By Sara Israelsen
Dan Rawlings is getting out of his summer housing contract as fast as he can. He”s tired of the apartment toilet overflowing and seeping through the floor, dripping onto the kitchen table downstairs.
The dishwasher occasionally floods and he said the electrical outlets are wired backward, shocking him every time he plugs something in.
“It”d be a great place if they just did maintenance,” said Rawlings, a resident of Southridge Apartments.
So the sophomore from Heber City, studying multimedia and education, started complaining. And now, he is finally seeing action from the management.
These changes include the reopening of the hot tub which had previously sat dormant for more than eight months, as well as the instillation of a new kitchen in apartment 23 and new swamp coolers in apartments seven and 14.
“[This] is what we were trying for in the first place,” Rawlings said. “I don”t want to make a huge fuss, we just wanted them to do something and they have.”
But some tenants wonder why it has taken so long for these problems to be addressed.
Rory Homan, a sophomore music major from Hollis, N.H., lives down the hall from Rawlings and has dealt with his own unique apartment issues.
“The floor has never been finished,” he said. “They didn”t take out the linoleum, they just put the new stuff on top.”
The edges of the new hardwood floor were never completed, so Homan said he has to be careful about walking around in bare feet or he”ll get splinters.
Homan said he is staying until the fall and then he”s out. He said he won”t miss the floor or the water damage on the ceiling, but he will miss the ward and how the management is lenient with rent payments.
“The management is nice about rent paying,” he said. “They”re way laid back about that kind of stuff-but way too laid back about fixing stuff.”
Southridge has been in Provo for more than 40 years, filling the block of 665 N. 500 East, said current manager Merrill Taylor.
Taylor is in charge of processing maintenance requests for the 36 apartments, and provides the go-between for the tenants and the one maintenance worker. He said the complex usually processes at least one complaint or request per day.
“They [tenants] just have random things that happen in their apartment from time to time,” he said. And with 144 students, Taylor said that”s not unusual.
When things do go wrong, Southridge residents have two options. They can stop by the office to leave a message or fill out a maintenance request form, or they can call the emergency line and leave a message for the maintenance man.
However, if an emergency occurs at 1:30 a.m., residents are on their own.
“One time, we started bailing at 1 a.m.,” Rawlings said. “[Water was] coming down through the light fixture. Electricity [was] coursing through water – toilet water.”
It”s the occasional problems like these that push some Southridge residents away.
“People don”t last longer [in the complex] than they have to, legally,” Rawlings said.
Others are just biding their time, like Brady Atwood, who is strapped in by a contract.
“No one else is going to stay here,” he said. “I”m out as soon as I can.”
The senior from Nashville, Tenn., studying neuroscience, said his apartment began filing maintenance reports in February, requesting that a leak in the ceiling be fixed. Atwood said someone finally came on June 25 to fix the hole in his kitchen ceiling.
However, there is more to Southridge than just broken ceilings. Most tenants rave about the neighbors and the proximity to campus.
“The ward is really great.” Homan said. “[It”s a] good location.”
Dave Segrera, a junior from Houston Texas, studying engineering agreed.
“The people are great. The place is old – we”re just paying too much,” he said.
Rent for Spring and Summer Terms are almost $160 a month with utilities and almost $250 in the Fall and Winter Semesters.
Despite the old building, Taylor said some maintenance could be done quicker if students would step up and do their part first. He explained that sometimes showers need to be re-caulked to stop leaks. However, in order to re-caulk, the shower must be clean.
“Sometimes tenants just don”t clean the shower,” Taylor said. “Sometimes they just don”t let us know until we hear from them again, so we remind them again ”clean your shower so we can re-caulk it.””
Gustavo Ramirez is the maintenance worker for Southridge and said there is always something to do.
“Sometimes we have a lot of things,” he said. “Sometimes maybe they say my toilet is clogged, my faucet is broken. They have to be changed, obviously.”
Ramirez reports the problem to Taylor and they decide how to fix it.
But when Ramirez gets too busy, he said they call in back-up help for jobs like mowing the lawn or other jobs less demanding of special skills. But for whoever is working, the goal is the same.
“The owner tries to keep the place up really well,” Taylor said. “[That”s] part of the reason we have a maintenance man and a manager – so we can get it done.”
But more than structural improvements, Southridge will be changing management at the end of July.
Taylor said the new owners are currently working out loan details and will be in place within the next two weeks.
But for Rawlings, it”s a few months too late. When asked if he was coming back in the fall, his response was adamant: “Heck no.”
