I lived in 3 apartments in Boston, and Granada Highlands gave me major problems. The Basics:





Good:


1. gorgeous, romantic view of city skyline


2. attentive security, gated


3. very clean apts, pest free


4. excellent snow removal considering the horrible winter I was lucky enough to endure


5. location, commute to Boston less than 1/2 hour in moderate traffic








Bad:

The office staff will flat out lie to your face, pretend they don't know you, and DO NOT live up to ANY verbal agreements. Get everything, and i mean everything, in writing.


2. The apartment halls tend to smell, some very strongly, of what i assume is either asian or indian cooking. Very spicy and pungent.


3. My dishwasher was older than I was, literally. I know because i found the user handbook that had a coupon for palmolive detergent which expired in '78. Holy cow!


4. Major wind draft can enter thru the air conditioner unit in the winter. Major.





Ugly:


1. The hallways are just plain ugly with stained carpet and sometimes questionable ceilings.


2. Some people leave red christmas lights lit year round on their porch





If you are going to rent here, you better be very aware of the leasing office. They all seem to be very nice, and i actually had an outstanding relationship with them, became friends. When it came time for me to leave, they screwed me with a 60 day notice to vacate. I had previously been promised it had been taken care of by more than one person, I had specifically asked. I was notified 2 weeks before my lease was up that they never lived up to their promise, and i was penalized 2 months rent and had my security deposit ($1,375) withheld. Granada Highlands is owned by Equity Residential, and boy are they ugly with you. I fought for more than 6 months with them about the nearly $4,000 penalty. They threatend me, and I went thru state mediation services to resolve this. They put a mark in my credit report while the case was in mediation (illegal). When that was pointed out to them (by me and my mediator) they suddenly offered to settle, and ended up sending me a check for $220. I didn't care to get more because this was a hard-ass fight, and all i wanted was to break even. I never got the rest of my security deposit back.





Do not be fooled when they tell you it's a luxury apartment, it isn't. I hear it was 10 or more years ago, but who cares now.





It was an excellent experience for me until the 2 weeks prior to moving. Then it was hell on earth. And lucky for me i had a lot of free time to fix what they did to me financially.

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