low Arizona. Recently, there have been
some things happening here that are of great concern to me. For
the last three years, when we (my partner and I) have done our renewal forms, we
have had to jump through hoop after hoop to ensure that we are able to continue
living there. I understand that being a resident, we are expected
to comply with the federal regulations, however, we have had our paperwork
handed to us between 6pm and 8pm on a Thursday or a Friday, documents which must
be requested from DES or our Bank or employer, and told that we have to have
them back to the managers office by 11am the next morning or we will have to
find another place to live. We have had to go back over and sign a
lease for our apartment multiple time/multiple leases. This we are
told is due to the lease not being correct the first time. We have
had to provide documentation of my child support deposits, which I have no
problem with. However, when I provide the deposit statement from
my bank, I am told that anything that I have deposited is considered income,
when I have already provided them with my income statements. There
are times when I have to return things and if it was with a card, it’s put back
automatically on my card, and now, it’s to be considered income when it’s not
income at all i.e. double billing/counting.
This year, we are to be renewing our lease by the end of
August. We have not gotten any 90 or 60 day notice or a 30 day
notice of renewal. I am getting worried that if it doesn’t get
done, we will be out of a place to live very shortly, since it’s suppose to have
been getting done at the latest, next week.
Currently
we have gone through the following with Valerie about our renewal-notification
on 8.27.13 about upcoming renewal, notification from Valerie that she would drop
off docs for renewal, Docs delivered to myself on 9.3.13, with envelope stating
all docs should be signed (Blank) and falsely dated 9.1.13. Refusal by Valerie
for this year and 2012 renewal to allow my girlfriend, Julia Wood, to claim her
status as a operator of her own business under schedule C and claim deductions
for operating costs. Our income has gone down and yet we have been informed that
our rent is going up so we have requested a full copy of this years lease as
well as the last two years in complete form to have them for review. We have not
been provided with a complete set of lease documents since Valerie become our
manager. We have been required, under threat of eviction, that if we do not
falsely date documents the 1st of Sept. we would not be able to live here
anymore every year we have had to do a tenant recertification. The thought of being
required to commit fraud is unnerving to us!
Part of our lease says that if the police are called to
any residence for a disturbance or a guest of a resident, an eviction will
result. Our manager herself has had to call the police on her son,
Jeremy, who lives with her, which resulted in her son being physically removed
from the property, and they are both still living on the premises, which, is a
clear violation of all leases. Is this not discrimination?
Her son has had police reports filed by other residents, who have stated
he has been in their apartments when they are not home and stolen their pain
medication and has tried to solicit them for prescription medication for his
personal use and sale. A resident who filed the police department,
was chastised by Valerie and warned about filing further complaints or police
reports. He is an employee of the apartments in the maintenance
department and has a master key to all apartments. He has a felony
record with convictions for drug related problems. I have learned that
another tenant personally witnessed the solicitation of Stacy,
the complaining party, by Jeremy Reed, Managers son, for Rx drugs for sale to
another friend of his. The other resident witness is afraid to speak out because
of the threat of eviction.
The residents of Show Low apartments have been informed
that prior to any visitors to even spending one night as a guest, we must give
two weeks notice with their names, ages, and any other descriptions that they
are requesting at the time, and have them approved by Connie Bosley, owner of
the apartments. This prevents any spontaneous sleep over’s for any
of the small school age children in the complex, as well as any guest who may
not be able to get home safely due to weather or dinner party.
As of the beginning of this year, we were informed that
we are not allowed to smoke inside our apartments, which I have no objection
to. However, Bosley management provides no on site smoking area
for the tenants, which results in standing out in a dirt lot, just off the
apartment property or across West McNeil . As a resident of the
White Mountains , we are under strict fire code regulations for almost half of
the year. With no provided place for the residents to smoke, they
are in danger of being ticketed for this kind of severe violation.
And that, in essence would result in them being evicted due to the
classification of police response being called a disturbance.
I believe the reason that we have not been given our
renewal forms is because of some of the other problems that are going on at our
apartments in general. Recently, we did our annual
inspection. Our apartment passed with only minor things that
needed to be fixed, repairs to the apartment, some drywall in the bathroom and
cracks in the ceilings need to be repaired. Our neighbors however,
have been telling us that they have not passed their inspections because their
couch is in front of the living room windows and that’s a fire code
violation. We have our couch in front of the living room windows
and we never had anything said about it to us. I have checked with
the Fire Marshall with the Show Low Fire Department, Brian Russell.
He said that it’s not a violation of fire code to have the couches there,
because the windows in the living room are not considered to be fire
exits. Brian informed my boyfriend that the postings
on the entrance doors were far out of date using UBC coeds rather than the
current IBC codes. Fire extinguishers are far too small and carbon
monoxide detectors have not been installed at the proper height.
He further informed him that the corridors are required to have fire
doors at the entry of each apartment to provide a 20 minute fire
corridor. Currently all entrance doors to apartments are wood, not
the required fire doors. Mr. Russell also stated that he was not
able to say whether or not the outer doors, leading into the building, although
metal doors, were fire doors. Mr. Russell went on to inform my
boyfriend that it is a violation of the law for the management to act as a Fire
Marshall. Our neighbors are outraged that we had nothing said to
us about our couches, yet, some have been told that they will be evicted if they
don’t comply with the manager’s fire codes, so they have thrown away more than
half of all their living room furniture and arranged furniture as “recommended”
by Valerie.
