I have lived in a few apartments (both carpeted and hardwood) throughout my adult life and this has been by FAR, the absolute worst experience. The floors, doors and walls are paper thin so you have zero privacy. Management will NOT get involved in any issues with other tenants even when they are violating the lease. In fact, they make you feel like you are hassling them. Parking is sparse and there is no street parking allowed. The kitchens have fans in the walls that slam and echo throughout the apartment on windy days. The fire alarm goes off whenever you cook even if you open the windows. I had to actually remove the battery whenever I used the stove or oven. I had a cracked kitchen window that was never replaced and two of my windows were missing latches to lock them. My tub was cracking as well when I moved in. The spare bedroom heat barely worked so the room was always an ice box. If you live on the first floor, you will regularly hear garages being slammed. The front doors are so cheap, they offer no security. Read on for my horrible experience.
I spoke with the leasing manager a few times before moving in and she was always very pleasant and warm. I had asked many questions and had stated that I need a quiet living environment. She was always patient in her responses and stressed how wonderful my new apartment was going to be. Moving day, I sat down with her and signed my lease. She made sure I saw that there was a no pet clause and was asked to initial that I agree. After signing all the paperwork, I was told that my upstairs neighbor had two small children. I was surprised I wasn't told this before moving day but as a parent myself, I didn't think it would be a huge deal. I proceeded to move in and that's when the nightmare began. It started with hearing EVERY. SINGLE. sound from the upstairs apartment. Everything from normal conversation to each word being spoken on the TV. And I could hear continuous running. All of this until well past reasonable hours. After about a week of this, I called the management office and spoke to leasing manager. I explained all this to her and told her how because of the noise, I wasn't able to go to sleep until almost midnight. This is when she told me that the upstairs tenant had THREE CATS and that the noise I was hearing wasn't the children running, but the cats. A fact she failed to mention upon me moving in. I explained that I understand that the tenant is living their normal life and I wasn't complaining about day to day life but that it's unacceptable to expect someone to accept this standard of living as you can hear everything! Their recommendation was to wear earplugs. This began a long ordeal in which at no point, did management work with me. I went all the way to the general manager who told me that the buildings were constructed to codes in the 50's so this is just how it is. In the words of one of their staff, these apartments are "echo boxes". They offered me a second floor apartment but it was above a smoker and they couldn't tell me when another would be available. However, with this offer, I would be responsible for any moving costs incurred. Finally, I told them I couldn't live like this as it was seriously impacting my quality of life. My family was barely sleeping and we couldn't even nap because the front doors were regularly being slammed and there was continuous pounding of feet and running cats. I told them I wanted to break my lease and wanted my deposit back. They initially refused to return my deposit regardless of the fact that they were violating their own lease. It took threatening legal action to have them agree to let me break my lease and return my deposit. I moved out exactly 6 months after moving into this complex. In my time there, the staff made me feel as if MY family was the issue, not the fact that they allowed their tenants to have pets regardless of the lease agreement or that the buildings were poorly constructed. They never asked the upstairs tenant to get rid of the cats nor did they offer solutions to reduce the noise, unless you call being told to use earplugs a solution. I do not recommend this complex but if you have no other choice, go for a second floor unit and hope that your downstairs neighbor doesn't mind the sounds of your everyday life. read more