I lived in Highland Hills from 2004-2007, and looking back it's lucky that I got out alive. (I would have moved out sooner, but could not afford a comparable apt in a safe neighborhood.)

First of all, I will say that the maintenance man (Darren, or something like that') was very nice and helpful. That is the only good thing I have to say about the complex.

To begin with: extremely poor construction. I'm green-minded, so I kept my apt at 60 in the winter and 85 in the summer. I lived in a 950 sq foot unit, and yet still, I never had an energy bill less than $195 per month!

I had EXTREME problems with the voltage in the apartment. During my first year, I had to have my computer's motherboard replaced 6 TIMES in 9 months because of the current surges. It wasn't until one of UNC's tech students asked me how my computer was 'struck by lightening' so many times that I realized that the problems were with the wiring and not the computer itself.

After that, it also became clear to me that it was unusual for a 60 watt bulb in a fixed light fixture to burn out every 10-18 days.

Shortly after that, I was hospitalized for food poisoning when the electricity in my fridge went out expectantly overnight.

Two months before the now notorious fire took place, the pressure valve on my hot water heater valve blew. The entire 50 gallon contents of the tank drained directly into my downstairs neighbor's apartment. Contrary to every building code in the country, the hot water heaters in that place lack drains, and empty directly into the unit below.

To add insult to injury, management spent the next 3 weeks trying to evict me/ get me to pay for the damage. They told me that my cats must have switched the valve, but any person who has experience with water heaters knows that is impossible; plus, EVERY VALVE on ALL UNITS in my building BLEW WITHIN 20 DAY OF EACH OTHER. It was ridiculously clear that the part simply wore out at that time. If the fire that killed that older lady was started by the same defect, I wouldn't be surprised.

Even with sprinklers, I would avoid this building if you value your life or property.

The other thing I didn't like about the place was the corporate bully attitude that th e new management put in place. One day I got a notice on my door demanding that since they installed basin cable to all units, I know owed them an extra $50 a month.
THIS IS --------.

A lease agreement is a binding contract. Once it's signed, she cannot legally demand more money from you unless you get something you ask for in return. Dont let them fool you because they will if they can.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/21/2008
I've lived in 2 different apartments in Highland Hills over since 2004. In my first apartment I also had horrible power surges. My husband's desktop computer AND my desktop computer both died at the SAME time even though they were completely different brands, had different hardware and different software and were fairly new. My husband is a software engineer/computer programmer and after looking at it he saw that they had been fried. (So much for surge protectors--we used them and they didn't do any good.) My laptop was NOT plugged into an outlet and it was fine. But we replaced some computer hardware only to have them die AGAIN and again. Most computers simply cannot handle the power going off and on and then restarting without becoming damaged. We tried to have the desktops turned off as much as possible, but that didn't do any good. I don't know whether or not things are better now in my old unit, but in my new apartment the power hardly goes out at all and the lights certainly don't burn out as often, either. You were right about that, too.

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