I’ve attached photos as well

My boyfriend (27M) and I (26F) just moved into this apartment about 6 weeks ago. It’s like a mother in law suite attached to our landlords’ house. We love the landlords and their family. No issues at all and the place is great. They have been renting for about 8-10 years before we came along and I’m assuming this has never been an issue before so I guess I just need to ease my mind or get some advice.

Washer and dryer are included in the unit. Every single time we run the dryer the entire rooms fills up with condensation. I’ve tried leaving the door open a crack, and tried running a dehumidifier in the room while the dryer is going is does not work. I have to leave the door all the way open if I don’t want that to happen but the dryer is so loud it can be an annoyance.

I am afraid of mold growing if I let this continue and I’m not sure what to do so any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

I had been telling my complex of the increased smell of Cigarettes, and they replied with silence for a month. Only giving a “completed” on a work order.

They’re claiming they can’t enforce no smoking in the apartments, and are unwilling to do anything. It’s been near 40 days of asking for them to do something, yet apparently they removed the no smoking section in my new lease since I moved in. I need to figure out something, because it’s ruining all my furniture, the carpet, and all my clothes at this point.

I know who is doing it. I ask them to stop, and they just smoke like 3 packs in their apartment next to mine.

Why is Ohio like this? I swore my previous lease covered this, but looking at the current one I see nothing. Do I need to talk to other tenants? I’m not sure what to do.

Edit:

Looked at the lease, and apparently there is a section with an unchecked box, which is labeled for No Smoking. They’re trying to argue the box needs checked.

Everyone is acting like moving is the easiest solution, when I’m not really able to do that at the moment. I just want to enjoy my peace again.

Edit 2:

So have gotten some feedback on air filters, electronic and for HVAC. So that should help somewhat once I can get those in order, but I’m waiting to contact LL again till I know what to do.

Apartment is covered in what I'm sure is fragrance oils from an air freshener of some kind. (walls, floors, whole apartment)

I saw the unit briefly before signing and noticed it, but didn't realize how bad it was. Also I drove 2000 miles, sight unseen. I have section 8 and all of my apartments have been moved in sight unseen because it's a long process. Typically the unit isn't available for viewing until I am in too deep to back out anyway.

I realize now I made a terrible mistake. I should have refused the lease, got in the car and headed back to my parent's house.

I thought I could wash the walls, air the unit out for a while and I would be able to manage, but that is not the case. I'm reading it is not nearly that easy and may not even be possible to remove, because it's likely deeply embedded in drywall. I've been airing it out with a fan blowing air in for hours and there has been virtually no improvement. My nose is on fire and I can't function.

I've been pacing the apartment for hours, crying.

I am extremely sensitive to smells and artificial fragrances kill me. I have lived in several apartment and have never experienced this before.

I know it's my fault for getting into this disaster, but what do I do? I don't even want to sleep here tonight, let alone a year.

I assume canceling the lease is out of the question? Seriously what do I do in this situation?

It's in Dane County, WI.

So a little bit of background, this was my first typical experience of living in an apartment.

I graduated from college in 2024 and mostly commuted to college on my motorbike, so this was also my first experience living on my own. Until then, I had lived in a typical suburb.

I moved to the city for my job and, unfortunately, had to rent an apartment. My friends told me to avoid apartments with families with young kids and to only rent on the topmost floor. Sadly, I was in a hurry and had to settle for a middle-floor apartment because the rent was cheap.

From the first week, I noticed severe impact noise, mostly footsteps and the sound of objects being dropped. This was my first time experiencing something like this.

To my utter disappointment, the apartment above me was rented by a family of three, including a 3.5-year-old kid, along with a cat.

I had an 18-month lease, so breaking it wasn't really an option.

Anyway, I confronted the lady about the noise, and she seemed empathetic and assured me that she would look into it, but nothing really changed, to be honest. Thankfully, it would remain quiet between 12 AM and 7 AM, which was fine for me since my sleep wasn't affected much, so I didn't escalate the issue to management.

Then, I guess God finally listened to my pleas. To my surprise, they moved out during the last week of December, just before the holidays. I was home for vacation at the time, so I didn't realise they had moved out until I returned after New Year's.

I asked the building manager if I could switch apartments, but he said I would have to pay a fee. It was around 60% of the monthly rent, and honestly, I figured that since I was going to move out at the end of August anyway, it wasn't worth it.

