Highland Hills

It keeps the TV dry...

From: IrishLeFay
Date posted: 6/7/2009
Years at this apartment: 2008-01-01 - 2009-01-01
1 response

I will admit to being a first time renter, and that if I had been more educated about renting, I doubt I would have ended up at Highland. Generally, I only listen to bad reviews of anything with a grain of salt, because often people expect way too much. Let me assure you, my expectations of highland were not that high, and they were still disappointed.

I lived in the dorms for six years and moved to highland for the last year of my master's program. I honestly thing my 6'6 X 12 dorm room was better.

The advantages:
central ac
temperature control
Individual utility metering

The issues:
Maintenance isn't great. Some things, I got fixed in "short" order (within a week) such as a broken towel bar and a burned out florescent bulb in my kitchen. Other more vital things, like when my AC broke (twice) I went for two weeks the first time, and another week the second time. The second time it broke, the maintenance guy came and said he had to call the company the contract with, and that it would be a couple days. After four days of 85 in my apartment, I called and they sent him out again. This time, after been very abrupt with me, he some how magically fixed it. Four days of waiting for no reason.

Their pet "deposit" is actually just a fee. It's $200 -per pet- nonrefundable. In the case of my pets, it's just money in their pocket, as they've done no damage in any way to my apartment. This isn't all that uncommon of a practice, but it annoys me that they call it a "deposit" like you might get it back or something.

I live in a one bedroom apartment alone. I am a master's student and well past the age where I'm amused by getting trashed every weekend. Unfortunately, that can't be said for everyone in my complex. I'm surrounded by a lot of 19 and 20 year olds (it seems) who have no sense of how loud they are. I'm not talking about the pounding from over head, as I assume that's par for the course, but the people underneath me and their loud drunkenness and rudeness. This isn't exactly highland's fault, but you should be aware that alot of the students who rent here are very much into the "college life" of drinking and such, and coming home drunk and all that results from that.

My apartment looks pretty decent on the surface, but it's actually pretty shoddy. There are soft spots in my floor, my floorboards don't join in many places, the cupboards were dirty when I moved in, the fridge doesn't work well, the stove is a little off, etc.

Read the lease carefully. I have no idea if this is common renting practice, but it seems wrong to me: My move out day is the 20th of the month, but I have to pay for the full month, despite not being allowed to occupy it the last ten days of that month. I've (obviously) already signed the lease, so I can't see anyway out of it, but it seems very unfair to me.

They do not always give 24 hours notice when they will be entering your apartment for "inspections", which they conduct every couple months (they have been in my apartment four times with various excuses four times since December, it is June). In addition to this, they will often wait to give notice until they know their student-tenants are likely to be gone (for example giving "notice" by way of a note on the door two days after school has let out for winter break). If you're not there, too bad. Worse, they give a two day span during which they will show up at "some point" to do whatever they're supposedly doing. I have been home for all their inspections, and you never know if they'll show up when you're sleeping, in the shower, etc. I even called to ask if I could schedule a time so I wouldn't have to worry about it, and they said that's not possible.

As far as I can tell, many of the staff who are entering your apartment for "inspections" or random other things (changing the fire extinguisher, changing the fire alarm, changing the furnace filter, in addition to two different "safety inspections") are not trained staff and are other students that work for the company and are also tenants. I don't like the idea of people just wandering in and out of my apartment. But hey, it's not illegal because they gave notice.

The parking lot, in winter, is terrible. I never got towed, because I got up an hour before towing was scheduled (this was 5am) and parked it in a public lot then walked a couple blocks back in -20 weather. I had to call to get towed out of my space when I got stuck once due to no plowing, and someone else leaving tire holes I got stuck in. To be fair, it is hard to plow a parking lot that has people parked in it constantly, but I never had this issue in the MSU dorm parking lots.

My front door is flimsy and shoddy, I could kick it in by myself with no effort. The outdoor doors to the building don't lock, nor even latch, so anyone can walk in at any time. The good news is is that generally only other tenants wander through.

The lighting is terrible on the grounds. Sometimes lights outside work, sometimes they don't, when they don't they don't get fixed for months, or ever. Often inside hallway lights also burn out, and go unfixed.

These are just the highlights (or lowlights) of living at highland. I wouldn't recommend it. Somethings, like noise and drunkness are just the reality of living near campus, but the management takes gross advantage of the fact that their tenants probably don't know better then to rent from them. I'm working on finding a way to make some sort of complaint... but in the mean time, I advise you to not rent from them. They are making money hand over fist (they keep expanding the number of buildings they own) because they are slightly glorified slumlords. Don't give them your money, it only encourages them.

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

Parking: Maintenance: Construction: Noise:

Grounds: Safety: Office Staff:

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