When GN Associates bought EastSide Apartments, 736 E. Foster Ave., tenants thought it would be a smooth and uneventful transition. Four months later, tenants are complaining about the continuous renovations taking place.

Last October, GN Associates — owner of several apartment buildings in State College — bought EastSide Apartments from Associated Realty, 456 E. Beaver Ave., with the intention of renovating the apartments.

Shirley Chou (junior-East Asian studies) says tenants such as her were informed by mail that GN Associates bought their leases and that the company would be notifying tenants about future apartment renovations.

"The renovations are not necessary. We were fine before," Chou said.

Chou is among the residents who are not going to pay the $100 monthly rent increase next year, a fee that GN Associates says is necessary to pay for the changes.

The changes include cabinets, plush carpeted floors and renovated bathrooms.

Kathy Moore, of Associated Realty, said that under the contract tenants signed last year, it is within the rights of GN Associates to renovate the apartments. The new enforcers of the contract referred to a subtext in the contract that allows the owner to enter the apartment at reasonable times for repairs and maintenance.

Local Attorney Amos Goodall, representative for GN Associates, said the owner of any apartment is permitted to do renovations as it falls under repairs and maintenance mentioned in the contract.

Chou disagreed. "When they had finished the bathroom we had no hot water and the toilet rocked. That is not considered a repair," she said.

"We have to move everything in the apartment into the kitchen or bathroom so they can put a new carpet down. How are we going to do that?" she asked pointing to the furniture that she doubts will fit into the limited space.

"There is supposedly more to come. But they upped the rent so much that we can't renew. When we try to complain we just get some company line," said Roy Stanley (junior-secondary education).

Holley Dougherty, of GN Associates, explained the situation.

"We are trying to do everything we can to work around people's schedule," she said.

Dougherty said that often the crew helps with furniture moving. "One time I had the crew go back to set up an entertainment system, and then they returned to fix the VCR picture," she said.

Stanley said there was a day when the bathroom was off limits in the apartment of everyone he knows on his floor.

"I planned on running across the street to Burger King," he said. "We were brushing our teeth in the kitchen. This week, it is new walls."

Stanley and Chou say the noise all day is disrupting to their everyday routines. Neither of them will be renewing next year's lease with GN Associates, although tenants who do stay will pay less than newcomers.

"They still upped it too much," Stanley said. He has begun looking for a new apartment.

"It is taking too long, and I don't think they want to pay for outside help," Stanley said. "The in-house maintenance crew is working as fast as they can."

"We don't really want to go much faster than the pace now of a kitchen a day and a bathroom in two days," Dougherty said.

GN Associates officials said they have a crew of five working on a schedule to renovate the building. They hired the fifth worker specifically for the renovations, that the company says, will benefit the tenants.

"How do we benefit?" Chou said. "We aren't staying."