Since the 19'th, the fire alarm here has been broken. It started off by going off at 1:00 am. The fire department showed up. They disabled it. Then an hour later it went off again, yet they didn't show, and it kept on going off until someone in the front apartment silenced it (the console with the batteries, the wires, and the buttons was open, and didn't lock anymore) by pushing the silence button. Then it went off until 5:00 am, at which time after 45 seconds of alarms (keep in mind that there is one alarm per bedroom and one in the living room, that has a flasher, and a BIG LOUD siren!) I turned it off.

Technically tampering with the fire alarm is a federal offense I've been told or something, but whatever. I need sleep. The next day, when I was at work, my roommate heard the alarm go off, at around noon. It went off for like an hour and 20 minutes before someone else silenced it. It was apparent that the link between the 911 service and the fire alarm was severed somehow, or malfunctioning, because only some times does it call the fire department.

We've had maintenance out (our maintenance crew is basically a few guys that live in the community that get discounts off their rent to fix things) and they can't really fix it. They cam once or twice (when it wasn't early in the morning) when the alarm went off, and they saw no fire, and they couldn't disable it, so they just silenced it. (which means that for a majority of the time whenever the alarm wasn't making noise in the apartments, it was still flashing)

Now I've put duct tape (Gorilla tape) on the fire alarms in my apartment to dull the noise, but you can still hear it really loudly. Some people in other apartments have disabled theirs by disconnecting them or removing them from the wall. I choose not to do this, because that's a liability, it's probably illegal, and I'd probably be blamed.

No one has fixed it. No one comes out to fix it. The console box just sits there in the middle of the building wide open with no lock on it chirping away.

Basically tenants who live here go out and silence it whenever it goes off, so they can sleep. Last night (actually this morning) we weren't so lucky.

It went off, and someone pushed the silence button, and it came back on 2 minutes later. And again, and again, so they just left it on. Around 30 minutes later, after calling (from a cell phone) 911 to get them to come out there, the fire department came out. They found no fire, couldn't turn off the alarm, so they kind of waited for 30 minutes with us.

We had called the emergency 24-hour emergency maintenance number. No one answered. We called the office (of coarse, we can see the office and we know no one's there at 3:00 am. We called one of the sale reps who sells and manages the new move-ins, but she wouldn't answer.

We no longer have a manager for the apartment complex. She quit. So we are screwed until Monday. The alarm, basically, was going to go off from SUN at 3 AM until Monday morning at 10 AM when everyone got at work and everything opened.

Get this, in my building, there are 24 apartments. Lots of pissed people. I'm tired as hell.

The fire department could only stay there for so long, and they basically said, "sorry, there's nothing more we can do" and they left with the alarm blazing at 3:30 am.

Then the Lake County sheriff showed up. Not much help there. We are all sitting in the front of the apartment complex complaining to each other about how crappy the apartments here are, and we're eating Halloween candy from apartment 204 that they brought down, and I brought a bunch of mountain dews and energy drinks from apartment 104 that I live in.

We are waiting for someone to come and turn off the alarm, so we can go back to sleep. There are like 8 of us, but we know some of the other tenants have disabled their alarms, and that's why they aren't outside.

Finally, one of the guys who lives here and works for the company comes over, and starts pushing buttons. He has no clue what he's doing. No one has given maintenance the code to allow them to speak with the alarm company, and they will not disable it, or even talk with anyone unless you have the correct pass code. No one here has it. I went up to the guy and asked him "hey, which wire is it in here that is the power for the whole alarm system?"

and he got snappy and screamed at me "HEY! You have no right looking at this. You are a tenant, you rent here. Leave me alone.

I thought to myself "damn, snappy," and felt kind of bad, or whatever, and i started walking back to my apartment, when some other tenants started yelling at him for having an attitude. I went in my apartment and laid down (with the alarm still going off in full) until I noticed the alarm go off.

I went outside, and the maintenance guy was talking "I just disabled the alarm. I actually ripped the power cables from the junction box. This is illegal. I just committed a felony so you guys can get to sleep. I'll stay here and watch the building and babysit it. Go to sleep."

They guy then told the sheriff what he did. The sheriff suggested we go to the local news (a few of us called and sent emails to some news channels).

I'm absolutely exhausted now. I have community service to do, I have to move furniture into my apartment. I have banking, errands, ect.....

*yawn*

I just woke up cause my mom called me on my cell.

What can I do about this? I mean, this is a horrible apartment complex.


There are at least 3 drug dealers per building. Not a place to raise your kids. It's easier to buy Marijuana here than it is for a 12 year old to buy beer.

