This is taken directly from the posts for Briarwood off this site...you read and decide...Is this how you would like to live, and figure very very few people bother w/ blogging about this kind of stuff, so we know plently of others have experienced mice, rats, and lots of bugs at Briarwood Terrace but they just haven't written about it on this site. I wish I had seen these posts prior to moving in.

4/7/08--The trash chutes are located directly in the hallway and are mostly left uncleaned and in a very unhygienic condition. I have seen rodents in the hallway and cockroaches are common in my apartment

4/15/08--the rodents present in the apartment units. Observe the photo of the mouse which I took while attending a function at my neighbors unit. My neighbor did not want to make a big deal out of it. However, I insisted that I take a photograph to show possible future tennants Briarwood's living conditions are indeed despicable and unsatisfactory

6/29/09-There was a problem with some rats gnawing through the garbage chute and entering our apartment but the management fixed this immediately.

8/7/09-I received a letter in my door one day saying that they wanted to come in to lay "preventative" rodent poisen in all the apartments. I called to ask if there was a problem and they assured me there wasn't. My husband and I then laid our own traps to find out what was really going on and within a week we managed to catch 13 mice coming in from a vent in the kitchen. The apartment staff was "bothered" at first that I would call to ask them to remove the dead pests in the wee hours of night, but I did not feel this was my responsibility and they offered no solutions to the problem other than offering us more traps.

My story...The have mice...They really do
From: miles007
Date posted: 9/11/2009
Years at this apartment: 2008 - 2009







I have been here 10 months and it has been the longest 10 months of my life. I have had mice since the day I moved in. The mice run this place. I have caught 3 so far, what is scary is that 2 of the three were babies mice, so where the rest of them are ''''. I moved in at the end of 11/08 and have seen mice every single month except June, July, august. As of September 1st I have mice again. I hear them in my bedroom wall. They have urinated all over my clothes I have stored and ruined a brand new $200 comforter with mice urine. I don't sleep in my room because I can hear them in the wall, but the management seems to think that it s the heating unit making noise. Although I can knock on the wall and it stops only to restart seconds later. My dogs have become obsessed with finding and looking for them. They are well aware they have mice and swore that they are doing something about it but I can't tell and from reading these posts, I see that this is an ongoing problem. If I want to have mice, I would go find an apartment with the rent being $600.00 and then I would not be surprised or mad at all but for them to consider this a luxury community and have mice running around here like they do....it's absurd. I do believe that if the garbage facility was not housed in the building this would resolve some of the problem. I live near the garbage drop and I have no neighbors and I am thinking I know why they have all moved...Mice. I was dumb and stayed thinking it was just an "isolated" incident when in fact it's a chronic and known problem that they have mice. I recently sent my rent in 200.00 short due to the fact that I live with their mice and got a letter from the management telling me to take pay them and to contact the Cook County Justice System (sue them). So we will see how that goes. I have two months left in my lease. I was trying to do the right thing and live my lease out because I honestly did not want to have that ever come back on me. They seem to think that they have exhausted all of their efforts so I guess it is what it is....which an apartment with mice is ---- that I have to clean up pretty much every day. They also piss in my bathtub. I could never imagine this would be the way I would live considering the price I pay. I have taken pictures of some of the things I have found---droppings, bathroom tub urinated in because I was at first truly thinking that this was a one in a million chance fluke but once I seen that the mice run this place I knew all I could do it take pictures because there were a few staff members that did not sound convinced that I was telling the truth, even though I do believe that they know that they have mice. I use to drive past this place actually wishing that I could afford to live here and know that I live here...It's truly depressing to have your things chewed on and pissed on and no one cares. I have been offered to go to another unit but for what' Why would I do that' I don't believe that I have been singled out by the mice I simply think that they are all over building 1425. There are a lot of other things wrong w/ the community... No place to walk your dog, any of the nice areas say DOGS KEEP OFF. The area to walk dog is often muddy, overgrown, snow, rain floods, and it's simply too close to peoples vehicles, so what do I do...for the amount I pay and for what I have been through I will walk my dogs any flipping where I feel like it...and dare someone to tell me otherwise. Fire alarms go off regularly (although lately they seem to have taken a break) Garbage Chutes in the building leads to mice Lots of bugs/spiders/and lots of ants in the apartment but after having mice for 10 months bugs have become no big deal The water/gas bill for a one bedroom is totally unbelievable, a person like myself who does not cook much and kept my heat off after the first bill that shocked me, is subjected to pay for my neighbors over use because the bill is divided by all apartments which should be illegal. The management agreed to pay 10% of the bill and that has not happened, reported car break ins., laundry room is in need of a major cleaning, I could continue to go on but .
I can t say any of the staff has been out right rude or unhelpful although I got the feeling in the spring when I started catching mice that they were going to aggressively help me get rid of the problem, and when I called to have mice traps checked. I most defiantly go the silent are you kidding me pause but it is what it is and they do indeed have a problem w/rodents and when I look back at a few of these posts .it s been a problem and going to be a problem. Keep in my initial call about mice I was told the company would be out in 11 days. I called on a Sunday and was told that they would be out the following Thursday, so if that give you an idea of how concerned they were.
I did feel like no one was really caring about someone not wanting to pay that kind of money and live w/ mice.

I could care less about who lives here, what color or ethnicity they are, what he hallways smell like, I don t even care about a reasonable level of noise But mice on a regular basis no way. It was also implied to me that since I live on the bottom floor what do I expect' Alright so there ya have it.

If you move here get use to mice ---- on the kitchen counter, mice ---- lines your apartment, and mice urnine in your bathtub and sink

I had actual pictures of the 3 dead mice on the trap but I lost them when I traded cell phones

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/21/2009
I just read your post and want to let you know that we recently moved out of Briarwood (the 1425 building). We lived on a corner unit as far away from the garbage room as one can live and we had a very bad infestation of mice. We managed to catch 13! It was awful, so you aren't alone. Do yourself a favor and move! We finally left after 4 years at Briarwood and had to fight with corporate there to get some money back on our overcharged utilities and now that we own a place it's remarkable how much less utilities are for a 2000 square foot townhouse than a 1000 square foot apartment. Our utilities are at least half now of what they were then!
From: miles007	Date: 10/24/2009
Anonymous, Glad that you posted. Because I was starting to wonder if I was going crazy. I have until the end of November and I am out of here...I am 90% packed and counting my days. I have since caught 1 more, I can't find where they are coming from and I don't even bother w/ asking for Briarwoods assistance. When this first happened there were several occasions I left work early and made arrangements only to be stood up by whomever was allegedly going to come check my traps. Mine for some reason have been difficult to catch which lead me to believe that they have access to another outside world and live with me on a part-time basis so I have gone weeks without no sightings and than just when I start to let my guard down...boom I find mice ---- or see one running through my place! They have turned on the heat and my apt is unbearbly hot, I have to run the shotty air conditioner in October just to keep cool. It's been a very unfortunate but expensive 12 months for me.

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