This is the story of my time spent at the Crescent Arbors apartment complex in Cary, North Carolina. I am only writing this in hopes to forewarning other possible tenants to avoid the horrible mismanagement of this apartment.

My story begins in July 2007, we stumbled upon Crescent Arbors within their wooded surroundings and found it to seem perfect from the outside. The apartments were spacious and clean and the apartment boasted the average age of a resident was forty years old. Which was hinted at the reasoning for such a nice, clean, and quiet complex. This sounded like heaven, to myself and my wife, two mid-twenties professionals. We immediately received a quote on deposits, accompanied by what would be our prorated rent for the month of July. We immediately paid the half of our deposits needed to put the apartment on hold and waited our the time to move into the apartments.

Two days later we received a phone call saying that our deposits were misquoted and so was our prorated amount. Instead of prorating from the 15th of July, we would be prorated from the 7th. Also, a background check uncovered that my credit contained a eviction notice from Nashville, Tennessee, a city I've never lived in, so we would have to double our security deposit. My wife and I decided that such odd money gouging ideas were not to our liking and requested our already paid deposit back so we could pursue other living arrangements. We were then informed by the office staff that it was too late, being that the 48 hours had passed since (it had been 2 and a half days) and that no deposits would be returned, but we were free to look elsewhere. I immediately rushed up to the complex to debate this horrible misjudgment. Upon entering the office, we were apologized to by Debbie Joyner, the office manager and stated that after some discussion it was determined to actually be miscommunication and bad judgement on the part of one office staff member, Wendy, who was new to processing applications, and that if Beth, the office staff member quoted us to be prorated from the 15th, then that is what would happen. This still left the problem with the double security deposit.

I was presented with a print out from the company that Crescent Arbors uses for background checks. Indeed, a person with my name in Nashville, TN was evicted. However, it stated on the same printout, that national searches were completed by first and last name only, not by social security number. We were told by Debbie, that it was good that the company caught this, and it could be a case of identity theft. I once again disputed this and was given a copy of the printout to contact the company. Throughout the confusion, Debbie stated she would allow us to have our already paid deposits back and even our application fees (something I was not asking for back). But she stated that she was sincerely sorry for the mistake, blamed it on Wendy, and would like us to reconsider living at Crescent Arbors. She even offered to put the security deposit back at its original quote in order to make things right. We decided to take a day to decide and move on.

Debbie is a great salesperson. She's friendly and empathizes well. We were in a bit of a jam and the apartments were what we really wanted so we decided to give Crescent Arbors a chance. That was the worst mistake, I have ever made.

I contacted the company regarding my discrepancy on my supposed credit. The extremely low quality credit check company did not return emails nor phone calls. I took upon myself to pull my own credit through all three credit agencies and found exactly what was there three months before I decided to apply at Crescent Arbors. Nothing bad, no evictions or anything. To be on the safe side my credit was again pulled in November of this year with the same results. No evictions, what so ever.

Upon moving in, we were again approached for our deposits that were already paid by Beth. After pulling our file, it was then determined that we had paid everything and my stomach sank just a bit, knowing we made a mistake.

Our first day moving in my wife was take her first box up the stairs when a rather large gentleman stopped her and rudely stated that we needed to act like adults, and that he went to work at three o' clock in the morning and needs it to be quiet. He spent five minutes explaining responsibility to my wife, who had never met this jerk before and she had not even entered the apartment yet!

On July 20th a note appeared jammed into my door seal from Debbie. Inside it stated that a neighbor had complained both about my dog barking during the day and "there has been a little more noise than normal coming from your apartment after a reasonable hour at night." We called and asked what we should do about the dog, since we knew he would have trouble adjusting those first few weeks and I felt the complaint was justified. We might be at work, I'm not sure what the dog does. Debbie stated that it was not her problem, but the noise must stop. Against our better judgement, we invested in an anti-bark collar for our dog to wear when we weren't at home and it seemed to do the trick.

