Cobblestone apartments are typical for relatively affordable housing in the Baton Rouge area. They??re old and have the usual problems that old apartments have: thin walls, iffy appliances, parking issues, ugly carpeting, tiny bathrooms, cramped quarters, etc. But they??re generally fine, and you can fix them up nicely with a little effort. One major warning before I get into more serious considerations: pay the little bit extra and get a ground level apartment. Not only are they larger and have more spacious layouts, it is almost impossible to move furniture that weighs more than 20 lbs. upstairs. Take my word on it ?? it??s a nightmare. We kept a storage unit for the entire 9 months we lived there just because we couldn??t get most of our furniture into our apartment. It basically added another $100 to our rent.

And, remember that they are located on Essen Lane, perhaps the single most overburdened street in Baton Rouge. God help you if you should ever have to make a left turn out of the driveway . . . it can take hours.

But, as I said, there??s nothing really wrong with the apartments ?? physically. It??s the management that makes Cobblestone a problematic place to call home. We initially signed a six-month lease with an option to continue on month-to-month once it expired. Everything was fine ?? everyone was pleasant. Things changed once our community manager left. We were told that, upon signing a month-to-month lease, all we had to give was two weeks notice and we were out. That sounded fantastic to us, as we were really looking into leasing a house instead of an apartment. All you had to do was sign the lease and pay $25 more a month ?? not bad, right' Our neighbors, who were on the same month-to-month lease that we signed, moved out about a month before we did and warned us to be careful. They??d really had to fight to make the management honor the two weeks notice they??d been promised because apparently the actual legal document requires a 30 day notice. But they were, in the end, successful in getting out in two weeks.

Fast-forward a few months and we find our dream house. It??s in the beginning of the month (back in April), which leaves us with 3 ?? weeks notice for Cobblestone. We sign the lease and call the management to give them notice and get the most unpleasant surprise ever.

They tell us that not only are they not willing to take less than 30 days notice, apparently you can ONLY give notice to vacate on the 1st of the month, ever. So, they informed us that they were charging us for the following month??s rent. They also told us (unethically, I thought) that the previous manager was fired for making these promises (I happen to know some friends of his, and they told me he actually moved to Germany). My response was, well then, you obviously are aware that he made verbal contracts with tenants. These are binding, aren??t they' Finally, the acting property manager (and I will say that she did her best by me) referred me to corporate, telling me to talk to a specific person there. I called and called, then realized I had been given a ??dummy?? number. It??s an automated number that dumps your response into a box with anyone else who calls with a complaint. Eventually, I realized that they would probably never contact me again, or at least not until it was past the 1st of the month, leaving me most definitely responsible for another month of rent.

So, the next day, knowing I couldn??t afford double rent, I visited their Web site and found another corporate number, which got me in touch with a secretary who sent me to the direct voice mail of the person I was looking for. Still, two days and seven phone calls went by with no response. Again, I visited their site, this time noticing a 24-hour response to complaints promise. Using this, I wrote an e-mail to their general account, complaining of the timeliness of my issues and the fact that 72 hours had already passed with no contact. Funny enough, 15 minutes later, my phone rang. I won??t go into the details because I??ve already taken enough of your time, but the basic idea was that they knew he??d made those promises but that they ??couldn??t continue to honor them anymore.?? She had the gall to tell me that I should always get these things in writing. I replied that I did understand that, but when your apartment complex manager tells you these things you tend to take their word for it. Besides, shouldn??t you be able to trust that these employees of Wampold Corp. (parent of Cobblestone) aren??t lying to you' As she said, ??In the best of circumstances, yes. It wasn??t the case here.??

So, to end this warning, I ended up paying an extra month of rent just to save my credit rating. Watch out for the management. Like most big corporations, they??re not concerned with you at all, and they will get their money from you, one way or another. If you do (for some reason) end up moving to Cobblestone, don??t take their word for anything, get everything in writing and make copies of it. Really read your lease (I??m sure most of us are guilty of just signing it after the manager explains it to us) and listen to your neighbors. This is the seventh apartment I??ve lived in, and I??ve had good landlords and bad, but this treatment was by far the worst I??ve ever received. Please think it over before you move here. Even if everything else works out for you, what happens if you find a better place to live after the first of the month'

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