Rebate irks apartment's residents

MONTROSE -- StarPoint Properties, LLC, a property owner under investigation by the Glendale City Attorney's Office for retaliatory evictions of tenants at its Montrose apartment building, decided on Wednesday to give all current tenants a $200 rent rebate — a gesture some tenants likened to a "cruel joke."

The letter, sent to tenants on Wednesday, referred to the $200 as a "token of [StarPoint's] appreciation" for tenants' cooperation during ongoing construction work at the 2121 Valderas Drive site. The gesture was also intended as an apology, according to David Seiler, vice president of operations for StarPoint.

"We didn't treat our residents with the respect they deserved," Seiler said. "If we had to do it over again, we would. We're not going to make best friends tomorrow, but we want to go through the process of gaining more respect from the residents."

But some tenants say the $200 token doesn't scratch the surface of the losses in time and money that they have incurred over the past two months. Ongoing plumbing work has frequently halted their running water and kept tenants out of their units during the day, sometimes without 24-hour notice, residents say.

"Two-hundred dollars is like a slap in the face," said Cindy Rose, who lives in a two-bedroom unit in the complex formerly known as Glen View Terrace but recently renamed The Falls at Montrose. "I want [Seiler] to have holes in the walls at his house … I want him to have to go down to the gas station to use the bathroom and then decide how much money is fair."

The $200 rebate is one of a few recent efforts by StarPoint to quell mounting tenant dissatisfaction.

The company has also brought another maintenance worker to help monitor construction workers' progress and cleanliness.

The current building manager will now be posting a weekly newsletter outlining general construction work planned for the following week, the letter says. And from here on out, StarPoint promises to give 36-hour notices, as opposed to the state-required 24 hours, priory to entry, Seiler said.

As for the $200, Seiler hopes it will appease some tenants but knows that some will be disappointed.