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I've been a resident of Uwalk since Fall 2002 (going on 2006). Unlike many of the posters here I'm not biased from whatever caused them to move out in the first place, but will be as honest as possible about all aspects of the complex.
The original rent rate was $380 with a $300 deposit and a $120 non-refundable credit check application fee. Steadily overtime the rent rate has risen due to new company management (we were bought out by College Park Communities a while ago). The current rate for residents that renewed from the old ownership is $420 while new residents pay $445. This covers your all-inclusion package which consists of your Heating, Electricity, Telephone, Internet, Water, and Cable. There are apartment caps for the Electricity and Water, but they remain so high that I've never had to pay anything extra even though we run just about everything in our apartment 24/7.
The maintenance staff heads have always been awesome (Mike, Ryan, and Brad). They quickly respond to things that need fixing and are very friendly. Then again they probably always have their hands full repairing things because Walk is certainly not well constructed. Although fully furnished, it was hastily built with subpar tools and inexpensive furniture so that they could secure a spot next to our campus. The railings that hold up the beds are very brittle and will break if used for too long or they endure any mild impact. Small cracks gradually appear in the walls as the building settles and there no longer are any cleaning crews that prep the apartment for new arrivals.
All of the Utilities are well maintained and reliable EXCEPT the internet/cable. When I first moved in our connection was superb. But to "save a buck" the complex converted our Cable and Internet over to a company called NTC. The cable goes out when we are hit with any type of moderate-heavy storm. The internet on the otherhand is always awful. Most apartment complexes have each apartment on a seperate "line" or at most a single building. Here however the entire complex is routed through the same connection resulting in an overburdened system that suffers from frequent outages and the equivalent of 56k when it is up. The office themselves switched from using NTC to Bellsouth because their service with NTC was so bad when first installed.
Security here has/hasn't been an issue depending on who you ask. Most (not all) of the car breakins reports that have happened are from people that park outside of the complex on the backroad to prevent towing (more on that later). And from the reports given to the office most of the breakins that happen in-complex are from people that don't take steps to assure that their car isn't a target (ie: removing electronics, purses, bags, CD covers, etc in openly visable areas of the vehicle overnight). The extent of any physical assault has always boiled down to people throwing huge parties at their own homes and inviting just anyone in. This is a COLLEGE community and people gravitate from all over like flies to any location that offers free beer and a handful of girls. If people bothered to keep track of who is let in and who isn't we'd probably have 0 occurances here.
I did think it was funny to read the contradictory reports here on the towing policy. One person says they tow at the drop of a hat while the other says that towing is never enforced. In truth the policy is heavily enforced during the day by the staff here, while during the night the tow trucks won't show up unless the courtesy officer is notified BY THE RESIDENTS. They give you one parking sticker and one guest parking pass. Basically anyone without a sticker parked in a non-guest parking spot WILL be towed. Anyone without a sticker or a guest parking pass parked in a guest spot WILL be towed. They've notified us of this several times via email, written notices attatched to our doors, and in person when they gave us our passes. Then again, people always do what they want to do regardless of the known consequences just so they can ----- about it later.
The location is very close to the campus so you can walk there rather than waste $300 on a campus parking pass. However it's so close that outside people regularly *try* to park here only to be towed shortly after.
The grounds are well kept, but again that's due to our maintenance staff. But the office staff aside from Ryan and Brad (who again are maintenance people) are inept. They are very slow to respond to issues reported to them, and fumble about in some twisted, mock representation of what I assume is supposed to be Work. The new Apartment manager doesn't possess a fraction of the charisma, sympathy, or personability that our old manager Ricky had. Nor does she take any steps to improve the image of our complex in the eyes of those that live here like he did. She just "does her job" and never goes out of her way to help anyone.
Overall the grounds are very well maintained and clean. The mowers come every Wednesday morning at 8am to start cutting/spraying and do make noise. But they have to do it someday and Wednesday is our day. The time is no better or worse than any other they could have chosen.
They gave us cards that pretty much grant us 24/7 access to the Game, Gym, and computer rooms and will eventually grant us access into the complex when they finish installing the new gate.
Now onto the roomate situation. Each apartment has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms with each bedroom having one of the latter. Each bedroom is on a seperate lease to a tennant which eliminates the huge problem of deadbeat roomies with other complexes. I NEVER have to worry about paying more money for my rent because one of my roomates was too lazy to get a job. I NEVER have to worry about paying a higher Water bill because another roomate wanted to run the washer morning, noon, and night. The downside to this policy is that they place any new tennants where ever there are openings. You can recommend a friend for an opening in your apartment if they were interested in moving in, but otherwise you have absolutely no sayso over who they actually put in there. If you are in a situation here where you end up with a "Roomate from Hell", you are in for one agonizing ride until either you, or they move out (or you request for a self transfer to another room within the complex).
Another thing of note is how damages to the common area are handled. ANY damages done to the common area are charged to all 4 residents regardless of who actually did the damage. The only way to remove the charges from the innocent party is if the guilty person decides to volunteer to go down to their office and issue forth a statement that they are at fault. The full charge (rather than just the 1/4) will then be placed on said person's account.
What's wrong with this system' It's obvious. They assume that someone that's a complete stranger will have some crisis of conscience and take an action that will guarentee they have to pay more money than they have to. We had a similar issue just a few days ago where we were charged 120 x 4 for damages done to our couch by our "new roomate". Although the other 3 of us were willing to issue forth statements that he was the guilty party they still refused to lift the charges unless he came down and presented in writing that he damaged the couch (he said he won't of course. "That would be stupid". Mind you this was someone that was placed in our apartment without any of our consent, and we have about as much control over his actions as any Joe Schmoe on the street (0%). I even asked Michelle (assistant Apartment Manager)what if the reverse happened' "If I decided to go home and take a sledgehammer to the entire common area and a flamethrower to the carpet would all of my roommates be held 100% liable for MY actions - although they have zero control over what I can/cannot do'" She said "Yes".
On that note I balled up the lease renewal forms we recieved that morning. And am currently looking for another apartment. Save yourself some grief and avoid this place. The liability and lack of self protection alone is enough to never even consider this place.
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User Responses
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From:
gonecrazyasu
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Date:
02/04/2006
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Ive never had anything but problems when trying to get things fixed. My tile in my bathroom has been broken since I moved and and they have come out to make several attempts and left many notes saying it was going to be fixed the next day. When they started on it they covered my room in dust and I had to clean absolutely everything and dry clean all my jackets and comforter. (without being repaid of course) the cops do nothing but harass people and sleep in their cars, just this morning someone was murdered and blood spattered on my front door only for me to come home to see a fire truck hosing the blood away. Not a safe place to live, not worth the money, and not worth the hassle to save a few buck for parking on campus.
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From:
shyben87
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Date:
03/20/2006
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university walk doesn't sound like a good place to live, however i don't really have a choice i don't have any where else to live and u guys make it sound like hell im afraid to come live down there
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From:
amdellav
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Date:
06/24/2006
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I have lived in U-Walk for a little longer than 2 years now, and this description is very accurate. It is very convienient to UNCC and is a good deal for the price. However, it is a very unsafe place to live. My car was broken into once and also stolen once. The office did not do anything about these two incidents after being informed and shown the police reports. I wish I would have stayed on campus instead of moving here. I have just graduated and can't wait to live somewhere where I actually feel safe.
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From:
tjaylo
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Date:
09/04/2006
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thank you very much for your review, im apartment shopping now, and was really thinging of this place, bc i remember when they were built. but as i read in your review things has changed. now i see i dont need the headache, and a one bedroom might be all i need. thanks
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