We just moved out of a place more because of the owner than the actual apartment. The people hired to repair things were always the cheapest to be found and did work that lived up to the price. Also, the amount of things the owner didn't care about was getting ridiculous...sewage in the basement (without feeling the need to notify tenants who paid for basement storage), bats that roost in the buildings and come in to greet you at night, and we most recently had a bunch of displaced squirrels decide to roost in the walls of the building...the rent was cheap, the neighborhood good, and the apartment adorable, but it finally all added up to too much to handle!

I'm preparing to move soon and in my new place we're just required to not make a mess and share the common unless we reserved ahead of time. I especially love the hallways though--the building draws several artists and we're allowed to place artwork on the walls pending it isn't outright obscene (no pornography snapshots or drawings). Any space available on the wall is yours for the taking otherwise :).

I also recently moved out of an apartment because of a squirrel infestation. When I reported it to my landlord, he trapped the squirrels and released them, but neglected to patch up the holes in the roof that the squirrels used to enter. Needless to say, they returned "home" over and over again. I never knew squirrels could make so much noise! I finally got tired of my new roommates and had to leave. It's a shame - the apartment was beautiful, inexpensive, and in a great location. I had been there for 5 years before the squirrels moved in. I just couldn't take it.

In another life, when I was in my 20s, I shared an apartment in Boston with two other women. The landlord was a creep, unethical, and notorious in the area for his shoddy landlord practices. One night the toilet got clogged, overflowed all the way down to the vestibule on the first floor, and set the chandelier there on fire. We had practically the entire fire department in the building, running up to our third floor apartment after they had put out the (small) chandelier fire. The landlord demanded money from us for repairs. We refused - it was not our fault - and he took us to small claims court. One of my roommates knew a great lawyer who took an interest in our small case and agreed to represent us for a small fee. The landlord was claiming that we caused the toilet to clog and overflow because we flushed sanitary napkins and tampons down it. Well, we assured the judge that we were not so stupid as to flush sanitary pads down a toilet. As for tampons, our lawyer got a glass of water, and in front of the judge and the landlord, put a tampon in the glass and we all watched it blossom out in the water. It was hysterical! Several weeks later, we got a letter from the court informing us that we'd won and owed the landlord nothing. We thought about countersuing for our legal costs but decided to leave well enough alone. The landlord continued to harass us, though, calling one of my roommates at work, for example, and threatening her. We moved at the end of August to a lovely place in Brookline!

I live in an old-ish apartment building, built shortly after World War 2. The common areas are basic, but the management keeps them painted with carpet with no signs of wear. They vacuum regularly and spray down the hallways with Febreeze. I have absolutely no complaints.

During art school I shared an adorable 1920s flat with my roommate. It was within walking distance to a park, our school, and several restaurants and markets. The landlady, however, neglected the common areas - including security features. Our call box (buzzer) was broken and would go off on it's own - 3am anyone? Also, the security doors to enter the building were glass and were constantly cracked, taped, then finally repaired weeks later. Security cameras were visible, but never turned on (which was obvious, as the power indicator light was never glowing), so when we had issues with a neighbor roaming the hallways intoxicated, they were of no use!
Our last straw was a string of events including a homeless individual sleeping in the common mailroom, a neighbor sliding notes under our door (my roommates secret/creepy admirer), and finally the discovery of multiple piles of -eh-hem- excrement of the human nature in the basement laundry room. Check please!

We've had a terrible time with our landlord since moving to Spain. When we moved in, the heat wasn't working (in January!) and it took many phone calls and bitch sessions to our landlord to fix the problem. In order to "fix" the problem, he just showed up without calling to tell me he was coming over nor that he would be bringing workers through my home. Then they installed a pipe wrong and had to come back two weeks later. Long story short, we didn't have functioning heat for two months (the coldest two months of the year). Fortunately, we raised so much hell that we got to get out of paying rent for the month of February. I still would have preferred the heat though :)

This is exactly why we passed on what might have been a GREAT apartment. The hallway and stairs up were dirty with stuff everywhere and you could tell that no one took care of it. The outside of the house was also...meh. It just gave the impression that whoever the landlord was, s/he didn't care and probably wouldn't be a good landlord. It was hard to pass on that great space with a HUGE bathroom with a checkered tile floor, but I think we made the right decision in going with our gut.

