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....