Lucaya House — Local services in Albuquerque

I have lived here for about eight months. I am a college student with kids, and the basement apartment was big and allowed for the riding of bikes inside. Thinking this would be sufficient to warrant putting up with the crabby lady manager at the front desk, I signed a lease. I did not have my license on me when I signed the lease (it ended up being buried under a car full of stuff that I was moving...), so was not able to get a parking permit sticker. After parking in front of my new place, I started unloading with one of my friends. When he and I walked back out to my car, some guy was taking pictures of my car. I asked him what he was doing, and without an introduction, or even asking if it was my car, the guy said something along the lines of "I am going to tow your car". I looked at him and half expected him to admit his horrible joke. The guy then approached me and started yelling and when I took a step toward him, I swear on the holy book of harry potter, he screamed "ASSULT" and ran to his truck. I laughed and my friend was very much taken aback, then also laughed. I told the guy that he could tow my car and any car in the lot he wanted after he showed me ID. He refused, then got on the phone with "his boss" and started talking trash on me. I was baffled, called the leasing agent that had signed me up, she was nice. She handed the phone to her manager and the lady told me that it was my problem and if I wanted to assault anyone else, the police would be called. The car booter had apparently called her, who is not his boss. I said that was fine, but if I got towed or booted in the next two hours, I would not pay rent ever then hung up the phone. I did not get towed or booted. I pay rent three months or four months at a time and they tried to sneak an extra month of payment in on me. I paid for three months with the new front desk girl and got a receipt. The manager then approached me and said I owed for such and such month like four months ago and it was overlooked. I looked up and said something to the extent of "thank you for overlooking it" and walked out. Two months later, I got a notice of eviction for not paying whatever month of rent it was and double checked my recipt. I had paid. After receiving the "you have two or three days to get out" eviction notice, and while my kids were at daycare for a couple hours, I stopped by the office with my receipts ( IF YOU LIVE HERE, KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS!!!!!!) showed them that I had paid all of what they said I had not paid, and even did the math for them. The new, new leasing agent agreed and began to apologize, but the manager still argued with me! I asked her if she has access to a calculator, and this was highly offensive to her and she said that if I did not leave she would call the police. While this went on, the poor other girl there looked at me and mouthed "I am sorry" like five times. I spoke to the non-manager directly and asked her to call me or text me when she explained the math to her superior. She obliged and was apologetic on the phone after her explanation.

Aside from the terrible manager lady, I do not mind my neighbors, and do not have a problem with my apartment aside from it being really old and the maintenance men being degenerates. I did apartment maintenance and make ready for a couple years when I was living in Kansas City MO, and Would have been fired and probably impaled for committing crimes that are their "work" The maintenance guys are incompetent, but they are nice. I have learned that in NM and particularly this sucking wound of a city self centeredness and incompetence are the norm, so them being nice is cool with me. I really do not like these apartments, and hope that no one lives her ever unless the cost of rent is halved or they give you free therapy...

I have lived here for two years and it's a mixed bag with mostly negatives. On the pro side we have an apartment that's close to UNM and at the heart of Abq. As it resides near the I25 I40 cross section. The location is very nice but at the same time it's a rough neighborhood. Lots of crime, my car has been stolen and or damaged multiple times in the apartment parking lot. The apartment is a fair price for the size of it and the location. The building is locked to outsiders so criminals may take your car but they're not getting into your apartment easily. The place is relatively bug free because maintenance does a lot of spraying for bugs. The apartment is good on noise, the only thing that goes through the floors and walls is things like a boomy sound system. I rarely hear my neighbors.

On the negative side we have a lot. I like that they spray for bugs but they ask you to tear apart your kitchen and bathroom every month to spray. They ask you to remove EVERYTHING out of ALL your kitchen and bathroom cabinets to spray into them which is very very inconvenient. Worst of all they did not even mention this in the rental agreement lease.

The laundry rooms are always in ill repair and the dryers are constantly broken. The laundry room locks on both sides and is a deathtrap in the summer time if you get locked in there as it has no ventilation and screw locked windows.

The towing company. Lucaya has a scheme setup with Greg's towing to tow your car and make extra money off of you. You get towed if you park in reverse and they only have one sign in the parking lot that states that so it's easy to miss.

The maintenance and staff generally do not care about your wellbeing. One time they were doing some work on the roof with some really strong chemicals and my apartment smelled like toxic fumes for weeks and it made me feel really sick. Upon complaining to management they essentially told me they don't care how bad it was.

I have caught them on multiple occasions breaking my New Mexico State Law Tenant Rights or at least attempting to. NM State Law says landlords need to give a 24 hour notice before entering the premises and they have violated that one many times.

You have to give your 30 day move out notice on the 1st of the month. If you don't you have to stay there or pay for a whole other month.

You're not going to get a cent of your deposit back they will surely find a reason to keep every penny of your deposit no matter how well you clean the place before you go.

Overall I recommend you do not live here, don't be tempted by the location, apartment size, and price because almost everything else...

I'm sitting here typing this with wet hair full of shampoo because they decided, again, to turn off the water without notifying anyone. That's actually the least of my problems; let me walk you through some of the delightful features of being a tenant here. :)

If you love cockroaches, this place is for you!! Comes with thousands of lil friends - I even found one in my bed the other day. So cute! Also definitely move in if you enjoy being charged $57 at the manager's whim to do nothing about other people's dog shit (this is illegal, by the way - you can successfully fight this, but it'll be a huge hassle and tons of YOUR time dealing with court so hey, may as well pay up and save yourself the trouble!).

Another great feature that I bet no one was expecting is: your bathroom is actually a rainbath! That's right - every time your upstairs neighbor takes a bath, the charming old plumbing can't quite handle it and rains the contents down on you through the ceiling. Great way to cool off during the summer, especially when your 1.5 million-year-old swamp cooler is out of commission and may or may not be fixed next week. You also have the luxury of living in a gated community (to the mom further down whose heart is at ease knowing her 19yo daughter is safe here - I'm lookin' at you ;)). One of the nifty features of these gates is that, at any given time, only one out of the three may or may not lock. It's kind of like playing a fun little game of "but do I REALLY need my keys?" every time you come home. The lease actually states that these gates are just for show, so at least that's above-board!

If you're lucky enough to live in a unit that is level with or partially under the ground, expect flooding when it rains (like, lots of flooding). But it's ok - there's certainly not any mold in any of these units because they've used state-of-the-art tile on the floors and trim.

I think probably my favorite feature of this place, and the reason why I'll continue to recommend it to anyone who hates themselves, is the deep appreciation this company has for all things antique. The fridge here, for example, likes to keep things extra moist. It's just not the same ol' fridgey if there's not constantly condensation all over your food, right? All the two-pronged outlets are also great for keeping with my minimalist lifestyle. And the ONLY WAY you can pay rent - delivered to the office in person, via a money order - just makes me feel so warm and cozy like I'm back in the 90s and just got out of jail.

Who wants to pay for anything electronically, anyway? What...