Avoid these apartments like the plague! Lies and problems from the first day to the last day! So glad to be out of there. Don't let the very nice office staff fool you. They smile and are polite, but then the company takes you for a ride.

1. Maintenance. We had SERIOUS problems with a lack of hot water. We never had hot water in the morning. With two kids, that was a major problem. They took money off the rent, yes. But, they never fixed the problem. I would have preferred to pay full rent and get hot water. Hot water at other times of the day was hit and miss. We prayed that our neighbors didn't do laundry at our kids' bath time.

2. Gym. You'll need a physician's note to use the gym. You'll also have to fill out a health history and workout plan. Then you get to the gym and it's an incomplete, dirty, rathole. The equipment is shoddy and falling apart. There are few matching weights. It's so small that it stinks, which isn't helped by the lack of air circulation. Plus, if you want to work out, make sure it's in their 2 - 7 p.m. window. If you work during the day, then too bad for you.

3. Safety. The playgrounds are very unsafe. We had to use the playground of a neighboring community. Briarcliff's playground was missing the seat to it's bench - so there was no place for a parent to sit and watch children. The metal was rusting. The swings were missing. I'd call it a junk yard, not a playground.

Also, there were thieves in the apartments. People were breaking into sliding glass doors and stealing things. The management sent a letter around reminding people to be on the lookout and to keep the charlie bars closed on the sliding glass doors. The lack of security was unnerving.

4. Sound. Briarcliff IS NOT soundproof!! Yes, I could have guessed that our neighbors had sex. But, I could hear it through the ceiling. That was very unpleasant. I'm glad that our children were too young to ask questions about all that noise.

5. Pests. Do you like house centipedes and mice' Do you like lots of them' You'll love Briarcliff!

6. The final slap in the face: We arrived to an apartment filled with carpet stains. Plus the walls were not painted and were dirty from the previous tenants. When we left, we went through four cans of resolve to clean all the carpet stains that we had made - and more. We left the apartment spotless. Then we were charged $215 for carpet cleaning. They claimed that we couldn't prove which stains were new and which were old. They told us that we shouldn't complain because we were getting a "deal" on rent. A lack of hot water, then being dishonestly charged for carpet cleaning is not a deal, folks.

Run, don't walk to another apartment complex!!

User Responses
From: jimgeb	Date: 10/28/2008
Response from Briarcliff Management: We know who this tenant is. Obviously anyone reading this post will note that this former resident is disgruntled because this person believes we ???cheated??? them out of $215 worth of carpet charges. This person is actively engaging in a campaign to get these charges returned and has unfortunately resorted to an untrue report via this internet site in an attempt to do so. We ask all residents to complete a report on anything less than perfect in their apartment when they move-in. For example, on occasion there will be minor carpet stains that cannot be removed. There were, in fact, minor carpet stains noted on the resident???s move-in report, and we certainly did not charge the resident for these. However, we did charge them for several large orange stains that were not present at move-in. We know this resident is engaged in a campaign to obtain a refund for the damage they caused because on the day they moved out, this resident left us the following note (which is reproduced verbatim less five names of staff members and the poster???s name): ???Thank you for a great stay. We appreciate the very personal service here. Thanks to M_____, K_____, E____, T____, B______. Everyone was so nice and concerned about us. Thank you for letting us stay a few weeks longer to get things settled with our house. Thank you! The S______s??? As you can see, before these charges were applied, these people seemed highly satisfied. This particular lease was a short term lease (3 months) for which we charge a 20% premium. Because of water issues for this short term lease we refunded the 20% short term lease premium, and at that time they were satisfied. WE never once received a noise complaint OR a pest complaint from this resident during their stay. Moreover, there are 8??? of poured-in-place concrete or masonry construction between all apartments, so nois complaints are very rare. As for our weight-lifting and fitness facility, the former resident???s statements are ridiculous and false in every way. We have one of the most comprehensive recreational facilities of any apartment complex in the state. Our TWO weight rooms include a number of Nautilus, Cybex, or Hammersmith machines with thousands of pounds of weights. Our dumbbells alone range from 2 pounds to 110 pounds. The full basketball court-sized indoor gymnasium is unparalleled in any other apartment community. Of course, all facilities are cleaned daily and are well lit. On advice from our insurance carrier, we do require a doctor???s note in order to protect ourselves from litigation resulting from the use of the weight rooms. If residents desire sporadic, light aerobic exercise, then a brisk walk to nearby shopping would probably be more suitable or perhaps taking advantage of the indoor basketball court, tennis courts, or swimming pool (the use of each requiring NO doctor???s note) would be more appropriate. For pictures of our facilities go to http://www.gebhartproperties.com/Briarcliff_Apartments/East/Media. One of the 3 Briarcliff Apartment playgrounds was being repaired during a part this tenant???s 3 month stay and our playgrounds are inspected twice a year for safety and usability. As for safety and crime, we cannot make any claims about the safety of our community due to fair housing laws that encourage properties to refer all questions to safety to local law enforcement. However, we have been informed that we have no more incidence of crime that any other apartment community in the area. With that being said, we actively engage our local community outreach officers in order to increase our community awareness. We also qualify our residents based on income, credit, and tenancy and we accept no federal assistance, vouchers, or setion 8 at our communities. By using these criteria, we ensure only the most qualified residents can become members of our community. At Briarcliff, using the words of this tenant, we try to ???personalize??? our service. As much as we???d like to see it happen, no housing arrangement is 100% perfect ??? like hot water in this instance. We recompensed this individual by discounting the 20% premium (over $500) and they were satisfied ??? until this person decided they didn???t want to pay for the carpet damages they caused. It is an unfortunate that someone would decide to tarnish us in a public forum after we tried so hard to make them feel at home, especially when we were simply exercising our normal move-out process for damages to the unit. In fact, we specifically instructed our carpet contractor to break out the orange stains from the total carpet cleaning bill in order to ???look out??? for this tenant and only charge them what was equitable. I hope, when reading this post, you will use this tenant???s own words at move-out (before the charges) to see our attempts to satisfy their needs and make them feel at home here at Briarcliff.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/01/2009
the gym sucks!!! And what indoor basketball court...I must have missed that the whole year I lived there.
From: IHATEBRIARCLIFF	Date: 06/05/2009
IM SURPRISED THE STAFF AT BRIARCLIFF WERE SMART ENOUGH TO TYPE SOMETHING THAT LONG! LOOK OUR YUR MAKING THEM MAD. wOW YOU KNOW COME TO THINK ABOUT IT.. THAT THE MOST EFFORT I HAVE SEEN OFFICE STAFF PUT INTO A RESIDENT AT ALL.

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