Wood Springs

Indeed, the water is fixed. But the apartment complex took to opportunity to require each apartment to pay them a water fee directly. This means tenants pay a flat rate for water that is higher than if they paid for the amount they actually used. For example, in my 3 bedroom apartment, I pay $40 per month. There are only two of us. We do NOT use that much water. When we complained, the management apologized, stated that they have no power to change that policy, and gave us the phone number of the "main office," encouraging us to complain to them instead.

Such shirking of duty and lack of authority is typical of management. We wanted to renew our 6 month lease for the same rate, $749/month for another 6 months. The managers told us that they could only renew our lease at the "market" rate. That would have put our rent at $929/month. We told them that we would move out if that were the case. Their response: sorry, we have no authority to change the rate.

When I asked who did have authority, they said the main office in Atlanta set the policy, and doubted they would budge. Rather than call the office themselves, which they said they would do at first, they asked ME to call the Atlanta office. Of course, I was not well received, getting no response to my voice message.

I explained to the manager that she ought to call them herself. After disclaimers that she doubted they would budge, she agreed to call them. I called her later, and she told me that they would not let us stay at the same rate.

I understood that they had the right not to let us stay on at the same rate, though I did not understand the business decision behind it. We had a 3 bedroom next to us open for about 4 months. At the time of discussion, there were at least three 3-bedroom apartments sitting vacant. Not only would the complex be losing quiet tenants who always paid their rent on time, they would be losing our rent completely to let the apartment unit sit empty.

So, I said, no problem, do I need to fill out a sixty-day notice to vacate since the sixty-day mark passed while we were negotiating my rent. Response: no, not for another 27 days, we automatically extended your lease by one month, at the market rate, over $1,000, because we did not get a notice to vacate from you...

WHAT?!? Not only did they know I was going to move out if I did not get an extension of my lease at the same rate, one of the managers specifically told me that they did not need my notice since I was in the negotiating process. When we tried to get the complex to back-date our notice, so we wouldn't have to pay the extra month, the reply was: sorry, the computer doesn't let us do that.

Not until the management had our notice to vacate in their hands did they do anything. The next day, I got a call that they could extend our lease by six months if we increased our rent by $2/month. Hmmm- I almost said "no" on principle, but that was exactly what we wanted, so we extended our lease. It would have been a real hassle for me to move in the middle of my semester.

A previous satisfied tenant says things were fixed in a timely manner. Well, it is sort of hit or miss. Sometimes management responds promptly to maintenance requests. But if they don't respond the first time, it takes a real feat to get them to respond at all. Our door is still crooked, the locks still don't work well or even lock the whole way, and we are still waiting on the pressure-washing promised to us half-a-year ago.

While I am griping, we were told by a manager that she has people living above her and never hears them, except when they open the sliding door. So, my wife took the middle apartment, so she wouldn't have to move her stuff up two flights of stairs. It is very easy to hear the people upstairs as they open and close cabinets, take a shower or flush the toilet, urinate, walk heavily or talk loudly.

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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