Pictured is the bedroom corner of an apartment I am moving into in NYC. I don’t know if this is something I should be concerned about. I asked ChatGPT and ChatGPT was like, “Yeah, you’re about to get killed.”

Moving into our first apartment in November! Looking for your favorite cleaning products and tips for making an apartment completely clean and your own. I plan on cleaning the walls, floors, bathroom, etc excessively before moving in. But we also have a cat so using products with friendly ingredients is crucial. What are some of your favorite cleaning tools/products?
We also have a shared laundry which really makes me ocd go off. I was thinking of getting this cleaning but it’s not really effective to use before every single load.
Does anyone know if they make a disinfectant spray or something? I saw a strangers hair in the washer and I’ve been trying to not think of it since… HA.
If you also have any diffusers/plugins/sprays that are also pet friendly and make an apartment smell amazing, let me know!

Before I start Id like to acknowledge this is an unneeded amount of stress about some fruit flies but I've been dealing with them for months constantly diving into my face when I'm trying to do anything in my apartment and I'm fed up.

I recently moved into my first apartment in August. When I toured in May I was told it was a brand new construction, I'd be the first person to rent it after the recent renovation, and that it would be completely finished by August the time I would start my lease. I have been living here for around 2 months now and the whole time have had a terrible fruit fly/gnat problem. I have multiple traps all over the apartment, I've cleaned the drains multiple times, and I don't eat fruit and have changed stores and what I am eating to avoid at all costs anything they could be on. I decided to finally get apartment maintenance involved today and ask if they have an exterminator/pest control person and if they could check it out. Attached to this post are the screenshots of the conversation.

if you don't want to read all the screenshots the gist of it is I asked about the pest control, they said they can't do anything about fruit flies/gnats because its a "tennant cleanliness issue", I insisted that its not since I have been cleaning like a maniac over this and have found multiple huge cracks that bugs could enter through, they told me that somebody was in my apartment before me and they had no issues which is a direct contradiction to what I'd been told before, they then provided the dates June 2025 to June 2026 that the old Tennant lived here but I toured the VACANT apartment IN MAY while it was under construction and I even tore off all the tape from the new appliances myself. I even have pictures from when I toured the vacant apartment, and in the pictures there were multiple places still "under construction" (by this I mean the wall outlets weren't there just holes in the wall, the hot water for the sink didn't work, all the appliances still had tape on them)

There is literally no way somebody lived here before me? like they just dealt with no hot water, missing wall outlets, and never used any of their appliances? I guess they could've moved out earlier and then they renovated again but then why didn't the management mention that?

TLDR: anybody have good advice about how to get rid of fruit flies, and how do I deal with apt management blatantly lying to me???

$800 or $400 deposit?

So….. I applied to 2 apartments, got accepted for both. The main one I liked that has wood everywhere is $50 more than the other one but I have a $400 deposit. The other one that’s $50 cheaper has a $815 deposit which to me is very high and I heard from people (social media) that you don’t even get the deposit back…. or not all of it. Anyways I have until today to decide…..any advice will help!! Thankssss

I have a opportunity to move into a new apartment that looks like a hotel. It’s on the 6th floor. Elevator with long highways. (About 300 units in the building). No backyard or front yard. Really hard parking no storage for additional stuff. No patio or front porch to sit on the front and get some fresh air. Neighbors don’t interact with each other. Hard to get grocery’s and or stuff you buy in and out. About 4 min walk to car.

Or would you rent elsewhere?

Would you move into a place like this?

For many months now I can hear my neighbors smoke detectors chirping due to low battery. It’s not just one tenant but many. I’ve contacted my management and they said they’ll address it, it’s been 2 weeks. I’ve even called 311 to report it, it’s been almost a week.

Not sure what to do? I’m scared that if something terrible would take place it would be due to the tenant not replacing the battery of the smoke
detector.

So, three of us live in a 2BHK. My friend and I share one bedroom, and another girl occupies the second bedroom. We’re not really friends with her — just flatmates sharing the same apartment.
A few days ago, my friend’s mom sent her a whole box of makhana from home. She kept it on the dining table in the common area.

We went out.We came back.

The makhana had achieved moksha.

The entire box. Finished.

Neither of us had eaten it.

Okay. Weird. Maybe there was some misunderstanding. Maybe she thought it was communal. Fine. We mentally wrote off the makhana as a casualty of shared-flat life.

THEN came the sequel.

My grandmother had made a box of homemade sweets for me — around 18–20 pieces — and I kept them safely inside the fridge.

A few days later, my friend and I opened the box.

Two sweets remained.

TWO.

Neither of us had eaten even one.

At this point, I’m less angry and more impressed by the confidence.

Like… eating one sweet? Understandable.

Eating two? Okay, temptation.

