Acadia Court

I had to contact Duke Energy services 4 months in a row just to get them to put it in my name. The first time I had a signed notarized identification verification form submitted, and each month: no bill. I would go to Acadia Court and ask them if they had been paying it, and each time they would say «I don’t know, we haven’t paid it.» Fast forward one month later, I have my money for rent put back and suddenly, a bill from Acadia Court for $ 220 for ELECTRIC that THEY HAVE BEEN PAYING apparently since March! I have never received any bills for this. The next day, they tacked it on to our rent. Now, this isn’t just some normal electric bill. I would be happy to pay for any electric I used, seeing as that is fair and just. This is a bill with $ 130 in LATE FEES that I HAD NO CONTROL OVER. Seeing as I make a mere $ 7.75/hour at my piece of crap job, it will take me at least 2 weeks to be able to cover this unexpected bill PLUS rent. I walked down to the office attempting to contact the apartment manager, she’s on the phone. No problem, I leave my name and number expecting her to get back to me after her phone call so we can work out a payment plan immediately in order to halt the $ 6/​day late fee that they’ve been charging me. 6 o’clock rolls around, Acadia is closed, still no phone call. Needless to say, we are leaving as soon as our lease is up. We cannot live here any longer, it is completely unjustified to tack on a massive amount of late fees for a bill I never received.
I think this may be connected with our air conditioning problem. I complained about the air sporadically working and going out (given, it is June, I expect it to be hot, but when an apartment advertises its air conditioning I expect there to be working air conditioning), so I call the maintenance man and ask him to take a look at it. The maintenance man is great, super friendly, cordial, and timely. He takes a look and decides there needs to be a new air conditioner put in because it would be cheaper than refilling whatever expensive thing needed refilled. That is totally fine with us, but I believe that this unexpected bill may never have happened if I hadn’t complained and forced them to buy an expensive addition to the apartment. Maybe I’m crazy and it has nothing to do with it, I obviously can’t prove anything, but if someone told you for months on end that they haven’t been paying the electric bill and they don’t understand what’s going on, to suddenly they’ve been paying it since March and demand an exorbitant amount in late fees when I ask for something to be fixed? The timing adds up for my conspiracy theory. Don’t rent here. Yes they allow dogs, but so do other apartments. Just avoid Elon property management.
Their late fees for being late on rent are absolutely way too high. The rent seems cheap at first, but they tack on «processing fees» and stupid shit like that. If you want to pay online, it’s an EXTRA $ 20 in «convenience» fees. Let me tell you, it is not convenient at all. You can’t pay cash either. I am a very unsatisfied tenant. The first day you are late it’s a $ 75 fee.