Oakwood Apartments

AN OVER PRICED GETTO From: jleftridge Date posted: 8/9/2005 Years at this apartment: 2003 - 2005   We lived at Oakwood for about 1 year. The facilities and grounds are very nice and kept up. The apartment bedrooms are large and spacious. Maintence is quick to fix problems, BUT they only put "a bandaid" on the problems, so the problem is never fixed. We had a 2 bedroom apt. which overlooked the a very busy main street (consisting of 6 lanes), and it was extremely noisy when the windows were open. Also, BEWARE!! These apartments have asbestos on all of the ceilings. You have to sign a waiver prior to moving in, acknowledging that they are not responsible for any asbestos related health issues in your future. When we first moved in on May 16th, there were nice shady trees that protected our porch from the hot afternoon sun. By June, when it was super hot, they decided to completely cut off every branch of those trees (just leaving the stumps), and it was unbearable to go outside. I still don't see the logic on that one. My electric bill went from $45.00 to $150.00 per month due to having to use the A/C in order to keep somewhat cool because they decided to cut down all of the tree branches. The staff in general were professional, with the exception of one time when I was dropping off my rent check on the 5th (you have a "grace period from the 1st till the 5th, which is clearly stated in the rental contract) of the month. The staff person at the front desk became snoody and condesending towards me because it wasn't dropped of BY THE 1st. She had the nerve to lecture me in front of other tenants on the future ramifications if I didn't drop off my next rent check BY the first of the month. The only other problem that I had with the front desk staff was when I had a client (I work from a home/office) drop off some important paperwork. They refused to take it and stated that they only accept packages from certified delivery companies (UPS, FedEx, etc.). The front desk staff don't really look like they like working there, and it is obvious that they don't want to be there. I'm not sure what sort of working environment they have to put up with, but I'm sure it can't be good. The pool was nice and warm but is always filled with kids, drunken teens, and adults; same for the hot tub. As far as the ONE amenity we were interested in (the Billiards Room), it was always occupied by large, tattooed, drunken scum-bags. So we never got the opportunity to use it. They have BBQ's by the pool and decided to rip out the old ones (in May) and put in newer, updated versions. This constuction took over 2 months finish, so I decided to buy my own little BBQ and keep it on my porch. They sent me several "nasty grams" regarding my BBQ, which stated I was on the verge of violating my lease agreement by having a BBQ out on my balcony. Most of Oakwoods tenants leave out their old, nasty couches and junk on their balconies, which makes the complex look "getto" in general. My balcony was always clean and only consisted of 2 chairs and the infamous BBQ. I just didn't understand how my BBQ could have been an uglier eyesight than the getto things that a large majority of other tenants put out on their balcony areas. I found that there were more times than I can count that they turned off the water to my unit, for 12 hours at a time, and for several days at a time. It was a pain to say the least. This was an ongoing thing every month for the whole 12 months that we lived there. The wireless internet that Oakwood tries to push on it's tenants was worthless! It was down more times than it was working. It was down at one point for 2 months and you still received a bill from them! We ended up signing on with Comcast. It cost a little more, but their system was reliable. The washing facilities were ridiculas! Most of the time all of the washers were full, and the people who had their things in them wouldn't come back to put their clothes into the dryers for hours (they were either just plain stupid, or they definately had a lack of courtesy)! It was easier to do my laundry during midnight or later in order to avoid this on going, an annoying issue. Half of the time the dryers wouldn't dry your clothes (I guess the heating elements were broken), and you wasted a lot of money and time in trying to dry your clothes. Oakwood has recently allowed dogs into the complex, and although I have nothing against dogs, there were a lot of problems. People would take off for work, etc. and leave their dogs unattended which made the dog bark all day (and sometimes all night) long. My apt. was surrounded by corporate apts. so there were very few times in which we could hear our neighbors. BUT, when there were people in those apts., we could hear everything!! It sounded like there was an elephant doing aerobics above us from 7am to 12am, until they finally left (7 days later). The apartment below us, (during a holiday weekend) was full of several "20-Something's" who decided to party for 3 days. They would crank up their music, hang out on their balcony, very drunk and very loud. They would "cat call" and harrass anyone who passed by them. This went on for the whole 3 days, security never got them under control, so we just had to put up with it until they left. I guess what I'm trying to say is that every place has it's problems and I guess our's wasn't as bad as it could have been. I just didn't think that the rent of $1800 per month plus w/s/g ($50.00 month), and electricity was worth it. Not to mention the headaches of having your water turned off all the time. Oh, and by the way, it is true that there was a man (I didn't see it), who was reported to be in our building exposing himself to people. I did see the San Jose PD there on multiple occassions throughout my stay there which most likely had to do with domestic violence issues. The parking garages (no assigned spots) were huge but the lighting was dim. I didn't feel very safe walking to my car, even during the daytime. In a "nut shell", it wasn't worth the money to stay there so we ended up leaving. I feel like a thousand pounds had been lifted off of my shoulders the minute we drove away.

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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