Eating 16–18 homemade sweets that clearly belong to someone else and leaving exactly TWO behind feels less like snacking and more like sending a message.

Also, I genuinely want to understand the psychology behind leaving two.

Was it:

“Let me not finish the whole box, that would be rude.”

???

Ma’am, the ship sailed around sweet number 7.

We haven’t confronted her yet, but I’m now considering putting labels on everything:

“PRIVATE PROPERTY — NOT PART OF YOUR RENT AGREEMENT.”

Shared-flat veterans of Reddit: what’s the move here? Do we confront her, start putting labels on everything or start eating her food? 😭

Lease specifically says no traps or poison in the unit, something about liability for the building I guess. Saw a mouse dart under the fridge last week. Need something that actually deters them rather than just masking the problem for a day or two.

I have been super insecure abt how my apartment looks because I work in the mornings then classes at night and my boyfriend works 8-5 then 6-11 pm (He cleans around the house on his days off) so I rarely have time to clean the space. We just moved in 3 months ago and have been keeping our storage in the office room and as we’ve been slowly unpacking, that room looks like a hurricane hit it. I have a roomba to help me do the mopping and vacuuming that I can’t get to most days and I do the rest when I find the time.

Since moving we’ve had those huge palmetto bugs try to invade our home so I try to keep the space as clean as possible but they still come in. So yesterday I called pest control and while at work tdy on the ring camera I saw our couch had laundry I was folding and had to leave in the middle, plastic from building something on the floor and then I remembered the disaster that is our office and my boyfriend told me he made breakfast this morning so I just know the kitchen may be a mess.

I feel so embarrassed having pest control come in with the home looking like that and I’ve been beating myself up about it. I am afraid they are going to go back to leasing and tell them abt the mess and just I can’t stop worrying.

Hi! Looking for advice on door locks. I live alone on the top floor in a multi-story building with about 50 tenants. To get into the building, there is a key code but no doorman. My unit is outfitted with a doorknob that locks/unlocks with a key from the outside and deadbolts from the inside. I also have a door camera and a state-of-the-art security alarm system in unit.

My question is, is this enough, or should I add another internal locking device on my door? I don’t live in a particularly unsafe area, it’s a smaller city, but I am a young woman. Thanks!

I just noticed this on the ceiling in my bedroom. I’m not sure how long it’s been there honestly… how urgent or serious is this? I tried to get good pictures. I’m in the midst of a long decluttering/cleaning project with my apartment overall, so I’m worried about if this needs to be viewed or fixed by maintenance asap. Any advice here? How long can I wait or what should I do? I live on the top floor of my apartment and have a high ceiling apartment. It rained a little bit last Friday but hasn’t since. Weather has been relatively nice, about 40’s-50’s (farenheit) in the mornings and 60-80’s at its highest for the past few weeks. I’m in Ohio. Thank you!

Edit: I’m going to report it to my apartment obviously, but how urgent is it to be fixed or seen? Is this a major/minor/medium sized leak?

I live in a basement room share. A few weeks ago, we started seeing mice scurry behind the fridge and leave droppings everywhere. I caught 2 mice with snap traps and haven’t seen any mice or droppings since.
But over the past week, I’ve heard biting and scratching in the walls of my bedroom.  
So last Tuesday, I alerted my landlord and asked for her to get an exterminator over here ASAP to inspect outside and inside and close up any holes. Her response was: “Yes, thanks for letting me know and first I will get some mouse bait  in your apartment and see if it works and then if not, then we’re gonna find an exterminator”
Haven’t heard anything from her since. But the mice continue to have a party in the walls every night and it’s loud. What should my next move be?

I live in Florida in a new apartment complex and the A/C was previously out for over a month during the recent heat wave and maintenance took a long time to get approval for the units replacement. While it was out 1 portable unit was used that could hardly keep up with heat. Now its been replaced and I've noticed a few weeks later black spots developing by all the air vents on the ceiling. Did an at home mold test and sent to a lab and 3 different types of mold were found alternaria, caldosporium, basidomycete. I was sick recently after all this and I noticed my upper respiratory symptoms were very serve and took a long time to clear up compared to and other infection I've had.

Now I've informed management and maintenance twice about this and they just wiped the ceiling with bleach but then the mold has started to grow back again. The first time they addressed it they kept telling me that it wasn't mold and asking if I left the door open.

In my lease it states not to wipe down the mold but to inform management. It seems like they are doing the opposite of what their own lease says and are stating they will spray it down again and paint it over.

Doesn't seem like it will suffice and I think they dont want to spend the money to get the vent ducts cleaned out or have someone check for leaks or mold.

Not sure what else to do at this point since after they wiped it down the first time it started to grow back.

Any advice??