I've had great experiences with my landlords and supers, but since I was just looking for a new place, I was very aware of when I entered buildings that didn't have the same level of upkeep that I was used to. One big warning sign was a Marshal's order on an apartment a few floors down from the one I was being shown (Had it been an elevator building, I never would've noticed!). But things like maintenance of common areas are a big indication of the kind of service you'll get when you're a resident.

Unfortunately the other big issue is the only one I have with my current place: the way the other tenants treat the common areas. Despite the best efforts of my lovely super to keep the lobby and elevator clean, there are tenants who just don't seem to care. I've seen people leave a (full) broken bottle of wine in the middle of the lobby, let their pets roam without leashes and urinate in front of the front door, etc. These are the sorts of things you just won't notice until you actually live someplace for a while.

absolutely yes; the appearance of the common areas does matter!!! it gives clues of what to expect from the landlord/owner/maintenance staff and other tenants.

i looked at an apartment just last night. as soon as i stepped into the lobby of the building i knew that i would not be moving there, no matter how cute the apartment might be. there was an empty juice bottle on the floor outside one apartment and a cup of pop/coffee/? on the stairwell. while thinking that sweet beverages draw bugs (of which i have a strong fear), i could still - maybe - let the bottle and cup pass as being from occasionally lazy neighbors, but then the rental agent didn't even bother to pick up the empties. i also saw poorly labeled mail boxes, an open basket marked for outgoing mail (hardly secure) and a couple of cracks each about three feet long in walls that had been repaired but not painted (to be fair, maybe that was done recently ... but to be realistic, the apartment itself was in shabby condition, with a sloppy paint job and broken window blinds, so i'm thinking those repairs in the walls had been there a while and no one had bothered to re-paint them). i would guess that the walls in the common areas were covered with "oops" paint because, to me, it was an odd/off color - or maybe that's because the lights were very dim. it looked dark and felt depressing and rather oppressive. the carpet felt very sponge-y (gross). also? the person showing me the apartment had set one time to meet, then quickly asked me to delay it by a half-hour so that she wouldn't have to go back to work but could go straight home after showing me the apartment. she arrived late. she told me where my sofa "had" to go in the apartment. and over the phone she told me the rent on that apartment was 615$ a month, then in person twice said the rent was 610$ - while the flyer in the information box out on the lawn indicated the rent was 575$. everyone has the occasional bad day and i guess places can, too - no place is perfect - but i saw too many red flags last night. my search will continue wish me good luck, please. i need it! and good luck to everyone else out there not yet in their dream-homes!

kathy

We are fortunate to have great common areas, but we have more problems with other tenants who use it for smoking. The courtyard always smells like smoke and they bring it in with them when they walk back into the building.

I currently live in a building where the common areas are not taken care of. After looking at tons of apartments in the same historical area of Baltimore, we realized many buildings were not kept up the way they should but we fell for the charm of the apartment as well as location. However, here we are rounding out our year lease and are looking elsewhere. The owner and landlord of the building lives in Miami, so I can't really say whether he knows the true condition of the building he owns or not. If you call him to fix something, he sends the maintenance guy who is your run-of-the-mill general handyman who "can fix anything." He is a super sweet older man and very trustworthy but I feel that his work is shabby because he isn't an expert in everything we ask him to fix, and he always leaves the place a mess after fixes (i.e. paint splatters, dirt, etc.). The repairs get done, but the common area has never been swept or mopped since we have been there, and I am always calling to tell them that half the building's light bulbs are out.

Things that we thought weren't a big deal have become a big deal. My boyfriend admits that it does matter, he is embarrassed to ask new people over to our apartment because you have to walk through the charming but dirty lobby and main staircase.

The common areas of my building are clean but it's clear that they have not been well maintained over the years. The walls of the hall are dirty and the carpets are ancient. Luckily my apartment is great, the other tenants are quiet and clean, and maintenance...well they're 'ok' - not great but not that bad. I took a risk and it worked for me.

for me, common areas are like foreshadowing of the experience in the new place so I always pay close attention! a roommate and i moved in to what seemed to be an awesome place near Boston, but the stairs were dirty and pretty ancient, the front door barely worked (a solid shoulder to it and the 'lock' would give), the was a large sign stating "no storage in hallway" but a small pile of stuff under the stairs anyway (come to find out that it was all the landlords stuff) and a broken grandfather clock(?!?) right in front of our door. After a year of being told by my LAZY landlord "you have a hammer, fix it yourself" or "call the handy man yourself, and I'll pay you back", i had had quite enough!
the newer place we moved in to was much different! hallways were being touched up as we moved in, new carpet a few months in, and even a new wall color a little after that. Even when we had torrenchal rains flood the first floor, they were there within the first 24 hours already tearing the carpet out and drying everything out to make sure there was no mold! Lesson learned: dirty/gross/mistreated hallways means bad news!

