Like many who have made their career managing apartment communities, Community Manager Jessica Kennard, of Fogelman Management Group in Lee’s Summit, Mo., has had more than a few adventures.
Following are 12 of the most shocking stories from her communities.
1. Staged a Break-In. It’s a sign of the times when someone stages a robbery just to get out of his lease. The resident lived on the second floor, but broke his own patio door, shattering glass everywhere. He had already moved his belongings out, but claimed that the “burglars took everything, including my dishes!”
2. Driveway Showdown. We had two elderly women enter the half-circle drive into our mail house from opposite entrances. Neither woman wanted to back down and ended up in each other’s faces, yelling about who had the right of way. The women had to be separated by our maintenance team and convinced to return to their vehicles. We now have a “ONE WAY” sign at the mail house.
3. Beer-Box Maze. While walking units, we found an apartment lined with Bud Light boxes. This resident had stacked hundreds of boxes along each wall in his home, piled floor to ceiling, with one narrow pathway for him to walk. A photo of his apartment is still shown in many of our training classes.
4. Service Request “Dress Code.” Our maintenance staff frequently enter homes for service requests, only to be approached by a resident wearing little to no clothing. And the residents don’t seem bothered by it at all! Our staff asks if they should come back later, but frequently the residents just say, “Oh, don’t worry about it—you can fix the sink now!”
5. Miss Management. A few weeks after one of our newest residents moved in, the head of the local fire department called to tell me that this woman had quite the reputation at other communities in the district. This resident has since tested all of our emergency lights, made countless lists of items she thinks she could improve, and has even contacted the water department to determine the water usage for each apartment home to ensure she is being billed fairly.
6. Bathing in the Pool. We had a resident who submitted a request to have a lift installed into our pool so that he could take a bath. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet his needs.
7. Indecent Exposure. A resident would often tell the staff outlandish tales about her neighbors, but she became the real story when we found her checking her mail in nothing but a hospital gown and bright yellow dish gloves.
8. Flight to Freedom. We had a father and teen-aged son who shared an apartment. They bickered constantly (as many parents and teenagers do). One day, the son was grounded to his bedroom. He wanted to escape so badly that he jumped through his second-story window.
9. Curious George. One resident we had was extremely interested in how things worked. He never called in work orders because he didn’t want anyone entering his apartment. And for good reason! One day our maintenance technician had to enter “George’s” unit to fix a leak downstairs and discovered the entire apartment was disassembled. This resident had taken apart everything in the apartment, including the appliances and the drywall.
10. Pet Loyalty. I have never seen such love for a pet until I met Ruth. She was so close to her cat that after he passed away, she held on to his kitty box for over four years to “keep his spirit” with her. Ruth has since moved out, and I wonder if she still has that box.
11. What!?!?. I had a resident call to let me know that their neighbor was scooping gnats off of their dog with a spoon and putting them in jars—and she was sure this was why the water was dusty. This same resident has asked me several times to have the airport moved because she is bothered by the planes flying over the property.
12. Amazing Acts of Kindness. We had a resident with cancer, and while he was away for treatment we took care of his apartment, checked his mail and even paid his bills. He became very close to all of us and although he has since moved, he still sends flowers and goodies by mail, just to show his appreciation. He even makes a trip in town to take us out to dinner.
Can You Top This?
We are interested in hearing other “shocking” apartment management stories. Please forward them to NAA Staff Writer Lauren Boston at lauren@naahq.org . We’ll print the best ones in a future issue.