oLiv Auburn residents experience frustration over maintenance issues

Downtown Auburn is home to a variety of options for those looking to live off-campus. With the convenience of living a walkable distance from Auburn University’s campus often comes higher rent prices. With higher rent prices ideally comes a satisfactory living experience.

One downtown housing option, oLiv Auburn, is marketed as a “high-end” apartment that provides “contemporary, refined apartment living.”

oLiv Auburn began offering leases in the fall of 2022, making the apartment complex one of the newest in the area. 

For many, living at oLiv has not been the “refined” experience they had hoped for. An abundance of unsolved maintenance issues has affected many frustrated residents, each in a different way.

Lindsey Holmes, an oLiv resident since the fall of 2022, was forced to temporarily relocate one month ago because a sewage pipe burst below her unit. 

For Holmes and her four roommates, the nightmare began on a Sunday around 9 p.m. 

“They knocked on our door and were like, ‘Hey, we have to turn your water off until further notice. We got you a hotel but you can't live here right now,’” said Holmes. “We just got 10 minutes' notice to move into the Auburn Hotel for five days.”

The issue was not resolved during the five days Holmes was relocated.

“Ever since then, they have been sending us emails – I want to say for five or six days – that they would have to turn our water off from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., just stuff like that,” Holmes said.

Unable to use her kitchen to cook, Holmes was told that she would receive a $50 reimbursement for food for each day her water was shut off. As of Nov. 2, the reimbursement had not become a reality.

Since move-in for the fall 2023 semester, Holmes’s unit has experienced issues with the dishwasher and ice maker. Maintenance took approximately one week to respond to the dishwasher issue and has yet to respond to the issue with the freezer, which Holmes submitted a work order for one week ago.

Holmes is not the only oLiv resident to struggle with maintenance issues. 

Samuel Miranda, an oLiv resident since the fall of 2022, has seen a change in maintenance over his time as a resident.

“They used to fix them quickly, like on the same day,” Miranda said. 

Since moving into a new unit for the fall of 2023, Miranda has been unable to close the door to his bathroom. In addition to this unsolved issue, his desk chair is broken. Maintenance has not fixed the chair or come to evaluate that issue, Miranda said.

“I emailed them pictures as soon as I moved into the unit and they have not fixed anything yet,” Miranda said. 

Maggie Biegalski, an oLiv resident since the fall of 2022, described an ongoing issue that has affected every resident since Sept. 2, the night of the first football game.

A fire started in the building’s sauna room after an item was placed on a heating element, Biegalski said. Since this incident, the full gym facility, which contains the sauna, steam room, and gym, has not been accessible for oLiv residents. 

The gym was reopened on Oct. 30, but the other amenities are still out of service.

Despite the abundance of maintenance issues, Biegalski does not blame the front desk staff.

“That’s the hard part, not a lot of communication,” Biegalski said. "I always feel bad getting upset with them because they wouldn't know any more than I would."

Holmes also expressed this when discussing her experience with management's responsiveness.

"Whenever I go to the front desk, I feel really bad because I don't think they can do very much," Holmes said. "I can tell that they do want to help us. They're not being communicated to by upper management as to what's going on."

The maintenance issues at oLiv have affected the community as a whole. However, each resident has their own experiences to tell. When asked for comment, oLiv did not respond.