Forward Management Pittsburgh One Month Response to Ceiling Leak

A month since I last called Forward Management Pittsburgh, and they've finally sent maintenance over to fix the bathroom ceiling leak. The maintenance guy claims he replaced some pipes and such of the upstairs neighbors' bathroom, but we'll see how that works out. In the meantime, here's their one day progress in fixing the damage to my ceiling/wall:

Hopefully they do a better job of cleaning up when they finish the job...

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[Edit 12/8/11 Fixed and somewhat cleaned. A little?]

Fixed.

Rubble on top of the medicine cabinet

Rubble in the medicine cabinet

A Review of Forward Management's Slow Maintenance Response

Another bathroom ceiling leak! I called Forward Management Pittsburgh today (11/2/11 at 2:36pm), and spoke with the office manager. Maybe this thing will be fixed for real? We're still on leak call #8 here.

These two leaks are sprouting around previously "repaired" dry wall. That is, in past attempts to fix this, maintenance has replaced squares of drywall, and the water is simply escaping around those squares now.

A smaller leak, on the right hand side of the wall, several feet from the "two leaks."

Water from the ceiling leak, pooling on the floor.

Water and Electricity

[Edit 12/7/11: Forward Management Pittsburgh has finally sent a maintenance guy over to "fix" the leak. He claims to have replaced some of the pipes of the upstairs' neighbor, and that his bathroom floor is all wet. Who knows. It has taken them over a month to send someone over here.]

Bathroom Ceiling Leak, #8

If you've read the previous post on the bathroom ceiling leak, you'll be glad to hear it took a week for Forward Management Pittsburgh to "fix" the leak.

By "fix" I mean that the cracking paint and rotting dry wall were painted over. Today. At 4pm. At 9pm, I found water leaking out of the bottom of where the rotting dry wall is, the middle of the wall. The below photos will show how the cracking paint has been fixed, but the photos also show the eternal leak.

The bathroom leak, coming from a newly painted wall.

A little closer.

All photos were taken on 9/21/11.

Bathroom Ceiling, Leak #7

Bathroom ceiling, leaking and damage, from up close.

I called Forward Management Pittsburgh this morning at ~11am to report another, not surprising, maintenance problem. For the seventh time in three years. Yes, this is a chronic bathroom ceiling leak that Forward Management Pittsburgh refuses to fix properly. I assume the maintenance guy will do what all the other maintenance guys have done in the past: repaint the affected area. We all know how well paint fixes a chronic bathroom ceiling leak.

Dirty water from the ceiling, pooling in the bathroom cup holder.

Bathroom ceiling, leaking and damage, from afar.

Water droplets falling off my light fixture. This leak is a fire hazard!

These photos were all taken on Monday, September 12, 2011.

[Maintenance came by and "fixed" the leak on 9/21/11. The fix was simply a paint job, and five hours later, the wall was leaking again as shown below:

The bathroom leak, coming from a newly painted wall.

]

Forward Management Building Broken Washing Machines

As I went to do my laundry this afternoon, I realized that one of our building washing machines was missing. Not a major tragedy (well, aside from the stagnant water where the machine used to be, that has since bread a mosquito that has bitten me. Delightful). So, I loaded my laundry into the remaining machine, put in detergent, and then placed the four quarters in their slots. After pushing the quarters into the machine, nothing happened. It appears that this Forward Management Apartment Building Property does not have any functioning washing machines.

At around 4pm (when this happened), I called Forward Management and was directed to the answering machine, as usual. So, it appears the residents of this building will not be able to do any laundry this weekend. And I am out 4 quarters, and have no clean towels. It is very irresponsible of Forward Management to do this, without warning anyone. I guess this is not surprising for a landlord with abysmal ratings on LandOrSlum.

Stagnant water where old washing machine used to be, now a vibrant mosquito breeding ground.

Power Outage

There was a building-wide power outage today, at ~8:00pm. The power company showed up and worked on the power lines down the street. After approximately 50 minutes in the dark, the power returned around 8:50pm.

Forward Management's Broken Stairwell Railing

Found this rail fallen from its attachment to the wall in the basement/1st floor public stairwell of the building. I tried calling Forward Management Pittsburgh, but had to leave a message on the answering machine. However, the answering machine was full for both extensions '2' and '3'. I will have to call earlier on Monday, 6/6/11.