I almost moved into a place because of the commons area. The walls were covered with framed photographs that the tenants had supplied, mostly travel photographs and the courtyard was full of plants. The onsite manager took care of the plants and said I was free to contribute plants to the garden and she would tend to it. The place had a sense of community to it. Tenants that were there while I looked at the apartment came out and introduced themselves. Unfortunately it had off street parking and the tenants I spoke with had admitted their car had been broken into at least once. :(

Our building has brick---ugly yellow, 70's, outdoor-style brick---in all of the hallways instead of drywall. So hideous! My 3-year-old has started asking, "Why is there brick in the hallway?" I wish I knew how to answer that.

The cinderblock stairwells are painted with a weird gold splatter-paint effect, and in the entry area, which does have drywall, has a sloppily-done peach faux finish. The Board is slowly trying to fix up the place. It's also way past time to replace the indoor-outdoor carpet that someone thought was a good idea to put in the hallways.

I don't really care if the common areas are beautiful, but I do care about the buzzer system and locks. Definitely a deal breaker if either of those do not feel secure. Also, a reasonably clean and safe laundry room is important.

When I moved into my previous apartment everthing was great. But a few years later the owners got into trouble (SF people will know what I mean when I say these two words: Skyline Realty) and decided to save money by illegally removing our onsite manager (buildings over a certain number of units require an onsite person by law/ordinance).

First the elevators started going out, which was particularly painful for us because we were on the equivalent of the 8th floor. Once we were even trapped in an elevator for 45 minutes. The only consolation was that cute firemen came to rescue us.

Granted, the elevators were OLD but at least when the onsite guy was there we always had at least one of the two cars to rely on. Now BOTH elevators would be out for days at a time. I felt terrible for the old folks who lived on the upper floors.

Then the garbage pick-up started tapering down, bringing cockroaches and flies to the building.

We hated to leave. Our apartment was wonderful. It had a 180-degree south-facing view of the city and tons of period charm (built in the late 20s/early 30s). The main living area kind of jutted out so it gave the impression of being a sunroom.

But I just couldn't deal with hauling myself and my then-6-year-old up and down all those stairs every day, let alone having to live with BUGS. I feared that mice and rats would soon follow.

Now I'm in an apartment with a view of a wall (sigh), but it's bigger and has two gigantic closets, an eat-in kitchen, and just as much period charm. Bonus: We only have to climb about 8 steps to reach it, and the common areas are SPOTLESS.

First, the good things about my building: super fast elevators (7 floors, 2 levels of parking), a loading dock and receiving room from which I can frequently adopt discarded furniture and kitchen things, and quick maintenance response.

The bad thing: the lighting and carpeting in the place reminds me of a badly lit version of the house in The Shining! Dim and dingy fluorescent lights make the place look horrible, and the carpet makes the place look like an endless tunnel. I guess that means the walls aren't particularly light either - matte white paint with endless scuffs, scratches, and marks. I'm mad that they renovated the lobby a year ago but leave the rest of it looking so ugly. Each apartment is a relief to enter since it's such an improvement over the horrible halls.

I'm totally apathetic about everything except smell.

I moved out of an apartment because the landlord would only use one handy man for every repair at multiple apartment sites, as a result I went 10 days with no hot water because he was too busy to replace the water heater in my unit and the landlord would not pay for a plumber (and neither would I on principle). My request for $50 rent refund was denied, as 10 days was considered "reasonable". Also, the landlord advertised the unit with washer and dryer in unit, after I moved in I learned that the washer didn't work and the dryer never would, because it was a gas dryer and there was no gas hook up for it. I fell for the charm of an older building, and saw the exterior spaces looked neglected, but thought I could fix up my place and live with the rest. But it just kept adding up, with window washing (I was on the 2nd floor and couldn't reach the exteriors and landlord wouldn't pay for any part of it), refinishing the kitchen sink, replacing door handles that fell off, he wouldn't send the handyman to replace them even though I bought new handles. I should have heeded the common spaces as an indicator that the landlord was not concerned about the property in any way. Dirty windows on every unit, cobwebs in every corner of every stairwell, rotting wood window frames, dented garage doors, dirty walkways, broken outdoor lighting, dead trees, oy. Lesson learned.