Havenwood Apartments Takes Away Amenity Turning Hot Tub Into Cactus Planter

We have heard again from the Tenant Thinks Snidely Whiplash Has Taken Over Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments.

Dear Renters Alliance,

Have you seen this? Snidely Whiplash, the out of state Havenwood Apartments owner, has gone from nickel and diming residents with surcharges for things like hot water, trash removal, security alarms, water and sewage disposal, to now taking away amenities which residents have long thought was part of what they were paying for each month when they pay the rent.

Enclosed you will find a photo showing you the current state of Havenwood's poolside hottub. 

The hot tub has been drained, filled with dirt, and turned into a giant cactus planter!

How bizarre.

I wonder how long it will be before a fed up resident yanks that cactus out of the former  hot tub and tosses it in the pool?

Thank you, once again, for giving a voice to us fed up Havenwood residents.

A Soon to be ex-Havenwood Resident

_________________________________

Thank you, Soon to be ex-Havenwooder. We had not seen the new version of the Havenwood hot tub. We have seen some of the other landscape "upgrades".

Most of the trees were cut down on the south side of the property before the city put a stop to the illegal clearcut.

In the years since, not much landscaping has taken place on the south side to fix  the damage.

We wonder how long it will be before the new, out of state, owner gets sued after someone breaks a limb due to slipping and falling on the ball bearing pea sized gravel that has been spread over large areas of the property?

How did that pea sized gravel get past the city code compliance people?

Fort Worth Apartment Charges Trash Removal Fee But Does Not Remove Trash

Incoming complaint from a resident of Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments.

D/FW Renter Alliance,

Thank you so much for giving us Havenwood residents a place to feel out pain regarding what has happened to this property since a new owner took over.

Has anyone else noticed that on our so called "utility bill" that the $1.95 so called recycling fee is now called a"trash" fee?

The picture I enclosed with this email was taken Saturday, February 14, 2015. Valentines Day. We pay for this?

Thank you,

Havenwood Resident

Does Fort Worth Have No City Agency Protecting Tenant Rights?

Does the City of Fort Worth have no one in the city government, no agency, which looks out for tenant's rights and which investigates reported wrongdoing by property owners?

The Dallas/Fort Worth Renter Alliance has been focused on the questionable practices of the owner of Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments, as detailed on this blog.

Questionable Havenwood practices such as changing water billing companies, without notice, and with each change resulting in higher bills, more than doubling in a year, along with adding a garbage disposal fee, a natural gas water heating fee, an alarm fee.

All these fees have been added at the same time the rents have increased by almost $100 in some cases.

Does the City of Fort Worth not monitor the practices of out of state property owners operating in Fort Worth? Havenwood residents have requested, as per the law, as stated by TCEQ, billing records to check for the legitimacy of the doubling of the water fees. No records providing this information has been provided.

Back in late 2014 the City of Fort did nothing about another apartment owner's outrageous mistreatment of tenants. Residents of Fort Worth's Parkview Village were given eviction notices with 30 days to vacate the premises. These notices showed up on resident's doors, with no prior warning, or explanation. No help was offered, by either the city or the owner.

You can read about this Fort Worth abuse of human rights in an article in Fort Worth Weekly titled Get Out.

The Durango Texas blog also wrote about this abuse in Fort Worth Shrugs Its Shoulders While Hundreds Of Citizens Are Given 30 Day Eviction Notices.

The city government of most towns in America would not allow abuses such as that which is happening to the residents of the Havenwood Apartments, such abuses would be seen as institutionalized thievery, or white collar crime.

As for the arbitrary 30 day evictions of the residents of Parkview Village, we suspect many city governments in America would have pursued criminal charges against the property owner perpetrator in an instance such as this.

Getting Rid of Havenwood Apartment Cockroaches with Combat Source Kill MAX

Interesting incoming email regarding the Cockroach Infestations at Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments....

D/FW Renter's Alliance,
Thank you for providing this forum for us frustrated people who live in Havenwood. It is such a struggle to move, with so many obstacles, but that is what a lot of us are wanting to do to escape from the new owner's rent increases and surcharges for things that used to be included in the rent, like the security alarms, the water, the natural gas to heat the water and more, like the recycling fee.

What is next? An allocated surcharge to pay for the constant need to have a cockroach exterminator try to eliminate the chronic cockroach infestations?

I have lived in a Havenwood one bedroom apartment for 6 years. During that time I have had the exterminator try to exterminate the cockroaches on three occasions. Each time for a short while the cockroaches are gone. And then they come back.