Mold, mildew, animals, and roaches in the apartments.

You get eviction warning notices for failure of payment even when you pay your rent.

Pool hasn't worked since I moved in. Gate hasn't worked in 5 years. Been waiting for them to install washer and dryer since I moved in as well.

Maintenance doesn't ever fix apartments. Takes 4 to 5 months per request. Been waiting on a maintenance request since I moved in.

Technically they are in breach of contract.



Do you think I can sue them or maybe get a discount on next months rent?

Maybe I'll put my rent in an escrow and not actually give them the rent until they fix the problem.

holy hell your apartments are f'ing gay. You should try to get out of your contract and move. Maby get some money back from them.

TheGr33n/\/\an lives 2 buildings over.

His alarm doesn't go off. Why they singled mine out, I haven't a clue

Toche Sushi....If this crap starts back up we've got a spare bedroom...just give us a call...and oh yeah....what he says about the complex...it's basically like that....but worse

Seconded. I've been twitching since we moved in...just be careful of your new car...they like to party all night in the parking lot and leave BOTTLES AND CANS on my trunk!!!! Not to mention the drug baggies that are all over outside our front door in the dirt (can't really call it a lawn since there is NO GRASS) that come from the apartment upstairs. But at least we haven't had the fire alarm...I'd literally kill someone with my work schedule lately if that happened here. C'mon over.

I don't really know where your from but I'm sure you can find a renters and tenants law guide on the internet, it should tell you what all the laws and obligations that landlords have to follow are. I'm sure you can get something out if your situation if you press charges, people have won cases over dumber things.

http://realestate.findlaw.com/tenant/

RADON GAS AND CARBON MONOXIDE ZOMG

Call a lawyer, one of those that don't get paid until the case settles. Make sure you get a bunch of other tenants to go in with you. Apartment complexes are big money. They are most likely owned by a much larger company that owns all sorts of property. These guys are typical big business. Once a suit is filed, they will settle out of court and fix your stuff right away. They won't even blink at you. You're a small fish in a big pond to them. You won't make much, cause the lawyer will take the largest chunk, but your stuff will get fixed.

yea, big fish.
http://www.riverfrontequities.com/

They make millions a year. They don't even really publicly tell people that they own these two apartment complexes. I think they're ashamed.

Can i get that on a cd to listen to cuase there no way im reading all that.For future reference remember that computer nerds are very lazy,so keep it short.

I read it super

Damn!! I thought my old condo was bad till i read that shit! Ur welcome to move into mine since i live alone.

About noon today, a maintainance guy and 2 others (presumably the fire alarm company) knocked on my door asking to check to see if my fire alarms were still there (i guess a bunch of people in my apartment complex disabled or removed theirs after about 5 hours of them going off straight, go figure).

According to a neighbor, they worked on the system for 6 hours, and fixed it.

Tonight at 10 pm the alarm went off.

About 15 minutes later, the Fire department showed up. They couldn't turn it off because the alarm company had changed the locks on the box. So we had to wait another 10 min for maitaniance to come. Then they disabled it, and it stopped going off.

About 15 minutes ago, it went off for a fraction of a second. I saw the light flash, a chirp, then it stopped. I dunno, I hope it doesn't wake me up. I'm about to go to bed.

This is crap. I'm calling the fire marshal and the state attorny tomorrow. Get this place condemned.

Be sure to tell the fire marshall and attorney that someone will end-up getting killed in a fire because of this.

When people get used to ignoring a fire alarm system because of false alarms, a real fire will be ignored eventually and someone will die. In an apartment complex, multiple families could die because they don't believe the fire alarm system anymore.

The false alarms are more than annoying, they have a potential deadly consequence.

I was actually considering setting something on fire when the thing was disabled, or when it was going off.

Not anything major. Just maybe a tree. Or the fire alarm itself.

LOL. I wonder if the fire alarm will go off if the fire alarm control box is on fire. I doubt they thought of that!

thatd be absolutly stupid.

The End.

I know this kid and that's just his sense of humor, trying to lighten up.

It really does suck here, so lighten up on him, kthxbye.

my bad thought he was actually kinda serious LOL

Kinda sorta but not really...don't think the thought has never crossed our minds as well! Our building has no fire alarm problems, but there are other ones, such as the day I missed work cause the person upstair's air conditioning sprung a major leak and filled up our kitchen with water. And now there's mold.

Sorry to snap at you dude, kind of grumpy this morning, it's all good.

get a lawyer pro-bono should be an easy case.