Is my apartment complex lying?

April 10, 2008 5:40 PM

How come our apartment complex says they don't know when apartments will be available?

Our lease is coming to a close in June and the apartment complex we're in says that they can't tell us if there will be apartments available until May.

Why don't they know? They know when all of the units' contracts are up. They require us to give a 60 day notice of vacancy (so they know if a unit will be renewing or not).

Where is the leaky faucet that would prevent them from knowing the status of their rooms? I would ask if this practice is prevalent, but the other 3 apartment complexes we talked to while looking for our next residence all said that they wouldn't know until May, either.

It seems that they would only stand to benefit by giving this information out.

posted by yellowbkpk to home & garden (8 comments total)

Maybe it's the lease that specifies 60 days but the law might be only 30. Further speculation is dependent on your location.
posted by rhizome at 5:49 PM on April 10

Perhaps there are no units with contracts up in early to mid June or sooner...

If someone's lease expires June 30, they've probably got until about May 1 to give notice that they're leaving. Since most leases expire either at the 1st or the end of the month, this seems pretty reasonable...
posted by twiggy at 5:51 PM on April 10

Partly speculation, but the following seem feasible to me:

1. They don't know the condition of any apartment until the tenants move out. If the tenant really trashed the place, it might take longer to get the unit up to "leasable" condition.
2. They know, but they might set the rates based on how much interest they receive. They're waiting until late in the process so they know how high they can charge, matching supply with demand.
posted by clearlynuts at 5:57 PM on April 10

Maybe they do know, and there are no vacancies according to the contracts. But they would rather keep their option open instead of saying "No", because there are often unexpected vacancies due to an early move or an eviction.
posted by smackfu at 6:03 PM on April 10

They may need to repair, repaint or remodel any units that come open.
posted by OmieWise at 6:23 PM on April 10

In WA and CA you generally automatically switch to month-to-month if no notice to vacate is given when a lease ends, so just because a lease is ending doesn't mean people will be moving out.
posted by jeffamaphone at 7:01 PM on April 10

In my apartment building the resident manager doesn't always know when suite will be available because the owners will sometimes ask him to hold a suite or two open, in case they have friends that want to move in, or in case they decide to do some renovations or remodelling. This can change every month, so he really never knows until the owner tells him to rent out the suite.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:03 PM on April 10

Contracts evolve over time, and are subject to negotiation. So some tenants may only have to give 30 days.

The notice period mainly applies to those who want and expect a deposit back. Which is not everyone. Someone gets a job out of town that starts immediately, someone else decides that they're not getting the deposit back anyway so why bother to give notice before moving, blah blah.

Or if it's a college town, mgmt can have a pretty solid expectation that vacancies are coming in June even if no one has said said so. But they still have to wait until it actually happens.

If the complex is popular, there could be a waiting list for the next X number of units they know are coming vacant, which would mean nothing to publicly list unless those people make other arrangements.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:21 PM on April 10