[Edit 8/5/11: The railing is still broken.]
[Edit 12/4/11: The railing was fixed a couple months ago.]

Forward Management Pittsburgh's Ever-broken Hallway Fixture

The dimly lit photo below accurately depicts what the hallway looks like at 10:30am (notice how the light may be on, but it's not actually producing any light that hits the floor).

The light fixture was "fixed" a week or so ago, but after the power outage a few nights ago, it's gone back to being broken. even better, the plastic fixture has a large crack. Classy.

[Update at 5:45pm: Aaaaaaand the half-broken light has been fixed, with the plastic cover removed.

]

Update 8/5/11: The main broken light is broken/out again. The only light on this floor is a smaller one that's in one of the two-apartment "nooks."
Update 12/4/11: The hallway light was completely replaced last week, with a typical apartment interior light fixture. No more neon.

Forward Management Pittsburgh Owes $2,091 to People's Natural Gas

Another letter from People's Natural Gas was taped to the front door of the building today. Apparently, Forward Management Pittsburgh is overdue on their People's Natural Gas Bill again. This would be more shocking if it weren't so frequent. Tenants have the option to start paying their rent towards the $2,091.55 gas bill.

The Return of the Bathroom Ceiling Leak (thanks for failing me, Pittsburgh Forward Management)

Remember me calling Forward Management about the leak in my bathroom ceiling, every time my upstairs neighbor takes a shower? Remember the first time? How about the second time? Or the third? Maybe the fourth time? Or, the last time, which was January 19th, 2010 (a year ago)?

Well, I'm calling again. Because, it's happening again and Forward Management Pittsburgh seems incapable of fixing this properly. Although, the last fix did work for about a year. Well, for that entire year, the leak was still occurring, it just wasn't showing. You can tell, because all the dry wall around the leak is rotted and soft, hence the larger hole in the photo below:

The water comes out of that little tiny hole near the ceiling, and then drips down...

...drips down past the light fixture, and continues further downwards...

...it drips further downwards, until the water pools on my sink, cup holder, and in a particularly nasty space on the floor (I'll spare you the photo). The water brings a lot of dirt/debris with it, so I'm stuck cleaning my sink on a semi-daily basis.

Maybe you'd like to see a video of what I'm dealing with? Here it is:

I'd like to point out that by poking one spot on the wall, you can make another spot inflate. Walls are not supposed to inflate.

[Edit 3/1/11: I left a message on Forward Management Pittsburgh's answering machine, leaving a maintenance request.]
[Edit 3/2/11: Returned home from campus and found a message from maintenance saying they would return later.]
[Edit 3/3/11: Maintenance returned the next morning, I explained that the leak happens when the upstairs neighbor showers/bathes (for the gazillionth time). They proceeded to do something upstairs, but didn't fix any of the damage in my bathroom.]

Forward Management Pittsburgh's Giant Pothole

I woke up to the sound of a snow plow stuck in the below pothole, taking the driveway towards the parking lot behind the building. This driveway is on Forward Management Pittsburgh's property, as it leads to its private parking lot. Nearly every car scrapes their undercarriage on this pothole, but I was surprised to hear a truck do the same.

The pothole has been a growing problem, but has only gotten worse with the freeze-thaw cycles here in Pittsburgh.

[Edit 12/3/11: The driveway pothole was fixed today.]

Forward Management Pittsburgh - Rent Overcharged?

In November, when I received a call from the Forward Management office manager about how my rent wasn't actually past due, she informed me that my rent was actually $690, instead of the $680 I had been paying so far.

Now, if you read my lease renewal for 2010-2011 (below, from 4/26/10), you will see that my net rent is $680, and that if I am not already paying $10/month for trash removal, that my rent is increased by $10. This is ambiguous, as you will see in a moment.

2010-2011 Lease Renewal (close up)

Now, my lease renewal letter for the 2009-2010 year is pictured below. I was paying $675/month for the 2009-2010, which included a $10/month trash removal fee. So, basically, the new lease agreement changes for 2010-2011 are completely ambiguous. Do I owe $680 (because I've already been paying $10 for trash removal), or do I owe $690? There really should be a final total rent amount on the lease renewal, so the average person can figure out how much is actually owed.

2009-2010 Lease Renewal (close up)

The full 2010-2011 lease renewal is included below, just to be thorough.

2010-2011 Lease Renewal (entire document)