Avignon was a wonderful place for my husband and I to start off our married life. We ended up…read morestaying for 5.5 years, and the overall experience has been very positive. The only reason we moved is because we needed to be closer to work. We were very sad to leave our little community! Avignon is not perfect, but the things that we had issues with were mainly out of the management's control. I will share my honest review below:
Unit: The units are basic but overall updated. It had everything we needed and plenty of closet/storage space. The only issues we had were in the beginning with the kitchen sink and the internet. Our unit had some problems with the kitchen sink backing up, but maintenance fixed that quickly. Also, our unit for some reason had problems connecting to Spectrum. We had to have 5 different workers come in to inspect. Finally one worker said he knew about our specific unit and realized there was a broken outlet our internet was plugged into, so there was a second outlet it was supposed to be plugged into. Not sure if I'm explaining that right, but he had to drill holes into our wall to get the wire to go straight into the bedroom. But, no problems since then!
Community: The community was pretty quiet and safe. There are kids who play outside during the summer, but they're not loud. Neighbors are friendly and keep to themselves. The addition of the small dog enclosure has been nice, and most owners are responsible. There are a handful who never clean up after their dogs, which is frustrating to see. But, the community is well-maintained generally.
Parking: There is plenty of parking along Basque Ave. We've never had a problem finding parking, although there are occasionally events with the school or library, and then it is packed! But, this does not happen very often. The train track area can be a little sketchy at night, but the gates of the community keep trouble away most of the time. My husband's car has been broken into once before, so just keep any bags or belongings out of sight. As for the garage, the only frustrating thing has been sharing it with irresponsible neighbors. He has already moved out, but we had a garage neighbor who would never close his garage door, so I had my wedding decor and mementos stolen from my side of the garage! Very sad and frustrating, but it was out of our control.
Laundry: Similar to the other complaints we have, some neighbors are just dirty or inconsiderate. For the first 5 years, we didn't really have any problems with the laundry room aside from the occasional broken machines or excessive pet hair in the machine. But lately, there has been a noticeable difference. The machines seem dirtier and smell, probably because someone didn't use enough detergent? There has also been a resident who leaves their clothes in the washing machine for 1-3 hours before moving it to the dryer, and then leaving it there for another 1-3 hours! I counted. Just one (maybe more) inconsiderate person that affected our quality of life. Maintenance does their best to keep things clean, but they can only do so much.
Management: Matt is the nicest property manager! He is always quick to respond. He is also very understanding if you ever have problems you need to bring to his attention. He seems like he genuinely cares about his residents and always greets us warmly. We had no problems with our move-out inspection and getting our deposit back, too!
Maintenance: Maintenance has always been great. There used to be a maintenance man that was AMAZING. He was so amazing that he got promoted and moved to another location, which was sad for us. The newer maintenance workers are also nice and quick, just not as quick as the first one. But, they've still been able to help us with anything we needed fixing or replacing. No complaints on this front!
Overall, although there were a few frustrating aspects of Avignon, I feel that these are common issues that could arise in any complex as long as you live and share things with other people. It really depends on who is next to/near your unit. Again, we were very sad to leave, but Avignon will always have a special place in our heart!