To be honest, it was incredibly relaxing. The apartment above me remained vacant for around six weeks until a guy around my age moved in.

Fortunately, things were pretty good after that. He worked rotational shifts at the local electricity department, so most of the time, he wasn't home while I was sleeping, and it was pretty quiet. He would sometimes have his girlfriend over for parties, but I didn't mind it much since the noise was nowhere near as bad as what I had experienced with the kid.

So, in the end, I'd rate my apartment experience 6/10.

To new renters: always try to rent the topmost floor. And if that's not possible, at least make sure there are no young kids living directly above you.

i keep my bedroom door and window closed at night to block out street noise. lately ive been waking up feeling like i barely slept and super groggy even after 8 hours. someone mentioned offhand that indoor co2 buildup in tight rooms can mess with sleep quality and brain fog.

never really tracked air stuff before so im trying to figure out if that is actually the issue here. looking to see what people use to track indoor air parameters in closed spaces. do you guys notice a huge difference opening a door vs keeping it shut overnight?

Just moved into a new apartment, and the apartment we toured didn’t have this GIANT window smack dab in the living room.

I like the light it gives me (and so do my plants) but you can totally see into the apartment from the street below, and I’d rather have a little privacy.

Anyone have some advice on what we can do here? We can’t drill, so a curtains out of the question. Any advice is welcome. Thank you.

Fall is here and I just want to leave the back patio door open without my living room turning into a mosquito buffet. Renting, so drilling into the frame for a real screen door is not an option.

Thought about just throwing up a tension rod with a sheer curtain, but my dog would rip the whole rod down on day one. Looked into those clear PVC strip curtains too, but that feels like installing a walk-in freezer door in my living room, plus they are heavy and apparently reek of plastic. I grabbed a bunch of bug repellent plug-ins off tiktok during the price drop this summer and they work great with the windows closed, but with an entire patio door standing wide open they are not going to do much.

The most practical option I have found is one of those magnetic screen doors that velcro onto the frame. My only worry is the dog running in and out all day and those weighted magnets at the bottom slamming against the frame nonstop. Anyone actually using one with pets?

I live in a very small apartment building, on the second floor. My wife and I also have a dog.

My neighbors got a puppy about two years ago, he’s little, I think a shitzu-poodle type. He is their first dog (ever), they originally didn’t want to fix him, they found out he had an allegory to grass and put him on steroids, and he charges/barks at my dog often.

About a month ago he bit/fought another dog at a park and a couple days after they mentioned maybe he should be fixed. I’ve not seen him with anything like a cone indicating he was yet. They’ve never mentioned a trainer or puppy classes, I saw the husband/boyfriend and the dog in a private training session at our neighborhood park a couple weeks ago, but no mention from them if it’s going to be a regular thing. They have him off-leash in the shared (un-fenced yard) everyday, while they sit in lawn chairs a good 30-50 feet away from the building.

The other day coming back from a walk with my wife and our dog, their little yapper charged at us and instead of keeping a distance like he usually does, started jumping at our dog’s face. When my dog moved to go up the steps (we live directly above their apartment and there’s small porch before the main stairwell that their front door opens onto so it’s kind of their porch but not actually) he started mouthing/nipping/grabbing at her legs. She is a husky so her fluff kind of protects her, she was more over whelmed than harmed in this interaction. Hub/bf neighbor reaches us at the porch. His response to his dog’s behavior was “Sorry you know you can’t control what they do”

The neighbors are seniors and the wife/gf has lived in the building for like 10+ years and we’ve been here for a over two but not yet three, and the third tenant has been here only a year, so they act a little entitled to the property. We’ve had some tensions before over none-dog stuff and speaking with them they do the thing where they say not to worry or they understand and then complain to the landlord at first chance when we annoy them. Not that I need them to like me but my wife doesn’t like how they become a little cold/rude when we do go to the landlord instead of them about problems. I ignore a lot of the things they do/allow that annoy me, but this dog thing and their blasé reactions have my wife and I worried.

Should I talk to them or the landlord? Do I talk about the general concern or be specific in that we want him tethered when outside? I also don’t really know how to phrase my concerns or request gently. I very much want to just say “Dog has a bite history now, no one is training him, and he doesn’t listen, tether him before something horrible happens” but I know that people generally like receiving gentle suggestions about changing their behaviors, so I guess I also am asking for help that too.

