My wife and I moved into the Columns about ten months ago, and initially we were pleased with what we saw. However, after we had moved in, the problems became readily apparent. The apartment itself was alright, although it had some water damage that hadn't been fixed and several of the breakers were so worn that they would trip almost every time we turned on the tv. The real problem were the other tenets and the lack of security. We have lived here for less than a year, and in that time we have received cautionary notices about several armed robberies and houses that had been broken into. Although the police took care of whatever they could when they were called, the staff did nothing to try to improve the security of the complex at all, and I still see the same suspicious-looking people walking around in sweatshirts and hoodies at night in 70 degree weather.

Our neighbors aren't very polite or considerate either. The people above us sound as if they are jumping up and down constantly, the people across from us are always blaring their music at all hours, and one or two people allow their dogs to relieve themselves on the sidewalks in front of the apartments. They also never check handicapped spots, so anyone who wants to parks there, leaving those who are actually handicapped to walk a long ways to their apartments. The children of most of these families always congregate outside my windows, yelling and screaming for hours at a time, and that, coupled with the number of fights and gunshots we hear in the night, gives us almost no peace and quiet. There were even a few occasions that I was awoken early in the morning to the sounds of screams coming from other apartments.

If that weren't bad enough, the management staff won't do anything about these problems until you pester them for a week. They seem to be content to let the whole place go to hell as long as they get a paycheck. The worst thing they've so far is to try and increase my rent after it was due. My wife and I had a nine month lease, and after it was up, we decided that we were going to move because neither of us could stand living in these conditions any longer, and we were constantly afraid of being robbed or assaulted. We went to the office, got our lease changed to a month to month, were told the price we would have to pay, and then we went on our way. However, on the sixth of the month(the last day to pay rent is the fifth), we received a call saying that we had to pay an additional $200 for rent and that if we didn't have it in within an hour and a half that we would be charged late fees. Needless to say, my wife and I were outraged by this. And on top of that, we were informed that we had until August to move out because they had pre-leased our apartment to someone else. This was completely unethical, because we had signed a month to month, and we had already paid rent and they wanted to change it after everything had been paid.

I would not recommend this complex to anyone ever. If you value your money and personal belongings, move somewhere else because between the tenets and the staff, you are very likely to get robbed or mugged.

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