Sharing is a concept most of us learn in kindergarten, or even earlier, if we have brothers and sisters. And, if you live in a suburban apartment community or city high-rise, you’ll probably be drawing on those early-childhood lessons every day.
That’s because the parking lot or garage, elevators, laundry room, hospitality room, storage, courtyards and grounds, hallways and stairwells, swimming pool and other recreational facilities and equipment are not exactly yours to use as you please.
You probably know some fellow tenants who would disagree with that, and they might also be the ones who hog all the machines in the laundry room or dump another tenant’s wash on the floor; who empty their car’s ashtray or litter bag in the parking lot or park over the lines so they’re taking up two spaces in the garage; who drop their used facial tissues or empty candy wrappers on the lawn; and who send their guests into the hallway to smoke or their children there to play.
Most apartment managers agree that the majority of their tenants understand the basic rules and follow them, but, to make sure they do, most of those managers have some very specific guidelines for using the public areas of their properties. Sometimes the rules are written into the lease, as is the case at Woodfield Gardens, a 692-apartment community in northwest suburban Rolling Meadows.
“We’ve learned from experience that you have to spell out things for some people,” says the complex’s leasing and marketing director, Mary Herrold, “so our rules and regulations are included in the lease.”
Chris Dunat, who manages Glengarry Club, a 240-unit Trammell Crow Residential property in west suburban Bloomingdale, thinks that the courtesy of tenants is based primarily on the attitude of management.
“Whenever you see a complex where things have gotten out of hand, you can be almost sure the management is at fault,” she asserts.
She says that, at Glengarry Club, where they have an activity center and playgrounds for youngsters and all the common areas are closely supervised, they have few problems with rude or misbehaving tenants.
Ideally, good behavior should probably start when tenants and/or their guests drive into the parking lot–and it does, though there are a few exceptions.
Parking isn’t at a premium in suburban apartment communities, where most complexes have lots spacious enough to accommodate at least two cars for each tenant. Often spaces are unassigned.
Sue Levine, property manager for Heritage Hill apartments in Naperville, says that tenants or their guests will sometimes park in one of the spaces reserved for the handicapped or in the firelanes. In either case, building personnel will ask that they move their cars.
Parking lots are particularly attractive to youngsters, who are apt to think of them as huge, open playgrounds, and that can also present problems for other tenants.
“Kids like to play ball in the parking lot or just hang out there, sometimes sitting on the cars of other tenants,” says Herrold. This is a definite no-no as is congregating so as to block entrances and exits to the buildings or hanging out in the hallways and entries.
It would appear that close supervision of one’s children is a major requirement for peaceful coexistence in family-oriented complexes and buildings. Teaching the kids to be considerate, respectful and well-mannered doesn’t hurt either.
Most suburban complexes have designated play areas and/or activity centers and tenants’ children are expected to use those spaces rather than public areas for their fun and games. Woodfield Garden leases specify that parents are responsible for the behavior of their children, even when the kids are playing unattended.
“If youngsters present really serious problems we can consider it a violation of the lease and ask the family to move,” Herrold says.
Of course, misbehavior is not limited to the younger set. Some adults can be pretty thoughtless, too, and this trait seems to evince itself more often in the laundry rooms than in any other common area.
Laundry rooms appear to bring out the worst in just about everybody. Few people are really turned on by doing the week’s wash and a general crankiness can quickly escalate into outright indignation when the chore is complicated by the fact that every single washer in the room is filled with soggy clothes long after the cycle has been completed and the machine should be empty. No, you aren’t justified in dumping the whole mess onto the floor, however great the temptation.
“Tenants get busy and they forget to check their laundry,” Levine says, “so it would be helpful if everybody were a bit more understanding.”
“We have one tenant who folds any laundry she removes from a dryer and leaves a note from `the good fairy,’ ” she adds.
Garth Doering is property manager for Village in the Park, a mid-rise complex in northwest suburban Schaumburg. He believes that a pleasant and convenient laundry room environment puts users on their best behavior.
“Our laundry rooms are kept clean and are attractively decorated and equipped with clocks and posted time cycles so tenants will know when their laundry should be removed from the machines,” he says. “We also have laundry baskets on hand. If somebody forgets a load, the next person can remove the clothes and put them in a holding basket.”
Surprisingly, swimming pools and recreational facilities don’t present too many serious behavioral problems, probably because they are closely supervised whenever they are available and the rules governing their use are strictly enforced, rental managers say.
In most cases, you or your teenage kids won’t be permitted to pack the pool with your guests, your younger children will not be allowed in the pool unless they are accompanied by an adult.
Children under 15 are not allowed in the pool area at Woodfield Gardens unless accompanied by a parent. At Heritage Hill, the age is 16; at Glengarry Club, 14.
There are also restrictions on the number of guests in many instances. Doering says his tenants are entitled to one free guest at each swimming session; additional guests must pay $1 admission. During hours when the pool is exceptionally crowded, the pool supervisor may ask that the number of guests be limited.
At Woodfield Gardens, lifeguards are allowed to clear the pool if they judge that it’s too crowded or rowdy.
There are many other little frictions that inevitably arise when people live in close proximity. Most of them can be contributed to thoughtlessness rather than deliberate nastiness.
As one would expect, smoking etiquette is high on the list. Herrold says that tenants who are waiting for a ride or guests of tenants who don’t permit smoking in their apartments, sometimes think it’s OK to take their habit into the hallways, which can be very irritating to other tenants.
“Our chief problem is tenants who use the halls or stairwells as smoking areas,” says Levine. “We have many tenants who are reactive to smoke and some who are on oxygen, so we have to be strict about enforcing our smoke-free policies in all the public areas.”
Careless storage is often an issue as well and you’re not going to be very popular with your neighbors or with management if you stash your skis or bicycle in the hallway outside your unit or store the kayak, paddles and fishing equipment on your balcony or next to the entryway. Most full-service buildings and complexes have extra storage available and tenants are expected to use that for bulky seasonal equipment that won’t fit into their apartments.
