Between 2/26/05 and 8/6/05, I was a tenant at an apartment managed by Matrix Real Estate, LLC in Boulder CO. Colorado Secretary of State public records indicate that the "Registered Agent" of Matrix is Amy Alexander. The nightmare began about 10 days after I'd taken occupancy of my new home, when a Matrix agent showed up unannounced at the apartment with two unscreened strangers to do a showing of the premises. For the remaining 5 months of my tenancy, Matrix scheduled about 26 separate showings of my home to unscreened strangers; a rate averaging more than one a week. While the $650 monthly rent I paid for the apartment was Matrix' full advertised asking price in February 2005, inferring it was "the maximum the rental market would bear", and in the face of a Boulder rental market which remained flat at best during 2005; Matrix was actively advertising the apartment at $795/month from the time I moved in-- asking more than a 22% increase from the maximum rent the market would bear only days/months earlier. Sometime after 6/10/05 when I still had nearly two months left on my lease & after about 20 separate Matrix scheduled showings of my home over the prior 3 months with no takers-- and before 7/11/05 when I next checked Matrix' website; Matrix lowered the asking price to $765/month-- still nearly 18% greater than the most the rental market would bear some ~3 months earlier. Matrix' unorthodox aggressiveness in advertising/showing my home months before it was to be available was a major ongoing infringement to my privacy, security, convenience, and quiet enjoyment, for which I was paying good money each month. As the result of a letter of grievance over the incessant showings nuisance which I sent to Amy/Matrix on 6/10/05, Amy and I agreed via phone call on 6/14/05 to limit future showings of my home to a fixed 2-hour time frame on three fixed days per week. I promptly followed up this phone agreement with an email to Matrix documenting our agreement; and a few days later I received a voicemail from Amy wherein she acknowledged her receipt of this follow-up email. On 6/24/05, just ten short days after my agreement with Amy to merely "better manage" the showings nuisance, and after several more scheduled showings of my home which Matrix graciously kept within our agreed upon time frames; Matrix agent Coby (sp?) left me a voicemail inquiring whether or not Matrix could schedule a showing the following day, outside of our recent time frame agreement. I promptly emailed Coby a polite decline to this request. Regardless, Coby entered my home the following afternoon with more unscreened strangers in tow, when I was not present and further expected that no one would be entering my home that day. In speaking with Amy via an audio-recorded phone call days later when I inquired about this rogue 6/25 entry into my home, Amy claimed that my email decline to Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry was not received; and so Matrix effectively took my alleged lack of (received) response as an approval to betray our freshly minted showings agreement. Amy also equivocated awkwardly about our showings agreement. Perhaps most wildly, she forcefully and repeatedly alleged that the 6/25 showing had already been scheduled early that calendar-week, and that Matrix/Coby had left me numerous messages about it during the week. One review of the audio or transcript of Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry quickly illuminates Amy's dubious veracity WRT this later allegation. This webpage exists as a public service to anyone in, or considering, a business relationship (tenant, owner, buyer, seller, employee/contractor) with Matrix Real Estate, LLC as operated by Amy Alexander. After a review of the material herein, you'll be better equipped to judge whether or not Matrix/Amy resemble an ethical business doing business in an ethical way; and from there, whether or not doing business with Matrix is in your best interest. Please choose wisely.
Following is a one-stop-shop of all the MP3 audio recordings referenced herein.
