When you’re searching for your next place to rent, it’s easy to be swept up in attractive amenities, blinding yourself to potential pitfalls. That’s exactly the type of mentality swindlers are counting on when they attempt to bilk money out of lazy rental hunters. [More]
apartments
Finding A Non-Crappy Place To Live When You Have Poor Credit
By 5.31.11
D. hates her current apartment, and is looking for a new place to live. The catch? She works as a temp, and has had some credit problems. She has a steady work history, and also a decade-long history of on-time rent payments to the management company she currently rents from. She wonders: what advice does the Consumerist Hive Mind have for her as she looks for a new home? [More]
Man Lives In Awesome 258 Sq Ft Transforming Apartment
By 5.11.11
There’s those who bought too much house, and then there’s this guy, who lives in a fabulous 258 square foot apartment. Even in this tiny space he manages to cram in a full kitchen, refrigerator, bed, dining room table, balcony, and more. It’s all about hidden compartments and things that fold in when you need them, get stashed away when they don’t, and furniture that converts into multiple purposes. The primary inspiration was boat design, which manage to pack a lot of amenities into small space. And, of course, the Japanese! [More]
Certified And Notarized Letter Gets Heat Turned Back On After 5 Days
By 3.3.11
Davya says that after showing her landlords she meant business with a notarized and certified letter, she finally got the heat in her apartment turned back after 5 days of no heat. [More]
Apartment Still Doesn't Have Heat After 4 Days But It Does Have Noxious Burning Smells
By 2.28.11
Dayva has written in an update about her landlord and heating issue. They don’t have heat yet, but they do have a power strip that’s been slowly melting itself into goo! [More]
No Heat, Apartment Has Smoke And Fumes, Landlord Is MIA
By 2.25.11
Dayva is fuming, almost as much as her apartment. She’s been without heat since yesterday after the cord on the heater her landlord installed melted. The landlord sent repair people who replaced the cord, but the heater still doesn’t work and its been emitting odd smells. Now she’s fighting through phone tree hell and getting hung up on by the landlord, unresponsive management company, and their minions. What’s a body to do? [More]
Split The Rent Helps You Calculate Rent Fairly
By 2.18.11
Do you share an apartment or house with multiple people, but aren’t sure how to divide up the rent? Not all bedrooms are created equal, but the Split the Rent calculator can help you figure out who owes what. It accounts for variables like bedroom size, private bathrooms, windows, closet space, and the amount of common space in the home. [More]
Travel Reporter Gets Burned On London Vacation Rental Scam
By 1.26.11
New York Times “Frugal Travel” reporter Seth Kugel thought he got a great deal when he rented a London flat for a pittance, only to have it disappear along with his wired deposit. [More]
My Roof Has Leaked For Six Months, And Landlord Won't Fix It Or Move Me Out
By 12.30.10
Reader A, who lives in South Carolina, has been stuck in a leaky apartment for six months, enduring a management change and endless broken promises that one day a repair would come. She’s given up on the leak ever being fixed, but is irritated that the landlord won’t pay for her to move to a different apartment. [More]
Landlord Tells Apartment Tenant She Can't Display Flag
By 10.11.10
A Nebraska landlord told a tenant the American flag she’s hanging outside her window has to come down, but she’s not budging. [More]
NYC Slumlords Outed By Public Advocate's Worst Landlord List
By 8.30.10
Not many renters in New York City are in love with their landlords, but only a handful of the city’s landlords deserved to be called out in public for repeated violations and ignored complaints from tenants. Starting this morning, the city’s Public Advocate has decided it’s time that the worst offenders be forced into the spotlight with a public, searchable database. [More]
Ontrac Delivery Staff Unsure How To Operate Intercoms, Actually Deliver Packages
By 8.26.10
Dick tells Consumerist that his recent Amazon order was more of a comedy of errors than the simple business transaction that it should have been. It wasn’t Amazon’s fault. Their delivery company Ontrac somehow managed to not deliver his package, then send it back to Amazon, then deliver both the replacement item that Amazon sent and the original package to Dick within an hour of each other. Something is terribly wrong here. [More]
Man Crams Soaking Pool, Video Lounge, Cafe Into 182 Sq Ft Apartment
By 8.25.10
Steve Sauer’s “pico-dwelling” is a 182 sq ft apartment he has managed to cram a soaking pool, video lounge, and cafe into without feeling cramped in the slightest. Most of the furniture comes from IKEA, natch. [More]
Barter, Slum It, Go Rustic To Save On Living Costs
By 7.6.10
There is more than one way to skin a lease. Not only can you negotiate to bring costs down, but there are other ways to slash your rent budget. Well-Heeled Blog digs up a few that might not have occurred to you. [More]
Apartment Scammer Wants To Give My $1500 Back – What's The Catch?
By 6.2.10
Pat tells Consumerist that her son fell for an apartment scam. Looking for a sublet in San Francisco from his home in Massachusetts, he settled on a place and met up with the landlord’s brother, who–what luck!–happened to live in the same area as Pat’s son! Of course, once he moved there, he discovered that his keys didn’t work, since someone else entirely lived in and owned the apartment. [More]
I Thought My Apartment Included Utilities. Now I Have A Zombie Gas Bill
By 4.28.10
Jesse has turned to Consumerist for help because he is being haunted by a relic from his past. Specifically, he writes that a debt collector has contacted him, claiming that he owes them for having a gas service account that he never used–in an apartment where he thought all utilities were included. What should he do? [More]
Ask These Questions Before You Sign Your Next Lease
By 1.17.10
Are you looking for a new apartment or house? Apartment Therapy has some advice about what questions you should ask before putting your name on a new lease. We’re featuring this on Consumerist because there is advice about negotiating extra fees and deposits for cats, a crucial topic for our readership. [More]
Should You Be Let Out Of Your Lease If Your Apartment May Plummet Into The Sea?
By 1.12.10
It’s nice to have an apartment on a cliff overlooking the ocean — until the cliff decides to stop existing. That’s what is happening to one apartment complex in Pacifica, CA. [More]
