Whatever you do, stay away from Yorke Downs. I?ve lived in six apartment complexes over the past seven years, and Yorke Downs is easily the worst one. The only positive thing I can say about the place is that it?s made me certain I?ll never live in a worse place ever again. The apartment that my roommate and I moved into at Yorke Downs was in the "chalet" section of the complex. I believe "chalet" means "slum" in French. The "chalet" apartments are ugly on the outside, but they look alright on the inside, and when you?re spending only $732 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, who cares about the exterior'

My roommate and I found out that cheap rent can be a hint that all-around cheapness is the name of the game at the leasing office. Yorke Downs must be starving for cash, because it seems like they were renting out their apartments to anyone who could pay the security deposit, no questions asked. We had problems with our neighbors the entire six months we were there (actually, we both ended up moving out a few weeks before the lease was up). The day we moved in, I was about to go to bed around 1 AM when I suddenly heard loud music coming from the apartment on the other side of my bedroom.

This was a Sunday night, mind you, and this neighbor -- let?s call him Thad -- knew that we had moved in that weekend, even if he didn?t bother to make eye contact with either of us. I went over to his apartment right then and there and politely let Thad know that we had just moved in and that I could hear his stereo in my bedroom. "Yeahokaynoproblem," the moron muttered before closing the door on me. I had a feeling this was going to be a constant problem.

Three months later, three guys -- let?s call them Ken & Co. -- moved into the apartment on the other side of our living room, and almost immediately they began cranking their stereo at all hours of the day. They would even leave their stereo on when they would leave their apartment, which ranks as some of the most ignorant nonsense I?ve ever witnessed. I spoke to Ken & Co. about the noise problem, and just like Thad, they gave me blank stares and continued to make noise. After I?ve spoken to a person once about noise problems, I feel like I?ve given him a fair shot, and therefore I won?t think twice about calling the police if I hear loud noise coming from that person?s apartment again. Unfortunately the police seem to avoid Yorke Downs like the plague, so I finally had to talk to the Yorke Downs management about both sets of neighbors ... but it seems that a phone call won?t do the trick since the management is unable to write anything down on paper. I then had to go to the leasing office and speak directly to someone who would actually write a warning and hand it to my neighbors.

A few days later, Ken came over to my apartment and started complaining about how I had apparently told the management that I had gone over to his apartment and asked him to turn down his stereo at three in the morning. I assured him that that wasn?t one of my complaints. It turns out that the people who lived on the other side of Ken & Co. had made those complaints, but since they?d never actually asked Ken & Co. to turn down their stereo, it was assumed that I was making all of the complaints. It also turns out that only Ken was on the lease at his apartment; for whatever reason, the other two guys weren?t listed. After I talked to Ken and seemed to make amends with him, the noise problem stopped ... but only when Ken was home. When he was gone, which was most of the time, his ignorant roommates would crank the stereo, whether it was at 8:30 in the morning or 11:30 at night, with no regard for whether or not their neighbors might actually be trying to eat breakfast or watch TV at a decent volume without the distraction of loud bass throbbing through the walls. Hey, if you?re not listed on the lease and you end up getting evicted, it doesn?t go on your credit report -- it only affects the one person who was honest/stupid enough to put his name on the lease in the first place!

Granted, the walls were paper-thin in the "chalet" apartments, and I could hear my neighbors? conversations without even wanting to, but that?s no excuse for pretending that you live in a house in the woods and can therefore play your music as loud as you want. As far as I?m concerned, people who like to listen to music loud don?t really like music in the first place -- they just like noise, and they?re still obsessed with telling their parents to "shove it."

Anyway, now you know about the kind of deadbeats who live at Yorke Downs. (Thad even ended up putting a note on our door one Friday night at 2:30 that told my roommate to "suck it" after my roommate banged on his bedroom wall as a hint for Thad to turn the stereo down.) Now let?s talk in-depth about the management at Yorke Downs. Overall they seemed disorganized and a bit lazy, and some of our maintenance requests were completely ignored. The management changed hands on April Fool?s Day (not a coincidence), and according to a note we received on our door, this was the second time the management had changed since August ?01. That?s not very reassuring.