What upset me about the letter was the comment about noise coming from the apartment after an unusual hour at night. I work late nights, past midnight usually. However, my wife was asleep in our little 750 square foot apartment and I didn't wake her up, not once. I would come home, place a frozen pizza in the oven, and usually sit at the computer. At the time of the complaint, we didn't even have our TV plugged in yet.

I figured it came from the gentleman downstairs and assumed correctly, as I found out a couple months later. I corresponded with Debbie, via email, and explained my work schedule and how what noise that did come from the apartment was reasonable. The following email was sent:

"My wife told me that you spoke with her in regards to complaints yesterday. I also received the letter through the door today. I can understand a complaint in regards to our dog Starbuck, since he has never lived in a place with so much noise and banging throughout the day. He is extremely quite when we are home, and I assume he is just upset when we leave (being that we've only been here two weeks and he's still settling in). However, this time when he is barking is between the hours of 9-5 I can guarantee you, since we are at work, not throughout the night.

Also mentioned in the letter was noise coming from an unusual hour of night. We have had no visitors, our TV is not hooked up, nor do we have radios playing. I work at a movie theater, our last movies get out sometime between 12:30 AM-3 AM. I can help that I make noise walking up the stairs, cooking a pizza, and sitting at the computer quietly while my wife sleeps in the next room. I'm assuming this complaint comes from the person below us, who so rudely spoke to her about "being adults" and "keeping things quiet" since he has to get up at 3 AM.

We are not trouble makers, we have never had any issues, and we are quiet and clean. I will accept responsibility for the dog barking, and we have purchased an anti-bark collar in hopes to quiet him down some when we are not home. As for the rest, that is non-sense. And if small complaints like that are going to garner any type of response, I have quite a few to make myself."

She attempted to calm the waters by empathizing again and even changing the subject to a certain degree and I let it go. My wife spoke with a member of the office staff regarding the dog and was told that no one had said anything negative, in-fact, one lady actually stated that she had not heard a sound out of him since the note was delivered.

We went on living at the apartment with little or no issues other than the horrible rank smell that came from the neighbors cooking every Sunday, life was decent. A few times the gentlemen who spoke of responsibility downstairs, would blare his radio loud enough to make our floors shake. A complaint was made to the office and we were told that it was a first offense and no action would be taken. Funny, we didn't get such a courtesy.

We knew that the apartment was not really for us and we weren't exactly thrilled about the horrible parking, lack of functioning street lights, incredible rudeness of our neighbors nor the horrible speeding problem and figured that once the following July came, we would find a place a little more suited for us.

Then October came and so came the end of our time at Crescent Arbors. It was a Friday, October 12th and 4:30 PM was rolling around. I was hustling out to my car with two bags of trash on my way to work. I was in my suit, with my lunch box and looked like a man on a mission. As I opened my trunk to put the trash in, I hear a loud yell of, "Hey Man!" coming from across the parking lot. I look up and see the fellow from downstairs, who I've yet to meet. He stormed over to my car and just blew a gasket. The first words out of his mouth were, "We need to get these living arrangements worked out or we are going to have trouble." I was immediately taken aback by such forceful comments from a man I did not know. I almost chuckled in hopes that he was joking, but by the look in his eyes, I knew he wasn't. I asked him what was the problem and he just started ranting. He told me how he worked sixty hours a week and didn't sleep much as it was, and since I came home late at night, I was keeping him awake even more. He hadn't slept in days and was under a ton of stress. I apologized, explained my work situation and he once again insisted that we would "have problems" if things continued to be the way that they were. I attempted to calm him down, and broke out all my daily managerial skills of dealing with a problem customer. I listened to him, offered suggestions and asked for more information. I told him that I could not quit my job and that was an absurd idea but I could possibly eliminate whatever noise was bothering him. I asked him if it was voices, footsteps, toilets flushing, water running, etc. I was only answered back with a dumb glare and excuses that he did not know what noise it was.