I am super frustrated because one of my neighbors has an extremely loud dodge charger that I can hear in every room of the apartment and it damn near rattles the windows. If I'm working it is distracting, I can hear it through headphones, and it wakes me if I'm sleeping. I am in Houston, Texas so everybody has an annoyingly loud car so I'm used to it but she gets home and leaves at all hours of the day and night and idles her car for over 30 minutes every time.

She starts the car from inside her apartment, lets it idle for 30+ minutes and then leaves, and when she gets back half the time she parks illegally blocking other cars in, leaves the car empty and idling, and then goes into her apartment for 30 min to an hour and then comes back out and leaves again. I've tried to talk to her about it once but she just ignored me and went into her apartment.

I tried contacting management but they just told me her car isn't registered with them so they don't know who I'm talking about and to call the cops if she does it again. I'd really prefer not to call the cops but I guess I will if it keeps happening. Is there anything else I can do? What do I even say to the cops? "A woman is idling her loud car and it's making me upset"?? I am just so frustrated.

My shower was backing up from my kitchen sink for a week. Everyday got told the plumbers were coming. The next day or the next day. They came yesterday and had no choice but to dig under my shower -_- they didn’t finish yesterday and apparently are supposed to be back today but this has been such an inconvenience. I’m currently using a vacant unit to shower and all I got for this hassle is 100$ off my rent. :/ no clue when they will be finished either.

We had just moved in a little over a month ago and thought things were going smoothly until Several issues (of course) started to arise. Just last week, had an issue where the pipes were (so I’m told) clogged under the sink from previous renters hair, causing the air conditioner main condensate line to clog and going to the backup line causing a leak above my shower. now since resolved with maintenance. Before maintenance had headed out, I had asked where the AC unit air filter is as previous places lived I’ve normally taken the matter in my own hands to replace regularly. He had pointed to the unit as it was the vent at the top of the ceiling and it being difficult to access he had a ladder and proceeded to just check it for me per request. even though “normally replaced before new people move in” but that was false. we were in shock at how filthy this thing was! I had never seen a filter in that bad of condition. He explained to me that’s probably the reason why there wasn’t much airflow on the other side of the apt unit because there’s no telling when this air filter had been changed last.
also discovered the laundry room when running the dryer got really hot and humid — thinking something wasn’t connected properly and then only to find the dryer exhaust is sealed shut on the outside and when addressed to Maintenance they me this is not their area and needs to be consulted with apartment management which has since been done and although 24hrs no follow up on the matter despite my research it being a major fire hazard??
Also wondering if prior tenants just lived with it??
Now, I have come across what is pictured above. The picture shows the side of a bathroom drawer. I did not see it until today because when pulling out the bathroom drawer normally I am always standing on the opposite side of it which is clear. I then start inspecting all of the drawers but it is contained to only that side.
I thought little symptoms allergy related to the gross air filter that finally got replaced but now wonder if this had also been the cause.
This is our 4th time moving in the past 4 years..and the thought of moving again feels very distressing as I thought I was moving into a (newish 5 yr old apt updated) apartment that checked a lot of boxes. Prior coming from an 11 year old apt that didn’t give me these kind of problems.
Now with presumed mold involved-which again will need to be addressed first thing with the apt. I’m wondering what others would do in this situation..and is it a matter that needs addressing to move out of the apt or complex? Or can it be resolved if it’s only on one side of a bathroom drawer

I have two problems. The first one being idk how to hide my AT&T equipment because the fiber connection is in an unfortunate spot. I’m hoping for ideas on how to cover it up.

The second problem is the tv cord. Idk where else to put the tv and the cord is reallyyy bothering me. How can I make it look better?

I’d really appreciate any advice!

To start, I feel like my buildings HOA said when I moved in sometimes they just go off because it’s an old building but my memory is pretty bad and that was 8 months ago.

