Erica advises against renting at Coventry Cove apartments.

** For all of you new readers, this is my first "angry customer" blog post. I've never written a sour Yelp review rated any business less than 5-stars on Facebook but I feel as if this negative review of Coventry Cove is completely warranted.**

Unit 205 D has been my home for the past four (almost five) years. Its a great apartment complex if you ignore the staff. For what its worth, management changed about a year ago and the new apartment manager is a zillion times better than the old one ... but there is still room for improvement. If your apartment never has any maintenance needs and you like to be left alone, Coventry Cove is great to rent from. But, if you need any assistance from the staff, good luck on getting them to cooperate.

The location is absolutely wonderful. It is located in a quiet and friendly neighborhood just outside of Nichols Hills. The apartment complex is close to Interstate 235, Downtown OKC, the Western Avenue shopping and dining district, the Chesapeake campus and Whole Foods grocery store. It is also only a 3-minute drive to the office I work at. That is the number one reason why I have lived here so long.

When I first was apartment hunting, the manager at the time, Terry, told me that she didn't have any current openings but if I didn't need to move in immediately, she would have an opening in a few weeks. She assured me that the Notice to Vacate was already submitted & approved so the unit would be available soon. She didn't give me an exact date but I was so enamored with the location of the apartment and cheap rent that I forgot to ask.  I told her that I would stop my apartment hunting and check back in with her in a few weeks. She said that wasn't necessary; I could complete all of the paperwork now because she was 100% certain that a unit would be available for me, and if I didn't complete the paperwork immediately, the unit could be gone because she had a long waiting list. So, like any other naive twenty-something, I signed and paid my deposit. It was over a month before I could move in. Every time I contacted Terry to get an update, it was one excuse after another. The tenant decided not to move out, the apartment needed cleaning, her carpet installers rescheduled. Luckily, my mom let me stay with her during this awful time so I didn't have to be homeless.

Unit 204 B was my home for about 9 months.

Within a few months of my moving in, my downstairs neighbor knocked on my door one evening and scolded me for my barking dog. This lady was elderly and she talked to me like I was a 13 year old delinquent. I had Kensington at the time and he was pretty rambunctious but he never ever was loud enough to cause complaints. I apologized and then slammed the door on that bitch. LOL The next day, an extremely rude note was tacked to my door. Then a week later, Terry called me to tell me that my dog is causing too much noise and she has received "several" complaints. She also told me that if I didn't do anything about it, I would be evicted. This was my first complaint. No one gets evicted on their first complaint. Instead of arguing, I asked if one of us could move. I had no problem moving into a different unit if Kensington was causing my neighbor so much distress.  Terry agreed to move me as soon as a unit was vacant. While we were waiting for my move,  both my neighbor and Terry took turns bullying me and Kensington. The harassment lasted about a month.

How could any one hate on this adorable dog??!?!

Not long after that was taken care of, Wes moved in with me. We are law abiding tenants so I went to the apartment's leasing office to get him officially added to my lease. Terry did not know how to complete any of the necessary paperwork. All she did know how to do was ask for another application fee. *eye roll* The following year, Wes tried to renew our lease and he was no where to be found on any of the documents! But he was added last year! And we paid you another $50! How hard can it be to amend the lease to add another tenant? I imagine he had to go through the entire process again but I was at work that day and took no part in Terry's stupidity.

Home sweet home.

Not long after Wes moved in, our storage unit got broken into. The lock was completely destroyed and all of my boxes were thrown out. The boxes were empty but I was saving them just in case we needed to move again. Someone had thrown all of their junk into our storage unit. Wes & I each went to the leasing office to report this. When Wes spoke with Terry, he found out that Randy, the maintenance technician, was given permission to commandeer the storage unit. Management assumed the unit was not in use. She did not apologize for this misunderstanding. Then as Wes was leaving, he heard Terry mutter under her breath that she did not understand what the big deal was because, although all tenants are given one storage unit, she uses all four of the storage units in her block of apartment units and none of her neighbors ever complained.

Our completely destroyed lock that we found on the floor of our storage unit.

The next day it was my turn to talk to Terry & Randy. I expressed my concern that we were broken in to (which was a crime! theft! unsafe! burglary!) They were not taking this issue seriously, so I asked how either of them would feel if their storage unit was broken in to and all of their belongings were thrown in the garbage? I also asked why Randy would see a lock on the storage unit and then assume it was not being used by a resident. He claimed that he asked me and I told him to go right ahead and just tear our lock off. Why not Randy, I love a good robbery! When I informed him it was not me, he said that maybe it was Wes who granted him permission. I asked when this conversation took place because we don't remember it happening. Neither of them had any answers for me, nor did they apologize. Instead, they just accused me of overreacting and shooed me out of the office.

Later that day, I called National Property Management Associates (NPMA), the company that owns Coventry Cove. I explained our situation and although it could have just been an error in communication from both parties, Terry & Randy were not being helpful in resolving this issue. NPMA called Terry and then Terry called me. She did not call with a resolution. She did not call to apologize. She called to scold me; she raised her voice and verbally chastised me for calling NPMA. She claimed that she has been in apartment management for over twenty years and she has never once gotten a complaint, therefore she could not believe that someone like myself would even dare to call in a complaint. After a little back and forth, she agreed to remove Randy's belongings from our storage unit, purchase a new lock and some plastic storage containers to replace the ones that were thrown out. Still no apology, though.

Ever since that day, Terry never spoke to me again. She wouldn't even look at me when she passed me walking my dogs. Luckily, she retired soon afterward. The new apartment manager, Susan, is a bazillion times better at management than Terry. She sends texts & emails with apartment updates, she keeps Randy on top of his maintenance work orders and she even tries to plan fun activities for residents. But, unfortunately, she isn't any more efficient with paperwork. When we got Athena, I went to the leasing office to add a new dog to our lease. She told me we cannot have three dogs. I told her that we have one dog, Sadie; Kensington died in 2014 and I called the office at that time to notify her. I had assumed she had noted this on my lease and would return my second pet deposit upon move out date but, no, she didn't note a damn thing (there goes my $50) but at least she did not charge another deposit for Athena. In both 2015 and 2016, I had to take responsibility to go to the leasing office to ask her for a lease renewal because she was unaware that it is part of her job to present these to residents.

When we were ready to move out, I went to the leasing office on June 30th. Our lease expired on August 1st so I wanted to be sure to place my thirty day Notice to Vacate. Susan curtly informed me that Coventry Cove requires a sixty day notice so I could not move out on August 1st. I curtly replied that neither myself nor Wes was ever informed of this policy. She rummaged around to find our contract, turns to the page and points to the paragraph. Then, as if I was illiterate, she takes a highlighter to mark the sentence stating "residents need to provide a sixty day notice" and shoves the document in my face. Really? Where is your professionalism?

I told her that I understand the contract but what I did not understand is that if residents have to give a sixty day notice to vacate, why did management not need to give residents sixty days to renew? "It is June 30th," I told Susan, "and I have not received any lease renewal or new rental rates. I was unable to make an informed decision sixty days in advance." She simply said she was too busy to bother with providing renewal notices. I told her that I also was too busy to be bothered but at least I am trying to do my due diligence. She ended up allowing us to move out on July 31st. She probably also then promptly placed my name on the Do Not Rent list. LOL Our final apartment walk-through went well (except that we need to get the carpet replaced and I'm almost certain that we will not be getting our deposit refunded because carpet can be expensive) and we are renters no more... we have a house now! The first time home-buying process was wonderful (hardly stressful at all)! More on that in next week's blog post.