TL;DR: Signed a 12-month apartment lease in TX. Moved in and discovered the unit is ADA/ wheelchair-accessible (lower counters, less cabinet space, etc.) — never disclosed before signing, doesn't match the unit we toured or the marketing. Property blamed a "system error" from construction delays. Offered us $75/month off or a full lease release with no penalty. We accepted the discount and chose to stay, but the promised microwave installation has turned into a mess — unannounced entry into our apartment, a rude call from the property manager, and now they're saying it might not even be possible.
Wondering if we have any legal grounds, whether we could still get more (moving costs, additional compensation), and what others would do at this point.
Full Timeline-
We signed a 12-month lease in Texas for a 2 bed/2 bath unit at a “Luxury Apartment”. Before signing, we toured a specific unit and were told repeatedly the one we’d receive would be identical, just with a yard added. Our move-in date also got pushed back several times before we finally moved in on July 10.
On move-in day, we discovered our assigned unit is actually an **ADA/wheelchair-accessible unit** — significantly lower countertops, way less cabinet space, microwave sitting on the counter instead of mounted above the stove. This was never mentioned before we signed. Nothing in our lease or any addendum identifies the unit as ADA-configured. The leasing agent’s reaction when we pointed it out was basically “oh, I assumed you knew.”
The property manager (I’ll call her S.) offered, that same day, to hang the microwave, give us new barstools, and reduce our rent, and said she’d confirm it all in writing by the following Monday. That didn’t happen. What followed was almost two weeks of unanswered calls/emails, vague excuses (“need regional approval,” “taking a personal day,” “meeting my supervisor tomorrow”), and zero written confirmation of anything.
We escalated to corporate/regional management. The regional manager was actually great — she looked into it, and explained that the ADA units were originally supposed to be in a different building, but due to construction delays they ended up in ours, and it was never updated in their leasing system, so we were leased into it without anyone catching the error. She apologized and said the intended discount for ADA units has always been $75/month and also offered to release us from our lease entirely, with no penalty if we wanted to just leave.
We decided to accept the $75/month discount and stay, mainly because we didn’t want to deal with moving twice.
Since then, though, the microwave situation has spiraled:
- After not hearing anything about them hanging it, I finally called again about the microwave specifically and was told last Friday it’d be hung “this Monday.” Didn’t happen.
- Called multiple times Tuesday, no answer.
- Finally got through to the property manager today, who was extremely rude and defensive on the phone, making excuses (claimed “wifi was down” for why nobody answered the day before).
- She mentioned a maintenance person had been in our apartment *that day* to check on it — we had no idea anyone had entered until we noticed things had been moved around when we got home. No notice was given beforehand.
- Now she’s saying they might not even be able to hang the microwave because there may be a vent in the spot where it’s supposed to go.
Questions for the sub:
1 - Do we have any real legal grounds here (misrepresentation, DTPA, etc.), or is this really just a “landlord screwed up, apologized, offered a discount” situation with no further recourse?
2 - Should we push for more than $75/month given everything that’s happened (including the unannounced entry)?
3 - Is it worth revisiting the “release with no penalty” offer at this point, given how the microwave situation and the manager’s attitude have played out since we agreed to stay?
4 - If we did want to leave now, is there any way to get them to cover moving costs or give us more time to find a new place, given they already offered a penalty-free release once?
5 - Are we overreacting, or is this as bad as it feels?
Appreciate any input — we’re just trying to figure out if we’re leaving anything on the table.