I have lived in the Lexington area for 12 years now. I am a prevet student and participate with many community/volunteer organizations. I am someone you would like to have as your neighbor. I just want you to know that this comment is coming from a reputable source, not some trashy person who just wants to call names or someone who just has a personal problem with someone on the staff. I paid my rent on time and tried to keep my area of the community clean.
I had visited some friends of friends when the apartments were "English Manor". It was overridden with gang violence, drug dealers, etc. When I started my apartment search last year for my first apartment, I came across "Pennington Place" and was astonished at the low student special: $299/mo for a 2 BR apartment! How could you beat that' However, I knew the area years before from past visits, and didn't want to sacrifice my safety for a few hundred dollars. I was told that the new management evicted 80% of its residents due to their "0 tolerance" of residents with felony charges on their records. I was also told that new renovations were quickly underway, with a "sparkling pool", fitness center, and remodeled apartments. There was to be 24-hour security patroling the grounds, and the community was soon to become a "gated community".
The office staff was very nice and helpful, and were very willing to answer any questions I asked. The apartments I was shown were immaculate; however, I was shown two of the three "Rockstar" apartments that had been renovated by the previous owner/management before the property was turned over to Pennington place. They had lovely green granite countertops, new paint, new carpet, new plumbing, new fixtures, etc. Unfortunately, this was not a reflection of the dump I was about to inhabit.
I eagerly signed the lease and moved in. My original walk through revealed a huge list of urgent repairs and replacements that were necessary for a healthy, safe environment. Absolutely NOTHING was addressed, regardless of the countless work orders submitted and unanswered phone calls to the office and maintenance that lead to me having to physically go to the office and find someone and make sure a work order was made. Katie, a member of the office staff, seemed to be the only one who took things seriously and made the initiative to make something happen, but there's only so much one person can do in her position. Here's MY story:
The first walk through revealed that:
-The wooden balcony was rotting
-There was no light above the range
-No disposal
-Stains and knife marks on the counter tops
-Knobs on the kitchen drawers were loose and missing, and if you pulled on one of the "decorative" drawers, it pulled the entire cabinet panel surrounding all of the drawers off the counter
-Door frames and doors were loose and warped with gouges in them
-There were big bleach spots and orange and blue stains on the carpet throughout the living room
-Holes in the carpet
-Large dark spots and "bubbling" coming through the paint on the walls and ceiling throughout entire apartment, revealing MOLD/MILDEW growing underneath that hadn't been addressed before painting
-LEAK UNDER BATHROOM AND KITCHEN SINK, causing mildew/mold growth that filled the bathroom with its stench and prevented use of the under-sink cabinet.
-The fans did not work
-Bathroom fan didn't work, encouraging more mildew/mold growth throughout areas of the bathroom (ceiling, under sink, etc)
-Light switch covers missing
-OUTLET covers missing
-Stains/adhesive on bathroom floor and toilet
-Missing window screens
-Screen broken in 2nd bedroom
-Smoke detector not working
-No fire extinguisher
-Mildew around A/C cover
Some of these, such as the carpet stains and cabinet panel coming off, were minor compared to the A/C, mold, and rotting balcony problems.
A few days after moving in, I came home to one of the balcony bars missing. It had rotted off the railing and fallen to the ground below. After several attempts to get it fixed, someone finally welded it back on. It fell off again, along with two more. There was rust at the welding points on all of the bars, and I could easily pull one loose if I wanted. I jokingly poked one with two fingers to show a friend, and it came loose. So much for safety, especially for my dog who enjoyed laying on the rotting balcony.
Just an added note: My shower fluctuated from scorching hot to freezing cold no matter what time of day I tried to take it. I must admit, though, hopping in and out of the shower every day (when I could use my bathroom) gave me some good exercise.
