Augustine Club is one of those examples of how looks can be deceiving. Everything looks fine from the outside, but it's once you live there and get to see inside that the problems start. A couple of days after I first moved in (after the carpet had completely dried from the pre-move in cleaning), I noticed a couple of stain rings that I guess came from the previous owner's pet. Eventually I noticed the faint smell of what I think was dried pet urine. Not more than two weeks into living there, I woke one morning to find that the smell had been exacerbated by a big wet spot that had formed right over the stain. It was under the area next to my a/c vent, so I figured my a/c was leaking. It took a while to get maintenance to come check it out...maybe about 2 weeks. The wetness kept spreading further out from the wall. Finally, someone came and "fixed" whatever was the problem.

I had to deal with some seriously loud neighbors whose bedroom must have been right up against the wall of my bedroom wall. This sucked because they were very loud when having sex, and I didn't enjoy hearing it. But I realized this was not necessarily something that the management company could do anything about, so I got over it, and sure enough after a while of me banging on the shared wall anytime they had woken me up at 2 or 4 AM, the noises decreased. I figured if noisy neighbors were the bulk of my problems, things were okay. But I was wrong!

Probably about five or six months after the first leakage issue, I experienced a similar leakage problem that seemed to suddenly appear overnight. This time, not only was the area below my a/c vent wet, the area of my carpet just outside of my bathroom was SOAKED! I couldn't imagine what the problem could be. I called and reported it, and I think after a week I went over to the office to follow up because I hadn't gotten a response. At that point, one of the maintenance persons came over to look at the issue. He ended up somehow tracking it to my laundry room, and found that part of my wall in there was actually soft from water damage coming from above.

In the end, it turned out that the upstairs apartment had a major leak that came down my way. The maintenance person (sweet though he was) suggested that I was "really lucky" because apparently a number of other tenants had much worse issues with leaks, some even having apartments that had been flooded out. This didn't do much to make me feel at ease, though. A hole had to be torn out of my laundry ceiling, and I ended up waiting probably about a month or so before the repair company sent anyone over to fix it. In the mean time, I had to continue to call the office to follow up (since they didn't call me to even just update me or notify of delays). I had asked, the first time I reported the leaking, if they could put in a ticket for carpet cleaning once everything got fixed so that I wouldn't have to continue to smell the nasty, old water smell. But that issue was never addressed; no carpet cleaning was done.

The continuous leaking from upstairs created a very nasty mold situation on the whole area behind my fridge, stove/microwave, and the cabinets on that side of the wall. I had to call a few different times to get someone to come spray a potent bleach solution to get rid of it, but I believe the mold problem is beyond a surface issue. I think it may be majorly within the walls, in the insulation. It just seems really bad. I used to dread going home everyday. I knew I would be greeted with that familiar smell of mildew. So glad to move after my lease ends very soon. I feel like I've been throwing over $700/month away. Only after I submitted the form saying that I wouldn't be renewing my lease (and listing the reasons why) did I get prompt help and actual follow-up calls on requests. Why couldn't this have happened BEFORE'''

Stay away from Augustine Club if you can, or if you go, do a better job that I initially did at asking the hard questions (Do you have mold issues' What complaints do past/current tenants have' What is the turn-around time on maintenance requests' etc). Maybe you'll be lucky and not have a problem. I feel bad, cause the main manager there is very nice (she's the main reason for even getting a "2" as she would always follow up quickly with me), and the maintenance guys are kind too, but the time for repairs just takes too long, and the mold is bad. I think major, internal renovations are needed.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates