If you have seen oakpark you would have seen the apartments are good and the site is also good. DO NOT LET that get you into signing the lease. Here are the problems
1. If you decide to break the lease, you have to pay 4 months of rent (That is 2500K)
2. Your water bill is not a bill from your meter, but a shared bill from your bldg. So if you are in a 16 unit bldg and lets say it is 1/2 full, you are paying the bill for your nearby apartment as well. For my wife and I we had to pay $120 only as water per month. Most of other apartments give water for free.
3. You are not allowed dish antenna unless you have renters insurance.
4. The management will sign you with their sweet talk. Once you are signed, they are the worst rude guys you would see.
5. Even if you give the keys a month early of your lease end, you will still end up paying for your utilities no matter u had already submitted the keys to apartment.
6. Do not fool you with cheap rate (i.e. if you got a cheap rate) because next year your rent will increase by atleast $80. They know you will be in pain moving to other apartment.
7. There are much better apartments in south lansing region, try those.
8. Your car port nowadays is separate $10 and you cannot change it. My carport was a mile away from my house, what is the use we ended up parking below our house. And did I not tell you, carport is compulsory
9. They are there to suck your money. They will take advantage of you as much as they can.
10. Washer dryer are not in unit except in townhone where they charge you $40 extra.
11. And forget you are ever going to get your deposit back. Your $200 is gone. If you do not trust me go ahead and rent it. You will be sorry when each and every point in this review comes true.
9.

User Responses
From: hemahema_k	Date: 08/23/2008
Thanks for your response. It clearly shows you are not living in Oak Part but are working with Oak Park. I am not telling anyone to live in Oak Park or not. That is not my job or business. Everybody is smart enough to make their own decision. These are facts I faced and I wrote. if you still want to fall in well, please feel free to move ahead. BTW, instead of responding to my comment you could have added a new one. so thank you Oak park management for acknowledging the fact by denying it in your response. :-)
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/25/2008
Wow, way to jump to assumptions. I do not work for Oak Park. I do not want to go into sales and could never work for a leasing office because it is just not my atmosphere. I am a current senior at MSU and have lived in previous apartments in East Lansing near campus. If you want to complain about getting treated like crap, having your money sucked away from you, and apartments that are falling apart, go and try to live in one of those. I am not saying these apartments are super-glamorous or anything, but they are worth what you pay for them. Try and show me any other big city or capitol city in the nation that you can live in a 2 bedroom 1000 sq ft apt for under 600 a month. You will not be able to find it, that's all I am saying. And I have posted my review of oak park on here before, I choose to reply to yours so that people who read yours could hear both sides of the story.
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/09/2008
Lies lies lies. We got charged every month for our carport that we never used in our apartment. Washer and dryers are charged separately, $40, my sister lived in one of the townhomes. Everyone will give a different answer if you ask them. No one knows what they are talking about.
From: oakpark08	Date: 09/09/2008
If you decide to break your lease there is a penalty of 200% of one month's rent. You also must give a 60-day written notice. Contrary to comment #1. #2 Water in the townhomes is individually metered. In the apartment buildings it is metered on an industrial sized boiler then divided by the amount of residents in each apartment. The amount of vacant apartments in a building would not adversely affect your water bill because there would be less water used. #3 We do require renters insurance for satellite dishes to ensure that the dish company does not do any damage to the building when installing the signal reception device. Any renter in their right mind would have renters insurance anyways because no aparment community will cover personal property in the case of an emergency i.e. flood, fire, or break in. #4 Our management is not rude. #5 If you turn in keys early that does not release you from your rental obligation. If you prefered we could have let you break the lease and pay that penalty instead of the utilities? #6 Our rental rates are set by our corporate office and can fluctuate from year to year. I am yet to see an increase of that amount. Renewal rates can be negotiated with the rental office. We can work for you as a liason and try to get corporate to reduce any increase. #7 I believe we are one of the prime locations and community's in South Lansing. I encourage everyone to look around at the competition, but most will see the value in Oak Park Village. #8 Carports are included with apartments, but do cost $10 if you are in a townhome. The apartment carports are pre-assigned and you therefore cannot change them. #9 We do not try to suck your money, but we are a for-profit organization. If you prefer a non-profit organization try the Ingham County Housing Authority or any Tax-Credit communities. I think you will prefer our service. #10 Washer/Dryer's are included in the Townhomes at no additional charge. The apartments do not come with laundry in the unit, instead there is a laundry room in each building. #11 $200 is a very reasonable security deposit. We expect are resident's to return the home in the condition it was given to them. We do allow for normal wear and tear.
From: ihateoakpark08	Date: 11/07/2008
Do NOT rent from these people. I mean it!!! Maintenance is good, the apartments are roomy but they are COMPLETELY unreasonable. We have paid on time every time for years. I have an unexpected expense, contact them, and tell them we are going to pay on the 15th (with late fees of course). Their response??? They send out a demand for nonpayment of rent (dated on the 2nd!!!!) that says pay up or move out in (are you ready?) 7 days! I have lived in many apartments in my lifetime and have even talked to a lawyer about this and neither he nor I have EVER heard of an apartment sending these out on the 2nd of the month. It's beyond ridiculous. I have had other issues with management as well. This isn't the first time. This is Michigan for goodness sake... At least give people once or twice to be late before calling in the dogs. Also, they used to charge $40 for the washer a few years ago, but they don't now. If you signed your original lease from when they charged you, they will stil charge you even though they are free now. (Unless you pitch a fit, and they may amend your lease, it depends on who you talk to)

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