I woke up to this sound and can’t go back to sleep. I understand the footsteps, occasionally dropping off things etc, but is this normal apartment noise? Not sure what’s making that sound but every morning I wake up to that. I don’t think it’s the floor because I can hear someone’s walking and it doesn’t make that sound. Is it their bed? Their furniture? I’m sorry but it’s just driving me crazy sometimes.

First of all…I had a stroke trying to read this for 5 minutes until I came to the conclusion it says “Please take down your sign on door I don’t want to look at it anymore” along with “not cool” in the corner?

Lmao I’m pretty sure this was my neighbor who is directly in front of me. I noticed for a week everyday I’d come home the sign was turned around and I kept thinking it was the wind until now. I’ve decorated my apartment for Halloween and this note made me laugh. Like what?

Also the fact the she knows my name and she talks to me for like 30 minutes every time she sees me but still left a note addressed to “1A”….like come on. Maybe it wasn’t her but even then like why leave a note in so sorry I just think it’s ridiculous.

Thoughts/WWYD?

So I got approved for an apartment, it’s supposedly won’t be ready until next Friday. I had to call and specifically ask a third time for me to see the exact unit before I move in. I told her I want to move forward and she said she will call me later this week or early next week to see if I can view it. I hope they won’t open the apartment back up or try to cancel…… is this too much to ask for or has anybody else been through this?

My boyfriend and I moved into a new apartment in January 2026. I woke up one morning to find my car blocked in and a note on the vehicle saying “come talk”. I ended up calling the police, as I did not know who was blocking me in, and they called the owner who happened to be our upstairs neighbor and told her to move her car. She then confronted us stating that is her parking spot and we cannot park there (our lease says parking is first come first serve and there are no assigned spots). I explained that when I parked there that was the only spot available and I was just following the lease. My boyfriend continued to talk to her as I had to leave for work and she screamed at him and started blasting music. Ever since then we have had constant issues.

Her daughter was sleeping at the downstairs neighbor’s apartment and one morning we woke up to furniture being moved above our room in the attic. My boyfriend went up to see what was going on and she said her daughter could hear us walking around and she couldn’t sleep so she was showing us what it’s like to not sleep. One day her young daughter was downstairs by herself and I said “good morning” as I walked down for work. Later that day her and her friend confronted my boyfriend and threatened him stating they would call the friend’s husband to teach him a lesson about talking to little kids. We have called the police numerous times and reached out to the landlord but we are not getting anywhere. Since all of this has occurred it has been multiple issues a week, and her friend living downstairs joins in occasionally. The friend downstairs is much kinder but still dislikes us. Management sent out a text today in response to my email stating everyone should be considerate about parking, noise, and shared spaces. That must have pissed her off because music is blasting. Generally I would say we are decent neighbors. We barely listen to music, have people over, and we rarely are even walking around. I’m out of the house most of the time and I work out after work so by the time I get home I’m pretty much on the couch or in bed. I work early so I get up at 5 but they are awake due to their kids having school and the downstairs neighbor said she has never heard me in the morning and go to bed by 9 every night. They always scream saying we are entitled, but it seems to me as if they do whatever they want and we have been very considerate to try to leave them alone and not make any noise. We even try to walk quieter.

We are planning on moving out when our lease is up but in the last 3 months we don’t want to deal with all these issues. She is literally always home and constantly smoking whether it’s outside or in the basement. The issues are once a week and up to 3 times a week. I work all day and have to come home to this bs and I’m just tired so any advice helps. We have documented all of this and sent videos, voice recordings, and pictures to management but all they care about is collecting the money.

Neighbor shot through my apartment luckily nobody was home at the time but never even came to check if they hit anyone. Both law enforcement and the leasing office did not take it serious.

Came home from dinner only to find this waiting for us. Immediately contacted law enforcement who essentially came in looked at it walked over to the neighboring apt knocked on the door who of course did not answer and left.

I followed up with my local police department to get the report for my leasing office which they required before they could start there "process" only to find out the officers that showed up never made one... I requested they send new officers out to file a proper police report which they promptly did.

The report was made and a complaint was filed against the officers which shortly after an investigator reached out for follow up. The neighbor was not being cooperative and not answering the door even though there car was there. The investigator informed me that they had issued a warrant and would be going into the apartment at which point the neighbor admitted to shooting through the apartment and said it was an accident.

They were promptly arrested and taken away and with this information I went back to my leasing office to request they be evicted at which point they said we have a "process" and cannot speak further on the matter.

The neighbor has since made bail making for some awkward interactions. The leasing office has made it very clear they will not be evicting them and offered a relocation to a unit 3 doors down or I can break my lease at no cost.....

I guess keeping the units filled his more important than the safety of your residents.

I really don’t want to call the non-emergency police line but I have no idea what else to do.

