When we first came to Heritage we were really happy with it (June of 05 to mid-Aug 06). There were the usual minor maintenance items but they were handled quickly and professionally. After a few months they changed management, and eventually changed hands again (without any notice) before we moved out a year later.

I originally gave Heritage a glowing review, but that was with the first management. Like most things in life, let's just say it went downhill from there. I'll basically say this about the people who were running Heritage when we left:

(a) Make copies of ANYTHING you give them in writing, as they will lose it when convenient for them.

(b) If you're leaving before month-end, expect them to rent out your apartment before month-end and not reimburse you for that portion. As far as I know, it's illegal for them to "double-charge" rent like that, but they'll get away with it if they can. I happened to be in town for business a week after we left (moved to Michigan), and what do you know' They rented out my room already, despite their assurances that they wouldn't and thus had no need to reimburse me. It was like pulling teeth to get our money back.

(c) Our experience was dampened, so to speak, by a flooding incident (frozen pipe) which occurred under the previous management. Essentially, the new management claimed we still owed rent for a portion of a month which was discounted on account of the flooding. Not necessarily their fault, but they seemed completely unwilling to help resolve the issue, or even give us the name of the previous company.

So, in other words, our impression went from very positive to very negative in only a few short months of dishonesty on the part of the new management. The "power of the last impression" prevails in this case. If this were June 2005, you'd be moving into a great place. What Heritage is like now I can only guess, but I would recommend being overly paranoid against any trickery on the part of the management. (Which is probably a good practice anyway, but it isn't fun when there's good reason for it.)

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Previous review:


Living in a brand new apartment is great. There were a few things that needed fixing off the bat or weren't there that should have been, but it was all taken care of really quickly. The first time we vacuumed the carpet, our vacuum got so plugged we couldn't finish vacuuming. Not sure if that will keep happening or if it's just because it's new. The staff is very helpful and friendly. We get notices in the mail when we have packages and the club house takes care of signing for them. The club house is really great! Free cookies and coffee, great fitness room with A/C and cable flat screen TV. Club house also has a big movie theater and lots of other "extras" like a deck overlooking the pool, a room you can read in or use the computer with Internet access in, and a cafe area downstairs (which I held my sister's baby shower in) that really make it nice. The club house has a nice pool that's open from 10 to 10. We use it a lot. There are great lounge chairs. We looked at these reviews when we were deciding where to live (apartment reviews in general as there were none for Heritage yet) and now I realize that only disgruntled people write them, so I wanted to change that (revised- I guess we are one of the disgruntled ones now). Heritage is somewhat pricey - we locked in a great rate while it was still being built and got to be among the first to choose our location- I'm not exactly sure what we pay but we got a free month and either $50 or $100 off a month- but I think it's worth it. We looked around at quite a few apartments in the area and the only other one that compared was Archstone, but it had a weird feel to us and, (perhaps foolishly,) we looked at the reviews and they were all bad. Heritage is very convenient to the highway. No lights between Heritage and HWY 95 Northbound. Lots of stuff nearby- the mall, Barnes and Noble, and tons of other stores. We live in an Essex and paying more for the extra bedroom and all the windows was definitely worth it. We've never used our AC and don't really need it. We live in a basement apartment and love our location. We're very happy living there and would recommend it to anyone although we believe we have the best unit in the place location-wise. After living in downtown Boston, parking is a dream! (I personally didn't mind having to walk a little bit because I was used to walking 5-10 blocks in Boston.) To answer the first review, I'd say that Heritage is as well built as any other place and to have all of the appliances and carpet and paint and everything else brand new beats any of the older apartments in the area. In-unit laundry is really great, especially coming from living in a 5th floor apartment in Boston with coin-op laundry in the basement and an unreliable elevator. We thought that we'd hear highway noise a lot but don't hear it at all, unless the windows are open, and even then we only hear a light constant sound that doesn't bother us. All the trees are great too in terms of scenery. The two of us live in 6 Littles Brook in the back which is extremely private. I don't know how noisy it is in the other units. We can only hear when people are doing laundry above us (revised...a Stomper moved in above us and we could hear his every move). We only have one other person living on our floor which is really nice.

We also got free shipping on our kitchen table from Donahues. It saved us a lot of money. We would have gotten the exact same table from Bernie and Phyl's for $110 more.

Also, pets are allowed and they seem to be lenient on the size. I've seen quite a few bigger dogs. (We did end up getting a 35 pound Australian Shepherd. Pet rent sucks but it was nice to be able to have her there.)

I'm not sure if I'd want to live in any of the buildings besides 6 Littles Brook because of privacy. I would guess that the one with underground parking could be loud but I would't know.

User Responses
From: Sweetpotato62	Date: 09/30/2006
I would have to agree with this review, almost in its entirety. Like this reviewer, it is a great advantage to live in a complex that is brand new. I live in 1 Littles Brook and was among one of the first ones to move in when our section opened in January 2005. AT least for me the original staff and the current one is very courteous. The complex is going through a period of transistion presently. The parking situation has been tough, although I have a garage, which is extra money but worth it. There is one drawback with the garages though they can be tough to get in and out of aas they are not wide enough. I agree with the amount of noise - it isn't that bad as far as the highway goes. There is some noise from the people above, but that is part of apartment living. In unit laundry - great.

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