I received a call a few weeks after living in the apartment, to hear that a pipe had burst behind my bathroom wall and was flooding the downstairs apartment. Maintenance ripped a huge hole from ceiling to countertop, leaving drywall debris all over my bathroom. It revealed rusty pipes and insulation around them, dark green with mold. The mirror was removed, revealing mold/mildew growing rampant behind it. The hole in my bathroom wall was left there for over two weeks, exposing the mold to the rest of the apartment (NOTE: without a working bathroom fan!). No temporary apartment was offered, nothing. The bathroom was disgusting and made me sick to take a shower and breath in the tainted air, even with the door open. I took showers at a friend's house for two weeks. The maintenance workers, against my request to call before entering my apartment, walked in and out as they pleased as they slowly followed up on the piping and hole in the wall. I never knew when to expect them, and neither did my dog whom did not allow them in when I wasn't there (good dog). Nothing else was addressed besides that emergency. My AC still did not work, the fans didn't work, and it was the middle of summer.
The screen door fell off several times, and I gave up on hoping for the bars to be welded back on my balcony railing.
The laundry facilities were supposed to be open 24/7, but were often locked and closed to the residents who relied on the facility as we don't have a washer/dryer in our apartments. Many of the machines were out-of-order, and remained that way through my departure from the property.
I have heard from other residents that things had been stolen by previous maintenance workers whom had entered their apartment while they weren't there. While I trusted the head of maintenance, he was not always there when other workers were, and could not babysit all at once. There were just too many huge maintenance issues that needed to be addressed and way too little maintenance staff. They were in over their heads...way over.
It seemed like every other day, I was calling or stopping by the office after racing home from work before they closed to try and get something done.
Peoples rooves were caving in on them with heavy rain.
The "sparkling pool" was open for a few weeks before being SHUT DOWN by the HEALTH DEPARTMENT!
The empty apartment to the right and below me was absolutely overridden with black and green mold; all over the walls, climbing across the ceiling. Cans of paint sat on the floor, hopefully not waiting to cover up the disgusting "greenery" that had infested the apartment.
Lastly, on the morning of July 4th between 2AM and 4AM, my truck was broken into in the poorly lit parking lot directly in front of my apartment. Someone broke my rear window, tried to pull out my $1000 sound system out through the window, cracked my interior in the process, knocked off the rear seat headrest, unlocked the rear passenger door from the inside through the broken window, climbed in the rear door, and pulled the system out through that door. No one reported hearing or seeing anything in the length of time it would have taken for that person(s) to steal my system. So much for the 24-hr security patrol that I never, ever saw. Pennington Place staff pretty much just wanted to cover their own butts when I mentioned it, making sure I knew that they weren't liable. That's not even what I was getting at when I told them about it - I just wanted to let them be aware of it, and I thought other residents should know too (of course, they wouldn't have that happen).
If someone was willing to break into my truck and steal such a huge item from it in such an exposed area, what keeps someone from feeling free to invade my apartment' Had there been a real presence by the "24-hr security patrol", and the controlled access gates that were supposed to have been in place, and the residents in the area really not had felony charges on their records (which I know for a fact is not true), perhaps this crime could have been deterred. But none of this was true for Pennington Place.
I wrote my written notice and brought it to the office. The leasing specialist for Pennington Place was summoned and was very rude and defensive, not wanting to hear me out or admit to any of the problems I'd been having while staying there. The contract had been breached on their part, as I'd requested that I be contacted before anyone enter my apartment for maintenance. It was unhealthy, unsafe, and unfit to live in with no AC, rampant mold and mildew, rotting wood, rusting balcony, etc. and finally, becoming a victim of a crime right in front of my apartment. Thirty day's notice was out of the question. I had been there for a month and almost two weeks.
Surprise, surprise, the leasing specialist appeared the next day with a new attitude of "we'll fix all this stuff that we've been ignoring now that you want to leave so you'll want to stay!" She was sickeningly acting nice to me, and as she walked through the apartment with the top dog in maintenance to go through what needed to be done, she made sure to stop me and say, "You do know that if you do still decide to leave, you'll have to pay over a thousand dollars to break the lease along with the month's rent." Um, sorry. Pennington Place broke the lease. I LOST money living there and my health was suffering from their lack of ... well, everything.
