515 West Briar

A Different Opinion From: -Anonymous- Date posted: 3/9/2008 Years at this apartment: 2006 - 2006   Alright, so after living there for a year, I have to say my opinion of the building changed dramatically. When we first moved in, the place looked beautiful. It was small, but quaint, it felt like an old hotel and the building was in the perfect area for us. It was where I spent most of my summers growing up, so it was a blessing to be able to live there once more. The "Honeymoon" was to be short lived. The Water pressure in the Kitchen was non existent, and it was always cold, there was never any hot water in the Kitchen so all dishes had to be done in cold water... which isn't exactly cleanly or fun in the winter. The big, burley, unfriendly eastern European maintenance guy said he would ask if he could do something about this to the higher ups... and he never got back to us. The pipes in the Bath of the Bathroom were constantly blocking up, after a month of use, the Bath would fill and then the water would just stay in the tub and would take 24 hours to drain. We called maintenance on this issue twice and the first time he put down this horrific drain cleaner that smelled of rotten eggs and death, that permeated the place for 2 weeks, of which we had to keep the windows open. The 2nd time they put this suction hose thing in a round metal thing on the floor and I guess drained the system. Neither of these really helped the issue as even the smallest amount of hair that wasn't caught by the hair trap through normal use of the bath, would be enough to block up the old pipes and cause you to live with standing water in the bathroom. By Month 3, the Paint began to peel in the living room, bedroom and the kitchen. Huge chunks of paint would randomly fall from the walls, as they simply painted over everything, each time a new tenant moves in. While the Windows are surprisingly not painted shut, the mechanism to keep them open is busted in most, so you have to put something in the window to keep it open. The door handles were constantly popping off, as they were the original brass fittings, but the metal bar going into the door was completely worn out. The Front door jammed on us, and we were locked into the apartment for 6 hours. I finally had to dismantle the locking mechanism in order to leave the building, and when maintenance was informed of this, they replaced the lock but because a quarter of an inch thick layers of paint come off with the original lock, this meant that you could only use one lock or the other as they no longer lined up with one another. The Radiator in the bedroom makes a horrific gurgling noise in the winter that kept me up more sleepless nights than I care to remember. Oh and speaking of noise, because of where the apartment is situated you are subject to crashes and bangs every time they empty trash or a new tenant moves in (Which people seemed to be moving in and out of the building constantly.) Oh and yes... the walls are paper thin and the front door has a half inch gap in it which means that you will know the comings and goings of your neighbor intimately. The Shelves in the bedroom closet feel apart the moment we tried to use them for clothes. The roof in the front portion of the building started to leak, and caused massive water damage to the front of the building that was simply left that way for 6 months, so any quaint aesthetics the building had all but died. The front lobby always smelled like wet dog, and tenants would often let there dogs "do their business" in front of the building. Trying to do laundry on the week end was imposable, and if you did not sit there and watch the laundry, someone would stop your load and steal your wash cycle. The Building really doesn't have anything in the way of "Community" between the tenants, its a rather unfriendly, uncaring place and the building doesn't lean itself to "Community Building" in any way shape or form. Overall while the maintenance guy was always prompt in responding to a situation, he had this wonderful way of making you feel threatened when he came to fix something, as if at any moment he was going to start screaming at you and throwing things around. So delightful was his demeanor that when he did a botch job on "fixing" something it was often better to deal with the botch job, than deal with calling him back to fix it properly, as he was even more delightful the 2nd and 3rd time you would call him to come back and fix it... and it was ALWAYS the fault of the tenant... NEVER his half done, poorly implemented "Quick" fixes. The only solace in all of this, was that Planned Property was a joy to deal with. They were always professional and business like when we had to talk to them. Because they manage a large number of Buildings they have there own policy's and terms that protect both them, and you, and give you a solid structure in which to work in without being a bureaucracy. We always knew where we stood with planned property.

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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