My husband and I lived at Portsmouth Apartments for two years. We lived on the third floor. Our apartment had its ups and downs. When we left this apartment complex, we thought that living anywhere else would be better. But after living in a different Novi apartment complex, we realize that some things were better at Portsmouth.

First the cons. In the summer, the air conditioning never functioned well. It was never cool after running the air and the bill was quite high whenever we did run the air. The air would run non-stop and was extremely loud. We could not talk over the air conditioning. Being on the third floor, we had one of the half circle windows high up above our sliding door. It made the apartment about 90 degrees at the right time of day in any season. We ended up needing to find a curtain to put up to block the sun out. Take that into consideration if you want a third floor apartment. Having a first or second floor apartment might be a lot better.

In the winter, the snow removal service came pretty late in the day. Most weekdays, the snow wasn't removed in the parking lot until after noon or later. Maintenance would be out in the early morning shoveling the sidewalks, but that was about it. So we are not sure how a handicap person could function here in the winter with that in mind. However, the heat in our apartment worked very well. Within a few minutes, the apartment would be pretty toasty. We had several blizzards in the two years that we lived here, so that was definitely important.

Maintenance here was ok. The people themselves were decent, friendly, and not frightening to let into your place. (At our new place, the maintenance people are sketchy.) Maintenance couldn't really do much in terms of fixing the air conditioning outside of cleaning it from time to time. Our apartment probably needed a new air conditioning unit all together. But at least they did show up and attempt to fix things, whether they succeeded or not. They also came on the day that they said they would come, something that would be nice to have at our new place.

The pet policy is pretty unfair here though. You have to pay a huge security deposit and then an extra $50 per month. Our cat didn't do enough damage to warrant $50 a year, let alone every month. So in terms of being "pet friendly" you can pretty much forget about that statement in their information. Every other place in Novi is around $10 to $20 per month extra for pet rent. If you'd like to have a pet, we suggest looking elsewhere to save a lot of money.

All in all, this place comes with good things and bad things. There is no perfect place and this place is no exception. As for other people's comments regarding the bugs coming from the pond, it is a bit of an exaggeration. The bugs that you will find in your apartment do not bite, sting, or cause any damage to you. Wherever you live, you will have bugs so that shouldn't scare you away from this place.

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