I recently purchased a house and moved out of the apartment I had been living in for the last 11 years. In that time, the property management company went from having two managers on-site, to one manager on-site, to one manager working across the multiple sites a week (many of which are across town from each other).
I witnessed firsthand the toll the threadbare staffing was taking on my now-former manager – there's a lot that needs to be done daily for an apartment complex, and without anyone there fielding it, it just piles up.
Case in point: I scheduled my final walkthrough, fully expecting the worst. (A previous complex deducted a $200 “cleaning fee” because a bathroom sink at water spots on it.)
The manager showed up late, frazzled as all hell, practically ran through the entire apartment with us, and marked every section on the inspection form as “acceptable”.
So, I'm getting my full deposit back because the property management company can't be arsed to properly staff their site.