I explained my nightly routine of fixing something to eat, changing clothes and either sitting at the computer or playing Xbox 360. His response to that was, "I figured that is what you did." I was a bit taken back and asked him what he meant by that. He stated, "That is what people your age do." After that comment things started to come into focus. It seemed as if this man had more of a problem with someone under the age of thirty living in the apartments rather than such a problem with noise. I stated that our age had nothing to do with our lifestyle, being that we do not have parties, do not drink, do drugs, smoke, and to be honest, don't have guests over pretty much at all. I explained that we are both working individuals who work hard and relax in our off time and do not engage in loud actions. He huffed this idea and changed the subject.

He brought up his conversation with my wife and stated he thought that two college girls were moving in at the time and wanted them to be quiet. He apologized and said he would have spoken to me if he had seen me. He also stated he sometimes came off the wrong way to people and I told him that our conversation at that time was one of those times. But then he went on to say, ever since we moved in, whenever my wife would see him in the parking lot, she would start to throw things and slam things in our apartment just to annoy him. An idea that is so absurd it was laughable. I once again explained to him that we were not teenagers and would never act in such a manner. He once again huffed at the remark and continued to insist she was out to make his life miserable. Now, what I haven't mentioned is that I told him when we started this conversation that I was on my way to work and he even acknowledge this. However, he would not move from out of the front of my car while he continued his tirade insisting on how we were "going to have problems." I eventually asked him what did he mean and he refused to answer.

The only part of the conversation we agreed on was when he spoke of how disorganized the apartment complex was. He commented on how he would love to leave as soon as his lease was up and that Debbie knowing that we had conflicting schedules should have coordinated our apartments better. There was no reason for me to be living above him other than to fill that apartment. I did everything I could to be accommodating to the neighbor. But he was extremely irrational and unreasonable.

I was late for work big time being that the conversation ran to five o'clock, my scheduled time to be there. I ended the conversation and told him I would speak to Debbie in regards to moving to another unit or breaking our lease. He assured me I would be happy no where in Crescent Arbors and even being on the first floor would cause problems for us, so it would be wise to move out. With this hint, as well as the constant threats of "problems" occurring I immediately called Debbie to report.

I explained what went on and told her I was going to contact the Cary Police Department regarding the matter. She insisted that no such action was needed and asked me to give her the weekend to talk to the gentleman and she would contact me on Monday. I obliged, but when she did not contact me on Monday, I became worried.

Being that this gentlemen was making threats, knew my work schedule and knew when my wife was alone, I decided it would best for us to leave so I wouldn't have to worry about our safety. I contact Debbie and asked to be let out of our lease early. I stated it would be okay for them to keep our deposits, but just let us find a new place to live before this guy did some kind of harm.

I was told that it would take a few days for an answer. In usual Crescent Arbors fashion, a few days passed and nothing was said or done. I again contacted and insisted on something to be done and threatened to go to the investment company that owned them at the time Capital Associates. This was greeted with a promised response for the following day.

The offer we were given was we would be allowed to break our lease early without paying the $1400 dollar charge, but would have to give them notice to when we were moving out, and pay rent up to two months until they found someone to move in. Then we would have to pay for them to "flip" the apartment and that would be cut out of whatever we paid. If someone was found before the two months passed, we would be prorated that month's rent back, after they "flipped" the apartment.

Not a great deal, but we would take whatever we could to get away from this man. I set the date for the 1st of December and went to work on finding a new place to live.

Each day I hoped for a phone call stating they found someone for our apartment, since paying two rents for two months would mean taking out a personal loan for sure. The advantage we had over other one-bedroom apartments was that Debbie said they would rent our apartment out at the "special price" we rented at which was a full $35 dollars cheaper than what the current rate went for. We also had a view facing the woods, which was of course, more desired than the parking lot. But as our move out date grew two weeks closer, I knew nothing was being done.

The people next to us also moved out with us only having two weeks left to go. I felt that the office would probably attempt to rent that apartment instead of ours, especially since they knew they were guaranteed two months rent still from us if they didn't fill ours. I took upon myself to place two ads on Craigslist, explaining our situation and explaining the special price. It took two days to get a response from a lady. We corresponded and she came to Crescent Arbors for more information. Of course, at first they refused to give her our renting price. She insisted, since I stated it in the ad, and they finally gave in. She gave her deposit and application that night. The next night she came inside to see our apartment, loved it and was then told by the office that they would need her application and deposit, that she had already given. Money problems as always in that office.

