I haven't read a renter's review on here that I haven't pretty much agreed with. Here's my additional experiences to add to the mix:


1. DON'T PAY YOUR RENT ONLINE. I used this service 08/03/08 and had an EVICTION NOTICE by 08/24/08 -- posted on my front door for the world to see. Apparently my rent payment, paid on time and deducted from my account in a timely manner, didn't get properly recorded with AMLI. Upon seeing the eviction notice, I called the office in a panic, but no one there could answer a single question and instructed me to call back Monday. After a sleepless night, I ended up playing phone tag with the office for hours early Monday, I finally got in touch with the account manager there and gave her my RentPayment.com confirmation number. She resolved the matter in TWO MINUTES with ONE PHONE CALL (I know the timeframe because two minutes after the call, I had two copies of the payment confirmation from RentPayment.com in my Inbox).

Apartment management assured me they posted a non-payment notice earlier in the month, but I never received it, either on my door or in the mail, as required by law. They did, of course, have a copy stapled to the eviction notice filed in court.

I asked for compensation for the sheer amount of duress this situation placed me under, but the only thing AMLI Residential (the corporate office) ever offered me was the chance to exit my contract early. And even then, I didn't receive written notice of the offer (as I requested) until three days before the offer expired. (They did extend that offer another month, but only after I made an inquiry through the Better Business Bureau.)

AMLI forever blamed RentPayment.com for this error, but AMLI's Web site is difficult to navigate anyway. Basically a move-in portal, you will waste buckets of time if you're an established resident just trying to pay the rent with your credit card, an option I initially found to be a big plus, regardless of the $24.95 fee they charged you for doing so. So I ended up having to call the office and get the phone number for RentPayment.com; the rest you know from reading the above.


2. WHEN YOUR CONTRACT IS UP, NEGOTIATE HARD. They will send you a nice letter indicating they are making it easy by offering you a "no-hassle" rate increase... of $300!!! I was able to "negotiate" it down to a mere $50/month increase, but I'm guessing this was the plan all along: Scare the tenant with a big jump so they'll swallow the smaller amount and thank you for it.

Also, be prepared to have to deal with your contract repeatedly. I made an appointment to sign my renewal contract with the understanding it would be ready for me to just drop by during office hours (which aren't particularly convenient if you work outside the area), sign, and get back to work. The contract wasn't ready, the woman who was there had trouble getting it printed out, and then we had to go over everything all over again since she was not the person I had gone over it with initially.

And even after all of that, I received several renewal reminder calls and flier postings AFTER I had already signed my new contract. That didn't stop even after I let them know how annoyed I was that they seemed to have lost track that I had already renewed. (In hindsight, this probably should have been a tip-off of problems to come.)


2a: YOUR CONTRACT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO GIVE TWO MONTHS NOTICE TO VACATE. Two months, not the standard one month. Know this, or be prepared to pay some hefty fees. They don't hide this from you, but they also won't give you a lot of advance warning when your contract is coming due. The first (of many) notices I received to renew came just a few days before I would have had to give my notice of intention to vacate.


3. ONLY ONE ENTRANCE. They limited access to the side gates shortly after I moved in (August 2007), turning them into exit-only. They said it was for safety, but I had several close calls coming in the front gates and never had issues using the side entrance, despite being told the opposite was true for most tenants. So now, you can only enter through the main gates, which is annoying if you're a resident trying to navigate the non-resident traffic snarls among three enter/exit lanes.


4. THERE'S ALARMS IN THE APARTMENT, BUT POWER METERS ARE NOT SECURED. My power meter was vandalized and the incompetence of the on-duty maintenance staffer led to bad communication with Edison, leaving me without power for 16 hours one summer Friday night. Even after following the instructions of maintenance personnel and contacting Edison myself, I was left in the dark (literally and figuratively) for many hours, then abruptly awakened at 3 a.m. by maintenance personnel (who fell asleep after leading me to believe that he and Edison would be working through the night to restore my power). After talking to apartment management about this incident, they insisted security of the power meters was Edison's responsibility, while Edison representatives assured me there was a program to be enrolled in that would provide padlocks for electric rooms.

Management informed me they looked into this program but that it would take about two weeks to get the locks. But when I left months later, no such locks had been installed on the door containing very well-marked power meters to each and every unit in this building, so if someone wants to target anyone again in this way, they can.


5. NOTHING IS EVER THEIR FAULT OR THEIR RESPONSIBILITY. When I turned in my keys, dropping them in the night drop (just like they asked), they left me a message two days later saying they hadn't received my keys. When I called, obviously upset having dropped them off EARLY, I came to find out they didn't really know whether they had my keys or not because they hadn't tried to match up any of the appropriate apartment identifiers (keys, pool pass, garage-door opener), which I dropped on a single key ring. Then Gabby tried to frame it as my fault for not dropping them off in an envelope.

When I indicated the keys were numbered and surely they would have a record of which keys/pass key/pool pass/garage-door opener (all clustered together) went with which apartment, Gabby (who has been at the root of most problems I've had) said the complex was too big to be able to track down which keys went to which apartment. Pretty lame answer considering all the record-keeping they did when I picked up all of those items initially... and then she laughed at me after I told her very sternly to figure it out.

The only problem I've ever had with parking is when inconsiderate neighbors blocked my garage. Even though I knew who was doing this, management insisted the only recourse I had was to call security or the tow service. In reality, this was not effective because the offending parties would move the vehicle before either could be effective, and after I was already late for work. I was also threatened by one such offending tenant; management couldn't do anything about that, either.

And, of course, we all know the trash is not their fault. But it seems the solutions are going to cost us $11-25/month extra regardless of what is decided. And I haven't read any review on this issue that I didn't agree with 100%, so most residents should definitely be prepared to haul their trash to the sparse dumpsters in the trunks of their cars.

--

Overall, these are nice-looking apartments, safe and with nice amenities that you will pay arguably a lot for. And the people you deal with in the office seem very nice, but be careful what you're getting into here. The manager and other staff might come off well, but the record-keeping behind the scenes is (apparently) shoddy, so... be careful.

User Responses
From: lululovesme	Date: 07/28/2009
I agree with most of what you stated. There are abandoned cars and trucks taking up good parking spaces and management does nothing about it. The manager lives near three abandoned cars. When I asked her about them, she did not even realize they were abandoned. They have not moved since I moved in in February. I hear other tenants refer to the office as "the manager and her team of idiots". That is the perfect description for them!!!
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/31/2009
Wow. I wrote the above review after moving out of the complex and am sorry to hear not much has changed. Makes me feel lucky I was able to get out early, especially since the place I'm at now (Stone Canyon in Riverside) is bigger, quieter, with the same amenities, for under $1,000/month. I hope my review has helped at least a few people avoid the headaches I (and others, it seems) had to experience.
From: AMLIchicagoLRM	Date: 09/11/2009
AMLI Corporate has been investigating the postings that have personally attacked the employees at Empire Lakes and Day Creek and these postings are false. Responses allegedly posted recently by management are also false. Valid complaints and issues may be directed to AMLI Corporate in Chicago, IL. See www.amli.com. Respectfully, AMLI Legal & Risk Management Department.

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