Renting out apartments in Medellín

I_Gave_Papaya says on Feb 2, 2007, 06:42:

Bad Experience -- Stay Somewhere Else I recommend that you find a different apartment during your visit to Medellin. I prepaid a month at this apartment and left after only two weeks due to numerous issues. The landlord refused to refund a prorata share of the rent, despite the fact that I provided him with a detailed list of reasons why I felt it necessary to leave.

I will give some examples below, and while no individual point by itself may be a big deal, if taken together, they clearly show that you can do better when looking for a place to stay in Medellin.

Since I am new on this site and this is my first post, before someone tries to say my perspective is not credible, I will tell you that I speak fluent Spanish, I have previously lived and worked in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, and Brazil, and I have traveled to Colombia several dozen times over the past five years. My expectations for the apartment were not too high (especially given the fact that the rent was US $560 per month!!).

1. This apartment is located in CENTRO, an area that is very dangerous at night. Do not confuse this with Poblado; it is in no way comparable! It is a completely different part of the city. By the way, reasonable monthly rental prices in Centro are about half of what is being charged for this particular apartment.

2. The telephone line (fijo) did not work. I left the landlord a voicemail and then went up to his apartment to tell
him in person. The response was something like: "No, you're wrong, the phone works, or it should be working". No one ever came to fix the phone.

3. I requested an apartment with internet because I work remotely and need internet access for email and file downloads. The internet connection in the apartment did not function.

4. The apartment was advertised as "furnished" but it had no washing machine. Over the past month, I looked at approximately 20 furnished apartments for rent in Medellin and every single one of them had a washing machine. Therefore, this apartment does not meet the local definition of "furnished.

5. Not that I came to Colombia to watch TV, but the cable TV was down for the first six days that I was in the apartment and then during the following week it went down again for a seventh day.

6. The maid was supposed to come once a week but in the 15 days I was in the apartment, the maid came only once.

7. The apartment infrastructure left a lot to be desired. For example, it was missing numerous lightbulbs, making it dark at night. Another example is that the apartment had no trash can. I asked the landlord to bring one, and he said that he would go to the market and buy one, but he never did. Of course, one can survive without a trash can, but do you really want to live in an apartment staring at the plastic trash bag sitting on the floor?

8. The apartment had no deadbolt lock on the door. The building, as I mentioned earlier, is located in a very dangerous area. (The building does have 24 hour security, as do all apartment buildings in Medellin). I did not feel safe without a deadbolt lock on my apartment door. In my subsequent search for an apartment, when I looked at approximately 20 properties, each one of them had a deadbolt lock (many had two deadbolt locks).

If you want to overpay your rent, receive bad customer service, live in the Centro, and not get what you pay for, then by all means rent this apartment. Otherwise, you have plenty of other options during your stay in the beautiful city of Medellin.

Sincerely,

I_Gave_Papaya

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cuidate says on Feb 5, 2007, 23:05:

Thanks for the heads down I think it unlikely that anyone reading your detailed post will seek out any of those apartments anytime soon.

I would have jumped ship for even a couple of those negative factors going unresolved.

I'm glad to hear that it didn't deprive you of an opportunity to come to enjoy Medellin.

Great Post.

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Paisa pues says on Feb 6, 2007, 18:36:

Hey Morphus,

Is this price of US$400 for a completely furnished appartment and including all servicios? If it is, it is a really good deal i guess. I have been looking around and the cheapest option i found was 1.100.000 COP (500 US$) for a really small appartaestudio with no internet. Does your appartment have an internet connection, as i need to have that

let me know,

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