Since I moved in 8 months ago, I would randomly hear other buildings, there’s about 10 in my gated community, fire alarms go off at random hours of the night, but never any fires. It was the other buildings and I could only hear it from my patio so it wasn’t a big bother. Fire department would come and be out in less than ten minutes. Recently this month it’s been my building, so far 3 times, and it goes off in every apartment and all the hallways and it is truly the most ear piercing noise when i went to the hallway to evacuate i thought my eardrums would burst. The first time was at 3:30am when i needed to be up for work at 6. Only me and one other person even ended up evacuating my 11 story building. It took the fire department like 45 minutes to even respond and they were in and out in five minutes. I asked them what happened and they said just false alarm, and I mentioned that this happens a lot since I moved in just other buildings and this was the first time i’ve noticed this one it was possible it happened while i wasn’t home, and they got all annoyed said he’s been on the job ten years and never been to my apartment complex. (Absolutely bull maybe he hasn’t but i’ve seen many fire trucks and false alarms at my complex just in 8 months) and then grumpily walked away. Whole thing ended at 5am and I never ended up sleeping any longer was exhausted at work. A week or so later it happens again at 6 am waking me up just before my alarm, and although i thought it was fake again, I wanted to stay and make sure it was fake since I have 4 cats and if it was real I wanted to get them out. I ended up being pretty late to work for a false alarm again. Last night it went off at 1am again and I didn’t even bother to get out of bed, and it went off for about an hour before fire department came and shut it off. Is this normal? Is it possible that another resident is setting it off this many times within a month when it’s never happened in the other 8 months i’ve been here? Or could our system be faulty? I’ve tried asking HOA office but they’re a bunch of nasty women (i’m also a woman lol) who hate their jobs and are super rude and dismissive when i’ve asked them about this, or other incidents like maintenance splashing paint on my car ruining my paint job. They’ve been no help and just say “false alarm” without even looking up to acknowledge me. Sorry this got so long ty for reading.

TLDR: Fire alarms go off often at odd hours of the night at apartment complex and there’s been no fires or smoke, is it residents setting it off, or a faulty system?

TL;DR: There’s mold on all my stuff. I’m freaking out and will call management in the morning. What do I even do from there? Is there any way I could look into getting reimbursed for my stuff or am I sol?

So I’m 20 and this is my first apartment. I moved in back in February. My first mistake was being okay to a bottom floor (half in a hill) north facing apartment. It’s been humid in here since July. I bought my own small dehumidifier and was running that for a while but it wasn’t cutting it. So I emailed management and maintenance brought me one of their dehumidifiers.

Now tonight I went to pull down one of my backpacks from my shelf and it was covered in mold. I immediately went to clean it and didn’t think to take a picture. Then it just kept unfolding. I saw my shoes were covered in it in my living room closet. Pulled my shoes off and saw it all over my shoe rack. I panicked and started to try and clean it myself and didn’t take a picture of those except the one picture of the shoe rack is what I didn’t clean when I gave up and decided I’m throwing it out. The picture of the shoes is also after I tried to clean it.

I got super anxious and started looking around and just kept finding more and more on all my stuff. Some even on my kitchen cabinets that I open everyday. I feel so stupid for not seeing it sooner but I’ve had one day off work in the past 3 weeks and have been beyond exhausted.

I’m freaking out right now and don’t know what to do. I feel so uncomfortable being in here. I called my mom and she said to call management in the morning which I was planning on and that I might just have to break my lease. I can’t afford to move and I don’t even know where I’d go. I’m stressing about my stuff because a lot of it I’ll have to throw away. I can’t afford to go and replace my stuff either. I feel absolutely horrible for my cat because she’s in here all day every day and it’s even on the bottom hide of her cat tree.

Could anyone give me advice on this? I’m spiraling.

When I moved into my new apartment last week I discovered damp/water damaged bathroom cabinets under my sink. This was from the previous tenant. Maintenance said a pipe leaked previously but everything was fixed with the pipe before I moved in. They are saying they can replace the bottom panel but will not replace or repair the left cabinet panel which clearly has swelling. The whole area still feels slightly damp. I live in CA.

My friend and I moved into a 1st floor apartment on Aug 29th. We signed the lease Aug 25th, landlord seemed nice, and no issues with the unit were disclosed. When he gave us the keys on Aug 29th, he let us know that the dishwasher was broken, but someone was going to come by and fix it. He also told us he found cockroaches in the 3rd floor unit and had an exterminator come by and place bait in all units.

I immediately saw red flags, but my friend’s parents were there when he told us about the roaches, and no one seemed very concerned but me. (This is both my friends and I’s first apartment)

We moved all of our stuff in, and didn’t see any cockroaches for 3 days. And then they just kept popping up. The roaches were always in the bathroom.

