B&L PAYS RESIDENTS FOR "POSITIVE" REVIEWS ON SEVERAL REVIEW WEBSITES, INCLUDING YELP, FACEBOOK, AND APARTMENTFINDER.COM. THIS IS WHY SO MANY OF THE 2017 POSITIVE REVIEWS ARE POSTED WITHIN A COUPLE DAYS OF EACH OTHER - THEY WERE MADE IN RESPONSE TO AN EMAIL SENT TO RESIDENTS SOLICITING "POSITIVE REVIEWS" IN EXCHANGE FOR SHEETZ GIFTCARDS.
While I'm glad I had a fairly nice place to live for a year, I would never, ever rent with B&L again.
Let's start with the property manager, Melissa. Melissa is very hard to get in contact with, unless you send her a text that sounds even remotely upset, in which case she's suddenly available and will immediately call you in order to appear that she cares about your concerns. If you contact her via email or by phone call, you won't get a response for at least a couple days, if you get a response at all.
Melissa is deeply unprofessional and disorganized. I was on my own lease agreement for my unit, which she regularly and consistently forgot, leading to stressful emails and phone calls where she'd threaten me or provide misinformation, especially during the spring semester.
Over holiday break, she called out of the blue to tell me that, if I could not reach my roommates, then none of us would be allowed back into our apartment after winter break because my roommates had not yet paid their deposit for the semester. One roommate had already been in contact with Melissa to make a payment arrangement (which Melissa forgot, of course), and the other roommate just wasn't answering her phone. I was on my own lease and had paid my deposit, and she legally couldn't keep me out of the apartment, but I had to refer her to my lease to ensure that she was incorrect and unable to do what she'd threatened. When I called her back to remind her of this, she sort of shrugged it off and made an excuse about how hard it is to manage to many resident accounts.
During the same period of time, Melissa also sent me a bill with an incorrect (and FAR bigger) bill for my semester rent, which was also due to her forgetting about my lease agreement. When I contacted her about this issue, I got a similar "oops, sorry, my job is so hard" excuse.
In addition to the above issues, we also had problems with the way Melissa allowed and disallowed access to our apartment. When one of our roommates suddenly became erratic over the course of the year, we were told that we could not legally bar said roommate from the unit, despite the fact that the roommate had not paid her rent or deposit for the spring semester, and despite her threatening us with the same thing over the holiday break. We told Melissa that we felt unsafe with this roommate having unlimited access to our apartment, and Melissa told us that we couldn't do anything except pay $35 to change the door code on our unit. We decided to do that, and Melissa advised us not to give the other roommate the new door code until it was confirmed that she had paid her spring rent balance. When the roommate in question showed up at the apartment, we told her we were not allowed to let her in, and to contact Melissa. We also attempted to contact Melissa, for clarification and information, and to let her know that we were uncomfortable because the roommate was upset. She did not respond to any calls or texts until AFTER she had given the roommate the new door code, which she did not warn us about. Suddenly the roommate was back in the apartment and angry at us, and Melissa simply sent us a happy little emoji-laden text message, completely ignoring our concerns.
Melissa also did not communicate with us regarding the fourth, unrented room in our unit. A prospective renter was brought to the apartment without warning, and after she was shown the room, we were told that we'd be contacted if she decided to sign a lease. Two hours later, the renter was back to move in, having signed a lease. We were never contacted about this, nor were we given the chance to get to know the new renter at all.
As for the apartment itself, I had a maintenance request that I placed in August 2016 that was still unresolved when I moved out in May of 2017. They show up unannounced to the apartment with prospective renters. They also squeeze every penny they possibly can out of the security deposit - if you pay $350, expect to get $150 or less back, if you get anything at all.
Considering B&L is such a huge property holder in Indiana, the way they treat their residents is appalling and unacceptable. If you have the option of living ANYWHERE else, do so. The apartment was nice, but it wasn't worth half the frustration I experienced working with B&L and Melissa. read more