Look at various sites and please do not ignore the negative reviews. They are all stating similar experiences. This is not a past issue; it is a current management issue. Obviously you should not judge a book by its cover . . . but if you are, there are much nicer looking apartments in Topeka (For example, Sherwood is in the same vicinity and looks amazing compared to the Overlook). Poor management greatly affects your quality of living so never ignore this aspect based solely on the fact that the outside appears nice. The apartments (where generally you spend a majority of your time) have a number of problems that also should not be ignored. Living here was frustrating for multiple reasons.
Management made up a city ordinance and tried to enforce it by saying they would evict us if it was not followed. They never sent another letter or evicted us as we spoke to the city and found the city ordinance provided to be non-existent. They have washers/dryers in the units, but ours didn't function correctly and maintenance could not fix them. Maintenance was friendly, but we had constant issues occurring in the apartment so they were consistently coming to fix things. Upkeep did not seem to be a priority. Rent was high for the size and quality of apartment. The pet fee/rent was expensive and did not count towards any sort of deposit.
In our experience, they alleged bogus, expensive charges upon move out so I would recommend doing a final walk-through with them, especially if you own a pet. They did not properly inform us of the charges - we randomly checked our account after we moved out and saw them. Turns out they failed to correctly fill out our new address on the envelope for their invoice of said charges - the USPS message on the envelope stated the address provided was return to sender as an incomplete mailing address was provided. If we hadn't noticed the charges, I fear we would have been sent to collections without ever being notified due to their lack of communication. Management also tried to overcharge us for the final month of rent. They claimed it was a mistake; however, one of our work friends recently moved out due to a significant rent increase and they tried to do the same thing to her.
Bottom line, there are better apartments in Topeka with staff that truly cares about their residents. We found the Overlook staff to be driven by money and to care little about the overall well-being and safety of their residents. If they don't care about their current tenants, they definitely will not care about you. read more