Logan W.
1/5
If I could give less stars I would. Oh where to begin. Like everyone else has said, they're fine until you don't renew your lease, then let the fun begin.
I started renting from Alpha in 2017 and had a fine experience the first fall and into the spring. Then I got new neighbors who were constantly fighting and yelling, I called the landlord to complain and she said they can't do anything about it unless I call the police.
A few weeks later I walked out my front door and stepped in a pile from a dog and called the landlord to complain and she said they can't speak to that tenant about it because it was a service dog nor can they comment on if they have a dog. Instead they sent out a single email to all of the tenants asking them to pick up after their pets; how this was going to help is anyone's guess.
Then came the story of the showings. My apartment was shown countless times to which I didn't have an issue with considering it was the last available unit of its type. What I did have an issue with is when the phonecalls about showings stopped and became emails that could be missed. Or when even the emails stopped and I'd get a call 15 minutes before my lunch break (where I go eat at home) saying that they forgot to call me about a showing and would be by shortly to show my apartment. One time I can forgive, but not this many.
Then comes the security deposit, which was $615. I attempted to call Magic Carpet, their "recommended" carpet cleaner but he never returned my messages in the weeks prior to my move out, so I chalked that up to be taken off my deposit.
I gave them my keys on a Monday, 5 days before my lease was up. The weekend before I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom all according to their cleaning checkout list. I realistically spent 10-15 hours cleaning the place by myself and it looked even better than it did when I rented it. I even dusted the light switches, which I thought was ridiculous at the time but didn't matter in the end.
A few weeks later I got a check for my security deposit, less the fees for the cleaning and the carpet cleaning. I was quite shocked my check was only in the amount of $215. That is $400 less than my security deposit. Inside they included a bill for the labor and supplies for the cleaning crew (which Alpha oh so graciously paid $50 towards) in the amount of $340 + $25 for supplies. The cleaning crew charges a total of $70 an hour for a crew of three individuals. That means it took them 4.8 hours as a group to clean my apartment and a total of 14.57 individual hours to clean my apartment. On their checklist it lists every single aspect of the apartment as needing to be cleaned. There is no way anyone could have looked at the apartment and thought this.
I sent them an email about it and I was met with the most blanket statement I've ever seen. Chris Smith responded with the generic "we looked into it and it looks good to us" type response I could've imagined. On top of that, Chris Smith essentially claimed I was lucky that it didn't cost me the full $1,777 to clean the apartment as it states it could in my lease. Now, just to delve into the math on that one, at the rate of $70 an hour for a team of three, that is 25.38 hours as a team to clean the apartment and a total of 76.15 individual hours. That price is so outrageous I don't even know where they get these numbers.
Since my last communication, Chris Smith has stopped responding to my emails about the deposit. There is no justification to the charges or explanations, just "well it COULD have been" and other similar statements.
I've attached 5 of my 51 photos that they said didn't dispute their charges of over $300 for cleaning. I beg to differ.
Run for the hills future tenants. Once they have your deposit they won't ever let it go.
