Your Evanston experience should not start here.

My first lease was for three months for $600/month. I was told I could get a $50 rent reduction if I stayed on for more than six months the next lease. I could have gotten that the first lease, if I wanted to, but being new to that area, plus the high rent (I had just moved there from Louisiana where rent was half of what I was paying), I wanted to be sure.

The shower never had decent water pressure. Also, I could never take a warm shower, it was either hot or cold. I'd often spend my showers adjusting the knob from hot to cold as I bathed myself.

If you don't mind small apartments, then that shouldn't be a problem. It wasn't that bad of a problem for me. (Even though the studio itself was smaller than my bedroom in my old apartment in Louisiana.)

The kitchen sink was small. I didn't even know that they made sinks so small. It was smaller than one side of a regular kitchen sink. I actually washed all of my dishes in the bathroom sink, as the kitchen sink also leaked. I told the management about this, but nothing was ever done about it.

The one thing they did promptly fix was my ceiling fan/light. It completely stopped working one night. I went downstairs and told them I was afraid the place was going to start on fire if it wasn't fixed as soon as possible.

I lived at 860 Hinman, and I must say that the best thing about the place was the view. (I was on the seventh floor.) It had a nice view of downtown Evanston.

As for the elevator in that building, it would often take it's time - one resident joking that the elevator in the Sears Tower was faster.

There were a few friendly leasing agents in the office, but I found most of the others to be unfriendly.

Also, there was an incident where a homeless lady had gotten into the building (it did have secured access, but sometimes that wasn't locked). She knocked on my door and asked for some man that no longer lived there. When I told her that he no longer lived at the apartment, she accused me of having him cremated. I later heard her harassing another tenant down the hallway asking for a cigarette, and when the person wouldn't give it to her, she accused them of destroying America. I wrote a letter to the management, and the confirmed that they had gotten it, but acted as if it were no big deal.

When it came time to resigning my lease, they wouldn't give me the $50 reduction I was told I could get for signing on for six months. Instead, I signed for another four months, and they gave me $5 off my rent.

I also got a weird letter along with my lease stating that I could get out of my lease at any time. When I quit my job last August and decided to move home, I was told that I couldn't get out of the lease. I had some kind of a fit in the leasing office and managed to get out of it.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates