Two years ago, my husband got a job offer from a company. He was working for a banking client at that time. The new job was for an insurance client and the job location was in a different state.

We had our lease signed till Dec 2014 in the apartment where we were living but we had to move by Sep 2014 to the new location. So, we had to pay a total of 4 month rent (around 4000$ - 2 month notice period + 2 month lease breakage charges) in order to move early.

To our surprise, the manager of the apartment informed us that, if we transfer our lease to their community apartment in another state we just have to pay 500$ transfer fee. This offer was valid under the condition that we should have booked the apartment in the new state before moving.

I was skeptical about booking an apartment online but we didn’t have any other option as we were running out of time. Also, we had no problem with the apartment where we were living at that time. As the new apartment also belongs to the same community, we decided to go ahead.

After reaching the new place, my husband and I went to see the apartment to check whether it would be ready by the day of our move-in. We were told by the staff that they will only show the model apartment. The model unit was so good. We went back to the hotel with huge relief.

We got the keys on the day of our move-in and went to check the unit. When I opened the door, I sensed a strong smell of insecticide or pesticide. I couldn’t bear the stench. I took few steps forward and noticed something under my feet. It was a big cockroach. I have never seen cockroaches that big in my life. That was when I knew, it was given an apt zoological name. This is something similar to what I had seen in the kitchen.

Not only was the place infested with cockroaches but also with fleas and ticks. The patio was not cleaned and had bubble gums on the wall. It was a very old unit and all the equipment were outdated. When I booked the apartment, I was told by the staff that the unit had washer and dryer but it didn’t.

It was nothing like the model unit. I went to the leasing office immediately and told the staff about my concerns. To that, she replied nonchalantly that the pest treatment will be done every Tuesday and the cleaning was done already so she can’t do anything about it. Also, she was the one who confirmed washer and dryer availability by mistake.

I consoled myself saying that this problem is temporary and it will go away after the pest treatment but it didn’t. All it did was affect my olfaction and cause breathing trouble. We were told by the pest treatment personnel that multiple rounds of treatment must be done as the infestation was severe. We knew that we cannot stay here for one year of our lease and decided to break the lease and asked our moving company to hold our things for another month.

I confronted the leasing staff saying that the unit which we were offered was in no way similar to the model unit and also told her that we are planning to move to some other apartment. Without giving an explanation for the issues, she demanded lease breakage charges. That pissed me off.

Next day I took my laptop along with all the study materials to the leasing office and sat in the waiting lounge. On seeing this, the staff approached me and asked what I was doing. I told her politely that I couldn’t sit in my place with all the stench so I will use the office space to prepare for my grad exam and also offered to keep the future residents occupied. Of course, that worked.

She was taken aback by my reply and went running to the manager’s office. She came back after 15 minutes and asked me to meet the manager. They told that we could move to another apartment within the same community without lease breakage and transfer charge. We moved from there after 2 weeks to a very nice apartment.

Well, sometimes silence is not the best reaction. You have to do what you have to do in order to make something work.