In every other complex I?ve lived in, I?ve received a reminder 30-60 days before the lease expires, asking me if I?m going to renew the lease or not. My roommate and I didn?t receive any reminder at Yorke Downs, and we naively assumed that the management assumed we were moving out at the end of our lease unless we told them otherwise. Even though we had read the lease and signed it, we had not memorized the part that says, "Either party may terminate this agreement at the end of the initial term by giving the other party 60 days written notice prior to the end of the month." Well, since the old management didn?t send us a reminder and since we didn?t cancel the lease on our own, the new management was able to make us pay an extra month?s rent because we had unknowingly violated the lease.

Fast-forward one month -- my (now) ex-roommate tells me that while looking for a new apartment in Venice Beach, CA, he found one he really liked, but it took over a week for the landlord to get back to him about his application. He thought this was odd since it usually only takes landlords a day or two to check with an applicant?s previous landlord and see if the applicant paid his rent on time, was the subject of complaints from other tenants, etc.

When my ex-roommate called the landlord back a week later, the landlord told him that he had called Yorke Downs, whose management stated that even though there were records showing that my ex-roommate and I had lived at Yorke Downs, there was nothing on paper indicating that we had paid our rent on time. This is what happens when one lousy management team is replaced by another lousy management team at Yorke Downs. My ex-roommate almost lost out on his new apartment because of these screw-ups. Also, after depositing our checks for that extra month?s rent, Yorke Downs sent me a notice telling me that we still hadn?t paid. Unbelievable! And it gets even worse ....

In mid-August, more than three months after we had moved out and given our checks to Yorke Downs for that extra month?s rent, my ex-roommate called me from L.A. and said that he?d received a letter from a debt collector, which said that he owed $732 to Yorke Downs. My ex-roommate called the debt collector and told him that he?d already paid $366 to Yorke Downs, which is all that he owed them. The debt collector wouldn?t listen, though, and when my ex-roommate called Yorke Downs, someone named Brad said that he had one of our checks, but not both, and he didn?t say whose check he had. When my ex-roommate called back a few days later, Brad no longer worked at Yorke Downs, and a woman named Kim said she had no records of any $366 check from either of us, EVEN THOUGH BOTH CHECKS WERE DEPOSITED IN EARLY MAY.

Did Brad take the record of that one check with him' Does Yorke Downs know how to keep any records of any tenants' checks whatsoever'! I called Yorke Downs after my ex-roommate did, and I was told by Kim that my ex-roommate and I would both have to get copies of our checks from our banks and present them to Yorke Downs. At this point I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. It felt like my ex-roommate and I had become the targets of a shakedown, and when a poorly run operation like Yorke Downs starts messing with your credit by contacting a debt collector in regard to checks they?ve already deposited, that company's business practices need to be investigated, and someone needs to be fired. I haven?t heard from the BBB yet in regard to my complaint, and I might never hear from them, but something needs to be done about Yorke Downs' management office sooner rather than later.

My ex-roommate and I both got copies of our checks from our banks, and, as expected, both checks had been endorsed by Yorke Downs back in May. Our credit has been cleared with the debt collector, but I had to call the debt collector myself to make sure our debt was actually cancelled. When I talked to the Yorke Downs office manager, whose name is Elizabeth, she said that Yorke Downs doesn?t receive written correspondence from a debt collector once a debt has been cancelled, probably so that Yorke Downs can then turn right back around and claim you owe them money again, and when you don?t have any written proof that your debt has been cancelled, they can start harassing you all over again.

Yorke Downs needs to be demolished as soon as possible. I realize this is a long, long rant, but I think that unsuspecting, potential tenants need to have as much information as possible before they even consider visiting Yorke Downs.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/13/2008
I agree. I had the worst time of my life there. Also, I owe over a thousand dollars to the debt collector because I'd bailed after my apartment was robbed and my family and I were threatened by our crack head neighbors. I wrote them a letter, included the police report, when I vacated. Not only was my apartment robbed, but prior to that, two men shot at each other on our front porch and my door knob turned right afterwards. Thank goodness it was locked! That place is demolished, but I am afraid of the bad energy (and my debt) left behind.

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