Finally I gave up on calling the office to ask for another exterminator visit. I researched home remedies to get rid of cockroaches.

On Amazon.com I found a product with rave reviews called Dupont Avion Cockroach Gel Bait. Trouble was, it was expensive. I went to Home Depot where I did not find the Dupont product, but I did find a Cockroach Gel Bait called Combat Source Kill Max.

I Googled for info about the Cockroach product to find it sounded similar to the Dupont product, in that you squeeze a peanut butter consistency gel out of what looks like a hypodermic needle. The cockroaches eat the gel, go back to their nest, die and spread the poison.

Then I found Raid also has a similar product, called Raid Roach Gel.

I found the Combat Source Kill Max at Walmart and bought it. Got home and followed the instructions. From what I read on Amazon the results can be astounding, as in the next day people found dozens of cockroach corpses on their kitchen floors.

But, the next day I found no cockroach corpses. But, I also saw no live cockroaches.

As the days passed a few cockroach corpses showed up on the kitchen floor. But no live ones.

Now, two months have gone by and I no longer seem to have a cockroach problem.

For the first time in years I am cockroach free.

So, I can wholeheartedly suggest to anyone suffering from cockroach visitors that you seek out the Dupont, Combat or Raid products and get rid of these annoying pests.

Now, if only Walmart sold a product that got rid of an annoying landlord in as equally an easy way....

Thank you,

Anonymous Havenwooder

Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments Charges $1.95 a Month for Recycling not Accessible to Most Tenants

The lonely bin you are looking at is the sole receptacle for recyclables on the Havenwood Apartment complex. The recycling "service" is provided by an entity called SINGLE STREAM.

Havenwood Apartment residents are charged a monthly $1.95 recycling fee, added to all the other charges on their "water" bill.

A Havenwood resident emailed us with their complaint about the Havenwood recycling methodology....

Dear D/FW Renter's Alliance,

Thank you for being a voice for us renters, both in Havenwood and elsewhere. Some of what goes on with landlords seems downright criminal. I am a Havenwood tenant. I live on the de-forested south side of the property, where the new landlord clear cut the forest of trees before the city made him stop. The north side of Boca Raton was spared and still looks like a jungle when viewed from the southside from a 3rd  floor apartment.

A lot of us are pissed off about all these new surcharges for what used to be included in the rent. That and the rent being raised by a large amount. $3.00 for an alarm that I don't use. $4.95 for natural gas to heat the hot water. How do they meter the sewage charge each month? The water I can understand, but sewage? How is that metered?

But, the "fee" that really annoys me is the most nominal charge, the $1.95 Recycling Fee. There is only one recycling bin on the property. It is located on the north side behind a security gate. For me to put recyclables in that bin I have to go through two security gates. For me, and most of the others I've talked to about it, it is too much bother, so we don't bother recycling. 
This seems like a scam to us. If Havenwood serious about providing a recycling opportunity shouldn't there be recycling bins convenient to all those paying the fee? 
Is there any sort of Fort Worth housing agency that complaints can be made to? Seems like someone should be monitoring things like this.

Thank you,

Soon to be ex-Havenwooder
_______________________________________

Dear Soon to be ex-Havenwooder,

You raise a valid point. Complaining to the city can be successful in righting a Havenwood wood, as witnessed by the saving of some of the trees from being slaughtered. We are involved with helping victims of a landlord in another area of Fort Worth where the landlord gave 133 apartment units a 30 day eviction notice. Local media is now covering that particular case of landlord abuse. The Havenwood situation is more subtle.

Thank you for your input, Soon to be ex-Havenwooder,

D/FW Renters Alliance

A Tenant Thinks Snidely Whiplash Has Taken Over Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments

Interesting incoming email today from a 9 year resident of Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments who has a thing or two to say about what living with Havenwood's new owner has been like....

Dallas Fort Worth Renter Alliance,

Thank you for providing this outlet. I don't think the new owners of Havenwood understand that we have a voice and ways to address what we feel is wrongful, possibly illegal, certainly unethical practices by the new landlord.

In other words we are being nickel and dimed to death.

Several years ago, like has already been mentioned, the previous owner instigated allotted water billing. At that time the bills averaged between $12 and $24 depending on your apartment size. We were told when this started that sharing in the water bills gave us incentive to save water and keep our rents down, by keeping the high cost of water down.

In all my years of living in Havenwood the rent had never gone up. Til this water bill was added.

