I could try to develop this into a very dramatic and humorous incident, but truth be told, I’m just too frustrated to do so right now. I’m feeling so upset about the whole situation that I’m hoping maybe writing it down will calm my mind. I am not generally an angry person, so I just don’t know what to do with all this negative energy.
At the beginning of last week, I started hearing noises in my wall. On Thursday, I returned from running with Georgia to find a squirrel perched on top of my curtain rod. It ran into the bathroom when I came in. I didn’t know what to do, so I opened the sliding door to my balcony and went over to the apartment office. I explained the situation, and a member of the maintenance staff came back to my apartment with me. The squirrel was gone when we returned. He told me that an exterminator visits every Friday and that they would come the following day to see about the squirrel. Fair enough. Friday came and went, and no one ever arrived. I left on Friday evening to go up north for Memorial Day weekend.
When I returned Monday evening, I thought something had died in my apartment as soon as I opened the door. The smell was appalling. Apparently an animal (I’m assuming the squirrel) took it upon himself to destroy my apartment over the weekend. I’m sort of embarrassed to even reveal how bad it was because it makes me feel dirty just thinking about it, but here goes. There was feces and urine on the floor and rugs in every room, on every piece of upholstered furniture, on the windowsills, and on my bed. Whatever it was had dug up the dirt of all my houseplants. Dirt was thick on the floor and all over the bed. Two Christmas cacti that I had raised from little cuttings given as gifts at a friend’s wedding were gnawed down to threads. My vertical blinds were gnawed all along the top. My alarm clock was knocked off my nightstand and broken. A large houseplant was broken off and knocked over. And did I mention the smell? I nearly cried. The whole place was in shambles. We put in several calls to the maintenance number, but they blew us off completely, refusing to call back or send anyone to assist. I cleaned up the whole place, but the smell is not gone. Ugh.
I thought it seemed perfectly reasonable (and maybe I’m wrong) to ask the management to steam clean my carpet and upholstery and pay to dry clean my comforter. After all, it’s their fault for not keeping the building maintained and allowing pests to get in. Also, they didn’t address the problem when I reported it which led to all the damage. I wrote a letter explaining the situation and making those requests and put it in the night depository box since I had to leave for class before the office opened. As soon as I got home from class today, I went to the office to try to talk to the manager. She was in a meeting, so I talked to another member of the staff.
I received the following response via email from the manager this afternoon:
I received your letter and *Staff name* updated me on your conversation earlier. I have contacted an animal removal company. The issue I have is that we don’t know what did this as no one witnessed it. Based on your description I contacted the only company in Lansing to deal with wildlife. They will be on the property tomorrow which is the earliest available.
Our maintenance staff can look at your blinds to see if they require repairs or replacement. Beyond that, as per your lease agreement, we do not cover damages inside the apartment. We carry insurance for our property as we recommended that all residents carry renters insurance. I can not schedule any cleaning at this time. If you believe there is a pest in your apartment that caused damage we will look at any damages and have pest removal scheduled for tomorrow.
I do take all resident issues seriously and will give you my utmost attention and prompt response.
First of all, I do not consider waiting six days for an exterminator to come a “prompt response.” Furthermore, I do not understand her “issue” with what caused the damage. It almost sounds like she doesn’t believe me. Maybe I’m reading my own negative emotions into her response, but I don’t understand why not actually watching the squirrel dig up my plants is an issue. If it wasn’t a squirrel, it must have been a rat or some other vermin. Maybe I have a problem with lots of rodents in my apartment. Obviously something caused the damage. Why does it matter what animal it was? I witnessed a squirrel in my apartment last week, and I witnessed an extreme amount of damage done to my apartment yesterday. “If you believe there is a pest in your apartment that caused the damage…”? What part of that belief did I not make clear?? Oh, did I mention that when I got home from class, my hallway was full of feces AGAIN. Clearly the animal is still frequenting my home. I did mention that to the person with whom I spoke at the office.
Maybe it’s stupid of me to be this upset about the whole incident, but I just find it so incredibly frustrating that the management does not consider this to be a problem requiring any urgency. How would they feel if a dirty animal destroyed their home? I think what really bothers me is that I have no remedy for this situation. I am at their mercy. Sure, I could call in a private pest control person and hire my own cleaning service, but I can’t afford that. There is nothing I can realistically do except wait. I know, there are people dealing with war and disaster all over the world, and I shouldn’t be so upset about something petty, but I can’t seem to help it.
