I would never live here again and I would never recommend this building to anyone. I am a contract employee here in Indy, due to the 4th of July, my employer did not submit my pay and I had to wait an extra week to get paid. I paid my rent on the 8th of July (it is due with no late fee by the 5th). I did not include the late fee with the rent and was charged $130.00 in late fees because I didn't have the late fee to pay until the 15th of July. The way the owner does business is to charge $10.00 per day that the late fee isn't paid EVEN IF THE RENT HAS BEEN PAID. In the owner's opinion, the rent is not paid until the late fee is paid. I now have to take him to small claims court to recoup my money. I called him and explained the situation and he did not care at all, he was very unsympathetic, especially since he has never had a problem with us as tenants. The apartments have no screens, no central air, he charges $1.00 per day for old AC units. The parking is limited and you have to pay, if not you have to fight for parking on Illinois street or on 13th steet. 13th street also has a strip club on it, we are lucky enough to have a view of the strip club. It's especially nice to hear the breaking bottles and yelling from the drunks leaving the club at 3:00 a.m.

I have been a renter for 14 years and this is by far the worst place I have ever lived. If Doug tries to lie or tell you differently, please feel free to e-mail me at ingreg29@hotmail.com. I will be more than happy to provide you with any pictures, photocopies or information about this property. odusyNYCcZ7yL3Bj5JtG

User Responses
From: blogjoe98	Date: 08/30/2005
Sounds like you're "girlie-scorned" because you paid rent the late? I've lived here at the Victoria for three years and consider the place ideal for me while in grad school. Safe, clean, affordable and Doug is so nice as to even consider him a friend. Quick service, they're always ready to lend a hand and always professional. Takes us all to dinner every Christmas PRO BONO! As far as parking goes...I never have a problem but I would just get a reserved spot if I did, for a quite reasonable $15 per month. I will be moving in May, upon graduation, but will highly recommend The Victoria to anyone looking for a clean, comfortable, and safe place to live. Doug is A-1. If you pay your rent late there is a fee but we all know about it up front in the lease so no big deal or surprise. Same with credit cards, mortgages and late library books. I have three years of nothing but good experiences here =)
From: badcustomerservice	Date: 09/01/2005
Being scorned and being ripped off are two different things. I spoke with a lawyer who said that charging that amount in late fees is not legal. When a late fee is so disproportionate to the amount owed, it becomes a penalty, not a fee, which is impermissable by Indiana state law. In order to avoid having an eviction on record, it was cheaper, in my lawyers opinion, to pay the fee now and go to small claims court to recoup the $60.00 that I overpaid. you see, the first $70.00 I agree with. That is in the lease, it is the $60.00 from the 9th to the 14th that was illegal and I can get back. I have received hate mail, harassment and threats from someone for posting my message on here. I have the copies of all of this stuff along with the the investigations that are being conducted by different agencies. This is one more example of why I would not recommend this place. By the way, if 'blogjoe98' is not the owner of the building why would he have said, and I quote from the posting above "I've lived here at the Victoria for three years and consider the place ideal for me while in grad school. Safe, clean, affordable and Doug is so nice as to even consider him a friend.", wouldn't a real poster say "...so nice as to even consider ME a friend". Draw your own conclusions. Be safe and take heed.
From: ptownsend	Date: 10/24/2005
This doesn't sound like anything I ever experienced or heard of. This guy sounds weird.
From: pyshedatPU	Date: 04/27/2006
Mmmmm...not at all like my experience. I read my lease and pay on time (usually) but this sounds like a made up story. Are you saying you paid your rent weeks late and were SURPRISED at paying a late fee? Gee, maybe consider venting your anger at your employer for paying so you late or something? This has always been a straight up situation here for me is all I can say.
From: hbtiv	Date: 06/01/2006
I think you're the problem, not Doug. Doug is always eager to work with you if you have a problem, that's for sure. But hey... Pay your rent on time, and you won't have issues like this. As the first person to reply stated, everything in life has late fees, if you don't want to pay them, then pay your bills on time.
From: XXX0XXX	Date: 12/20/2006
Doug is full of it. Doug comes off as a great guy at first and says that he will do what he can to help you if you're new to the city, etc. I moved there and promptly lost my job. I explained the situation and said that I had to move back home with my family. I said that I had to move out after only a few months and we sat down and talked about it. He said that he understood and, if he kept my security deposit, he would release me from the lease and get a new tenant. I told him that I sincerely appreciated that and left it at that. Then, he went after me in court. Yeah, great guy.
From: hoosierican	Date: 02/22/2007
I'm not surprised by this person's experience. I had a very bad experience living at this place. The landlord of this place puts on a Ned Flanders show but in reality he wants to get every bit of money he can from its tenants. From stealing your subletter (giving them another apartment instead of yours) to keeping your security deposit... Don't be fooled, he is not as nice as he seems. Oh, and about all the positive reviews in here, I wouldn't be surprised if the landlord wrote them himself. This is not such a nice place to live (bad neighborhood, old building, etc.)... so it is suspicious to see so many good reviews.
From: Ioumufin	Date: 03/08/2007
If it was such an awful location why move in in the first place? If there is a money problem all you have to do is talk to Doug about it, he is always reasonable. Sometimes you may not like his response, he kept some of my security deposit too, but after hearing his explanation I'm willing to admit he had good reason to do so.
From: ulevaw	Date: 02/25/2008
I find it interesting when people get so caught up in money. It sounds to me as though a couple of people paid late or trashed their apartment or wanted out of a lease because they got fired? How does wanting out of a lease or desiring not to pay a late fee inspire such emotion? I can only think it reasonable to pay late fees (when paying late) or to fullfill the lease in all ways. This is how I understand and was taught. These two seem to be surprised by contractual terms being followed? It is somewhat funny to read to the stories of tenants gone bad. I bet there could be a book written. I would read. I follow my lease and have no troibles...life is good.

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