When myself and my partner/boyfriend moved into this
apartment, D1, from an upstairs apartment, D3, my boyfriend was required to pay
to have his electric and gas transferred to the new residence, D1.
He was then informed by the former manager, Christie, which the
owner, Connie Bosley will require him to also pay to have the electricity and
gas transferred back into Bosley Managements name for his old residence, D3.
He requested that the former manager confirm this with the owner
Connie Bosley while in the office at our facility. With the phone
on speaker during the conversation, my boyfriend heard Connie Bosley identify
herself and inform the former manager that “Mr. Lucero can pay the $35 or find
some other damn place to live”. Needless to say we, as a family of 4 paid to
have the utilities turned on/transferred back into Bosley management’s name for
apartment D3 .
Our neighbors come to my boyfriend with
questions of what to do. He told them that they need to file
complaints with the Rural Development office, USDA, your office. He has also
directed them to legal aide in Show Low. I am aware from another
tenant that our apartment manager knows that he is the one giving them this
information and she may looking to evict us for it.
Bosley Management wishes to renovate the apartments,
starting with the bottom ones, with new carpet and flooring. We
live on the ground floor in our building, apartment
D1.
Repairs are not consistently made as in our case of
our units heater last September. On 11.13.12 I wrote out on plain paper, due to
the lack of maintenance request forms in the laundry room, a request to have the
following repairs made. 1. Leak under L/side of sink 2. Heater blows cold air,
eg set temp for 75, went to bed with current temp of 72, awoke with heater
blowing cold air and temp of 68. Blower would stay on heater would not come
on.
I spoke with the maintenance man, Rodney, to
inquire about the heater repair on 11.28.12 and was informed that Valerie would
not OK the $65 charge for a HVAC repair man to come out and fix the
problem.
On 11.30.12 I filed another request for repairs
stating that I had needed to heat the apartment with our electric oven due to
the lack of a working heater in our unit. Valerie confronted me about the
request and stated that I should have informed her that I was heating the
apartment with the heater rather than file a maintenance request which will need
to be filed at the head office. A HVAC repair man was sent out 1-3 days later
for the repair. The sink repairs were made over a period of 1-2 weeks and with a
faucet that is made of plastic and currently has begun to leak frequently when
in use due to its plastic construction. We have several maintenance issues in
our apartment which have been brought to managements attention upon yearly move
in & inspections yet fail to be remedied. Severe cracking of support walls
and around doors, drywall in the bathroom, gap at base of tub, settling of tub
unevenly, building inspector not sure if tub on sub floor or joists, multiple
electric outlets which do not work properly, carpeting which sheds and creases,
shelf bars in fridge which have been broken since move-in and have not been
replaced. We are very reluctant to file requests for these repairs as they have
already been documented by management and Valerie does not look kindly upon what
she calls "unnecessary requests" as she is already aware of the problem. Her
temper and demeanor becomes extremely verbally abusive when she is pressed by
tenants to perform her duties as per regulations or law.
We do wish to bring it to
your attention that there are some serious problems going on here and to my
knowledge the other Bosley Management property in Show Low, behind Wal-Mart as
well as other properties in Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. Many of the
residents here are elderly and or handicapped/disabled and are afraid to file
complaints with your office due to the lack of protection they feel is needed to
prevent reprisals by the management in the form of evictions. Many
of the notices provided to residents are worded in very nasty language, some
posted on the laundry room door. The manager, Valerie and her boss
Connie use their authority and the threat of eviction accompanied with the loss
of further USDA assistance to bully or harass the tenants. Valerie has
previously been at the Show Low facility, several years ago, and many residents
were evicted after filing complaints with your office. Those who
remember her are extremely afraid of her tactics and the idea of eviction for no
good or valid reason.
Is there any way to request an investigation into the
conduct of Bosley management during the time that Valerie has been here at the
Show Low facility, both this time and the previous? Does the USDA
have any guidelines for harassment or bully tactics when used by landlords?
I simply am in need of any assistance you may be able to provide
to end these tactics by management and their behavior towards the
residents.
Funny thing, now that I have provided all the required items for my tenant re-certification, I have been told that I will still have to overpay my rent for this month, October, and that they will not re-do the re-certification for the last year, when I overpaid by almost $3000 for the year. Not only that, I am not allowed to turn anything sort of paperwork into the office unless the manager is there, including the rent, (her office hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 am to 12 pm... and she was out of the office sick for the majority of last month) so, now I am looking at a 10 day eviction notice come Tuesday when she's in the office again... I don't understand much here, but I know when things are not as they should be. Too many times I have lost sleep over this whole thing of the rent, and too many nights I have wondered what will happen if they don't accept my paperwork for our recertification. No longer will I be a victim, I am the only one who can save me.... That, and a good lawyer... Anyone know a good lawyer? Night all... Peace <3 :="" div="" nbsp="">
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