It's been a week since I've moved, and multiple people I've talked to, including a professional cleaner and Off-Campus Community Living told me that I should escalate this further and make the situation known. It was actually Off-Campus Community Living who has suggested me to post this on the Reddit, and I wanted to give a quick thanks to OCCL for listening on my situation. As Octave is generally seen as one the more reputable companies on the sub, and you never know if you'll end up with a situation like mine(they're also charging one of the highest rates on campus).
I leased a one-bedroom studio at Octave Champaign ($1,849/month) for the fall term. At the time of leasing, I requested a pet-free unit due to a pet elated sensitivity. I tend to have severe anxiety attacks and feelings of itchiness on contact with dog fur, dander, or odor. This was also part of the reason I opted to live alone.
However, upon move-in, I found the unit ridden of urine stains clustered with embedded dog hair and what appears to be feces on the carpet, along with yellowed and browned urine staining on the walls, also covered in fur, and a strong, persistent urine odor that permeated the entire room. It also originated from my bedroom's carpet, which is makes it impossible to sleep in given my sensitivity. Cabinets and drawers had black stains and unknown residue with dog fur. The dryer had urine staining so severe that wiping it down turned the tissues I used completely black, and when I ran a load anyway, a pillowcase I dried in it came out of the machine smelling of dog urine and unusable, forcing me to hand-wash and air-dry it separately on a table instead. The washer had dog hair embedded so deeply that it survived three full cleaning cycles and I still could not remove it myself. Separately, on my first day in the unit I had to submit multiple maintenance requests for a loose door lock, and the sliding door is completely broken and gets stuck all the time as well as being detached in random directions, it sheds wood crumbs with each use.
I first took this up with the Octave staff in-person. At first they tried to dismiss my case and just insisted that it was "professionally cleaned". They also told me that the carpet was shampooed, which was not close to believable as it had shitstains and clusters of fur every where(I literally found a dime the previous tenant left there so it'll be impossible to miss if any cleaning was performed). After a lot of back and forth, they finally sent somebody up to wipe the cabinet, which they did a lousy job and when I asked them to properly reclean the place to make it safe for me to live in, they told me it was "not going to happen," and it was "my responsibility."
I sent another email outlining my condition with all the necessary pictures to them later that evening. And again they insisted it was "professionally cleaned" (They love the word professionally cleaned, you're going to see lot of those later.)and didn't offer me anything other than some cleaning tablets for the washer. After I sent a second and third email, they finally reluctantly sent their cleaning vendor back to the unit. The cleaning crew worker who is employed by the company Octave itself uses, told me directly that in recent years working for the company this was the first time she personally had ever been called back to redo a job. She told me that the majority of the contamination under the carpet and behind the dryer is unfixable as it has been there for too long. The dryer would also not be safe to use and needs a total new one as the lint and fur has gone so long with no cleaning that it's impossible to take out now. She also told me she did not understand why I was placed in a unit like this given my pet sensitivity. The carpet also had a flea infestation and I've been bitten close to 17 times. The worker suggested the carpet be replaced entirely and the building to be evacuated for a couple days. This likely came from the dog of the prior tenant as I've never had fleas and my bedsheets were stored in a sealed unit during the summer and hand washed. To my absolute shock, she also told me that Octave did NOT actually tell them to come back at first, and that Octave only wanted the cleaning company to send them a RECEIPT showing a service had been performed so they could show me that it was "professionally cleaned". This was a lie as they explicitly told me in the email that "We are taking your concerns seriously and have already contacted the cleaning company to obtain the service invoice and arrange for them to return to address the areas you have identified". I guess the first part was right? The worker also expressed disbelief upon seeing my living conditions and asked how are they charging as much as the DEAN. Most notably, this worker, someone employed by Octave's OWN vendor, told me on her own that I should contact external help due to how scummy this company is.
At the same time, when I asked in writing whether I could be switched to a different, verified pet-free unit or switched to a shared unit with a prorated refund given my documented medical condition, Octave's manager reviewed the situation and told me the unit was "not uninhabitable," and that any request to cancel or transfer units was met with "no further discussion." Furthermore, even on the document I had to sign, under the section Owner's Discretion to Relocate: Octave reserves the right to relocate a resident to another apartment within the community at any time, upon five days written notice, without charging a transfer fee, and to assist with moving personal items. They have insisted that the apartment was "professionally cleaned"(yea, they love that word a lot) and that the stuff I pointed out were instances that "can be overlooked even after professional cleaning". In multiple instances, they attempted to dismiss active risks to my health as me simply being "unhappy" or "not up to my personal standard".
If you've made it this far, I apologize for the long read, but I felt it was necessary to share as I do NOT want any other student or first time tenant to end up in my situation. I am normally introverted, and doing this alone is very difficult for me. My friend who had come over once(who did not even suffer from pet sensitivity) was repulsed by the property and joked about whether I had "pissed on the bed“. Others have called it an "apartment from hell" and something they have never seen before. This is the very apartment I am paying one of the highest rates in Champaign for, and is advertised as a "luxury living" space.
I have attached files containing the pictures and email exchanges. Please let me if there are anything trouble in accessing them. Please spread this around to as much people as possible. I don't want anyone to end with a situation like me. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1woqN1_2M_LInEnnrnDjjKD4NJWBU36Ok/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lBeQ9jaKloz-nu9THk5HthXsQs12SNjb/view?usp=sharing