The email letters which follow in chronological order below tell the story of My Matrix Nightmare in more detail. Amy Alexander only followed up with phone calls, if at all. Given her aversion to documenting communications in writing, the emails below appear to be "one-way". I've noted when I received a phone call from Amy/Matrix in response, in the commentary in blue between the emails, and what was resolved. It was not until early July 2005 that I spent the funds to acquire a cell phone recording device so that I could properly document our spoken dialogs in my efforts to manage my ongoing Matrix Nightmare. The resulting recordings speak for themselves. I've edited out my full name, email address, and (exact) former physical address from the emails below, as I would prefer to remain off the search engines WRT this Matrix Nightmare which has now mercifully ended. This matter is not about me personally; it's about Matrix Real Estate as operated by Amy Alexander, a state registered LLC which continues conducting commerce with the public, exercising an ongoing pattern aggressive and unorthodox business practices as demonstrated herein. I've also edited out Matrix' internal email addresses from the letters which follow; as Matrix personnel should be contacted by phone or through their website contact page. I welcome any email to me here WRT My Matrix Nightmare, where I'm happy to respond with any additional information which would be of value to you. Hotmail's servers time/date stamp the following emails in GMT, which is MST plus 6 hours. Thus, the MST conversions of the time/date stamps of the emails within this chain are, time-indicated minus 6 hours.
During just the first ~3 months of my 5 month & 10 day Matrix tenancy, I was nuisanced by about 20 scheduled showings of my home to unscreened strangers; most of these showings including the bonus nuisance of incoming "courtesy calls" the day before from Matrix' caller-ID blocked business phone (?!), advising me of their unilaterally scheduled showing appointments. After the ~20th showing on 6/9/05, when I found that personal property had been stolen from my home during the showing, I duly concluded, this isridiculous. So much for my basic right to be left alone. On 6/10, with nearly 2 months still remaining on my lease, I sent the following letter of grievance to Matrix' office, by both email and US-Mail.
From : Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Greetings Valerie and 'TWIMC' I am the current tenant of 2616 Juniper Ave #X, Boulder CO ('the premises'). I am writing to express my concern about recent events. I signed a fixed-term lease with Matrix Real Estate, LLC ('Matrix') on 2/25/05 and took possession of the premises on 2/26/05. While I don't have hard records of the pattern of 'showings' since I moved in, Matrix presumably does. I do have phone records which indicate all incoming calls from Matrix, almost all of which were 'courtesy calls' advising me of scheduled showings on the following calendar day. Going from recollection, the first 'showing' was an unscheduled pop-in by Matrix agent 'Coby' and two unscreened strangers only about 10 days after I'd moved in. I was awoken and answered the doorbell, to find Coby and the two strangers eager to tour my new home. I asked, "no notice?" and Coby replied that they'd called the day before. Incredulous but uncertain of the facts, I allowed them in. During their tour I was busy checking my cell phone (my Matrix contact-of-record) and indeed there were no messages, and no 'missed calls'. I told Coby of this during their pop-in, and she apologized saying it won't happen again. Fortunately I can say as of this writing, all subsequent 'showings' have had a calendar's day notice via phone message. Unfortunately, the above proved to be the tip of the 'showings' iceberg. For the three months from the top of March through the bottom of May, the showings took place at the rate of about one a week. This while I'd barely moved in, and had 3-5 months remaining on my lease. Then last week, the week of 5/29 - 6/4, the showings exploded to about one a day, with a couple of days where there were two different showings scheduled at different times. About half of these were no-call-no-shows... with the disruption being exactly the same to me as if they had shown. An overview of the disruption caused by these 'showings' (whether show or no-show) is in order. 