Summary: old, poorly maintained, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE management.
This place has some obvious advantages, such as low rent, close to FSU, bus service to FSU, large fenced area for kids to play, beautiful old oaks, one of the Tallahassee's best child care facilities and a free after-school program on the grounds.
However, the place is very poorly maintained. The apartments were build sometimes in 60-s. Not much has been done to them since. We have a friend who was actually born in Alumni Village, and on a picture, the furniture in his apartment is the same as it is now, some 35 years later. Basically, most of the things inside the units are as old and as chip as could be. On top of that,in many flats, roach infestation is unbearable. Others suffer from ants. Many ground floor units flood. Mold is severe.
The complex is located in a very criminally unsafe neighbourhood. The cars get regularly broken into. Suspicious non-resident folds are seen roaming around, although they are not supposed to. Our bikes were recently stolen, and most likely by the maintenance people who worked nearby at that time.
The utility bills are extremely high. Partially because the apartments are very poorly insulated. Secondly, for some reason you get charged the rates that are higher than other places in town. Thirdly, the designated spots for wall AC units are located so, that large portions of the house do not get cold air to them at all, no matter how powerful your AC is.
The places are tiny and have inconvenient floor plans. Our 2-bedroom is 550 sq.ft.
It seems that over the years the administration collected and polished a large and annoying set of regulations, that often do not make any sense. So even if you ask for improvements, or complain, or even want to do it yourself, you cannot move a finger. For example, when you move in, they provide you with the extensive list of cleaning instructions: stove, toilet, what cleaning supplies to use, ... you name it. When you live, they check the cleanliness of the apartment. A friend of mine was charged a fine for leaving his floors unclean. He is a very careful, meticulous person, and he hand-washed the floors four times. On the other hand, when you move in, you can see that the floors has been waxed without being cleaned prior to waxing, so that all dirt is imbedded into the layer of wax and cannot be washed. If you want the furniture removed from you furnished apartment, they will not even inform you on which day in a two-week period this will be done, and it is even written so in their policy.
Housing officers treat you at best indifferently, at worst arrogantly, but always negligently. In my experience, you get a run around about 50% of the time. Work orders sometimes go unfilled for months.
Our neigbours' car sustained an extensive flood damage and required over $1000 worth of repairs. Nothing was done following their complain. Not even a sign posted on the parking lot. Every now and then, after a good rain, you will see a dosen of cars on that parking lot with their doors and hoods open in attempt to dry off after the water got in. The officials would not even inform the residents when the drains there were cleaned last.
As a result, you see very few American people living there. Mostly, the residents are foreign students, that are really struggling financially, or may even not know that it could be better elsewhere. They also, conveniently for management, tend to tolerate any abuse without complain.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/12/2009
Cars are not "regularly" broken into. In my several years here, there was one spate of incidents that was not repeated, and that perhaps could have been avoided if residents took simple precautions that they should take anywhere. Any crime on university property results in immediately email notice so residents are aware, and there is certainly less crime in AV than in the town at large; you can see statistics for yourself at the University Police website. AV's safety was assessed and found to be better than average. I have friends here as well, and haven't heard anything about roaches (I've seen about three per year, occasionally see tiny spiders and I spray for them myself, though AV will come in and spray if you request) or mold that's worse than any other place in Florida. I've filed four work orders and had them responded to immediately -- MUCH more quickly than any town apartment I've ever had. One time the man stayed extra time and fixed other small things that I had forgotten to put down. Not disputing your account of how you've experienced things, but there is another side to the story.

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