I moved into my last apartment over 4 years ago, and stayed there until relocating just last month.
It wasn’t a nice place by any means – it was situated in a large complex that had incredibly cheap rent and basic amenities I needed to live comfortably.
The building was old and falling apart. The windows and doors hung crookedly and there were stains all over the carpets and walls. I didn’t expect much from the place, and frankly, I was just happy to have central heating and air conditioning following the last apartment I had rented. Everything was just good enough for me, and I tried not to be there too often so I had less to complain about. However, I didn’t realize just how poorly maintained the entire apartment building was until I had an HVAC professional come out to repair my furnace one day. It was the first time I had an actual heating and cooling specialist in my apartment, because all other maintenance and small repair requests were handled through the complex maintenance department. This time, however, my furnace was giving off strange smells and sounds, and I thought it was best to get an actual HVAC specialist on-site. Upon inspecting my heater for just a moment or two, he appeared shaken, and informed me that I was lucky there hadn’t been a worse problem with my furnace; apparently the furnace air filter had never been changed, as far as he could tell, and maintenance was lucky that I didn’t experience a furnace fire due to their negligence.