'Showings' infringe upon a tenant's privacy, security, convenience, and quiet enjoyment of their home. - Privacy/Security: While Matrix chooses to advertise and show a given rental unit, *anyone* who can work a phone is qualified to tour your home. There is no screening or 'due dilligence' until after these unscreened strangers have toured through your home, and then said diligence only takes place if the prospective tenants choose to submit an application along with Matrix's conditionally-refundable application deposit. Short of a written application, even their basic ID's aren't checked, copied or verified. The opportunity to case out a given Matrix-managed home, de facto anonymously, evaluating the payload of personal property therein, the points of entry and exit, the locks etc FROM THE INSIDE is a golden opportunity for *anyone* able to work a phone. - Convenience: whether a tenant works a conventional job with fixed hours, or works at home and keeps odd hours as I do, these showings are an "appointment" scheduled unilaterally by Matrix the calendar day before, which must be planned around. Possessions of high value should be placed out of plain sight when practical. Being in the midst of a pleasant nap, or shower etc is not feasible during the scheduled showing time frames. Conventional norms dictate that the tenant be awake, dressed and "decent" at the scheduled showing time frame, whether the unscreened strangers show up or not. As a Matrix tenant, I have routinely endured the above nuisances, compromises and disruptions to the quiet enjoyment of my home for which I pay good money each and every month, since shortly after I moved in. And here about 2 months before I'm due to vacate, the frequency of the above disruptions have increased to about one a day. From Matrix' website, I see that the premises are advertised at $795/month, a price which may or may not be competitive with comparable rentals. I moved in shortly over 3 months ago at a monthly rent of $650. $795 is more than a 22% increase from $650, in the midst of a rental market which has been flat, at best. For the 18 months ending 8/31/04, I rented the unit right next door (2626 Juniper #X), a virtual carbon-copy 1 bedroom unit to this unit, for $680/month. But Matrix, in their zeal to secure the next tenant for a full one-year lease at a comparatively rich price, has opted to advertise and incessantly show my home to unscreened strangers throughout the course of my tenancy with apparent disregard for my expectations of privacy, security, convenience and quiet enjoyment. Yesterday (Thurs 6/9/05) marked a disturbing event which has prompted me to write this letter. During a scheduled Matrix showing at 12:10 PM during which I was not present, an item of personal property was unlawfully removed from the premises. This item was of negligible monetary value and easily replaceable; however the fact that ANY item of personal property was stolen from my home during a Matrix supervised showing is of grave concern to me-- especially looking forward at the final 2 months of my tenancy as Matrix will presumably continue to make my home a virtual thoroughfare for unscreened strangers in their attempt to secure a tenant at a price which is above-market-- if the recent 3-month history of incessant showings of the premises combined with lack of takers are any indication. I fully appreciate Matrix' (acting as agents on behalf of the premises' owners) right to show and attempt to lease the premises to the next tenant at whatever price the rental market will bear. However, I've found Matrix' zeal in doing so to be outside the norms of existing-tenant expectations of privacy, security, convenience and quiet enjoyment-- and I fear that, all considered, this infringement will only increase in the final months of my tenancy. Thus I would like to propose a compromise. Would it be possible to funnel all showings into one or two fixed days a week at a fixed time? Whether or not Matrix can find someone to bite at $795; from my perspective, having all showings at fixed, reasonably spaced intervals would help relieve much of the "paying good money to live in a fish bowl" nuisance I've already endured throughout my Matrix tenancy. Thank you for your prompt response, Tom *
I received a phone call from Amy a few days later, where we arrived at our showings agreement. She was unwilling to limit showings to one or even two days a week, insisting upon 3 days, for the maximum convenience of the next tenant. I promptly sent the following email documenting and detailing our agreement.
