When I moved in I did not think the price was too high. My partner and I were paying $2,475 for a two-bedroom apartment, a parking spot, and dog rent for our two dogs. We are law students and live off of a fixed income from our federal loans. When we signed our lease we were warned that the price may go up if the apartment cannot offer the same amount of concessions. However, the employee that helped us sign our lease said that when it comes to that we should just say that we are students and that we cannot pay more. She said that if we convey that then we should not have a problem staying for the same price. This statement gave me piece of mind but now looking back I should have gotten it in writing.
We were informed over a month ago that our rent would go up by around $400 because parking was higher and the apartment could only pay $500 worth of concessions rather than $700 of concessions. We did what the previous employee had told us to do. We told the apartment complex that we are students and we cannot afford to pay more. It took a week for them to get back to us and they said that they couldn?t give us any discounts at that time. By this point the deadline for giving in our notice had passed. I did not realize this would be an issue because we were waiting to hear back about the price and if the price were fine that we would not have wanted to move.
After looking at our budget my partner and I determined that we could not pay the new price. However, the apartment wanted us to pay the new price for our last month because we did not give adequate notice. This felt extremely unfair. The only reason we did not give notice is because we did not want to move. We loved our apartment and were waiting to hear back about whether the price would be the same.
If we had given adequate notice we would only have to pay $1,500 for April but because we were late the apartment wanted us to pay around $2,800. This was extremely upsetting. I did not want to move and was relying on the statement of an employee that was given to me when I signed the lease. It was only after several conversations that we got the last month down to $2,200 but I believe it is still unfair.
Not only do I have to move and incur those expenses but I have to move and pay an extra $800 in rent because I was relying on the apartment to be fair and go off of was what said to me.
My partner and I are moving soon. We are moving to a rental house a couple of miles away for only $2,300 including parking. We are getting a lot more for our money by moving and I honestly think that Archstone is trying to get around rental control laws by including the concessions to make it seem like you are getting a good deal. Apartments across the street from mine are only $2,100 for a two bedroom, with parking, and no dog rent.
I really loved my apartment while I lived there but was not given what was promised.
My partner and I were planning on staying at our Archstone apartment throughout law school?for at least three years. We would have stayed had our rent not gone up so much. We were told that if we convey that we are students on a budget then our rent would not go up. I wish I had gotten that in writing. If our rent had not gone up $400 a month because of the ?concessions? lie then we would have stayed for 3 years or more.
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