I’m having more problems with my apartment complex.  Aside from units blowing up a few months ago, and aside from the occasional crime, not to mention the obnoxious kids that plague my neighborhood and the Mexican soccer tournaments on the tennis courts every night, the bastards have decided to raise my rent yet again.

This is the note I received on my door this morning, along with the rent check I turned in yesterday.  This is the first notice that I’ve received that my base rent was changed to $719.  I got no prior warning about this whatsoever.  If you can read this, you’ll also note that along with the $10 fee for the parking space, and the $100 fee for month to month, my rent for a ONE BEDROOM apartment, here in the ghetto-ass part of Midvale, is $829 per month.  Holy shit.

I was aware that the month to month fee was raised to $100, which in itself is absolutely ludicrous.  How exactly do they justify charging an extra $100 per month, for no other reason than I don’t have a contracted lease?  That’s asinine.  But that aside, I’m pretty damn sure that they are required BY LAW to contact me at least 15 days ahead of time to raise the base rent.  This was not done.

I went over to the office and pitched a fit.  They kept saying that my lease agreement (an oral agreement, because I’m month to month) states that my rent is dependant on the market value of the apartment (which is some random number they pull out of their asses and raise occasionally,) and that the base rent can be raised at any time without notice.  I’m quite sure this isn’t true, and in fact I looked it up under the Utah state law, and specifically noted that it’s not true.

I’m sick to death of this place.  I hate bad business practice, and I hate thieves who masquerade as a business.  I can’t stand this any longer.  I’m looking to move as soon as possible, and no… they will most definitely NOT be getting any notice from me.  As far as I’m concerned, they broke the agreement themselves, so there’s absolutely no reason why I should be bound to it any longer.

I need a favor.  If anyone is willing, please spread the news via word of mouth, or by blog, or Twitter, or whatever that Wasatch Community Properties, and specifically, Brighton Place Apartments in Midvale, Utah, is a scam and a rip-off.  Under no circumstances should anyone looking to move to the area even consider these properties.  They will be thoroughly  screwed in every possible way by a company who only plays dirty and unfairly.  Please let people be warned.

Saturday morning was quite the experience.  I had gotten up early (for me) because Sra and I had planned a hike in Bells Canyon in preparation for our big climb of Mount Olympus next week.  Like always, I stumbled groggily into the bathroom to take my shower, when I heard a loud BAM!, followed by a couple of smaller (but equally loud) cracks coming from somewhere outside.  My first thought was that the neighbors were shooting each other again, and at 8AM on a Saturday morning, that was just plain rude.  Subsequent screaming and shouting from the vicinity of outside somewhere further cemented this opinion, and I figured since it was none of my business, I’d just finish my shower and go about my day. 

My second thought, as I was soaping up, was that those cracks sounded pretty loud for gunfire.  Are the neighbors using shotguns this time?  That’s horribly insensitive to people who are still trying to sleep.  No, those blasts were too loud for guns.  Something’s up.  I toweled off and investigated.

Upon stepping out to my balcony, I saw about 100 people milling about and staring at a spectacle which took me a minute to digest.  The neighboring apartment across the pool from mine was gone, and in its place was a massive fireball and a thick cloud of black smoke.  Oh God!  The neighbor’s freaking apartment exploded!  I couldn’t believe it.  I just stood there dumbstruck as the Midvale fire department pulled up and finally justified the purchase of their humongous new ladder truck. 

It didn’t take them too long to put it out, but I think that’s because, at my count, there were nine fire trucks, from all the neighboring cities including Sandy, Murray, West Valley, and even South Jordan, along with various ambulances and support vehicles, and numerous cop cars in every corner of my apartment complex.  Firefighters were running everywhere, and residents (and now former residents) were just walking around in a daze.  Like me, they couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing.

Since I couldn’t get my car out, I walked down to the 7/11 and had Sra pick me up there for our hike.  We were both rather taken with the events of that morning, and couldn’t stop talking about it for a while.  Our hike took all day, and when I got back I grabbed my little camera and walked over toward the site of the destruction.  The area was roped off of course, but there was a news crew there doing a story.  I felt bad snapping a picture with all the (former) residents poking through the ashes of their (former) possessions, but I did manage to grab one blurry one.

The good news is that no one was hurt.  From what I understand, two teenagers went around the apartments banging on the doors and getting everyone out before the buildings went up.  They probably saved several lives by that quick thinking.  The bad news is that 35 people are now homeless and 13 apartments were destroyed.  The building itself will have to be demolished, because the fire marshal says it’s not structurally sound anymore, and as of now there’s still no known cause.

A pretty sad way to start the weekend.