From: Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Greetings Amy Alexander: I'm writing to document our phone conversation which took place today (6/14/05) at around 2:15 PM. We agreed to limit future showings of the premises to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between the hours of 2PM and 4PM with post 4PM showings on these days expected to only be rare & unavoidable exceptions. I remain confounded as to Matrix agent Coby's (sp?) alleged claim that she and I discussed confining all showings to fixed time frames to help manage the nuisance, with her further allegedly telling me that Matrix would be agreeable to that. I can say absolutely that no such communication took place, because with the routine showings-nuisance being a grievance ever since the my shock and disappointment by the first (& unscheduled) showing only days after I'd moved in and ~5 months before being due to vacate; I would have been all over any opportunity to contain the nuisance to some degree as we've agreed above. As an afterthought to our phone conversation today I'd like to add: I've rented several apartments in my adult life, as well as owning my primary residences. My immediate family's owned and hands-on managed rental property since before I was born. Thus I'm more than familiar with the realities and norms of rental property management from both the owner/manager perspective and from the tenant perspective. Advertising and actively showing an OCCUPIED home to unscreened strangers beginning 5 months & 10 days before that home is scheduled to be available, while technically legal, is OUTSIDE the conventional norms, as I expressed in my letter to Matrix dated 6/10/05. I've felt the pain of the nuisances, compromises and disruptions to the quiet enjoyment of my home which have resulted from the above "unconventional management decision" made by some power-that-be at Matrix, throughout my tenancy. As a diligent consumer of (in this instance) housing service, I feel a moral obligation to communicate to those within my sphere of influence that which I wish someone had communicated to me before my decision to do business with a property management company with a demonstrated record of betraying a tenant's reasonable/conventional expectations of privacy, security, convenience and quiet enjoyment of their home. The demonstrated "churn'em-'n-burn'em" approach by the current Matrix management, resulting in unhappy tenants, is not "good business" in my experience. Finally a little housekeeping. The email I sent to '**@matrixre.com' on Friday 6/10/05, and the hard copy I US-Mailed the same day, varied slightly. Several misspellings were corrected in the hard copy (drop the text into a real word processor and look what you find!); but more materially, I noticed the number of months I'd occupied the apartment next door (2626 Juniper #X) were incorrect in the earlier email version. I lived there 15 months beginning 6/1/03, not 18 months as indicated in the email to Valerie. This was corrected in the hard copy version which I also US-Mailed to myself. Tom *
The next day, I'd heard nothing from Matrix by phone or email. Of course some acknowledgment of receipt was important to document that we were all on the same page WRT our showings agreement. I wrote another email, including to Matrix agent Valerie at a known-good email contact for her, since Valerie and I had exchanged email regarding some unrelated loose ends in the first couple days of my tenancy.
From: Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Greetings Amy, Valerie: I took a wild guess as to Amy's email address in yesterday's correspondence below. The email didn't bounce back but at this writing I have no indication that it was received. Would one of you please reply to confirm? Thank you, Tom *
From: Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Greetings TWIMC at Matrix: I still have heard nothing confirming Amy's receipt of my email below dated 6/14/05. I would like to confirm my receipt of a courtesy call from Matrix agent Valerie on 6/15/05 advising me of another showing of the premises scheduled for 6/16/05 at 2:50 PM. I shall plan, as always, to make those necessary and prudent life adjustments to accommodate this, the ~20th scheduled Matrix showing of my home to unscreened strangers since early March '05. With only one month and 20 days to go, all parties feel duly pressured by the critical importance of finding the next lessee for the premises to pay top dollar beginning absolutely no later than 8/6/05. Like Federal Reserve Notes through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives. Yours, Tom *
About 10 mins after hitting "SEND" on the above email, I received a phone call from Matrix' caller-ID blocked business phone. I let it go to voicemail as I usually do for caller-ID blocked calls. It was Amy, acknowledging her receipt of my 6/14 email documenting/detailing our showings agreement, and admonishing me not to "email everyone" at Matrix, as they prefer to communicate via phone... which at that time, I had no means of audio recording. Eight days later on 6/24, I received the voicemail inquiry from Matrix agent Coby regarding Matrix' desired 6/25 showing, outside of our agreement limitations. I wanted to document my reply so I sent the following email at 12:31 PM MST (18:31 GMT); just 27 minutes after Coby's voicemail request.