Now I am being billed and hassled by a collections agency to pay over $1600 for leaving and "breaking the lease". The previous secretary falsly said that I did not provide written notice, and did not note that I'd left my security deposit and paid for the rest of the month's rent. Pennington Place lost my file. They are unwilling to progress and work with me as I have been trying to work with them and do things nicely, as I have done for my entire experience with them. They will not answer my phone calls, and will only speak to me when I drive to their office and wait to speak with someone on the matter. I have been lied to, being told that they were waiting for information from the collections agency since they LOST my file. I was told that she met with someone from the collections agency concerning my account, among others, and that she'd let me know the outcome if I called back. I called several times and finally got her on the phone only to be told that she's waiting for them to send her the information. REALLY now. Why would the agent not have brought that info with him when he was to discuss my account' I called the collections agency, and they said they document absolutely everything - every transaction, every phone call, every request. There has been no request for information on my account. Pennington Place is simply lying directly to me to hold me off so the collections agency can intimidate me into paying the $1600 by threatening to put a black mark on my credit. It is clear to me now that they want to play dirty. So get ready Pennington Place. I'm going to show everyone what you're hiding, and I'm not stooping to your level. I will not lie. I will not exaggerate. I will not blackmail. I will expose the truth to the public and I will get justice. I encourage anyone else who has had an experience like mine to post your experience on here and anywhere else appropriate to get the word out. I won't be screwed over, and neither should you. That is why I want you to know what Pennington Place is REALLY about.

Pennington Place is dangerous. Read the last review. Their slogan is "A Gated Community", yet you will find NO GATES, nor have there ever been gates at Pennington Place. You'll only find black fences falling apart. And your balcony bars will be falling off, too. And your roof just might cave in on you. This has happened to multiple residents. Oh, and don't plan on keeping a nice car very nice for very long. In this part of town, break ins are inevitable. Take it from me; my truck was broken into and over $1000 worth of property (hidden by blankets) was stolen in the parking lot directly in front of my apartment. The advertised "sparkling pool"' Yeah, that lasted a whole two weeks last summer before it was shut down by the Health Department. Unless an emergency happens, don't count on anything getting fixed, even your A/C. Why' Management. Whoever is in charge of what the maintenance crew gets paid obviously doesn't get it, since there are only two or three maintenance workers for the whole property at a time, which puts them in a horrible situation. See for yourself, but please, PLEASE listen to what others on this site have said (besides the obvious attempts by management to increase their referral percentage by posting the only positive comments and giving it a "YES" referral).

User Responses
From: Jiminyluvr1	Date: 04/04/2007
Please notice the similarities between the only two good reviews for Pennington Place. They both use proper English, which most other reviews for any property do not. They both start off with a catch phrase, then say that they have lived there for about 2 years. Then they praise the maintenance, management/office staff, and property and dispute all of the previous claims of anything bad happening, and say that the SMALL things that did happen were fixed promptly the first time. Disregard these, if you will, as this is an obvious effort by management to bring the referral percentage up and try to dispute REAL residents' claims. Gee, doesn't the end of the first one sound like an advertisement? Nice try, guys. "Good comment" #1 "I just wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents. I have lived here for just about 2 years and I do enjoy it. I have been reading these other reviews and have to say I don't agree. Since I have lived here everything in my apartment has worked just fine, and if I did need something fixed the maintenance staff has always been right on it and fixed it correctly the first time. The office staff are great people. Leigh who is the complex manager is really cool. Scott and Katie who are the leasing agents are both very nice and professional and work very hard. I personally have never seen any roaches in my apartment, nor any bugs for that matter except for the occasional spider. I would like everyone to remember that the reviews you read, including mine, take with a grain of salt. When people post about how trashy people are, or they have roaches in their apartment, or whatever, you ALWAYS have to remember the source that it is coming from." "Good comment" #2 Sadly this place is getting some pretty bum reviews. I have lived here for over 2 years now and have had nothing but good things to say about the complex, the management and the maintenance staff. The rent is ridiculously inexpensive and its close to everything. I say check this place out, you can't go wrong!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/31/2007
yes i do agree.....for the fact that i was on the maintenance staff at pennington place i saw them actually send in these ratings...thank you who ever you are for pointing that out......pennington place sucks that's why i know longer work there......you think it's bad just try working for the -------s

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