Review History for Verified Resident 1036659

My notes to District Manager Shannon Carter: A) MAA's 60-DAY NOTICE RESTRICTION LIMITS TENANTS FROM MOVING ON WHEN THEY WANT OR NEED TO. IT MUST END. The 60-day notice to vacate is problematic because most homeowners I've come across will not wait two months for my lease to expire prior to my move-in as they're looking for a tenant to move in right away (I'm looking to rent a single-family home for more room for myself & visits from my kids before I actually purchase a home). Meaning,that if I find a place now I'd have to pay rent for two months simultaneously at Desert Vista AND my new place until my lease expires. I could be paying upwards of $3500 for two months in a row. That is not chump change. The 60-day notice to vacate requirement is designed to make it difficult for people to move out as it is an incredibly restrictive & limiting requirement that holds tenants liable for two months of rent versus the customary 30 days. VERY disappointed in the MAA personnel that I've dealt with in this regard & the property management company in general. I will have to share my complaints & disappointments with someone up the MAA chain of command at some point in time so that hopefully things can be changed for the better. B) EXTREME & UNJUSTIFIABLE RENTAL RATE INCREASES EVEN IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC, CURRENT INFLATION, & IMMINENT RECESSION TO $1650 Shannon, This is a follow-up to the voicemail message that I left for you on 6/24/2021 @ 12:30 P.M. I did just speak with Allison earlier today & she mentioned you're on vacation. Since I have not heard from you regarding my questions about the extreme rate increase of $177 per month that's contained in my lease renewal offer, I thought I'd reach out again. A $177 per month increase is far too much of an increase (& an unjustifiable one at that), considering the lack of demand here as there are 17 two-bedroom units currently available & no upgrades whatsoever have been made to my unit nor to the property as a whole to warrant such an increase. C) NO UPGRADES COMMENSURATE WITH THE RENTAL RATE INCREASES: In fact (and aside from the new exterior paint done a couple of years ago), nothing has been done to upgrade either of the two apartments that I've rented here nor to the community in the nearly 5 years that I've been here. No security cameras have been installed, no front door home security/video doorbell cameras installed (ring, etc), I believe that the overnight security detail has been removed, prohibitively expensive garages, forced to pay $85 for an expensive cable package that I don't want (although I should've been allowed to opt out due to the length of my tenure here), forced to pay $18 for a 'community fee' for gym & pool amenity access that should be included with rent like anywhere else, forced to pay for water based upon the average usage of all of the tenants in the building rather than for my own personal usage, no offers to clean the carpets (or any other enticements to re-sign) with a renewal offer, the gates have problems that go unresolved (like the door gate that I reported wasn't staying closed & could be pushed open), no effort to install charging stations for electric vehicles, there is still damage to the exterior of the buildings that go unrepaired, my refrigerator has been leaking all year & I've made my third request to either fix or replace it, my water heater leaked water all over the floor for the second time & in my second apartment, breezeway floors are still dirty & need resurfacing, there is still no assigned parking, no front-load washer options, I woke up on the morning of 1/1/2021 to find a bullet hole in my windshield (costing me more money to repair) as the front office does nothing to work with local law enforcement to ensure that folks are dissuaded from going out into the adjacent fields to light fireworks & from shooting their guns in the air at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve & on 4th of July, etc., there was a double-murder here a couple of years ago that went unaddressed by management (we're supposed to be a community, right? Shouldn't we be talking about issues of Domestic Violence & how to prevent & report it?). When I was in the gym the other day, I saw a gentleman walking around there carrying a 9mm gun with an extended 30-round magazine in the small of his back, hanging out of the back of the waist of his pants (which is the improper & illegal way to conceal or open carry) & no one called the police (I would have but I didn't have my phone with me). I also saw him trying to walk into the locked side of the office. No one addressed it. I can go on. D) MAA IS PRICE GOUGING & TAKING ADVANTAGE OF VULNERABLE PEOPLE I feel I'm being