From: Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Hello Coby: I heard your voicemail message today inquiring whether or not Matrix could show the premises on Saturday 6/25. I must decline this request, as it is my preference to stay within the agreed upon showing times, to manage further disruption to me. I'll be relying on email for correspondence with Matrix as much as possible, because it's the easiest way to document and archive. Yours, Tom *
From: Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Hello Coby and TWIMC at Matrix: There is evidence that Matrix personnel may have unlawfully entered the premises today, Saturday 6/25 at around 1:45 PM, for another showing to unscreened strangers. Please advise ASAP. Yours, Tom * Note that in my 7/6 phone dialog with Amy regarding Matrix' rogue 6/25 showing, I was mistaken on a couple of timing points; namely the correct time of Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry (12:04 PM), the promptness of my email response (12:31 PM), and lastly, the number of days prior to these 6/24 events when Amy and I had minted our showings agreement (Tue 6/14, 10 days earlier). In our 7/6 dialog I was going by recollection as to the timing-details of these (well-documented) communications which took place between 12 and 22 days before, and I didn't have the emails/recordings in front of me, so "the memory trail was growing cold". But as Amy herself correctly advises, documenting business communications by any means necessary can really turn out to be invaluable.
From : Tom * <T*@hotmail.com> Greetings Matrix Personnel: I am writing to document recent developments in the >4 month and ongoing showings-nuisance matter. Firstly I'd like to 'catch up' in documenting the scheduled showings of my home which have taken place since my email below dated 6/16 documenting the ~20th scheduled showing since early March. - Showing #21: On the morning of Tue 6/14, Coby left me a phone message, from Matrix' caller-ID-blocked business phone as always, advising me of a showing scheduled for the afternoon of Wed 6/15. Coby left this message only hours before my 6/14 afternoon phone conversation with Amy when we agreed to limit the time frames of future showings as documented in my email below dated 6/14. - Showings #22, #23: On Wed 6/22 at 11:10 AM Coby left a message advising of showings scheduled for Thu 6/23 at 3 PM, and again Fri 6/24 at 3:30 PM. - Showing #24: This was the unscheduled Saturday 6/25 break-in evidently by Matrix agent Coby accompanying one or more unscreened strangers at around 1:45 PM, discussed further below. - Showing #25, #26: On Wed 7/6 at 10:58 AM Coby left a message advising of showings scheduled for Thu 7/7 at 2 PM and Fri 7/8 at 2 PM. Before proceeding to recap and further document the 6/25 break-in portion of the phone conversation I had with Matrix Registered Agent, Amy Alexander, on Wed 7/6 beginning at around 2:15 PM; it will be useful to provide a verbatim transcription of the voicemail which Coby left me on Fri 6/24 at 12:04 PM-- a voicemail which I retain. Coby: "Hi Tom. This is Coby calling from Matrix Real Estate. I'm calling because I have someone really interested in your apartment, and I KNOW THAT YOU HAD MADE AN AGREEMENT WITH AMY ABOUT WHEN WE WERE GOING TO SHOW IT, but this woman is only in town Saturday and Sunday, and um, I have time to show it tomorrow at 1:45, and I WAS CALLING TO SEE IF THAT WOULD BE OKAY WITH YOU. Um, IF IT'S NOT, THEN I CAN ACCEPT THAT, but if it is, that would really really help us out, and help this woman out. So um, tomorrow, Saturday 1:45, um, either way, if you could give me a call back, my number is 303-447-1500. I'll be in and out the rest of the day, Val's really sick so she's not in the office, so you'd want to talk to me, if I'm not here please leave me a voicemail. Again our number is 303-447-1500, and LET ME KNOW IF IT'S OKAY to show your apartment tomorrow, that's Saturday the 25th at 1:45. Thanks, Bye." (emphasis added) It will also be useful to review the chain of events leading up to Coby's 6/24 phone message above. As can be seen below in the email dated 6/14, I followed up the phone dialog with Amy just hours before that same day, with a written documentation defining our showings agreement in the most straightforward language imaginable. Repeating here with emphasis added: 'WE AGREED TO LIMIT FUTURE SHOWINGS OF THE PREMISES TO TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS AND FRIDAYS BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 2PM AND 4PM WITH POST 4PM SHOWINGS ON THESE DAYS EXPECTED TO ONLY BE RARE AND UNAVOIDABLE EXCEPTIONS.' After 2 follow up emails on 6/15 and 6/16 (below) seeking