My roommate and myself paid almost $1100 for a HUGE townhouse that, I thought, was well worth the money. My opinion quickly changed when it started getting cold and something moved into my attic and started clawing it's way into my bedroom. Turns out, this wasn't the first time maintainance had been told of the critter. (The previous roommate had mentioned it almost 6 months before!) It took 3 very angry phone-calls, threats of killing it myself and dumping it on their desk, and two visits from a crew to get the animal evicted. The now fist-sized hole in my ceiling never did get repaired. We had more luck getting friends to come fix things than maintainance. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because of the size of the complex, but when I got woken up by 4 leaf-blowers behind my house for over an hour (they were cleaning out the trash hut--FOR AN HOUR! FOUR OF THEM!), all my understanding went right out the door.

It wasn't until I told the office staff that my insurance company refused to issue me renters insurance because of the state of the property (both upstairs bathrooms had water leaks that were damaging the livingroom ceiling and the carpeting, electric box in the basement was suspended only by the wires connected to it, security system doesn't work)did anything get done. That was in January, I moved in in August!

At the beginning of February, every one of the townhouses in my section was given a "Must Be Out By February 28th" letter because the units were going to be renovated. We were given very fair options, including a unit within the complex. No complaints there. Until we started looking at other units. The office staff was less than helpful, going so far as to give us a map of available units and THE MASTER KEY, and telling us to go pick one. That's right up there with going to a car dealership, being given a dealers plate, and being told to "go pick one". We were also told that we needed to clean the townhouse top-to-bottom, like we were vacating any other location for any other reason. We questioned this, because they were being "renovated", right' Turns out, only the outside of the buildings were being worked on. Would someone care to explain to me why I had to find a new place to live and move in FEBRUARY if all you're going to do is paint and landscape' And it wasn't the OUTSIDE that needed work!

All of my questions and problems were answered when I entered the leasing office (which is just a hang-out for the complex staff) to turn in my key and sign lease-termination paperwork. The person that got my paperwork out was the very same person that worked at the first complex I moved into when I moved to KC. I couldn't get anything fixed over there and it was all attitude, all the time. (No, I do not have problems everywhere I go. Ellis Real Estate in Westport still gets Christmas cards from me!!)

The moral of the story is: Essex place is a wonderful place to live if you can handle doing all the work yourself. DO NOT count on the maintainance staff to help you out. You'll be paying twice what you would on a mortgage, doing all the upkeep, but you don't have to mow the lawn.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/13/2009
They are not renovating the outside of the bldg. the rumor is they are falling in just call the city of Overland Park and they will tell you the truth. You won't get the correct answer from anybody up there because they all lie.Also it was a wonderful place to live and until the management is gone it won't be a good place to live thats why there occupancy is 85% and going down everyday.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/13/2009
The owners are Evergreen Realty Property Management - http://www.evergreenrealtypm.com/properties.aspx
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/27/2009
Essex Place is NASTY. We looked, and said no thanks. The laundry area in the basement was literally crawling with bugs. Large apartments for sure, but more room for the bugs.

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