NOISE

The walls/floors are thin. So, yes, you hear EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING.

I have had to call the police a few times to ask my downstairs neighbor to lower the volume of their many TVs, some of them were on all night long, the FCC beeps really is irritating; as well as my upstairs neighbor to lower their whatever music volume level. Your personal visits to them only works that time, it just keeps coming. When you call the police, don't dial 911, dial the other non-emergency line to keep 911 line open for real deals. I first called the rental office to complain about the noise nuisance, earlier management actually did send letters to the neighbor and copied me. But recent 2009 management actually said if I would like to call the police, then "by all means do it".

The stairs are iron frames top wrapped with carpets, so you both hear the noise and feel the vibration when people come up and down.

The balcony fence is welded to the same cement blocks that also make up the floor. So say if your upstairs neighbor has kids that kick their fence, your living room ceiling conducts the reverberation that is very difficult to endure.

WINDOWS
If the unit is with white window frames, they were newly replaced ones from last winter, I suppose they are better. Our unit came with the old black framed windows, they were bad. The temperature in one of our bedrooms, with windows on two sides of the walls, was at least 15 degrees lower than where the thermostat is located. I put old sweaters on the windowsills, and they froze the whole winter. Mold developed fiercely on the frames and windowsills, from the peels of the paint, you could see they simply painted it over and over without cleaning it. It took a lot of unpleasant calls to get them cleaned, albeit cosmetically. Be sure to ask for the new fancy non-toxic cleaner.

LAUNDRY
Laundry room is in the basement, 1-2 pairs of washer-dryers, the cost starts at $ 1.75 each, some people say it is expensive. Sometimes people would drag in their laundry baskets and take it over. So picking the right time is important. Let me also put it this way, I have ALWAYS had to clean the dryer lint screen before I could use the machine.

KITCHEN
In the Kitchen, the electric range stove is RIGHT next ( about 2 inches apart) to the fridge. It definitely was so laid out without any scientific common sense. I can't imagine anybody would TRY to use the auto cleaning function of the electric range, it probably would melt everything in the freezer'

RENEWAL of LEASE
I experienced the most inexplicably unreasonable reasoning from the management.
You need to notify the rental office your intention to move out 60 days before the intended date.
- So at that time I received a pricing letter, which kept my future rent as was. I searched its website and found my next door neighbor was listed about $90 lower than my then current/offered rate.
- So I emailed (keep the paper trail) and asked for a better deal. The regional manager replied and said the best they could offer was $500 off the first month, that obviously was effectively only less than $42 off each month, so I so reasoned and asked for better deal, they said no, so I said no, no renewal.
- a few weeks later while I was looking for a place to move to, I saw that my unit was being listed for $60 less than what I was paying. It later dropped as low as $110 off what I was paying.
- So I emailed the management again and asked why the current customer could not get what they were offering the new customers'
- The answer was they were NOT AUTHORIZED to offer the current customer the MARKET PRICE, and the best thing they could do for me was $720 off the first month, i.e. $60 off each month. While on the same day, it was listed $110 off what I was paying.
- Trying to squeeze some value at time of renewal from the current customer is one thing given the switching cost every renter faces. But keep asking for more money from the same customer while asking less from new customer is another. It is not reasonable. It is mean.
- My friend suggested that given the detailed paper trail, I probably have a case at the small claims court to recover the moving cost.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/06/2009
I have lived here for several years and everything 'hautenonplus' described above is true, right down to the renewal of the lease. It took me about a month of negotiations to get the $500.00 off first month for renewing, even though the manager knew I was paying over $100.00 more a month than tenants who just moved in nextdoor. They 'promised' to give me upgrades but I have not seen any yet. The manager told me that they won't give a reduction in rent because they know most people will not undertake the hassle of moving and will agree to the new lease terms. Also, since they have reduced the rent for 'new' tenants I have noticed the noise level has increased. Finally, I have good things to say about prompt repairs when important things need to get back online. The maintenance staff are overworked and understaffed.

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