I have lived in Shenandoah for a little over a year. The apartment layouts are nice with some good features (nice balconies, outdoor storage, washer and dryer in every apartment). The office staff does get maintence out very quickly to repair things. And they are quiet and parking has never been a problem.
My concerns are more about the upkeep of the apartments. While the layouts are nice, the general state of the apartments is rather rundown. Our carpet should really have been replaced before we moved in, but that was not something they offered to do. There were several repairs that needed to be made right off when we got into the apartment, things that should have been noticed on an inspection. And the state of the floors, carpet, counters, etc. all leave the impression of having been worn out. And everything just seems a little substandard. The toilet is always breaking, or the washer, or dryer, or faucets. Yes, they repair them quickly, but there is always something broken. The worst thing is that the air conditioners don't work as well as they should. I have lived in several apartments and this one, by far, is the hottest and you just cannot get it cool! Another problem is that sometimes the maintence doesn't do as thorough a job as they should. Case in point, they came to repair my toilet and broke the seat. They fixed the seat and two weeks later it broke again. Or, we had them to look at the air conditioner and they said it was fine. But it wasn't oooling off the apartment, so we ended up pulling it apart and figuring out that the filter was so crud-filled no air could get through and ended up buying filters and repairing it ourselves.
Another HUGE problem is the pets in the neighborhood and how people keep them. You are not supposed to keep your animals tied out, but everyone does on leads long enough to allow the dogs to jump on you as you try to leave the building. One couple even kept their dog kenneled outside on the porch. Or they will leave them out to bark in the middle of the night, that is the only noise problem I have ever had here. But the worst is the dog feces coating the property which no one EVER cleans up. It is disgusting and unsanitary.
It is far from the worst place you could live, but the rent is quite high and with that price, I expect a little more.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/04/2009
This review is spot on! Do yourself a favor and buy a house....at these prices you could buy and have a better, larger space- That's what I did! I lived in the villas until recently and have friends that still live there. Here's the REAL scoop! Yes, pet excrement is found in the community universally. They allow small pets but charge a monthly fee, and charge to put in a new carpet when the tenant with pets move. I understand that they scam a little bit, charging tenants ($500) to replace carpets due to pets but in actuality just cleaning them prior to the new tenants move in. The worn out laminate flooring that was in my kitchen was original to the construction of this apt. community 12 years ago! The toilet seats are paint over cardboard, the screws stripped through and fell apart almost everytime i tried the clean it. Every spring I was over run with ants, management just hands out ant traps until they get around to having some pest company spray some toxic smelling poison around the buildings/units- there was a gap between the bottom of the the drywall and the floor (no caulking, just cleverly covered by a cheap base board) throughout my unit where the ants crawled in- I am sure the builder must have neglected this throughout the buildings. The family that lived in the duplex across from me didn't even have a peep hole in their front door and there was no other way to see who was at the door without opening it(dangerous)! Because the apts. / duplexes are built along private streets within the Shenandoah rental community they have no steet lighting, it is eerily dark. Also garbage pick-up is a private company so no curb pick-up for recyclables and tenants in the duplexes are not allowed to keep the huge, provided, disgusting garbage containers outside, they must be stored in the garage or you have to "sign" that you refused the container and you may put your garbage out at the curb in plastic garbage bags only the night prior to pick-up (which i did). If all of your vehicles don't fit in your garage space you are SOL in the winter if it snows......their snow removal service will not clear any part of a driveway if a vehicle is in the driveway. So if you have to park in your driveway be prepared to clear it yourself or "luck out" and be home to moved it 200-300 yards away in the overflow parking near the rental office- as there is no parking allowed along the private streets. No snow removal until there is 3 inches on the ground and only once per day. So if they clear it in the a.m. and we get 6 more inches by afternoon, no clearing til the following day! Duplex tenants have to get their mail from a central keyed box unit on their street. The mailbox unit on my street was especially dangerous in the winter as the pavement dipped in front of it and water, snow and ice collected there. A neighbor told me that management attempted to level the pavement so the water / ice didn't collect in front of the mailbox unit, but obviously botched the job. My friend that's a personal injury attorney always joked she should leave a pile of her business cards on it! They have automatic sprinkler systems to water the grass in the summer, but only in front of the offices and areas visible from the city streets, the grass everywhere else is dry and dead-looking. This is probably not the place for a family with children. Tenants are retirees / elderly, blue collar workers and college. The students use profanity, get drunk, and grope each other in the common outdoor areas and care less who sees or hears. As far as management, I believe they do the best job they can under these circumstances. I think they are pretty powerless to improve conditions there. I can only imagine the earful the get regarding all the above issues!

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