I have lived in Sunset Ridge for almost a year and a half and moved out in November. I was drawn to these apartments because of the area of town (almost Briargate) and very reasonable rates (I pay a little over $800 for a two bed, two bath apartment). Overall, the apartment itself is very comfortable and suits my situation (living with a roommate) well. I have had no real problems with the noise level, and parking is MUCH better in this complex than in previous complexes in which I have lived. Lighting is sufficient, and I never feel "unsafe" going to my car or home.

The biggest concern I have with the apartment itself is the ridiculously poor insulation. Since (as the name implies) Sunset Ridge sits on a ridge, the apartment buildings are generally subjected to more wind than most dwellings. In addition (as most Colorado Springs residents will attest), the further north in the city you live, the windier it tends to get. I mention these things because when compounded with the shoddy insulation on cold windy days, it becomes difficult to keep certain portions of the apartment warm. This is particularly noticable by the sliding glass door as the vertical blinds will often blow around even with the door completely shut and locked. If I spend time in the living room on these days, I must keep the fireplace or heater (sometimes both) going the entire time I am in the room.

The grounds are generally well groomed -- this personally is not a big concern for me, though. The only concern that I have is that I live on the second floor and the maintenance people seem to only occasionally salt the wooden steps that I ascend to reach my apartment. As the steps do not have a good deal of sunlight during the day, sometimes it can take a week or longer before the snow and ice melt if a de-icer is not applied.

Despite these small shortcomings, I would give Sunset Ridge a higher rating overall if I didn't have to work with the office staff. Almost every communication I have with them ends with me feeling cheated and not at all satisfied. Here are some examples:

- Insulation -- When I called the office to advise my blinds were blowing around with the doors closed due to poor insulation, I was told that I would have a maintenance worker come by in the next 72 hours to look at the problem. When I didn't receive a visit in this period, I called and spoke to the property manager who assured me that in the next few days I WOULD receive a visit. When the maintenance worker came out and "inspected" the problem, he did not do a single thing because "he was unable to see the problem". Since he came out 5 days after the problem was noticed on a calm (non-windy) day, the problem wasn't obvious. I called a few weeks later and they came out and "fixed" the issue by applying two thin strips of insulation to the bottom of the door track. Needless to say, the problem still existed. I ended up calling again and they came out and installed a greater amount of insulation (enough to where the blinds no longer blow around with the door closed), but not enough to truly stop the draft.

- Building Maintenance -- Some of the decisions that are made regarding building maintenance surprise me. For example, one of my neighbors had a friend visit me who literally fell through one of the steps going up to my apartment (due to NO maintenance on them). The "fix" put in place was to nail a small piece of wood underneath the affected step to serve as a stop for the step. After this happened, some of my neighbors and I looked over the entire staircase (going up three floors) and noticed several more steps were at risk of falling out of their grooves. When this was mentioned to management, absolutely nothing was done to correct the issue and the tenants' concerns were unaddressed. I mention this because rather than going through and relooking at crucial safety issues such as this, the management team decided that repainting the exterior of the buildings was a more necessary task. As I stated above, this surprises me.

Overall, the actual apartments leased by Sunset Ridge are adequate, well-priced, and in a good area of town. The other services that one expects to receive when leasing (a somewhat-thoughtful management company, a competent maintenance team, etc.) are however, sorely lacking. This is ultimately why I chose to leave Sunset Ridge and will NOT recommend them to family and friends.

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