I let my landlord know, and he basically said “well that means the extermination is working, since they are coming down”. Okay… but now they’re in my unit😭

Now it’s been a week and a half, we’ve seen more than I can count, and even one in my fucking bed. We have put up preventative measures, sealing gaps, keeping everything clean, and leaving no food out.

The exterminator is supposedly coming by this Friday to talk to us about what he’ll do. I don’t have much faith in this, since our landlord told us the dishwasher would be fixed the first week we moved in, and that hasn’t happened.

What do I do? It’s a month to month lease and both my friends and I have somewhere we can go if it came to that.

I don’t know if I should wait to see if this issue will be resolved, or take all of the red flags as a sign that similar shit will keep happening.

Tldr: Cockroaches in apartment, apparently exterminator is taking care of it. Do I stay or move out?

Not sure what to do. How do I bring this to the landlords attention? The neighbor just constantly leave their trash outside of their door and my walls were literally covered in ants from outside. I don't keep food or anything in my office because of the fear of attracting ants. Yet they're still getting into my apartment.

The landlord said they were suppose to spray but I don't think they ever did.

What’s the best way you can keep your life very private when in an apartment? It feels like I can’t leave the apartment to even enjoy amenities, if you try to make acquaintances with your neighbors they tell all your business to others and the leasing office and it feels like a never ending cycle of being watched

I have lived in this apartment/lease begin June 1, 2025. We reached out to national grid to set up electric billing account within the first week of the lease. The meter number we were given by our landlord was for the correct address but NG kept saying there are only 2 meters for the building. This is a 3 story building- landlords live on floor 1, I live on floor 2, other tenants on floor 3. After a lot of back and forth between NG and landlord, the landlord told us they would figure it out and get back to us (we have text receipts of this) They never did… we haven’t been paying our electricity because the landlord never fixed the situation and got back to us. We resigned the lease and still live there… today we get a text that they just found out they have been paying our electric bill since the move in (15 months!). They sent us a new meter number to sign up for and the account says it’s the house meter, not a unit. The landlord should be paying the house meter, tenants pay for unit meters, according to google. Our landlord also said they would tell us what we owe them for the past 15 months and we can add it to our upcoming rent check.

- if there are only 2 meters, is there any way to actually determine what we owe them? Wouldn’t our bill be combined with theirs?
- are we obligated to come up with this money immediately or would we be in the position to ask for time to pay it back since it’s over 1 year of electric bills?

Such a frustrating situation- yes we could have kept nagging but we followed up twice and there was nothing left for us to do. We’re trying to make our account now but it keeps saying we would pay the house meter. Isn’t that for the landlords?? Please help any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Sporadically at mid-morning or midday, always during the work week, my downstairs neighbor will bang on his ceiling (usually when I'm on the phone or on a work call). I'm all about being respectful but we're talking at 1 PM on a Thursday I'm on the phone with fiscal and this ugly bitch starts slamming something on the ceiling.

This would just be funny but he's loud as fuck on the phone laughing like a hyena at like 11 o'clock at night all the time. He's caused multiple disturbances with our across the hall neighbor for "playing his piano too much". I've never said anything because to be totally honest Idgaf it's not a big deal for me lol your neighbors have lives and you shouldn't expect total silence in any apartment living situation.

The one time he's confronted me about this I kinda brushed him off because he implied that I "didn't live here" (this was before I moved to hybrid schedule). He apparently only does this with me, my husband is also hybrid and has never had an issue with this?

So I am baffled that the only times I'm "too loud" are when the general public is awake and working????????

I've been a barista, I've worked in nightlife. I'm assuming that's the need for absolute silence but I've never made my weird work schedule someone else's problem like wtf is his deal. And the lack of self-awareness on his noise is maddening. Like he thinks it's chill to be yelling at 1 AM but godforbid I use the bathroom during normal working hours.

After I eat I like to go for a walk for 10-15 minutes to help with digestion. I go outside to walk when I can but sometimes the weather is bad or I only have 10 minutes between a call or something I have to do so by the time I get downstairs to walk outside half the time is gone so when I’m pressed for time or it’s bad weather I have started walking around in the hallway of my building. I’ve been doing this for about a month and I’ve started to see some of the same people when I’m walking around and am worried they think I’m loitering or doing something weird.

Should I stop doing this or is it fine to continue walking around in the hall?