|
|
|
You take the good, you take the bad
From:
thesheba
Date posted:
9/17/2007
Years at this apartment:
2006
-
2007
2 photos
I lived in Parkside two years, 2003-2004 (rent for a 1 bd/1 bt was $825) and 2006-2007.
For both years, they have a nice and clean exercise room, the clubhouse is nice with a TV and pool table. The pool is usually very clean as well as the hot tub. The hot tub is very large. The laundry room has a ton of machines which are rarely broken. Even on weekends and nights there was always enough machines. There is a camera and residents have a key to get in (same with the pool area). The first year I was living there, someone stole some laundry and the management posted fliers around with the guy's picture.
Word of advice, buy a small fan to keep in your bathroom and run it while you're showering. I had a mold problem in my bathroom the first year, but the second year we had a little fan and had very few mold problems.
The grounds look very nice, grass, trees, etc. Sometimes the gardeners would prune the trees and leave the branches laying around forever. A few times they sprayed the sides of my building with water and did it to the patio too, they ruined a bag of potting soil and spotted our windows with water. The pathways need to be repaved in some areas.
In my experience the management has been nice. Mona (seasonal) is really great, Nancy is pretty cool (when I was moving out she helped me with my TV) and then Vicki I don't know her very well. She does the walk-throughs and isn't as outgoing as the other two staff members. Maintenance guy is really really nice, but they need to hire more people when the leases start in August and September.
The first year I had a remodeled apartment. I liked a lot of things about the apartment, new carpets, large rooms and close to a dumpster. When I moved out they took some money out of the deposit for painting, but it was not unreasonable or unwarranted. It was only a 15 minute bike ride to campus and the exercise was great! I had very few problems, there were ants in the bathroom and my upstairs neighbor walked around in heels and made other loud noises with her bed. It wasn't so bad that I complained. I had a mouse in my kitchen, but maintenance put out traps and it was gone within a day. When I first moved in, it took a couple of weeks for them to do the maintenance requests. It was far away from the laundry room, I'd put my laundry into my car and drive it over.
2006-2007
The things I liked, I was in a duplex, so no noise from the upstairs neighbors. Again the apartment was large, all the units have the same size living room and kitchens. It was right off the street, so usually I parked on the street. If you come back late at night it can be hard to find parking on the street and in the parking lots, but usually you can find a spot on the street. The location is just great, close to Covell and easy to get to downtown. Our neighbors were great, friendly and quiet. In a neighboring complex a woman was attacked in her apartment and our managers posted fliers around telling about the crime and warning resident to be vigilant. They would put up fliers about events they'd have a clubhouse with free food. I went once and they had free Subway.
The problems... Our carpeting was stained in the living room, even the manager admitted they should have charged the people who lived there before to replace it. The windows frames had mold around them. The windows are old and single-paned, so our apartment was freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer. However our energy bills were always below $65, around $30 in the fall and spring. We tried to be energy efficient though. The AC unit wall unit only cools the living room and the heater doesn't do a very good job. Our screen door was janky. Whoever cleaned the apartment before we moved in did a real half-assed job. A big gross clump of hair was on top of the heater. The aforementioned moldy window frames. The bottom of the tub was really stained and it was embarrassing when guests used it. We scrubbed it and cleaned it with everything we could think of, but it didn't work. Our kitchen cabinets were old and the doors didn't closer correctly (made a loud squawk noise).
Our place was right next to the pool. Until around January, there would be loud people in the pool area late at night. We were chill about it, realizing when we moved in that we would be living next to the pool, but when it got to be 2 or 3 am on a week night... We only called the cops once... One night was very bad when a bunch of drunks were jumping off the roof of the clubhouse into the pool at around 4 am. However, the management starting having someone come around 10 pm every night and chaining the gates closed. After that the noise ended much earlier.
Four cars had their windows smashed and stuff stolen, they were parked on F Street. I think it was two one night and then a few months late two more, one was my neighbors :( It's just something that happens in Davis, not the complex's fault, just be aware. I haven't heard of anyone having problems with their cars in the parking lots.
We had some of our fuses blow once, but the maintenance guy came right over and fixed it.
There was this problem with our water where you'd turn on a sink or being taking a shower and all of a sudden, the water would be scalding hot. We told the management, but it continued to happen even after they sent the maintenance out to check it, though more sporadically after they lowered the temperature on the water heater. Oh the screams and swearing that came out of our bathroom...
When I moved out, the place was cleaner than when I moved in, mainly because we got a lot of mold cleaned off the window frames. However, I was charged $84 to have two small spots (one the size of a half dollar and the other the size of a nickel) cleaned from inside the oven. They did only charge me a percentage of what the hourly fee was for the cleaning service, but it's still a rip off. That was the only deduction from my deposit. I think the cleaning company is ripping off them by charging for an hour of work when it's clearly not an hours worth of work.
Advice to everyone when moving into a new place...
Make sure you take pictures of the initial condition of the apartment. Parkside does follow the rules of doing an initial walk-through, they give you a paper and you list any damages you notice upon moving in.
Take pictures of everything when moving out! I mean everything, insides of cabinets, inside of the oven, fridge, everything!
Make sure you get a final walk-through. The pre-move out inspection option is a law that went into effect in 2003, you can forgo it, choose to be there or choose to not be there. Parkside offers this. It is state law to have a final walk-through, but the manager can decide not to have you present.
The thing I like about Parkside is they follow the laws on walk-through, returning your deposit in a timely manner, giving an itemized list of deductions and not over charging on security and pet deposits. In California landlords can only charged 2x the month's rent in an unfurnished apartment (3x for a furnished place), this is all deposits, cleaning, security and pet. If you rent is $800/month, the most they can charge you in deposits is $1600. Also there is no such thing as a nonrefundable deposit. If you lease has that in it, it's a red flag! Even if you signed a lease with a nonrefundable deposit in it, it's not binding since it's a illegal. They must return your deposit to you within 3 weeks and I believe they also have to send an itemized list of deductions.
Make sure your unit had smoke detectors (Parkside does).
I hope this was helpful, I know it's really long.
|
|
|
|
Disclaimer: No attempt has been made to verify or assure the accuracy of the claims made by the author of this opinion or responses. You must judge the truthfulness of any review and accept responsibility for your use of this information.
Free estimates on moving trucks
Free quotes on movers
Up to: Parkside Apartments
Davis apartments
|
I'm the author!
