The main office of The Village at Chandler Crossings is spotless. Polished hardwood floors reflect the summer sunlight flooding in from the large windows that line the walls, and light bounces up towards its high triangular ceilings.
But looking a little closer, dust and dead gnats cover the window seals. There’s no soap in the bathroom. The vending machine only accepts coins — don’t try using dollar bills.
Enter the rooms on move-in day, and complaints about more serious matters begin bubbling to the surface.
“Our room was disgusting,” said Lansing Community College freshman Kaleen Tithof, who moved into her new apartment with her friend Hunter Cole last Sunday. “There was dirt on the floor… I had a mattress that was pee-stained. Our toilet leaks.”
Located north of campus, the Chandler Crossings complex often caters their apartments to MSU and Lansing-area students, featuring a variety of amenities to encourage more lease signings. But when some new residents of The Village of Chandler Crossings attempted to move in during the past few weeks, they unlocked their doors to find dirty rooms, leftover items and unfinished renovations.
Tithof said there were cigarette burns on her furniture, which also was speckled with paint from a recent renovation. She said there were even sex toys in the bathtub, which allegedly were filled with an unknown brown liquid.
Tithof said it was four hours before the dirt and the dirty toys were cleaned up. On Saturday, her air conditioning still wasn’t functioning, and her toilet leaked when flushed. She said they were offered a new TV as recompense, an offer the company often makes to dissatisfied customers.
Company spokesman Robert Kolt said the problems at Chandler Crossings all were a result of the renovations. He said contractors underestimated how long construction would take and how soon students would begin moving in. Issues reported by apartment residents have since been corrected, he said.
“A lot of the concerns people have expressed are really because of the renovations,” Kolt said. “We did have some complaints, but most people are happy. We made good on everything.”
The rooms are supposed to be inspected before students move into them, he said.
“The complaints were certainly legitimate,” Kolt said. “They just assumed that all of the rooms were ready on time, and they weren’t. And frankly, they thought they might have a few more days and they didn’t. The students should have never been allowed to move into a room that wasn’t perfect.”
Kara England, a psychology and criminal justice sophomore, said she’s been unhappy with the service in her new home.
She said that while her apartment wasn’t dirty upon moving in, the hallway outside of it was filthy, with garbage strewn across the carpet. Her room wasn’t one of those receiving scheduled upgrades that had been going on prior to move-in day.
England pays $535 a month for her apartment. She said she saw garbage bags littering the front lawn and also complained that repairs often take too long there, where she’s been living for a year.
“I’m paying a lot to have it dirty,” England said.
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