AUSTIN, Texas — Broken amenities, power outages and flooding are just some of the issues University of Texas students said they experienced when they moved in to Rise at West Campus apartment complex in Downtown Austin.
The move-in date had already been delayed for more than a month.
"There's just unfinished bathrooms, unfinished amenities, all of the things that we pay for, and we're sold on for this apartment building – we come in, and there's none of that available yet," said Jose Martinez Macintosh, who moved in Sept. 29.
Martinez Macintosh added that half of the apartment's elevators weren't functioning on Saturday due to a power outage Friday night, which forced students and parents to haul luggage up the stairs.
According to an email Rise at West Campus provided to KVUE, students were allowed to move in Friday, Sept. 29, through Sunday, Oct. 1, at certain times depending on whichever floor they live on.
However, that shifted on Saturday, when students like Cole Weinman said they were told at the last minute that their time had been pushed back.
"We got an email about six minutes before 8:00 this morning saying that the elevators weren't working, and so move-in was pushed to noon," Weinman said.
Some parents who helped their kids move in tried to get answers from management but were left in the dark.
Jose Martinez told KVUE that he and his wife came in from Dallas to help their daughter move in, but they have gotten no answers from the apartment staff and are worried about future problems.
"There's been no communication with anybody other than the the young people at the front desk, the young kids. They really don't know anything," Martinez said. "I feel like they're cutting so many corners now, how many corners were cut when they built the place?"
KVUE reached out to management for the past week regarding the delays and even made a stop at the leasing office on Saturday to try and get a comment about the new troubles students said they were facing.
No one was available at the time, but a spokesperson for Rise at West Campus sent KVUE the following statement:
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience the move-in delay has caused students and parents. This is not how we wanted to start our journey together. While unavoidable construction delays have impacted our delivery, we have been in regular contact with students over the past several weeks to keep them updated about the progress of the residence. By tomorrow we anticipate that more than two-thirds of students will have moved in, and we are focused on getting the remaining residents in as quickly as possible.”
When pressed regarding the broken amenities, flooding or outages, management did not provide comment.