Centennial Tower
Seattle, WashingtonAn Editorial
This site details our experiences with Centennial Tower Apartment Building, located at
2515
4th Avenue
Seattle, Washington
98121The building is presently managed by:
APEX Realty Management, Inc.
4020 Lake Washington Blvd NE
Kirkland, WA 98033This site contains and includes our opinions.
Purpose of this site:
There are few issues more central to the human experience than the concept of HOME.
Psychologists tell us that humans have certain needs. At the top of the list are these two: To survive and to procreate. In order to accomplish either, a stable, safe and livable home is of the greatest importance. When all the world is out to get us, where's the one place on Earth we can retreat to, to seek comfort, safety, rest and peace? Home. Indeed, there's no place like Home. International wars have been waged, won, and lost over the concepts of "home". Millions have sacrificed their lives to protect their home. Untold hundreds of thousands have gone to jail or are in prison currently because they violated the sanctity of home. Tens of thousands have been killed, rightly and legally so, by a homeowner defending his home.
The concept of home is intensely emotional. A person's home is of the utmost, the utmost importance to the very survival of that person, and there's not a government, society or people in the world which doesn't recognize that fact.
Much of the population of the United States lives in apartments. Unfortunately, the very concept of the apartment experience means that the resident is more or less at the mercy of the good will of (a) his/her neighbor, and (b) his/her landlord. When good neighbors go bad, there is often some recourse. You can call the building manager; you can call the police; you can call building security (if available). These remedies may or may not work to restore the peace, safety and sanctity of your home, but at least you can try them and see. This leaves the resident feeling as though there is at least a chance that his problem will get solved, and that the security, livability and value of his apartment home may be kept intact. The sanctity of one's home, regardless of its arrangement, location or construct, is of paramount importance. Few apartment managers even begin to understand the trust which is placed in them when they contract to provide space in which someone will make their home. Managers handle the responsibility with varying degrees of success. Some managers don't handle the responsibility at all. And some managers are such a clear and blatant detriment to the well-being of their apartment community that they should be evicted themselves.
This site endeavors to help the millions of apartment dwellers avoid problems in the communities in which their apartment-homes are located, and to understand what kinds of problems can occur when bad managers are in control.
How many tenants receive a deposit refund under Apex Realty?
We've already been told that Centennial management has no intention
of refunding any of our deposit, and this message came to us roughly
three weeks before we vacated the unit, and obviously well before it
could be inspected. This page tracks this issue.
This website contains and includes our opinions and the opinions of the submitters below
We wanted to make a point with this unit, so when we hired the carpet cleaners, we thought, "What the heck---let's have it cleaned twice." And so we did. We did this for the express reason of making sure Apex could not possibly have a valid carpet claim against us.
Above are images taken of our Centennial Tower unit upon vacating it on 2-28-04. Click to enlarge.
The original images are extremely high resolution (30 x 40 inches).
We also video-taped the apartment at the same time.
We also brought in witnesses.
We were told roughly three weeks before we moved out that management intended to find some way, any way, to keep our deposit (another of management's temper tantrums because of this website).
On 3-16-04 we received the final accounting of our deposit from Correna Corbett.
She cited "extensive pet damage throughout", a carpet that was so badly damaged as to need complete replacement, a complete re-paint, etc. etc. ad nauseam. Curiously, all that supposed damage came to exactly $500---the amount of our deposit. What a coincidence! So where is this "extensive pet damage throughout? It doesn't exist. Correna Corbett lied. Correna Corbett is a liar. If she feels she can prove she isn't a liar, she should sue us immediately for making this public statement.
Remember that when we moved out of our first Centennial Tower unit after having lived in it for five years, we received all (100%) of our deposit back -- we weren't even charged for cleaning. But that was under a management company that was only "somewhat" dishonest and incompetent. Apex Realty is in a whole new class.
We submit that if you rent a unit from Apex Realty, you should factor in your deposit as part of your rent. You will not be getting it back (unless Correna likes you, of course). Plan to stay a year? Add about $40 per month to your rent. We suggest that Apex begin calling their deposits what they are: Non-refundable.
We've noted with amusement that virtually every time we air a wad of Apex's dirty laundry on this website, they scurry and scramble to clean up that particular amoral or illegal practice. It's too bad, of course, that they couldn't have found the decency and strength of character to have stood up straight on their little cloven hooves and done the right or legal thing in the first place, simply because it was right or legal, but had to be forced and embarrassed into giving the tenants of "Tower at Centennial" even a smidgen of what they contracted to receive when they signed the lease. Hell, we can almost hear those people at Apex clicking around that office from here. We suggest, nevertheless, that residents of Centennial Tower are enjoying considerable benefits due to this website. Staffers have told us that Apex has been secretly cleaning up all sorts of despicable practices, things they had gotten away with for years when they thought no one was looking. Well, now folks are looking. Tenants will likely have an easier time receiving at least some of their deposits back due to the exposure of this problem on this website -- and if they don't, they are invited and encouraged to pass their experience along to our attorney, as follows:
Elena Garella
927 N Northlake Way, Ste 301
Seattle, Wa. 98103Perhaps the above images, if they accomplish nothing else, will demonstrate to the prospective Centennial tenant just how tiny these stuffy little shoe-boxes are. Looks suspiciously like a kitchenette room at Motel 6, doesn't it? Where's the "luxury"? We looked high and low, but couldn't find it anywhere...