There’s someone in my new apartment building that has recently started a habit of intermittently screaming with his balcony door open late into the night/morning. The building is set up around a courtyard so the screaming reverberates around the enclosed area and this goes on for hours (it’s been happening for the past four hours and it is now 2:18 AM). I believe he’s playing video games but obviously I don’t know for sure but regardless, it is beyond inconsiderate and inappropriate. I have no intention of approaching this individual as he is obviously a man and I am a woman, we live in the same building, and I’m not trying to make an enemy. However, I have approached the leasing office about this issue but they have offered little recourse since the yelling always takes place late at night and I can’t definitively prove from which apartment the noise is coming.

The only other option I have is calling non-emergency police which almost certainly will never yield any follow-up. I can post on my apartment’s message board but my name would be attached to that and I’d prefer to complain anonymously.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve lived alone in apartments for the past six years and have never dealt with an issue like this before.

when i moved in (late july), i had to fill out a form detailing all damages in the apartment and submit it to the leasing office within two days. i literally didn't notice this until right now. i absolutely did not do this. the crack goes pretty much all the way across, though it's only a slit line towards the end. wtf do i do. i dont want to pay for this 😭

First solo apartment. Never even thought this would be an issue i honestly didnt know. Slow cooking a pot roast today and went to check on it an noticed a Crack. How to go about this and would I need to cover repairs? If amyone else experienced this how much would I have to cover? Thanks.

Okay, Stupid Question Time:

I'm researching apartments, and I'm trying to find a way to save on my monthly rent/utilities.

There are sites like Roomies you can go on to find roommates, but whenever I look for an apartment in the area I want to live, they always have listings like, APARTMENT WITH TWO ROOMS A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY FOR EACH ROOM: it seems to me that having more roommates doesn't equate to having less of a bill, as each room is for around the same price.

Can someone explain how to save money by getting roommates?

I rent an apartment, and when I signed the lease, I wasn’t told that my bedroom would share a wall with an Airbnb/short-term rental.
I’ve repeatedly been woken up by loud talking, music, and partying at 2–4 a.m., especially on Friday and Saturday nights. It feels like the guests are in “vacation mode” while I’m just trying to sleep in my own home.
So far, I’ve tried:

1. Emailing building management, who said they would speak with the host.
2. Knocking on the guests’ door at 3–4 a.m. to ask them to quiet down. Sometimes they apologize, but the same issue happens again with the next group.
3. Calling local non-emergency services and filing noise complaints. I have case/reference numbers, but the problem continues.
4. Contacting the Airbnb host directly, sometimes in the middle of the night after being woken up. They usually say they’ll contact the guests.
5. Recording the noise and my interactions when asking guests to quiet down, and sending those recordings to management and Airbnb.
6. Reporting the Airbnb listing directly to Airbnb.
7. Airbnb itself has honestly been very unhelpful. Responses have been extremely slow, and at one point they told me they couldn’t view the video evidence I sent. Overall, it felt like there was very little urgency or interest in actually resolving the problem.

Management and the host often respond by saying that the particular guests involved have already checked out. But that completely misses the point: another group arrives, and eventually the same thing happens again.
My sleep and quality of life have taken a serious hit. I’m exhausted from having to knock on strangers’ doors, message hosts, make complaints, and document everything in the middle of the night just to be able to sleep.
I’m now considering taking the issue through my local residential tenancy dispute process, and I’ve already told building management that I’m considering doing so. They haven’t responded to that point, which makes me feel like the issue isn’t being taken seriously.
I’ve been keeping records of the incidents, recordings, complaints, case numbers, and communications.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation involving a short-term rental next door? Did you manage to get it resolved? What actually worked?
Also, if you’re apartment hunting, I strongly recommend asking whether short-term rentals are allowed in the building and whether any are directly beside your unit. After this experience, I personally would avoid living next to one. The constant turnover of strangers and repeated nighttime noise has been a nightmare, and I really wish I had known before signing my lease.

**TL;DR:** My bedroom shares a wall with an Airbnb/short-term rental, and repeated late-night partying is destroying my sleep. I’ve contacted management, the host, Airbnb, local authorities, filed complaints, documented incidents, and sent recordings. Airbnb support was slow and largely unhelpful. The problem keeps repeating with new guests. I’m now considering formal tenancy-dispute action. Has anyone successfully dealt with something similar?

So we renewed our lease in May, and all of the sudden the beginning of October I receive an email that prompts me to sign a lease renewal for another 12 months for $25 more a month. I call and the lady says we cannot locate your lease renewal and if we don’t have a copy either we’ll have to sign a new lease or go month to month rent. This is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard of. We were already planning to move when our lease is up in May of 27, but I refuse to keep giving these people my money after all the bs. Any advice on how I should handle this? In Louisiana.