There are a few good things about brookside apartments. It s cheap and the management team is friendly and helpful and maintenance is quick with requests, however like the old adage says you pay for what you get.

I ve lived at brookside apartments for the past year and recently moved out. If you are looking for a starter apartment, I recently graduated college and needed something cheap than the Brookside is a little bit bearable for a temporary stay. I paid 1100 for a 2 bedroom which included heat and hot water which had an updated kitchen. In my year there I frequently had to spray mold defender on the ceiling in the shower because due to no vent, mold kept growing on the ceiling and in the corner of the shower. I never had any MAJOR problems with the people that lived in the building however there is a neighbor in the house next to my building that is the epitome of white trash. It s none of my business how many kids a person has with how many people; however her most recent child was fathered by a kid in my building. There was never a dull moment in the summer time because the police visited her house on a constant basis, I m talking 3 times a week at least, and seeing I was on the bottom floor I got the luxury of sitting in my living room and watching tv and hearing her stand out front of the building cursing and screaming at the guy who lived in my building and on occasion assaulting him. Even on one occasion I saw a white bronco zoom by on the front lawn about a foot from my window and it wasn t OJ Simpson, it was indeed the neighbor, trying to run down her baby s daddy because he had stolen her debit card. Eventually she quieted down a bit after being taken out in handcuffs with her mother; however I also attribute it to winter so she didn t come out as much.

Parking: In regards to parking, we were giving one numbered spot and another pass seeing we had a two bedroom. There are a fair amount of spots on the premises however a certain unit in my building had about 4 cars and felt that they could park wherever they wanted. I m sure you ve heard the saying how many so and so s does it take to screw in a light bulb, however i've come to learn how many Haitians can you fit in a 2 bedroom apartment. Its like a clown car up there, they just keep coming and coming. They never obeyed the non parking areas and didn t even have a parking pass. There is also parking in the street and a fair amount of people does that; however I HIGHLY suggest against it. I parked my car on the street ONCE due to no spots being available and then ran out to the store with my girlfriend in her car and left my car on the street. When I came back and went to move my car, I noticed the whole driver side of my car had been sideswiped in a hit and run and no one left a note or saw anything. Nothing beats being charged 4500 to fix your new car due to damage.

Tenants: In regards to tenants I rarely saw them and the ones I did see barely spoke English. On my floor were two Indian couples who loved to cook authentic Indian food, so if you don t like the smell of Indian food then it s not for you. They even cooked with their door open. If its smells that bad that you have to cook with your door open maybe you shouldn t cook it. There is one washer and dryer in the building for 11 apartments. On multiple occasions I went to do laundry and someone had left there clothes sitting in the washer for hours upon hours or in the dryer so if I washed my clothes I couldn t then put it in the dryer because people had no regard to come and get their stuff. As mentioned I lived on the first floor and right by the front door which at night, you better be prepared to have the door slam shut constantly as people come in and out. That didn t bother me that much because its an apartment building however seeing that more than the allowed amount of people stay in certain apartments they all don t have keys so on numerous occasions I came home to find the front locked door wide open and the rug in front of it rolled up and holding it open so the misfits could come and go as they want. Luckily I never had any break-ins. My only other run in with a tenant was on a Sunday. An older woman asked me to make change so she could do laundry, so nicely I gave her four quarters and she gave me a rolled up dollar. Well when I shut my door and went to throw the dollar on my night stand I noticed it was covered in a brown substance .and low and behold it was ----. No lie, it was covered in ----. Nothing beats doing something nice for someone and getting ---- on for it. Also in the bedroom the heat makes a clicking sound in the ceiling. Eventually you get used to it because it s loud however for the first week, I don t think I slept at all and had to fight from falling asleep at work. Another lucky surprise was when my gf was cleaning out her closet and pulled out a pair of shoes she got a lovely present. Her brown suede shoe was covered in mold. Yes, mold had grown on her shoe while it was in the closet. Even though there isn t security on site, don t worry there is this one Russian guy in the apartment unit over from me that is constantly on the side of the building chain smoking cigarettes. Don t try to ask him anything though because he doesn t speak any English. Amazingly the one time he wasn t outside chain smoking was when my car got hit. Another pleasant surprise involved TERMITES on my window ledge in the springtime. I constantly found piles of wings on the ledge however the insects that the wings belonged to were gone.

Paying rent: You are able to pay rent online which is good because the management isn t on site, however I suggest if you are going to, the first online rent payment you make you call and double check it. I paid my rent online and the first time I did it, I received a confirmation that it had gone through and it was debited from my checking account however one a Saturday I was awoken by someone at my door. Low and behold I was served a notice of EVICTION for not paying rent when indeed I had paid it a week early. On another occasion my account was debited twice for a month. Both times the management team was polite in handling it and very helpful however it did take me nearly a month to get my rent back that was double debited.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/21/2009
Completely agree with the points that touch on the negative. I would even go as far as to say this review understates the negative impact of the neighbors, and neighborhood itself. Between the gang of hoodlums (who do not even live here) that pretty much rule the parking lots during the Spring, Summer, and Fall, the building break-ins, and some of the tenants themselves these four buildings are like a chunk of the ghetto transplanted to the middle of the quiet Woburn suburbs.
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/21/2009
This is so right on. Recently those hoodlums broke into one of the buildings and managed to take the top part of the dryer(with the quaters)so the dryer was out of service for atleast a month. I have to add that the noise from the heater in the walls is unbereable but you get used to it, especially after numerous calls to the rental office and maintenance and nothing is done about it. I have placed a call reagarding the mold in the bathroom and they have not come by as of yet. I'm starting to think I might have rented this persons apartment because I everything mentioned above is exactly what I'm experiencing. As a matter of fact when I first moved in my daughter who was in the second bedroom would wake up everyday with new red bites all over her body. Of course they were really no help and blamed it on bed bugs and assumed it came from us as opposed to the hideous carpet that looked very dingy. Unfortunately due to thise recession I am unable to move so I was forced to renew my lease. I'm counting down the days until the end... And they had the nerve to raise the rent...

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