price-gouged & taken advantage of. This began with my move to this two-bedroom unit last year on 8/2020 (which I was forced to do last-minute because my negative credit at the time prohibited me from acquiring new housing, and, your SIXTY-DAY notice to vacate makes it even more difficult to coordinate a move elsewhere). I was treated like a new tenant, forced to run a new credit report after 3 years of no issues, forced to pay an expensive deposit of roughly $700 that I won't get back (or alternately pay I believe it was $1500 that would've been refundable but was just too much money for a building-to-building move & that I should not have had to pay to begin with), forced into accepting said cable package that I did not want as I wished to continue the service that I had in unit 3129 & in order to keep my costs down. There must've been some sort of new-tenant quota or sales competition/promotion at the time that was fueling this treatment & behavior by your agent. The treatment & said fees were avoidable, unnecessary, & placed an undue & stressful financial burden upon me, particularly given the fact that this occurred in the midst of a pandemic that had also negatively affected me. Although my FICO has improved & although I can move elsewhere, moving is extremely difficult, stressful, & expensive. I would like to stay & sign a fifth lease but the $177 rate increase has to come down. Way down. To reiterate why the rental rate increase is unjustifiable & unacceptable: 1) There are 17 (seventeen!) two-bedroom units available for rent which indicates a lack of demand. 2) Nothing has been done to improve my unit. 3) Nothing has been done to improve the property. 4) I've been forced into paying for things that I don't want & for things that I should not have to pay extra for, like a cable package that I should've been able to opt-out of, community fees, deposits, & water fees based upon others' usage. 5) I have problems with the appliances. 6) No coordination with local law enforcement to prevent random celebratory gunfire & the aftermath of falling bullets (I wasn't the only one here on this property that had a shattered windshield either!). 7) No sense of community being fostered by management via the sharing of information & an open & honest dialogue about real-world occurrences, like the double-murder that happened here due to Domestic Violence. 8) Complimentary water bottles at the gym taken away. 9) Complimentary towels as well. 10) The cable service in the gym doesn't work either (aside from one out of four TVs) & the cable service to the treadmills, elliptical, & seated bike also doesn't work (it has never worked in the nearly 5 years that I've been here). Wasn't there also a Jacuzzi in the pool area at one time as well? Where's my money going? 11) Still having gate door problems that NEVER get fixed. An EXIT sign outside of my front door hasn't been replaced in 2 years. The breezeways are still dirty & in desperate need of refinishing. Trash abounds everywhere. I've been incredibly flexible & agreeable in working with you, so please work with me. E) DESERT VISTA CONTINUES TO RENT TO CRIMINAL-LOOKING LOWLIFE INDIVIDUALS, THEREBY LOWERING THE STATUS OF OUR COMMUNITY ALONG WITH ITS ENERGY, COMFORTABILITY, & SAFETY As each day passes, & in addition to the aforementioned thug that I spotted walking around the community with a 9mm & an extended magazine out of the small of his back (whom I believe is related to one of the employees there), there are more & more people scurrying about the community with criminal element & influenced **face & neck tattoos**, other tattoos elsewhere on the body that promote & communicate gang allegiances, evil-faced expressions, evil eyes, sullen demeanor, & an overall ------, negative energy, criminal style, mannerisms, & ambiance about them (particularly at the pool, where there was a loud ------ party the other day replete with sexually-suggestive dancing by adults & children). Why are you allowing this? Your front office personnel is intentionally allowing the community to be overrun by these idiots & criminal types & they are purposely ignoring all of the tell-tale signs of problemed individuals that place the vast majority of the normal people that live here in apprehension & discomfort. My summation is that they are purposefully working to destroy this community. MAA should be working to allow only well-to-do people into the community that have clean appearances, are educated, are clean living, are of sound mind & body, are positive, & upwardly mobile. Sadly, I feel that MAA simply does not care about the status of its community & these problems will continue. F) OFFICE STAFF IS VERY NICE, HOWEVER, EVEN IF THEY ARE KILLING YOU SLOWLY BY RAISING YOUR RENT TO ASTRONOMICAL LEVELS