And then the new landlord took over. The water bill was switched, without notice, to a new company, NES. The bill jumped about $10. Then the bill went through what we were told was a "catch-up" period to make the water bill more concurrent with the rent due bill. How could the water bill have been months behind the rent due date when water billing could only have begun with a new lease period?

I believe doing this was fraudulent and against Landlord Tenant Law and TCEQ rules. During this "catch-up" period the bills for various renters ranged from the high $30 to over $50.

How doe this motivate us to save on water use to save money?

And then, again, mid-lease the water billing company was switched, this time to Comptrol Technologies, with the amount charged for water again increased, with no explanation for the increase.

And then the new landlord started raising the rent. For the first time since I moved to Havenwood the rent went up. First a small $5 increase,  then a $22 increase and now a $33 increase. Between the rent increases and the water billing increase rents have gone up between $70 and $100.

Is there no Fort Worth Fair Housing Agency which looks after things like this?

I forgot. I keep referring to the rent surcharge as the water bill. Originally it was a combo water and sewage bill.

Then the new landlord came along and added a $1.95 recycling fee. Then a $4.95 shared natural gas allotment fee, along with a $3.00 alarm fee.

The natural gas fee is to pay for the gas which heats our hot water. All these "fees" used to be included in the rent. Rent which has now been greatly increased, along with the surcharge bill.

In the lease documents each of these fee addendums makes reference to the allotment method being based on TAA guidelines, implying some sort of state agency guideline, when the fact of the matter is TAA is Texas Apartment Association which is basically an apartment industry group of landlords. In other words TAA guidelines hold no weight in the legal real world.

What is next with this Snidely Whiplash nickel and diming landlord?

An exterminator allotment fee to help pay for the constant fight against cockroach infestations? Encouraging tenants to keep rent costs down by fighting cockroach infestations on their own?

A parking fee if you want to keep a vehicle on the property?

A shared allotment fee to help pay for the landscaping cost?

A shared allotment fee to help pay for exterior safety lighting?

A shared allotment fee to help pay for the office help?

With all these fees being based on TAA guidelines, of course, so as to motivate the tenants to help keep costs down and thus avoid any rent increases.

Many residents of Havenwood are looking to bail before it gets worse. It is not easy to move.

I am contacting the Fort Worth agency in charge of housing to see what can be done.

Thank you,

Longtime Havenwood Resident Looking To Move

Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments Becoming the Spirit Airlines of Apartment Operations

Alarm Cost Lease Addendum

To the left you are looking at the allocating alarm costs LEASE ADDENDUM added to the latest leases let at Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments.

The latest leases have multiple addendums adding additional charges to the basic rent which for years were items which were covered when one paid ones basic rent.

As in, water use was included in the rent. As was wastewater disposal which disposed of that water.

The natural gas used to heat that water was included in the rent.

And the security alarms were included in the rent.

And then a new owner took ownership of the Havenwood Apartments, as in Mahesh P. Desai of the State of Maryland's Capital Vision Management.

The first items at Havenwood to be "allocated" were water and wastewater disposal. Tenants were told that free water being included in the rent gave residents no incentive to save precious water. The allocation scheme was bizarrely touted as a way for tenants to keep their rent from rising by saving on water.

And by reducing the volume of wastewater disposal by cutting back on toilet flushes?

And how in the world is wastewater metered? We are still awaiting an answer to that question.

Natural Gas Costs Lease Addendum

And then, for the first time in most resident's memory, rents were raised by the new owner.

At first a small increase of only $5, followed by an increase of over four times that amount.

Plus adding allocated fees for natural gas use and the use of security alarms.

We have heard from Havenwood residents who objected to paying for their apartment's security alarm due to the fact that the alarm has not been used in years due to malfunctioning.

Havenwood Apartment management insisted the alarm cost lease addendum had to be signed and the add-on fee paid, despite not working and not being used.

Because it was the law.

Huh? Texas has a law on the books which requires apartment dwellers to pay for security alarms they do not use?

I think you can see why Fort Worth's Havenwood Apartments is becoming known as the Spirit Airlines of apartment complexes.

What's next at Havenwood for added fees? The parking lots are expensive to maintain. Will residents be assessed a parking fee? Shouldn't the residents be paying part of the cost of having landscapers show up every week?

A recycling garbage fee has already been added to the monthly rent, so we have that one covered.

Currently there is no additional charge when one requests exterminator help with a cockroach invasion. That probably should be an added shared  allocation cost to give residents a reason to keep their living quarters non-conducive to cockroaches....