540 Briar Apartments

I loved it but am driven to leave From: darkshire1313 Date posted: 8/1/2005 Years at this apartment: 2004 - 2005   The apartment I have is pretty decently sized for a studio, although there are both larger and smaller studios in this same building. The bathroom is teeny (no room for shelves or much of anything. No mildew problems in mine, but be careful. Other apartments in the building have had trouble with leaks (like pieces of ceiling caving in), and brown splotches on the ceiling and blistering paint. paint... yeah... this is an old building and what would have been nice crown moulding is a bit obscured by layer upon layer of paint. The kitchen is all right, but the fridge sticks out blocking half the sink so it is awkward doing dishes. In my apartment the hardwood floor looks good, but other apartments have tons of scuffs on the floors. The building is horseshoe shaped, so how sunny the apartment is depends on where in the horseshoe it is. The larger studios have the best south-facing windows, but they are next to the sometimes squeaky elevators, so it is a tradeoff. The side apartments have worse light, but you get a sort of Rear Window effect, which is usually pretty boring, but sometimes quite interesting. Noise is interesting in this building. The walls are good and thick, but the doors are thin. So if you in the back of your apartment you never your neighbors, if you are in the hallway you can hear everything. I've heard my neighbors above me once in 12 months, but apparently if you live below someone who tromps around in high heels on the hardwood floor it can get noisy. Maintenance: When I first moved in the fridge didn't work and it took 2 1/2 weeks to get a new one. My sink also leaked and instead of fixing it right away they waited until the fridge came in. One of the maintenance guys is really friendly, but the other has trouble sometimes with even saying "hello". However I once left my apartment unlocked because I couldn't find my keys and came home to find it locked. (good in a way I guess since nobody broke in, but bad since somebody -either management or maintenance- was checking my door) The surly maintenance guy will let you in after hours for $25. He started saying hello to me after I paid him the fee. Insectwise, I've seen waterbugs in the lobby, and my cat killed a roach once. The fire escapes have lots of spiderwebs on the outside, but are okay inside. The elevators run fine (only been out of service once), but they are over 6 months overdue for inspections. The lobby is absolutely gorgeous. Full of comfy chairs and couches. However, the management doesn't want people using it. When I first moved in, the trashcan by the elevator had an ashtray, so some people assumed that smoking was allowed. In the winter people actually started hanging out in the lobby, some of them smoking cigarettes and some people complained. Management then sent out a letter to the tenants banning smoking. That's reasonable, but they also put in the letter the fine print from the lease about the lobby being off limits for "congregation, recreation, and play". There is no A/C in the lobby so it gets stuffy/sweltering in the summer, but come winter it will be interesting to see if reading a book in the lobby constitutes forbidden "recreation". The main thing driving me (and others) out of this building is the horrible treatment one gets from the leasing office. The management changed over to ICM Properties shortly before I moved in, and at first I thought everyone was making up stories about the "ladies" in the rental office. Heck, they even had a cute little doggie in the office. On second thought, dogs aren't allowed in this building... perhaps they *were* hypocrites right off the bat. When my lease came due I learned their true nature. They offered me 11 months, and I called thinking perhaps it was an error, but they were extremely rude and said it was all they offered. From their tone of voice I had apparently committed some offense to the queen by calling them. Yet I've got a friend in the building who just resigned his and it was for 12 months. Of course his rent also went up $70 a month when the new management took over. So there you go. And you know, I really didn't take being lied to well. They didn't even bother to have a decent excuse. If they had been a little nicer I would have stayed (the rent increase for me wasn't all that much - hmm... maybe I was overcharged from the get-go), but attitude counts in this world, and so I'm speaking out with my pocketbook. I'm on a quest now to find a better place and I don't doubt I can do it. It's kinda silly to pay more for a lobby you can't use. I only hope this beautiful old building gets sold to a different management company. Maybe if enough people move out it will.

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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