SAN DIEGO — On Friday, CBS 8 showed you a story of a San Diego Mesa College student who planned to move into an off campus apartment at BLVD63 apartments.
But on move in day, Kaylie Herzberger was shocked to see greasy appliances, stained carpets and bugs inside the apartment.
"The carpets are black. There was dead bugs, cracks in everything. It was a complete wreck," said Herzberger.
"It was appalling. It was in terrible condition. Bugs on the floor, bugs in the freezer, missing drawers in the kitchen, broken drawers, missing pieces, missing beds. It was filthy. Every cabinet was covered in film and grease from cooking. It was disgusting and not ready for move in," said Herzberger's mother, Jenny Rabe.
CBS 8 called and emailed the managers of the apartment complex and also went to the leasing office. CBS 8 spoke with Tenants United and even found a few small claims filed against BLVD63’s parent company.
Since the CBS 8 story aired, there is some good news to share.
BLVD63 is terminating Herzberger's lease. They sent her an email writing they will be giving her a full refund of her deposit of $1,100 within 21 days, excluding her $40-$45 application fee.
"I'm grateful I was able to get out of my lease and hopefully get my money back for a place I never moved in. This really helped me and a lot of other people," said Herzberger.
"I'm incredibly grateful, I didn’t have the power or resources to get done what needed to be done. I appreciate you guys," said Rabe.
Herzberger is currently searching for a new place to live. She says viewers who saw the CBS 8 story reached out and offered a room for rent in a house closer to campus.
"Right now, I'm in the process looking where I can live that’s affordable and not a scam," said Herzberger.
"I'm praying it's going to be a good fit, but until we have a lease signed, nothing is set. I'm so thankful she is not at BLVD63," said Rabe.
Since the story aired, CBS 8 has received more complaints about students’ living situations at BLVD63.
Rabe says she is going to try to help anyone she can.
"I don’t think my work is done. I feel like we need to protect future students from what happened to my daughter at BLVD63. It needs to not happen again," said Rabe.
"No one should have had to gone through this in the first place," said Herzberger.
In an e-mail statement, spokesperson Bob Hetherington wrote in part,
"When a resident expressed concerns on move-in day this week, we responded immediately. We replaced worn furnishings with new. We replaced discolored carpet with new carpet in a separate bedroom, not the resident’s bedroom. (This work had been scheduled but delayed by supply chain issues. The resident of that bedroom had been informed and compensated.) And we mobilized our contracted cleaning crews as well as our local staff to put things right.
The deep cleaning of the unit had been deferred pending the installation of new carpet and related work in one of the other bedroom/bathroom combinations. When that work was delayed, the cleaners had less time to turn the unit around and were unable to get everything accomplished on schedule.
As soon as the issue was brought to our attention, our staff sprang into action. In fact, many of the photos shared on social media were taken as our maintenance team, our property manager and others worked to get the unit up to our standards."
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