Laravel 5.3 - 500 internal error when saving a new Eloquent model - laravel

Question

When trying to create a new instance of my model Apartment I get a 500 (Internal Server Error). I have other /create/ routes that I use to create new instance of my models and they work properly and they're set up same as ApartmentController#create, but for some weird reason it doesn't work.
ApartmentController#create
/**
* Show the form for creating a new resource.
*
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function create()
{
$addresses = Address::all();
return view('address/create')->with('addresses', $addresses);
}
ApartmentController#store
/**
* Store a newly created resource in storage.
*
* #param \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function store(Request $request)
{
$address = new Address();
$this->authorize('create', $address);
$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
'building_number' => 'required|integer',
'street' => 'required|string',
]);
if ($validator->fails()) {
return redirect('addresses/create')
->withErrors($validator)
->withInput();
}
$address->building_number = $request->building_number;
$address->street = $request->street;
$address->save();
return redirect('addresses/create');
}
View apartment/create
<div class="col-md-6">
#if (count($errors) > 0)
<div class="alert alert-danger">
<ul>
#foreach ($errors->all() as $error)
<li>{{ $error }}</li>
#endforeach
</ul>
</div>
#endif
<form class="form-horizontal" method="POST" action="{{ action("ApartmentController#store") }}">
<fieldset>
<!-- Form Name -->
<legend>Register a new apartment</legend>
{{ csrf_field() }}
<!-- Text input-->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="address_id">Address</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select id="address_id" name="address_id" class="form-control">
#foreach($addresses as $address)
<option value="{{$address->id}}">{{$address->street}} {{$address->building_number}}</option>
#endforeach
</select>
<span class="help-block">Apartments building number</span>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Text input-->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="apartment_number">Apartment Number</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<input id="apartment_number" name="apartment_number" type="text" placeholder="2402" class="form-control input-md" required="">
<span class="help-block">The apartment number</span>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Text input-->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="size">Apartment Size</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<input id="size" name="size" type="text" placeholder="56qm" class="form-control input-md" required="">
<span class="help-block">The size of the apartment in qm</span>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Text input-->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="living_area_size">Living Area Size</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<input id="living_area_size" name="living_area_size" type="text" placeholder="23qm" class="form-control input-md" required="">
<span class="help-block">The size of the living area in qm</span>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Select Basic -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="suitable_for">Suitable For</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select id="suitable_for" name="suitable_for" class="form-control">
<option value="1">1</option>
<option value="2">2</option>
<option value="3">3</option>
</select>
<span class="help-block">Number of people the apartment is suitable for.</span>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Select Basic -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="furnished">Furnished</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select id="furnished" name="furnished" class="form-control">
<option value="1">Yes</option>
<option value="0">No</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Select Basic -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="balcony_or_terrace">Balcony or Terrace</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select id="balcony_or_terrace" name="balcony_or_terrace" class="form-control">
<option value="none">None</option>
<option value="balcony">Balcony</option>
<option value="terrace">Terrace</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Select Basic -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="floor">Floor</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select id="floor" name="floor" class="form-control">
<option value="ground">Ground</option>
<option value="first">First</option>
<option value="second">Second</option>
<option value="third">Third</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Textarea -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="description">Description</label>
<div class="col-md-6">
<textarea class="form-control" id="description" name="description"></textarea>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Button -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="submit"></label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<button id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
</form>
</div>
<div class="col-md-4">
<legend>Registered Apartments</legend>
#foreach($apartments as $apartment)
<div class="address">
Apartment {{ $apartment->apartment_number }}
<a href="{{ url('/apartments/' . $apartment->id . '/edit') }}"
onclick="event.preventDefault();
document.getElementById('edit-form-{{$apartment->id}}').submit();">
<button class="btn btn-default">Edit</button>
</a>
<form id="edit-form-{{$apartment->id}}" action="{{ url('/apartments/' . $apartment->id . '/edit') }}" method="GET" style="display: none;">
{{ csrf_field() }}
<input type="hidden" name="address_id" value="{{$apartment->id}}">
</form>
<a href="{{ url('/apartments/' . $apartment->id) }}"
onclick="event.preventDefault();
document.getElementById('delete-form-{{$apartment->id}}').submit();">
<button class="btn btn-warning">Delete</button>
</a>
<form id="delete-form-{{$apartment->id}}" method="POST" action="/apartments/{{$apartment->id}}">
{{ csrf_field() }}
{{ method_field('DELETE') }}
</form>
</div>
<br>
#endforeach
</div>
Route web.php
Route::resource('apartments', 'ApartmentController');
apartments table for Apartment model
I tried to catch the exception on the save() method, but nothing is being caught and I still get redirected to /apartments without any Laravel error just Chroms 500 error page.
This is how I tried to catch the error using dwightwatson/validating:
try{
$apartment = new Apartment();
$apartment->apartment_number = $request->apartment_number;
$apartment->size = $request->size;
$apartment->living_area_size = $request->living_area_size;
$apartment->suitable_for = $request->suitable_for;
$apartment->furnished = $request->furnished;
$apartment->balcony_or_terrace = $request->balcony_or_terrace;
$apartment->floor = $request->floor;
$apartment->description = $request->description;
$apartment->address_id = $request->address_id;
$apartment->saveOrFail();
} catch (ValidationException $e) {
$errors = $e->getErrors();
return redirect()->route('apartments.create')
->withErrors($errors)
->withInput();
}

Answer 1

First of all, you Download Fiddler if you haven't already. Fire it up and then trigger the store method again. Fiddler should tell you a great deal about your request and response:
On the left side, you have a list of requests and on the right, you have statistics and inspectors. Under inspectors tab you will see WebView. Click it and you will see the error generated by Laravel.
As for why it might be failing, check if the references are included properly. e.g:
use App\Address;