Stonewood Stonewall

Two Saturdays ago, I went into the leasing office in Stonewood Apartments to notify them that I am moving in September. Yesterday, I received a notice on my door. Apparently my lease expires in September… duh. The letter told me that at least thirty day written notice is required before I may vacate my apartment. Today, I called the number and some effeminate guy I’ve never encountered before refused to budge on the issue. I guess the lady in the leasing office was just there to keep the seat warm, because she didn’t say anything about that. In fact, she seemed generally disoriented when I talked to her. In person. At the leasing office. In person. About ending my lease.

When I signed on, I guess I had some sort of special, because my rent rate all year has been $462, not the standard $500. So now I have to pay October’s rent of $500, even though I won’t be there. And the six-month lease rate is $515, so that’s probably the one they’ll actually stick to me.

I know, I should have been on my game. I should have known about the written notice. Fine, I’ll take that; I’m not pointing fingers here. It’s pretty much my oversight that is costing me. I’m not the type who blames everything on everyone else. This is my mistake. But that doesn’t change my opinion of the Stonewood Apartments people as being supreme douchebags with abysmal communication skills.

Specifically, what bothers me about that is the letter itself. Why did they wait until after the thirty day deadline to tell me I need to decide before the thirty day deadline? If I already took care of that, there would be no need for the letter. If I didn’t already do it… there would also be no need for the letter, because I would have discovered that when I talked to them. The letter changes nothing. I would have rather they just taped a turd to my doorknob.

The lady in the office should have been a little more helpful. At the very least, she could have at least convinced me that she actually knew what was going on. What happened to the lady who worked there when I moved in? She was helpful.

Thus, my profit margin is obliterated for the fall. Quite the setback. My timetable for moving, however, has not changed. Sure, I could still store most of my furniture there and not pressure people to help me move it sooner. But then I’d have to pay utilities for another month, too. Therefore, I simply bend over, take it, blog about it, and go about my original plans of moving out of that dive.

There are no litigating circumstances. You can take the initiative and be considerate enough to go to the leasing office in person and discuss the matter a month in advance, but if there’s any oversight or technicality, it doesn’t matter. If someone can screw you out of half a grand, they will. Inevitably and invariably. That’s the lesson I want you to learn from this.

That’s business.