shadow460's Blog - incompetent mainteneace people...

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Love my apartment managers, love em!

 

A week ago Friday I woke up to find my bathroom sink full of water. Joy, I get to plunge it when I get home. I went to work, hoping for the best. When I came home, the water had drained and it seemed that I'd be able to plunge it at my leisure. I went to pick up my wife from her job, and when we came home, the sink was so full that it covered the overflow ports and water was sitting an inch from the top. This is a Bad Thing, since mine and my next door neighbor's bathroom sinks drain into a common line. I called the emergency maintenance person and waited for close to an hour. Nothing. I unscrewed the pipes and put a plug into the line to keep the water from rising in my own sink. Next I went to Wal*Mart to buy a snake which would clean the drains out.

 

The pipes are mostly metal, and plastic pipes have been used to replace the metal pipes where they have rusted through. When oxygen hits a metal pipe, it starts the rusting process. When water hits the weakened pipe, it accelerates the rusting process. Now what this means is that with the water sitting in my sink drain on that metal pipe, it rusted right through the side of the pipe. That's why the water level was going down...the water was leaking out of the drain and down the wall. Further, the standpipe that goes to the roof also connects to the junction between mine and my neighbor's drains, and it has no cover on it. Simply not using the faucets doesn't stop the leaking--rain can get into the standpipe and fill up our sinks.

 

The emergency maintenance guy finally arrives while I'm at Wal*Mart. He brings a couple pairs of pliers and that's it. I told his answering service he would need a snake, but he didn't bring one. He takes the pipes apart and finds my plug, then tells me and my wife that this is what plugged up the drain. No duh, dude, it kept the water out of my sink, too. NBow you need a snake to unclog the drain. He also pointed out the cracked pipes under my sink. We placed a bucket under them and he told me that he had a replacement pipe at another property (a lie--he only works at one property) and he'd be back to fix it the next day. He comes back the next day and says he doesn't have the part here, but he'll get it Monday and come fix my drain (another lie).

 

I checked the sink every day last week, and the pipes were still leaking. I wondered if they'd had trouble getting in since I had replaced my deadbolt, but no, I left that unlocked and locked the knob on my door, which I left them a key to last year. I called the office on Wednesday, and the manager told me that they had discussed my drain that very morning (probably a lie) but they didn't have keys to my apartment. I told her that their key would unlock the knob, and they could open the door that way. Still nothing. I woke up yesterday to a flood in my bathroom, and called the maintenance person again. He said that I needed to tell the next door neighbor not to use his sink and I needed to stop using mine. Well, that's obvious, but it's just habit that I wash up in the bathroom sink after I sit on the best seat in the house. Still, I used the tub to wash up as much as possible all of last week. Aside from that, it's not my job to go and tell my neighbors what to do. I vacuumed up the water and dumped the bucket.

The conversation went like this:

"Did you call me?"

"Yes, my bathroom is flooded"

"You need to stop using your sink, I'll fix it Monday"

"It's just habit, and the neighbor is using his"

"Go tell him to stop"

"OK, when can you have the sink fixed?"

"I get the material Monday"

"You told me that last week and when I worked here it didn't take eight day to get materials"

"We don't have key to your apartment"

"Yes, you do. The pest control guys have been in here recently. I could smell the pesticide. Your key open the bottom knob, which is the only thing that's locked. I left you that key on my last day that I worked the complex"

"I look in office and don't find any key"

"OK, I'll make you one"

"I don't have material but I get it Monday"

"OK, we'll try to hold out til then"

 

Today I wake up to a flooded bathroom and soaked carpet in my hallway. I can hear the water going full blast next door, and it's going everywhere. I'd had enough. I called the emergency line and hollered into the phone for a few seconds, then erased that message and recorded a civil one for the maintenance man to hear. I did not wait for him to call me back. My wife went next door, but the guy there wasn't home. I went to the Home Depot and bought drain parts and a new deadbolt which has a quick re keying device that I can match to the office keys.

In the drain, there's the typical stuff, you know, grate, vertical pipe, trap, rubber boot, waste pipe going into wall, etc. There's also stuff you usually don't see, but is always there, the standpipe, a junction, and a main drain line. Of course, the standpipe comes out on the roof. It's there so you can snake the main line and unclog it if need be.

I took everything apart first, then cut the copper waste line that goes into the wall. I had to cut out about 12 in square of sheetrock to get to the waste line. I pushed the boot back over the remaining cracked area, closed up the drain, and turned on the water. Water sprays out from the bottom of the sink and from the wall. Looks like I missed with the boot, and the SOB maintenance man had pulled my drain loose from the sink! So I cracked open the drain and water came out of it forever. I pushed the boot further back and tightened up the drain grate. I closed it all up again and turned on the water. This time it held fast, but the water level began rising. Even after I handed him a brand new snake that SOB didn't snake the line, but he told me he did! Why is my snake still shiny silver if he used it!? When I got done it was covered in the blackest, nastiest stuff I've ever seen.

 

Now here's the kicker: I used the exact same parts when I put the drain together that I had taken off of it. Yet he's telling me he needs "the materials" to fix it. I interpret this as either laziness or incompetence, probably a little bit of both. I snaked the drain, it took like three tries. The thing was so clogged that it nearly jammed my snake line in the drain pipe.

 

Saturday evening was really when I'd had enough. That's when I sent messages to the Oklahoma Housing Authority, the Housing Finance Authority, the Oklahoma County Attorney General, the BBB, and the landlord's main office. Hey, calling the BBB and the attorney General helped with my wireless carrier, so why the heck not call 'em?

 

In the end, I did get the drain line fixed. I also installed the new deadbolt on my door. I'm going to call the office tomorrow and ask if they'd like to inspect my work (I do this kind of work for a living, so I know it is good). If so, I'll call out from my job tomorrow and wait for them. If not, I'm going to key the deadbolt to my own key and lock it to keep them from coming in and messing up my drain line.

 

Wonder why I have a high security lockset? We're surrounded by drug dealers, prostitutes, gangs, and violence. During three months last summer I saw two doors kicked in. One had been kicked so hard that the hinges broke out of the frame. When I got fired from my job here, they tried to evict me without cause. I changed my lockset to something I knew would resist the lock breaking methods their maintenance people had bee taught. I got a lockset that I can re key in about a minute, and I kept the only keys to it. Later I re keyed the knob to work with the key I left in the office on my last day, but the deadbolt could not be re keyed. I got one tonight that I can re key at will.

 

One other thing, though: when the manager and the maintenance man are both Mexican in an area that has a high rate of illegal aliens, how do I know that they aren't illegal aliens themselves and that they didn't lie to get a job with the complex? If they'd break the law twice already, what's to keep them from stealing things from me when they come in? Better to keep them locked out and risk an eviction, IMO.

 

so I've spent half the day fixing something that my landlord was supposed to fix. As soon as we have a place picked out to move to, we are going to break our lease here. And no, we are NOT going to pay any kind of early termination fees of any kind. I'm taking my lockset with me, and whether or not I put the old one back on depends on how tired or lazy I am that day. I may also undo the repairs I did to the drain and make them fix it right. I'd have left it alone, but I don't wanna live in a flooded apartment.

 

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