If you didn’t click on the link above, the story goes like this:  A military couple (enlisted in the National Guard) being deployed to Iraq are being fined $800 for breaking their lease early.  Why do I care?  Because we lived there for a year, and have both decided that if that were the last apartment complex on earth with vacancies, we’d live out of my car.

When we left Hawaii when The Mr. got out of the Navy three months early (and only 6 months into our lease), here’s how it went down:

The Mr.: “I’m getting out of the Navy early and we’re moving back to Texas”
Lani Properties: “Do you have a copy of your DD-214?”
The Mr.: “No, but I have this...” (shows early separation for educational purposes papers)
Lani Properties: “Ok, I’ll put you down for move-out on Aug 31st.  Just fax me a copy of your DD-214 as soon as you get it.”

And that’s it.  They charged us for that month’s rent, and they even gave us most of our security deposit back.

When The Mr. got transferred to OKC, if we had broken our lease at El Lago, it would have cost more than to wait it out and pay rent for 3 months in two locations.  BUT, he didn’t have government orders to relocate.

The Mr.: “I’m being transferred out-of-state by my company.”
El Lago: “If you break your lease now, it will cost (taps calculator) $3200 to break the lease, plus you’ll have to pay us the $100 we took off of your security deposit, and the $498 we took off of your first month’s rent.”
The Mr.: “So it’s going to cost us more to break the lease 3 months early than it will to pay $948 for 3 months?”
El Lago: “Yes”
The Mr.: “Fine.  Here’s our 90-day notice that we’re not renewing our lease.”

I still have my lease...here’s what it says (verbatim):

MILITARY PERSONNEL CLAUSE.  You may terminate the Lease Contract if you enlist or are drafted or commissioned in the U.S. Armed Forces. You also may terminate the Lease Contract if: (1) you are (i) a member of the U.S. Armed Forces or reserves on active duty or (ii) a member of the National Guard called to active duty for more than 30 days in response to a national emergency declared by the President; and (2) you are either (i) given change-of-station orders to permanently depart the local area, (ii) deployed with a military unit for 90 days or more, or (iii) relieved or released from active duty. After you deliver to us your written termination notice, the Lease Contract will be terminated under this military clause 30 days after the date on which your next rental payment is due. You must furnish us a copy of your permanent change-of-station orders, call-up orders, or deployment orders or letter. Military permission for base housing doesn’t constitute a permanent change-of-station order. After your move out, we’ll return your security deposit, less lawful deductions. If you or your co-resident are a dependent of a servicemember covered by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act who is entitled to terminate this Lease Contract pursuant to this Section, you may also terminate this Lease Contract under this paragraph. A co-resident who is not your spouse or dependent may similarly terminate this Lease Contract under this military clause. Unless you state otherwise in your Rental Application, you represent when signing this Lease Contract that: (1) you do not already have deployment or change-of-station orders; (2) you will not be retiring from the military during the Lease Contract term; and (3) the term of your enlistment or obligation will not end before the Lease Contract term ends. You waive all your rights to terminate if you misrepresent the facts in the proceeding sentence.

I still have the lease from Lani Properties in Hawaii, too...because it took too long to type all of that out above, let me just say, it’s the same.  There’s even a clause in there about terminating the lease a month after, however, we did not get charged for anything other than our last month’s rent.

But El Lago is a clusterfucking rip-off.

Shitty Construction: When you first walk into the apartments, they look nice...but the construction is horrible.  The foundation is shifting on a lot of the buildings (it was really bad on ours).  On some buildings, you can see the where the grates above the stairs used to be level at one point...but not anymore.  On our building, we had a crack above our bathroom door and our balcony door wouldn’t open or shut properly because of the foundation problems.  This was brought up with management, and of course, nothing ever happened.  The weather stripping on our balcony door was coming off when we moved in.  When we filled out our “inspection” papers, I noted this, and asked them to come fix it.  Of course, they never did...and it just got worse over time.  Of course, they billed us for it when we left.

Organizational skills: They have none.  When we moved in, we told them we wanted 2 covered parking spaces.  They said they were doing an audit of their parking spaces, and will let us know in 2 weeks.  Two weeks went by, and they assigned us two.  When we parked in them the first night, I got a lovely note on my car asking me not to park in someone else’s stall.  So I left a note on my car to tell them to suck it because management assigned it to us.  However, I went and talked to management, and OOPS.  They said “the girl that doesn’t work here anymore” didn’t keep track of the assigned spots.  Fine.  Give me another spot.  So they did.  Next night, I park in my new spot.  The next morning, I get another note from another person asking me not to park in their spot.  So it’s back to management.  OOPS again!  The same girl must have assigned this to someone else and we didn’t have good records.

Maintenance: The maintenance guys themselves were always awesome...however, actually getting the office to put in a ticket for them to come out is another story.  We lived on the 2nd floor, and all of the apartments have 9’ ceilings.  When the stupid cat fell out of the window and busted the screen out, we called the office to have someone come put the screen back up (there was no way we’d be able to get the screen on since it fastens from the OUTSIDE), what with the 9’ ceilings and all.  We waited...and waited...and waited...no one ever came.  Despite our repeated attempts to get someone out there.  So we left the screen off...and got billed for it when we left.

Garbage: There is only one dumpster on the entire complex.  The dumpster is located on the far end of the complex, but they offer curbside pickup twice a week.  However, if you set your garbage out before trash pickup day, they’ll actually dig through your garbage to find out whose apartment it came from and fine you.  This did not happen to us personally, but it did happen to our neighbors, and it is why I finally got around to buying that cross-shredder that I kept saying I’d buy for 3 years, but never did.

Pets: They make you pay a $150 non-refundable fee, and a $150 pet deposit ($300 total, per pet).  When you move out, however, they will not refund the deposit, and they will charge you and extra $50 for de-fleaing the apartment.

Carpet Cleaning: On move-out, you are required to use their carpet cleaning company of choice to steam clean your apartments.  If you don’t, and you present a receipt for steam-cleaning, you will be charged $70 for cleaning the carpet, anyway.

Dog Shit: There are signs about the entire complex to pick up after your dog’s shit.  There are even dog-shit-bins in the courtyard areas.  However, people (management, included) let their dogs shit where ever the hell they want, AND, don’t do a damn thing about it if you complain about it.  There was dog shit in the hallway entrance to our apartment stairs that stunk up the entire hallway, even upstairs to our apartment.  When I complained about it, they said, “we’ll take care of it”, then nothing.  I think one of the neighbors got sick of it and cleaned it up.  I actually saw someone letting their dog shit on the little putting green they had in the courtyard, then walk off like nothing ever happened.

Kiss Your Deposit Goodbye: No one I know of left that place and ever received their deposit back in full.  Most people I’ve talked have not only been denied their deposit, but billed extra once they left.

Seriously, if anyone reaches this post from doing a google search on the apartment complex, stay the hell away!  I hope this whole deal with the guardsmen put them out of business.

« Hide Post