On a good note, they employed really cute women in the office. Much like the outside appearance of the rental complex they are nice to look at but impossible to deal with.

Insulation and windows are horrible. My average ComEd bill over the summer exceeded $300 per month. In the winter my ComEd bill dipped to $100 per month and my NiCor Gas bill rose to $150 - this is before the current energy situation was even thought of. If you walked by a window you could feel the outside temperature seeping in.

Drywall finishing was horrible as well. Four corners had to be repared, by myself, after repeated requests. The aluminum corner beading "popped" for no reason except poor craftsmanship.

When I moved out after my annual contract expired I was charged $2,200 for new carpeting. C'mon, the carpet was brand new when I moved in and the only one's "using" the carpet were two married professional's who never entertained friends. The carpet actually wore out with our "use". In traffic areas and the stairs the carpet fibers began to come loose. There was noticable wear spots. How do you avoid wear spots on the stairs' When they hit me with the bill (after I left, of course) and I explained I couldn't be responsible for normal wear on cheap carpet they sent me to collections immediately! They then took my perfect credit rating throgh the cleaners within 30 days by reporting me to credit agencies.

After calling them the last time to get them to resind their charge they indicated if I had accepted the $250 / month rent increase (from $1,450 to $1,700) they could have worked with me. Is this extortion'

I've been an apartment dweller throughout the U.S. as my job relocates me almost every year since '88. Never, Never, Never have I lived in such a place that looked so good from the outside but was built so crappy everywhere on the inside. I've never had a thug try and threaten me to pay an unreasonable and unwarranted repair bill - even in college when I deserved it - as a negotiation ploy to re-new a rental contract at a 17+% increase in price.

Stratford Green - Bite Me!

A note to everyone else, there are a lot of places to rent in the surronding area. I've had the pleasure of planting roots in NW Chicagoland and can tell you many, if not all of the surronding complexes do a decent job. They are truley "what you see is what you get" or WSYWIG. Avalon @ Stratford is a wolf in sheeps clothing.

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