Bruin residents united by flooding, bugs, dust, delays

Ben Hood, an economics graduate student, and Matt Rizk, an engineering graduate student, said they are not surprised by anything that goes wrong in their apartment anymore.

When they moved in around late September, none of their windows closed properly. A crank window was stuck open because the crank was not installed, letting in dust from the construction outside for about a month.

An electrical box with exposed wiring in the closet was left uncovered for a month.

There was a three-foot-square hole in Hood’s bedroom ceiling. Rizk said the hole exposed what resembled an attic and that their next-door neighbor had a similar hole, allowing them to hear each other.

When they called to have it repaired, a maintenance person brought in a large, heavy, metal door and left it on the floor in his room for over three weeks, Hood said.

After several calls, a worker came to install the cover but said the hole would have to be enlarged to fit the door, he said.

The latched metal door was finally installed, but after two days Hood said it became unlatched, swinging down from the ceiling and crashing into his bookshelf.

“It sounded like the end of the world when it happened. The whole apartment (shook),” Hood said.

He shut the door, but less than 12 hours later it fell open again, and he realized it could seriously injure him if he were under it, he said.

He called maintenance, and somebody came to lock the door. Hood said he was told it would not happen again, but eight hours later, it did.

Other problems the graduate students experienced include flooding in both their bathrooms on different occasions, a gas leak, a cricket infestation and disabled hallway lights, leaving the passage from the parking garage pitch black.

Rizk said one bathroom flooded the first time it rained because the contractors had not connected the storm drains. The other bathroom has had water damage for a month, and the contractor told him he had to fix the roof before repairing it.

“Every maintenance guy I’ve talked to has complained about the construction people, saying the contractors are lousy. But then again, maintenance themselves have been pretty bad about responding to things,” he said.

Rizk said the problems they experienced were surprising because the apartments were supposed to be a recruiting tool.

“It’s a facade, really,” he said. “It looks beautiful on the outside, and I talked to people who (said), you’re so lucky to live here, and I’m like, you should see the inside.”

By Lee Bialik, Bruin reporter.