confirmation of Amy's receipt of the 6/14 email, Amy called on 6/16 at 2:10 PM and left a voicemail confirming her receipt of the 6/14 email-- a voicemail which I retain. Amy did not indicate in this message, nor at any other time or manner prior to our 7/6 phone conversation, that she felt the above documentation defining our agreement was in any way incorrect or incomplete. A couple of housekeeping items before proceeding. Hotmail's servers time/date stamp emails in GMT, which is MST plus 6 hours. Thus, the MST conversions of the time/date stamps of the emails within this chain are, time-indicated minus 6 hours. Additionally, quotes in today's email enclosed in double quotation marks ("-----") are verbatim transcriptions of audio recordings which I maintain in my possession. I would have called Amy sooner than 7/6 to discuss Matrix' 6/25 break-in, but given Matrix' demonstrated aversion to documenting communications in writing, I was forced to jump through the hoops of researching and spending the funds to attain a cell phone recording device, in the face of infinitely more desirable things to be doing. My 7/6 audio-recorded phone dialog with Amy was perhaps as disturbing as the 6/25 break-in to my home. Amy made assertions which were all over the map, in what some may characterize as a 'spaghetti defense' of Matrix' break-in. Let's review some highlights. Amy confirmed that Matrix personnel did indeed enter the premises on 6/25, saying, "That was about doing a showing, an unusual showing." Asked why Matrix would choose to enter/show the premises in betrayal of our plainly-worded 6/14 agreement documented herein, and in spite of my negative reply to Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry as expressed in my email below to '**@matrixre.com' & '**@matrixre.com' sent Fri 6/24 at 12:31 PM MST (18:31 GMT); Amy alleged that my response to Coby's query was not received, and she further alleged that both of the Coby/Koby email addresses above are incorrect. In response to why Matrix would then choose to enter the premises on 6/25, in the alleged absence of any 'received' response from me to Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry asking my permission for Matrix' desired 6/25 showing, and in betrayal of our documented showings agreement, effectively interpreting my 'lack of response' as a 'YES, we CAN deviate from our documented agreement which would otherwise prohibit a Saturday showing'; Amy said, "I didn't hear back that it was NOT okay to show." From Matrix' choice of action on 6/25, one would be led to believe that Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry transcribed above said something more along the lines of, '...we WILL be entering/showing your home to unscreened strangers on 6/25, betraying our documented showing agreement, UNLESS WE HEAR OTHERWISE FROM YOU IN TIME.' However, this demonstrated 'reality' stands in stark contrast to the verbatim text of Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry above. Amy's 7/6 assertions grew curiouser WRT the issue of our plainly-worded 6/14 showings agreement, and could only be described as an attempt to 'rewrite documented reality'. Some transcriptions from the audio record will best illustrate this claim. Amy variously alleged, "Look, my understanding was, you would let us know if it didn't work, and that you WOULD allow some unusual ones. We said we would definitely call you if we had an unusual one, you would let us know if that didn't, didn't work, but in the meantime we would TRY to keep them all within the same amount, you know, of showing, you know, times that we agreed upon"; and, "We had one that, we said we could do some exceptions, we did one exception, and the rest have been right on in there"; and, "You said that there was some exceptions that we could, you know, that we could make, and that was one of them." Comparing Amy's equivocations above with our plainly-worded 6/14 showings agreement is a truly surreal exercise. Amy also forcefully alleged that the 6/25 showing had been 'set up' early in the week, and that 'she' (presumably meaning Coby) had called me multiple times about it including prior to Fri 6/24. Amy said variously, "There were SEVERAL calls BEFORE the showing took place too"; and, "No, she called, she called you earlier in the week, because THAT ONE WAS SET UP EARLY IN THE WEEK"; and, "No, she called you early in the week, because SHE HAD THAT SET UP EARLIER, and THEN SHE CALLED YOU AGAIN TO DOUBLE CHECK." Amy and I disagreed that there were any notifications to me of Matrix' desired 6/25 showing prior to Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry; and the above text of Coby's 6/24 inquiry