I lived at Charleston Manor (formerly Normady Woods) for 3 years with a roommate, we were both young female college students and thought that this looked like a safe community. In 2000 we didn't have many problems, sure its a crappy old apartment complex, but we could afford it so why not give it a try. Our rent when we moved in was $650 a month for a 2 bedroom one bath. That went up by $200 in 2 years.

We had only a couple of good experiences in 3 years with the matienence staff, and all of those were with the same employee. However I think he is gone. At some point this creepy guy started comming instead, he didn't really seem to know what he was doing, and spent a lot of time talking about himself and hitting on us. He came into our apartment uninvited, and unannounced, i woke up and found him chilling in our living room. He didn't follow any of the procedure for notifying us, or leaving a note on the door to signify his presence. On another occation he also left a creepy note in my desk when i wasn't home inviting me to some party. It was very uncomfortable, i didn't feel safe.

The neighbors across the hall had money stolen, they changed the locks, and it happened again, the only people who had access to their apartment were the staff. There was no sign of break in and it was a third floor apartment.

One of the last straws was when the managment company towed 12 cars belonging to residents in my building and their guests. There was no notice we just woke up and our cars were gone. I would have assumed they were stolen but they weren't nice cars, and too many were gone for that to make sense. So it turns out the management "accidentally" had ALL OF THEM towed. We received NO compensation for this at all. I almost lost my job because I had to go get my car which was a half an hour away in a lot in Jessup.

When they changed over to new management our paperwork was mishandled, and somehow it was recorded that we did not put down a security deposit. So they asked me and my room mate to pay for "a dirty dishwasher" and "dirty carpet" (which had not been close to new when we moved in), and not refund the $650 that we had provided as a deposit. Now i understand sometimes paperwork is mishandled, but common sense says that the policy at the time we moved in was that a security deposit equal to one months rent was required to obtain an apartment. Therefore we must have paid this deposit in order to move in. It is not as if they would give 2 18 year old girls an apartment with no deposit, it doesn't even make sense.

Over the 3 years that I lived there the charicter of the community changed considerably. When I arrived it was mostly single parent families, older couples, working professionals, and foriegn familes. When i moved out it was full of alcoholic 20 somethings, teenagers with children, and people using drugs. It was completely different, and i'm very glad i was able to afford to move.

While the neighbors will vary from building to building with in the complex, i still would not recomend this community.

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