We've been living here for 2.5 months, and we are pretty happy with the neighborhood. The apartments rent for a reasonable price, the staff is friendly and responsive, and the neighborhood is generally pretty quiet, even though we are just down the street from the Old Mill school complex.

We live on the bottom-rear facing unit of one of the stacked townhouses. Because our unit backs into a hill, it generally maintains a moderate temperature without much need for AC (and heat so far). It's nice to always be able to find parking near our front steps. The grounds are kept neat and well maintained, although our upstairs neighbors litter cigarette butts off their balcony decks (which then accumulate on our front stoop). There is also a lot of noise from above during evening hours, as our neighbors are heavyset, and we can constantly hear the thuds of their footsteps and the creaks in the ceiling.

Fundamentally, the Berkshires are a nice place to live--except in our 2.5 months here we have already encountered a large number of maintenance issues.

The apartments are old, and although they have been nicely refurbished, the systems do really show their age. We will both be the first to tell you that maintenance has been incredibly responsive--in all "emergency" situations, someone has arrived to help within an hour. The staff is also very friendly. It's just that their follow through has been inadequate.

The first problem we had was a non-working ice maker in the freezer. This was quickly fixed by maintenance. When we moved in, the apartment stunk of cigarette smoke (this smell abated by itself after two months) and there were stains in the carpet. Also, the carpet was not tacked down in the corner near the kitchen, and there was a large worn spot in the other rear corner. Eventually, after calling several times, someone was sent out to clean the carpet. They were able to spot clean several areas, and got a few, but not a majority, of the stains out. No one ever came to re-stretch and tack down the carpet.

A couple weeks later, we smelled a strange sulfur oder in the hallway, and upon opening the utility closet door, saw that the chimneys for both the water heater and furnace were not attached to the main exit chimney!!! We called maintenance at once, and even though it was late at night, they came out and temporarily taped up the ducts. They seemed shocked and disturbed about the situation, and thanked us for calling them immediately--I think this is evidence of a serious, even deadly flaw in their pre-move in refurbishment and inspection process. If we had moved in during the winter, I'm worried we could have been killed from carbon monoxide poisoning from the furnace exhaust. The initial maintenance responders said that someone would be out in a day to do a professional job, but no one ever came. A couple weeks later we called again, and an employee was sent out and it appears now that a good job has been done fixing the duct work.

A couple weeks later, we had an invasion of ants in our kitchen. An exterminator was sent out and the ants were dealt with. We have seen a couple here and there since, but the problem has been largely addressed.

Recently, we noticed water coming from underneath the refrigerator. We pulled it away from the wall, and found that the ice maker line had burst. Maintenance came out the next day and clamped the line, and sent someone to repair it several days later.

The latest problem the reason we are writing this review. We came home from a weekend away (during which there was heavy rain) and found a large, 2x10 foot area of carpet completely saturated with water near the rear, underground wall of our unit. We called maintenance and a representative was sent out immediately. He noted that this is a common occurrence when there is heavy rain, and explained that that was why the carpet was not attached to the ground near the rear wall. Another maintenance person arrived two hours later and they spent about five minutes sucking up some of the water out of the carpet, and then left a fan blowing on it, telling us to leave it on for the next several days to prevent mold growth. Hours later, we noticed that the carpet was even wetter than before. We pulled the carpet back from the wall, borrowed a shop vac from a friend, and spent an hour and a half of our own time vacuuming the water out of the carpet. Even though the rain stopped last night, water is still coming through the wall, so we have the carpet and pad pulled back, and towels laid down.

It has just been a mess keeping up with maintenance issues since we moved in, and we are fed up. Although the team is responsive, I don't think they take responsibility for the problems, especially the issue with the furnace and this latest problem with the water. It has been a huge hassle keeping up with all of these problems, and we wish the maintenance team did more preventative work, and did a more thorough job responding to the major issues.

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