First, the word Luxury needs to be removed from Lakeside apartments. The only luxury you will find here is a ridiculously expensive upgrade that was done to the fitness room and the lounge area. Part of your rent goes towards these luxuries, and it s a rip off. I pass by these buildings twice a day, and no one ever uses them. It s just a waste of money, and you will pay the price. The pools are also horrible. They are not monitored, so they are always full of obnoxious kids.

Lakeside requires a 60-day notice to renew your lease. Illinois state law is 30 days, but they claim it s their policy and they get away with it. If you do not give your notice to renew by the 60-day mark, they assume you are going to leave at the end of your lease. If you do decide to stay, they will PENALIZE YOU for every day you went over the required notice to renew date. They also give you your renew date about a week before you have to re-sign, so unless you get really lucky and can find somewhere else to live in a week, you can gamble and hope to find a new place before your lease ends, or, you will be stuck renting with Lakeside. It s --------.

By law, you earn interest on your security deposit for each year you reside at your apartment. Lakeside WILL TRY TO GET OUT OF PAYING IT! Make sure if you rent here, that you get it in writing that they will pay it before you sign a lease.

They also jack the rent $100-150 a year, which is insane for a crap apartment.

The staff consists of nice people, but they have no clue what they are doing. They always give you the standard generic answers to all questions like programmed robots. I m sorry about that , that s Lakeside s policy , and my favorite, I ll look into it and call you back . Yeah, you WON T get a call back. If you have a problem, go into the offices. For fun, ask them really difficult, non-standard questions and watch them trip over their own tongues trying to come up with an answer. To sum up the office staff, think Forrest Gump. Sweet as pie, but dumb as a box of rocks. If it s not something they were trained by Aimco to say, they won t have an answer for you.

The apartments are also NOT luxury. I have a newly redone apartment. While you get new, cheap appliances and standard cabinets, that s about all that you get that is new with the exception of carpet, paint, light fixtures and windows. The paintjob they do it horrible. Instead of filling in cracks and sanding down bumps and problem areas, they simply paint over it. There are probably a good 20 coats of paint on these walls because they have never been stripped. You can see lumps in the walls and crevices, and they also dripped paint on brand new carpet and paint is also on outlets and fixtures. Tacky! In areas where the carpet cuts off, be careful or you will step on sharp carpet tacks that were not properly nailed down. The tile in the bathrooms and kitchen is NOT tile; it s fake linoleum that cracks if you so much as drop a spoon on it. The tub and toilet are old, and the tile is grouted poorly, so expect mold issues. Our tub also does not drain water well, so you have to clean it every day or water sits and corrodes the bottom of the tub.

The renovations were horrendous. They told us that each building would take a month to complete. It took about 5 months for each building. Constant noise, from working on apartments to breaking up concrete outside. Always people in your hallway, making noise and talking loud. They also work late, sometimes until 7pm, which is annoying. They said our balcony would only take 3 days to complete. It took 4 months. 4 months of nice weather where we couldn t use our balcony. They were supposed to give all 3rd floor apartments safety ladders when the stairs were torn out, and they never did. I had to call and ask for one, and we didn t get it until a week later. When we got new keys for the apartment, they gave us the wrong damn keys and I got locked out. When I was in the office to complain, there were 4 other tenants from other buildings with the same problem. When they caulked the new windows, they dripped caulk on the walls. Said they would fix it, 5 months later it s still on the walls.

Lakeside is supposed to notify you when they will need to enter your apartment to do repairs. TWICE during renovations a worker walked into my apartment WITHOUT KNOCKING FIRST to do work. I was never notified in advance and was home both times. I called to complain, and I got the standard so sorry answer. Don t walk around the house naked, unless you like when strangers walk into your apartment unannounced. Very unsettling.

They gave us new smoke detectors and left the big gaping hole in the wall where the old one is. Called twice to have it fixed, they still haven t done it. It s been two months.

If you want peace and quiet forget it. You will hear every single neighbor you have. Neighbor downstairs will blast his TV and radio at 3am, and numerous complaints to Lakeside are ineffective. If you have a noise complaint, bypass Lakeside and call the police. It s the only way to get anything done.

The apartments also have lousy ventilation, so if your neighbors are cooking something that you think smells nasty, your entire apartment will reek with the smell. About 3 times a week, our apartment smells like burnt meatloaf because of the neighbors below us.

No one ever answers the 24-hour emergency number. Again, if you need emergency assistance, call the police.

