DO NOT LIVE HERE!!!

I lived at Whispering/Screaming/Thudding/Sodding Oaks and recently moved out.
DO NOT consider moving here, you'll regret it in the end. Poorly maintained buildings, rude staff and some residents are straight-up dodgy.

As a quiet, clean tenant who always paid rent on time I became upset that every lease term I saw an increase in my rent, seemingly unaffected by rental market conditions. I think Equity Residential/ W.O. preys on the fact that many people would be willing to pay more each term to avoid the hassle and expense of moving. And don't even consider going month to month...they'll increase your rent by about 50%. Try negotiating your rent...They may let you pay $7 less than their $50 rent hike.

The buildings all need repair. My unit had old carpet (stained from a previous tenant's pet), mold and mildew that can't be cured and an infestation of silverfish and spiders. My bathroom had a broken sauna that they could never figure out how to fix and a leaky shower door that was (not)repaired twice and I'd bet still leaks to this day.

Parking is a nightmare, gates often are broken and left open to the delight of the many thieves in the area. My best friend had her car broken into and I had my own gas stolen out of my tank after someone busted my locked gas tank door open. This was done while the gates were working, so it was likely stolen by a resident.

Thursday through Sunday nights it's not uncommon to hear screaming from the pool area and in hallways at all hours and there have been more false fire alarms than I can count. These alarms are so loud they'll wake the dead and they ring for at least a half hour. There have been nights where an alarm has been pulled more than once.

Insulation is terrible and if you're in a lower unit you'll hear every footstep and conversation in the unit above you. I had an even MORE "special" upstairs neighbor who in addition to producing thuds that literally shook the glasses in my cupboards also used a charcoal BBQ on his WOODEN (i.e. flammable) deck, then emptied the ashes onto my balcony. My balcony was also the recipient of cigarette butts and saliva. Complaints to management were treated with attitude and never addressed.

It seemed to me that many residents had little respect for the community. Shopping carts were littered about and left in hallways and around the complex. Junk mail would be thrown on the floor in front of the mailboxes. Some residents even filled their balconies with furniture like sofas that would get rained on and mold, creating an eyesore for everyone else. Management loved to send out generic letters about problems like these, but when it came to enforcement, nothing was done. This is not a kid-friendly establishment though some residents do have kids. I have no complaint about the kids, though I wish parents would not allow their kids to play soccer in the hallways or run their tricycles into my door. You'll hear many dogs in the complex, although they say dogs must be under 30 pounds, it's not uncommon to see larger dogs. Dog poop in the hallways occurs sometimes.

I'd also like to give a special shout-out to Comcast cable *the only cable available* and their poor channel availability and reliability. First of all, the cable will go out at least once a month and be off for hours. Then, if you want channels like Comedy Central and E! you need to pay for a cable box because the bandwidth is so pathetic you can't get those on expanded basic cable. Many channels are missing even with the cable box...never seen the Travel Channel, Soap Net or Fox Sports Net. I also had a broken cable jack in the bedroom of my unit that W.O. management said was Comcast's job to fix and Comcast said it was a building issue. There is no sign of 'On Demand' service or HDTV. You'll pay almost $60/month for junk. Get Netflix. Better investment.

Also, if you plan to use the gym here, I'd suggest you simply run around the complex because if the gym is even unlocked, the few machines they have will be in use. The security patrols that the management has hired seem to forget to UNLOCK the gym on weekend mornings...so don't plan to work out then. The gym is also closed until a late hour of the morning on a regular basis...so working out before work is not possible. And if you think the pool is good exercise, be advised it isn't heated above about 65 degrees (in the summer!) because of mildew and bacteria, or so they claim. The pool is still chlorinated, I'm just assuming they're too cheap to heat the pool to a swimmable temperature. Oh, and the hot tub works only sometimes. Often times it's as cold as the pool. Beware of vomit in the pool area late at night.

Some members of the staff have been nice, but I find the managers and assistant managers tend to assume you're a deadbeat, delinquent or criminal. Customer service is not a focus here. Disputing charges will do you no good.

If there is anything good to say about this apartment it would be the prevalence of weed. But you can't blame the smokers...you'd have to be high to live here.

User Responses
From: hyena	Date: 07/31/2008
so funny... i wonder if the fire alarms still go off at night... after a while, it was actually funny (i think living here, after a while, you HAVE to laugh at the stuff going on around you.
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/06/2009
Yes, the fire alarms do still go off at night. But the funny thing is, when there actually WAS a fire, they didn't work and neither did ANY of the smoke detectors.

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