My husband and I have been living here at Amli at Oakhurst North since May, 2012. I'm not here to rip them a new one by any means, but to inform anyone considering living here, so they can make an educated decision. We did not get to do the apartment walk-through before signing the lease. That is true, but from my own experience of living in apartments for the past 12 years of my life, that is basically true of all apartment complexes with maybe 1 exception. There were some things I wasn't very happy about when we first did the walk through, like when I ran the hot water in the downstairs bathroom, I could hear the pipes making a weird noise that I haven't heard in previous apartments I've lived in. I asked about that and the woman that did the walkthrough with me said if that becomes a problem, to notify them. It hasn't actually done anything troublesome except that it makes that noise when you run the hot water in there. There were a few scuffs and dents here and there on the walls and sideboards in both bedrooms. I asked if we'd be dinged for that since it was like that when we moved in, they said no. Then the toilets didn't look so hot. The seats were very cheap plastic seats, and if you try to sit on it when the lid's closed, it will sink in. Toilet seats are not hard to come by though, so I don't really care as much about that. They didn't replace the carpet from the previous tenants that lived here, but I asked if they would do that before we ever decided to move here, and they were straight up with me saying that they may or may not depending on the quality the carpet is in when the tenants move out. It wasn't as bad as the carpet in my last apartment, and they always shampoo and spot clean their carpet, which I know is true because my socks were saturated when I did the walkthrough after the lease signing. All the walls are a brilliant apartment white. I wouldn't paint them unless you planned on living here for more than 2 years, because as with most other apartments, you must paint it back to its original color before you move out, or you won't get all of your deposit back. When we had gone for a tour of the demo apartments before we decided to live here, and we knew we wanted a 2 br/2 ba townhouse unit, we were told some models came with an extra little nook upstairs by the master bedroom which would make for a good home office, but the model we looked at didn't have that nook, but had a fireplace. I wanted to have a fireplace, and my husband wanted the office nook. We asked if there were any units that had both, and we were told yes. So we said that's the unit we would want, and they checked and told us that type of unit was available when our expected move-in date was. We also have 2 cats, and needed a pet-friendly apartment b/c some are and some aren't. They accommodated us with all but the fireplace...and that's fine, except that they didn't tell us that. Then when I signed the lease and did the walkthrough and asked why there wasn't a fireplace, the lady walking me through said we didn't ask for one, and I said, "That's just not correct.", and she said, "Well, sorry. I hope this will suffice." And it's fine. A fireplace is not a deal breaker for me. What really disappointed me is that we knew we were going to have a balcony again after 3 years living in a cute little apartment that didn't have one, so to me, that meant "GRILLING!" But, they were very adamant in the lease not to use grills. So, we use the deck for storage instead. But since living here, I have seen so many units using grills, it's ridic. I guess it's a risk they're willing to take.
Crime is more of a problem here than in our last apartment in St. Charles. But if you do your research, you will see that crime in Aurora isn't new news to anybody, especially if you drive towards downtown Aurora from Eola on New York St. The houses get more and more dingy and you see people dressed in really dirty clothes just walking around carrying bags and who-knows-what-else. (idk about you, but to me, that has THEFT written all over it) So you may be interested to know that there is a deadbolt installed on every door, that can be unlocked only by you and office staff to do maintenance if necessary. I don't feel that safe w/just a deadbolt, so they also have a chain lock on our door, but oh wait...the sliding part isn't even attached to the door frame. So, it kind of defeats the purpose. It was like that the day we moved in, but I didn't know that until someone put the chain lock on when we were moving stuff in, as a joke, and I opened the door with absolutely no effort like it wasn't locked at all, and the chain came right off the door frame. Wish I had checked that when we did our walkthrough. But that isn't something we've ever had a problem with in the past, so how was I to know?
Our last apartment was right along the Fox River in St. Charles, so bugs were a-plenty there. Especially river spiders and moths. But here, there are a lot of boxelder bugs, spiders of different varieties, flies, wasps, earwigs, silverfish, centipedes, beetles, etc. While I can't prove how they keep getting in, I have a few ideas. First of all, we live in a back unit facing Liberty, so there's a little hill with trees before you get to the sidewalk on Liberty. So bugs are sure to be by all that stuff. Plus, the complex has shrubbery near everyone's entryway, so that will attract bugs. I think they're getting in from cracks under the front door, and also the door to the balcony. We had a yellow jacket in our upstairs bedroom a couple of weeks ago when we had the windows open to let some air in. I saw them coming in through a gap between the screen and window frame. My husband got stung and it sucked because the thing kept coming back to sting him again, but he did kill it eventually. There was another one trying to get in, but we closed the window.
A little about our experience with maintenance: I called about the sound the pipes make when the water gets hot, they said they'd send someone over within 24 hours. (this was back in May), and it is now November, and the pipes still make that noise. Our blinds in our main bedroom snapped in half one night when DH went to close them before bed. I went to the office the next day to ask them to fix it. They told me it would be done w/in 2 business days. It was a full week and a second visit to the office reminding them about it before that got done, but it did get done. They told me that since the weather was getting colder, a lot of people needed heat to work in their apartments and that took priority to our privacy. I understand that, but it took the guy 5 minutes to put the new blinds in, and we were there when he did it.
Both my husband and I do like the amount of space the townhouse unit provides. We have had up to 17 adults in here at one time during our move-in, and 5 kids running around. The ceilings are vaulted. The look of the inside is pretty contemporary, and it's in the DuPage County jurisdiction, which means your kids will go to Naperville Schools if they live here. Also, I noticed it says the zip is 60504, but it's actually 60502 here. Unless there are parts of this complex that are in another zip code...which I think is odd.
Mail boxes are a little bit of a walk from many units, so that kind of sucks now that it gets cold out. The clubhouse is pretty awesome though. I've used the fitness room several times when I have time. There's usually other people in there, so don't expect to be working out alone every time. The indoor pool is awesome...when you're able to use it. I went a lot in the summer b/c the outdoor one was swarmed w/people and I also burn easily, so indoor is just as good imo. But they didn't use their water heaters inside, so the indoor pool was actually colder than the outside one in the summer. BURRRRR!!! I didn't know they had water heaters in there until a few weeks ago when I brought my little brothers to the pool and they tested the water and jumped right in. I dipped my foot in and it was warmer than body temp, so it felt like bath water. It was consistently warm like that for a few weeks, but then this morning, I went over there to swim, and it felt colder in there. I went in the shallow end, and the water was cold. :( They are not consistent with the temp. IDK who to blame for that one, but it sucks when you want to swim. Also, there was a big beetle floating around in the pool, and another time I was there swimming when the water was actually warm, there was a big slug just glopping towards a crack in the floor. GROSS!!! The showers in the locker rooms have never had warm water in all my time trying to use them. There is a pair of men's gym shorts cycling through all the lockers in the women's locker room. It's gross b/c there's never an open locker that's not being used, and why would I touch someone else's dirty clothes???
The main lobby and seating area in the clubhouse are very nice though. They have a full kitchen there, and from what they told us when we were just looking at apartments to rent, tenants can rent the clubhouse for $50/4-6 hours, and use it for parties or whatnot, just have to call and reserve it at the office.
Yes, this was a wordy review, but it's to inform those that are seriously considering moving here. We pay our rent on time every month, and plan to for the duration of our stay. Do I want to live here another full year, not really, but my DH doesn't want to do another big move until we buy our first house, so we may stay another year or two. It's not the best, but it's definitely not the worst. My college apartments were the WORST!, but that's another story.