corroborates my assertion while impeaching Amy's-- to say nothing of the utter lack of evidence corroberating Amy's assertion. Does the text of Coby's 6/24 voicemail inquiry say or imply to the reader/listener, 'this is the LATEST OF MULTIPLE PRIOR VOICEMAILS on this matter since early this week, for a 6/25 showing which had ALREADY BEEN SET UP DAYS AGO'?? It is unclear to me what Amy's intent was in forcefully and repeatedly alleging what's immediately above, with its stark disaccord with the documented evidence, and what if any relevance it has to Matrix' 6/25 break-in. Perhaps it's just a 'red herring', but it does help continue to illuminate Amy's pattern of making claims of highly dubious veracity. Towards the end of our 7/6 phone dialog, Amy stated, "And you can keep documenting your heart out, and if you want to take us to court, that's fine." Regretfully, Tom *
I heard nothing more from Amy/Matrix explicitly addressing the above letter. However the following week Amy left me a voicemail advising that they'd found a tenant for the apartment and thus there would be no more showings before I was due to vacate on 8/5. Hallelujah! After more than four long months of incessant showings of my home to strangers, at a much richer rent asking price; Amy/Matrix allegedly found someone in the last month before its actual availability-- the conventional time frame when ethical property managers begin to burden current, rent paying tenants with showings of their home. I finally got my security deposit back in early October, ~2 months after vacating and leaving the apartment spotless; as 60 days is the maximum time legally allowed for owner/managers to keep these funds, and knowing Amy/Matrix, I knew not to anticipate it any sooner. I did not take them to court as Amy encouraged. This website, a public service and a monument to "documenting your heart out", seemed a much more valuable and fun conclusion to My Matrix Nightmare.
IS THERE A SLUMLORD IN YOUR LIFE? It's awful, aint it? Well take it from Amy, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. This info's pretty Boulder-centric, so if you've stumbled on this page from far away, you'll want to search for similar agencies in your community. CU-Boulder put together this helpful page: Boulder Tenants' Guide I don't know how effective it is, but you can complain to the Better Business Bureau, which it appears, is in cahoots with the Colorado Attorney General's Office nowdaze: CO AG Consumer Protection page. City of Boulder pages: LANDLORD-TENANT HANDBOOK If your apartment is managed by a property management company employed by the property's owner, and that company is behaving as an unethical slumlord; you should consider communicating with the actual owner of your building, and sharing with them your bad experience with the company. If the owner has higher ethical standards than the company they employ to manage their property, and if you can demonstrate this to the owner, they may decide to make the change necessary so not to be a slumlord themselves by proxy. But how do you find out who the actual owner of your property is, and where they live so that you can contact them? It's public record, at your city's County Clerk and Assessor's Office. Or if your city's really slick, it's available online. Here's Boulder's Property Record Search Page. I've also heard anecdotes of tenants pushing back against inappropriate slumlord business practices, by using similarly unorthodox methods of communicating their displeasure with other prospective tenant/victims. In the instance of excessive/inappropriate showings of your home to unscreened strangers; if you're present at the time of the inappropriate showings, you can personally tell the prospective next tenant that you would not do business with your current manager again, and exactly why. You can also leave a big note saying the same. I've heard of tenants writing such notes on their bathroom mirror (where the message won't be missed) using dry-erase markers, for easy removal later. This way the manager/agent can't steal the note-- they can only make a conspicuous scene of erasing it themselves. Some tenants leave their place extra messy and unappealing, and/or play loud unpleasant music during the inappropriate showing (or their cooperative neighbor-friend does), and/or they discover some sort of unbearable "dead skunk" odor has permeated their apartment during the showing, which will need to be aired out afterwards with a fan. There are obviously many perfectly legal means for the tenant-victim to resist & discourage inappropriate property management business practices. Some grass-roots "spreading the word" is one of the most effective. |