Verified Resident • 2010 - 2013
When moving in there were a variety of apartment configurations available. I indicated the one I would like and Indicated that we were non-smokers and preferred a unit where our neighbors were non-smokers. The leasing agent told me that the apartments were all non-smoking. I was surprised by that and later found out that only the common areas are non-smoking. The leasing agent indicated there was only one unit available in the entire complex in the configuration I wanted, but that it was a recently renovated unit and unfortunately she could also not show it to me. When I moved in two weeks later the apartment was smaller than the unit I requested. It turned out the configuration description on the lease was similar to the one I requested but not the same. I was told that no other units were available. I took the unit and soon discovered that we were located above the facility maintenance area, and that our neighbors were primarily maintenance workers for the community. Every morning at 0630 a large group of men drive their trucks below our bedroom windows and begin working or talking. Additionally three of the neighboring units sharing walls or floor were occupied by smokers and the smell of cigarettes is constantly present. The doors are not sealed correctly with weatherstripping. A cold draft was comming in from around the dishwasher along with the smell of cigarettes. I removed the dish washer to find two large holes in the kitchen and bathroom walls. The base trim has nothing to nail to and the maintenance people tried to put it back into place but it came unfastened leaving large gaps between the trim and the floor or wall and loose nails. The floors are also very noisy. There is only under sink storage in the bathrooms. There is little storage in the kitchens for either dishes or food. The counters appear to be backed using scraps of plywood pieced togather. The blinds were installed improperly and the first we noticed was when one fell on me. The water pipes have a large amount of mineral build up. The management indicated that we have to live with that. We have to clean the sink aerator frequently and the amount of minerals in the water has destroyed two humidifiers. The windows are single pane glass, and the sliding windows in the bedrooms have failed weather stripping and do not close tightly. As our neighbors are noisy we have a problem keeping out the noise. Maintenance will not replace the weather stripping or fix the windows. The refrigerator was replaced two times in the first month we were in the apartment, and the microwave door has been replaced three times and the entire microwave was replaced once. We attempted to move to another unit in the community after the first year lease was up, but were told that the only unit available was one between the laundry vent and the entrance call box on the ground floor with the community parking only feet away. There is no option for cable service provider. The parking is not adequate, and we sometimes have to park in another lot in the commuity farther away from our unit or on the street. Out car has been vandalized three times, and broken into once. There is no security other than community watch. Two blocks away from my unit is low income state housing, which is not reasily visible from the community. Routine maintenance is not adequate. It took three years to get the gutter repaired outside our unit. The gutters have only been cleaned once in the three years. Air filters are supposed to be replaced every spring and every fall, but twice our unit was passed over until we called for them to be replaced. The filter is behind a locked door so I annot replace them more often. The air ducts appear to be either flex ducts or just wood framing. The flex ducts are falling apart and I weekly clean up large amounts of dirt comming from the ducts, mostly pieces of the ducts. The community is beautiful. The staff pay special attention to providing a well landscaped community. They unfortunately use materials that helpo breed the mosquito population and they do nothing to control the mosquitos that I am aware. The management organizes monthly events. Most are geared toward the morale of the aging residents of the community, but they provide a very nice summer event as well as a haloween event each year which is geared toward families. The staff is very good at responding to emergency situations, power outages orwater outages, which are infrequent. The community is very conveniently located. The common entrance to each building is secured, but I have found, the electrical room door left unlocked many times which provides direct access to the common spaces. I know there are many much nicer, safer, quieter, less intrusive units in the community, but it appears that now that I am in one of the least desirable units, no other decent unit is available.
