need housing help, STAT! HELP!

[piperknitsRN]

I arrived in mid afternoon to my assignment. The complex stated earlier in the week that it would be ready btwn 10a-5p. The day before I left, I called to double check, and a staff member said the apartmnet was not ready, and wouldn't be ready until "as late as possible."

I called my housing recruiter, who told me that it was new lease take over for them, and theapt complex told them that the unit had been trashed, but could guarantee a 1p.m. move in, and lunch on the company. I said I was fine with moving in Saturday if they needed more time to clean the place, but she said 1 p.m. would be fine.

When I got to my apartment at about 3p.m., furniture was delivered, but no housewares This required another call, and by the time they arrived, it was 5:30p.m. Sheets were old, some dirty, and no full sheet on the bed, just a flat sheet laid over the mattress, which smelled like smoke. The bedding smelled musty. No vacuum. Toaster shorted, and a dish broke on transit, so didn't have those items.

I found numerous issues that night with apartment and spoke to an assistant who talked her manager and co. gave me company permission to check into a hotel for the weekend. I wrote a detailed letter and documented with photographs the many issues that need to resolved before I even think about moving back to that apartment, and stated I refuse to move in the apartment until the issues were taken care of properly or they found me alternate housing (which I'm rather hoping at this point!)

Did any one else try to get alternative housing a tight market? Did anyone successfully renogotiate for extended-stay hotel stay/stipend instead of housing? I need clean, safe, comfortable housing that is pet friendly and has housewares in order to do my job, and that unit was truly filthy. My company has been pretty flexible so far, and very prompt in resolving most issues, but being the weekend, nothing has been resolved fully yet.

I do not want to be fired for not accepting filthy dirty housing, nor do I want my life disrupted again over a housing issue why I am trying to adjust to nights and a brand new hospital--orientation is MONDAY. I feel I've been professional, polite but firm in the documentation of the situation, and have been very accomodating and flexible. I think it is now the company's turn. I am going to hold my ground for what I need, though, and I could really use some help from you guys as to how to navigate the situation further!

Thanks

jamie

[cvryder]

Oh my goodness, that sounds like the place I was in Alexandria, VA last spring! It was horrible. I got there on Saturday evening, no one was in the office and the on call person was an answering service out of Baltimore. I called the on-call for my agency and she'd been trying to reach me all afternoon. Apparently the complex, after assuring her that the unit would be ready on Friday, had called late Friday afternoon and said it would not be! As it turned out, although she'd specified furnished, they'd put it down as unfurnished and it wasn't ready for a week! The agency did book me into a nice extended stay which was actually closer to the orientation site than the apartment was, so it wasn't all bad. The complex management remained a nightmare for the entire stay, however. I'd be glad to tell you offlist what it was and who the management was in case you ever have to deal with them in the northern VA/DC area.

[Medic15251]

Wow. I haven't had anything that bad, the apartment we are in now was just furnished with furniture, no dishes, sheets, or cleaning supplies. We moved in on the weekend so we called our companies "emergency" number. We got some recruiter who told us to go to a hotel and they would pick up the bill. We ended up talking him into reimbursing us for the cost of furnishing the apartment. We agreed on $300 and they wired it into our account on Monday.:trout: