My husband and I lived here from May of 2006 to May of 2007. We were happy for the first month or so because the apartment, while a bit worn down, was very roomey and cheap. Things went downhill pretty fast. Here are some horror story highlights. This by no means encompasses everything though.

1) Neighbors - While some of them were very nice and respectful of others it wasn't unusual to hear serious domestic disputes (I'm talking physical). We called the cops several times because we were concerned about the safety of a woman and her children.

2) The management office would sign for packages but never notify tenants that the packages had arrived. Not a problem if you are actually expecting a specific package and can track when it arrived. However, we lived there before and little while after we got married. Several people just had our shower and wedding gifts shipped there and we didn't know they'd arrived until weeks/months after. The only reason we knew they'd arrived was because the people who sent us the gifts asked us if they'd been received. When myhusband went to ask at the office if they'd signed for anything and if so, why they didn't let us know, they said (very nastily) "we are not a concierge service". I say, if you aren't going to let us know a package has been delivered, you have no business signing for the package and excepting it. They showed my husband this small room they had where they put things they'd sign for and told him to look for our packages. He said the room was packed floor to ceiling with packages and certified mail. The shipping dates on a lot of the items were over a year old!

3) Parking - Parking is limited and guests have to park at the bottom of the hill and schlep to your apartment. Not very fun in the winter or hottest days of summer. I never had a problem parking near the apartment because I left and returned from work earlier than most. My husband was not so lucky and had to park in the guest lot fairly often.

4) Maintenance - The property overall has not been well maintained since it was built. For example, our "emergency exit" at the back of our apartment was a rusty, metal, spiral staircase. It wasn't even fully bolted to the wall. The only reason I didn't make a big stink about that is that since my husband and I are both tall, we could have jump down to the bottom floor and been ok. While we lived there we also had an issue where the roof leaked and the closet in the guest bedroom had significant water damage (including the items in the closet). Despite repeated calls to maintenance (at least 12), they never did anything to repair the damage or change the moldy carpet. I'd also heard reports of maintenance just walking into apartments when tenants were home but hadn't heard them knocking. I get that they can come in whenever they want if you aren't home but if they unlock the door and hear someone in the shower, they should just leave and come back later or at least announce themselves. Not just hang out in the living room until the unsuspecting tenant walks out of the bathroom naked (this happened to some poor woman while we lived there).

5) Insulation - Our energy bills were really high because the apartments have sliding glass doors that lead to either a balcony or patio. The draft that came through was so bad that even the plastic sheeting (the kind you blow dry to make it tight after you stick it to the frame) we used in the winter got all stretched out from the amount of wind that hit it.

6) Moving out - Our last month of our lease at Presidential Estates overlapped with the first month of our lease with our new apartment. We told management at Presidential Estates that we intended to move out gradually over the month of May and would let them know if we finished before the end of May (when our lease was over) so they could get new tenants in earlier than June if that was possible. By the second week of May we had moved most of our stuff and were living at the new apartment but still had a significant amount of belongings still at Presidential Estates. Some boxes of books and miscellaneous stuff. A bookcase, skis, my wedding dress, some small electronics, etc. I would stop there every few days to pick up some things on my way home from work. We had not told management we were fully moved out yet. One day, in mid March, my husband stopped by to pick up some more things. The door was OPEN, not just unlocked, but propped open. Several windows had been removed and some (not all) had been boarded over. There was a bunch of leaves and dirty debris all over the living room and the carpet was wet in some places. My husband assumed the apartment had ben broken into and called the cops. After he called the cops, he called the office to let them know the apartment had been broken into. They then YELLED AT MY HUSBAND (it was nasty Barbara that pulled this) for calling the cops! Turns out they just assumed we had finished moving out. They made this assumption despite the amount of stuff still in the apartment, despite the fact we still had two weeks on our lease, and despite the fact that we hadn't told them we were done yet. Management had sent maintenance to do some repairs before new tenants moved in and maintenance was just keeping the door unlocked and open for "convenience sake". Anyone could have walked in at any time and stolen the rest of our stuff. Luckily none of it was stolen and nothing was damaged by the exposure to the elements. My husband is very even-tempered but after they yelled at him about calling the cops he lost it. He yelled back at management and threatened to still file the police report and drag their actions into it. Of course, they became very apologetic and even refunded us the rent for May. Still didn't make up for what they did. I hate to be dramatic but I felt violated by that whole experience. Anyone could have gone into that apartment and done god knows what. Some nut job squatter could have gotten in there and set up shop and then attacked me or my husband the next time we stopped by.

7) Washer and dryer did not work the entire time we lived there.

Hope this review helps with your decision. AD2Hw9Wn8Umb3NN1w1jt

User Responses
From: voodimac	Date: 09/28/2009
I am going for a lawsuite against them, would you care to contact me at voodimac@rocketmail.com

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