We lived there for 5 years between June 1999 and May 2004, in which time our rent increased 5 times as did the management people in the office- which is a very bad sign of things to come. But due to economics coming to Asheville, we had no choice but to rent.

They act like you are special at first, like mnay other apartments caring and wanting you to live there, and once you sign a lease, then it seems the "nice image" disappears and they entangle you in a trip to squeeze more monies from your family in any manenr posisble. .

We have known many who rented from them as well, and everyone has nothing good to say long term staying with Kensington Place.

Not only did we have black widow infestations which the management argues we never had until I took a jar of nickel-sized spiders we caught within and/or around our apartment to prove to them. Then there was the ants problems which repeated visits by exterminator seemed not to be able to fix, so we invested in industrial strength bug spray and took care of problem ourselves. Then it was the cpvc water piping breaking 3 times in 3 separate places in the apartment flooding our floors and molding, and maintenance acting like we should not be upset, and only said they could wet vac it up and that is that. They of course cut holes in the walls to access and re-glue that piping each time, but the patches and painting they did was so bad, our kids could have done a better job!

We also had to fix repeated problems ourselves from disposal drain falling apart to other issues which either maintenance never fixed properly the first time and/or simply treated us like we were making up complaints which only angered us more month after month. We even had to contact the NC State Renters Association for a few incidents from management that bordered on unfair practices against us as renters in how they kept trying to justify raising rent time and again and lies to the tenants about the improvements which supposedly govered those.. Even many times, we and other neighbors took it on ourselves to cut back and trim many shrubs and bushes as they simply went many months without any attention and started to overgrow the sidewalk areas. We had seen so many landscape companies come and go there it made no sense to us why their own people simply didn't care for the grounds better' And we also had to combat vandalism to cars & property many times living there and other problems they tried to keep "quiet".

Then they would punish all the tenants when incidents happened with someone's kids skating in the main newer pool closing it down to all for weeks at a time as if to punish all the tenats, instead of going straight to the problem child and that family. We had a neighbor on drugs and alcohol problems passing out almost weekly on our front walk at night, police there every month or more (taking her away and then bringing her back after several days), and everytime the office said "she is a special situation" and nothing would be done- except we were expected to ignore this and put up with it time and again.

Promises they made from a brand new playground being constructed for the children to upgrading certain things in the apartment were never made, except every year they kept saying leases had to be increased because of new changes or upgrades which were all a lie.

When we lost our business which brought us to NC in 1999, we had slow income and only 1 outside income source for a while, and talked with management on 2 separate occasions about being a few days late with rent, thought willing to pay additional charges, etc. But, they don't care, and went to courts to file judgements on us which made no sense; so even though we paid what we agreed to them days later and even extra 5% late fee, we now had to pay huge court costs to stop that action. But it was too late, as both those judgements will be on our credit report 5 years minimum which does not help well when you try to go for financing of any sort- which forces you to stay in aparatments moreso; especially in Asheville area where they all are inflated beyond abnormal market conditions to begin with.

After 5 years, we spent well over $60,000.00 in rent to Kensington Place alone, and will not refer them to anyone because of tricks we found they will play on you if you start to make troubles for them in any way, and simple how they treat you once you are there any amount of time.

We also found, from all the people we came to know whom lived there and/or left at any point in time, it seems Kensington Place will play people against one another as well as play people based on the incomes they determine they make, as there is no standardization to rent charges we found, and if they can get someone to pay higher rent based on having more income, they will do that, which of course, is beyond ethical on many levels- but we have witnessed this first hand from many peoples lease agreements with same siz apartment as our own over time. If they can get away with this, they will, so BE CAREFUL!!!

In the end, we ourselevs, or many others we came to know who paid security deposits will never get them back, as Kensington tries to come back at you after you move out and find reasons not to give you back one penny of those monies, regardless how well you kept the apartment, cleaned the carpets, painted the walls, etc.. Our apartment was returned to them 5 years later in BETTER condition than what we were given signing our first lease. AD2Hw9Wn8Umb3NN1w1jt

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