The lighting outside of the buildings, in stairwells, and along pathways is so bright you d think you were living in the middle of a football field. Make sure to buy blackout curtains if you light to sleep in a dark room at night. I could read with the lights off at midnight, it s so bright without proper curtains.

You will never have warm water, no matter what time of day it is. It s either ice cold or scalding hot. Makes for a pleasant shower. NOT.

They DON T ice steps and walkways during ice or snowstorms. So, be prepared to slip and fall. When they plow for snow, they run a path up the middle of each parking lot, which piles snow behind each car. Not very effective. When the lot has empty spaces, they don t come back to plow out the snow. They just let it sit there, and you have to crunch over it every time you park.

There is NEVER enough parking.

Pet deposits are non-refundable, and they actually charge $25-$50 PER PET, each month, for pet rent. Why the heck does a pet have to pay rent''' I get the deposit, but not the rent. Ridiculous. Also, many tenants have pets that they never paid for (they ve admitted it) yet Lakeside does nothing. Instead, they charge honest people that put pets on their lease up the ass to have them there.

No utilities are paid by Lakeside. Keep that in mind. You also cannot get a satellite dish if your apartment faces the wrong way, so you stuck with expensive cable TV.

NO STORAGE. You have to pay for it.

It s always drafty in the winter, even with new windows. Expect high-energy bills.

For luxury apartments that cost as much as Lakeside, you would think you would get a washer/dryer in the apartment. Nope. Most complexes within a 50-mile radius have them, but not Lakeside. You get 2 washers and 2 dryers for each building. Each building has 12 units. So, go to a laundry mat because you will NEVER be able to do laundry, unless you like doing it at 2am. Complaining about tenants that leave their clothes in the washers all day doesn t work either. They are also money card operated, expensive, and break down at least once a month.

The buildings are now key entry only, which means if you are expecting a package from UPS/FedEx and you are not home, they cannot deliver it. They stick a note for you on the outside glass of the entry door and leave the package at the offices. Lakeside does NOT make a courtesy call to let you know they have a package at the office. So, if the note falls off of the glass or it gets accidentally pulled off by another tenant, you will never know you have a package waiting at the office. You ll waste time trying to track down the package because the jerks at Lakeside don t want to take 5 seconds to call you and let you know.


So, if you decide to rent here, which I hope you don t, cover your bases. Thoroughly look at the apartment first. Make sure to ask about the 60-day lease renewal, and research Illinois law before signing with them. Make sure they are going to pay you the interest that you EARNED on your security deposit. Be prepared to pay up the ass for a small, NON-luxury apartment. Be prepared for constant noise, no parking, no available laundry facility you get the picture.

One other piece of advice look around everywhere you possibly can before you go to Lakeside or any other Aimco complex! There are so many fantastic, affordable, and nicer apartments out there. Don t settle for Lakeside because you think you can t find anything else. I found a 2 bedroom, huge, very nice apartment with a washer and dryer for about $100 less than what I am now paying for a one-bedroom dump. I can t wait to get out of this hellhole at the end of my lease. Please, take my advice. Lakeside is HELL!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/27/2008
This renter is spot-on. Totally accurate. There is a LOT of goose ---- around and in the pool area also. Very unsanitary.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/31/2009
This is a very thorough review and a must read for anyone who would dare stay at Lakeside. I lived there for 3 years from 2005-2008. Everything said here is very accurate. My entire apartment building was also infested with fruit flies which are hard to get rid of to say the least. If you put a piece of food on the counter it will be covered in fruit flies which seem come out of nowhere. I did keep a clean place and took measures to get rid of them. Also the apartment complex sprayed the apartment too but they would come back in a week since the other residents had them too. Very annoying! I would also mention that the property management company, AIMCO, resells the gas for gas heat so you can't go on any special payment plans offered by the gas company. In addition to that you will pay more than you would if you were buying from the gas company as well. Also AIMCO tacks on about $30 in service charges every month so even if you don't use heat like during the summer it will still cost about $50-60 as you have to pay for the water, garbage collection and service charges. So whatever rent you think you will be paying add $60 for the summer months and $120 for the winter months. And like this reviewer said they will also raise your rent by at least $100 every year too.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/07/2009
This review is probably the most accurate I've ever heard. I've lived at Lakeside for a year now, and once June 30th comes up, I'm outta here. I've known a handful of people who have also lived here and hated it. Anytime someone asks me about living here, I tell them, find something else. It's not worth losing your money or sanity.

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