Now when we moved in we were given the walkthrough by Beth. Our carpet was used and not in the best shape, but was considered "good." We were told that after we moved our a black light would be used to check for any urine spots from our dog, however, no black light was used to show if any dog had previously urinated on the floor. However, upon moving out, apparently the apartment had invested in a new gadget, a pole that would be stuck in the carpet to determine urine. Now, am I going to lie and say my dog NEVER made a mess on the carpet. No, he once did make a very small drizzle on the side of a blind. It was cleaned up immediately, and the night before our move out, I spent a couple hours using our Bissell steam cleaner, to clean the entire carpet with OUT! Stain and Odor Remover. I then followed up by using a UV black light to determine any spots and found nothing.

The final walkthrough was completed by Wendy using the new urine detecting stick and according to it, there was urine all over the carpet everywhere. Even under our bed and our couch, where our dog could not have possibly done such a deed. My wife asked how she knew that urine was caused by our dog (especially since the carpet was used) and how if it even worked. She was refused an answer on how the product worked and stated that the tenant before us "a lady" did not own a pet. That was the funny part, since when we were moving in, it was stated that a man lived in our apartment previously.

I knew that something stupid was going to come up, because the lady I found on Craigslist to take over our apartment, asked to move in before December. The apartment agreed, and that meant we would not have to pay December rent and have it prorated and all that stuff. Instead, our security deposit would be used to "flip" the apartment and to fix whatever damages had occurred, which were none, since we had only been in the apartment four months. We were told we would have to buy new carpet for the 750 square foot apartment, and that after our security deposit ($400), it would probably cost between $150-200 dollars, since it cost about $450 to replace the apartment carpet with berber (what was in the apartment while we lived there) and they would be using a cheaper vinyl carpet to replace it in order to match the surrounding apartments. We would be given a quote by thirty days, which seemed obscene since the lady moved in three days after we moved out. However, we gave them two weeks and begin to ask for a quote.

As soon as we moved out, Crescent Arbors was sold to an investment company called Wolf Residential, LLC. Seeing what horrible mismanagement occurs within Crescent Arbors, this did not surprise me. We were told we would be given a quote on in two days after our request, only to find out that instead, we would have to wait till the following Monday. This was then pushed off to Tuesday, since apparently, Wendy messed something up and Debbie was going to have to add it to the bill. We finally got our final move out "buyout" quote today, of $919. Our $400 security deposit was eaten up immediately and we owed $519.


I called immediately for an explanation and found Debbie not to be in her office. I decided to take this to Wolf Residential and after explaining to Wendy why I had an issue with these "over charges" she just argued against me. I left a message with the gentleman in charge of customer relations at Wolf Residential and have yet to hear back from him. We went ahead and paid our bill because refusal would only lead to a mark on our credit, this one being real, unlike the "fake" one that Crescent Arbors reported to me before.

I also requested a breakdown of the charges and it was given the following:
Security Deposit -$200.00
Pet Deposit -$200.00
Turn Charges $375.00
Damages to carpet $544.80

Total Due $519.80

The only explanation of the turn charges is "painting and stuff."

My biggest issue is that Crescent Arbors did not even attempt to rent our apartment knowing they had two months worth of rent still coming from us. And then when I rented our apartment, they lied to the tenant and attempted to charge her more money than they previously said. And now, they charged us a ridiculous amount of money to replace the carpet in our apartment and do not care one bit.

I know this is very long winded and long read, but I really needed to get this information out there to prevent anyone from going through the crap we had to at Crescent Arbors. There are a lot of really nice apartments in Cary, ones that actually do a good job and aren't constantly trying to squeeze more money out of you, so look elsewhere. I am sure you'll be happier.

User Responses
From: wieuiei	Date: 03/04/2009
WOW!

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