u/Even-Ad-3980

He sucks up fear and admiration that people feel towards him and says it tastes like lemons. There are multiple points in the book where girls get horny for him and he calls it “getting some lemonade”. I can’t

I’m still on book one and will trudge on, not bad story overall but still can’t replace DCC (I’m trying to read other books because I was burning through DCC way too fast)

Before I start, I want to preface that my intention is not to slander anyone or get anyone in trouble. I just want to share my experience so that anyone who is considering an apartment here is fully informed of the application process before they submit the non-refundable application fee.

If anyone wants receipts, screenshots, etc., please DM me and I will share those with you. If there is anywhere in this scenario where I am in the wrong, please feel free to correct me, as my knowledge around leasing laws is not perfect. Lastly if this is the wrong place to post, please feel free to let me know and I will post in the correct place.

I’m moving to NJ and was looking for an apartment in the area. I found a complex called the “Apartments at Aberdeen Station” online and thought it looked good based on the website and location. It also had an online application process, an online maintenance portal, and an online rent payment system.

I’m currently on the west coast, which adds a layer of difficulty for me, but I had my family tour the complex and they only had good things to say.

I submitted the application fee of $170 ($85 per person), and the leasing agent had us approved on the same day.

It was at this point that things started to get a bit weird.

I’m new to renting, so it’s partially on me for not asking beforehand what the process post-application is like. I had assumed it would be: sign the lease agreement, lock in terms, then exchange money.

The leasing agent instead asked us to physically mail a check for the first month’s rent ($2800) to the apartment complex in order to “secure the unit.” This payment is 100% non-refundable if we cancel our application for any reason.

When I asked if there was a lease agreement we could sign first that confirms the unit number, lease start and end dates, etc., they told me that we only sign the lease agreement on the day of move-in. After they receive the check for our first month’s rent, we would sign a “welcome letter,” which outlines the move-in date, rent, and fees, but does not include the full lease terms, specific unit, or function as a legally binding rental agreement. The agent said the welcome letter serves as “intent to rent the unit.”

When I asked if we could sign the lease agreement first, the agent said that the lease agreement can only be signed in person and that they do not use tools like DocuSign. To their credit, they did offer the option for a family member to deliver the check and sign the welcome letter on my behalf, but since the lease would ultimately be under my name, that didn’t really make sense to me from a legal standpoint.

When I requested again to see and sign a lease agreement before any money was exchanged, they responded with the following:

“The welcome letter is signed by both parties after all required funds have been received. Similar to any purchase, payment is made first, followed by a receipt or confirmation. In my five years of managing this property, we have never failed to deliver a unit as scheduled.”

This felt incorrect and a bit misleading to me. This is a non-negligible amount of money, and this is a contractual lease, not a retail purchase. Also, the reassurance that this has “never happened in five years” didn’t provide much comfort, because if this were the first time something went wrong, I wouldn’t have clear legal protections in place.

The agent also said:

“In New Jersey, it is not typical to sign a lease at the time a deposit is given on a unit. Instead, the welcome letter confirms that you are the next approved renter for the apartment.”

This also felt off to me, as I spoke to several people who work in the NJ real estate space afterward, and they told me that is not generally the case.

At that point, I didn’t feel comfortable moving forward. Not only was I being asked to mail a check for several thousand dollars just to “reserve the unit,” but the payment was non-refundable and had to be sent before I could even review or sign a legally binding agreement outlining the terms. While there is a chance that nothing would go wrong, my understanding is that there would be limited protection if anything changed prior to signing the lease.

I’ve paid “reservation fees” before when renting apartments, and I understand that they exist to prevent people from backing out at the last minute. But in my experience, those were either much smaller amounts or were tied to a lease agreement, not a replacement for one. Being asked to send almost $3000 without a binding agreement in place felt very one-sided.

Lastly, the agent refused to refund our application fee, which was expected and clearly communicated on the online application, but kind of the cherry on top nonetheless. This is a nitpick, but the agent’s communication around the application fee was inconsistent though. In one of her emails, they stated that application fees are “refundable,” but later said that they are non-refundable. It seemed like this was a typo or lack of proofreading, but it added to the overall confusion and the informality/unprofessionalism I perceived from their communications.