I lived at Dakota Park for over 8 of the last 11 years. I had left and returned in Sept of 2005. If you live at Dakota Park and plan on leaving also plan on buying their carpet for them. Dakota Park has really gone downhill. Out side maintenance is almost non-existent. Although there are many fine people living at Dakota Park, and several are friends, Dakota Park has stopped checking out the tennants and the people they are getting now are rude and disrespectful. They are slobs that leave garbage any where they please. I left Dakota Park because everyone was getting such inconsistant rent increases. This one gets no increase and that one gets a $40 increase. Today I received part of my deposit(which I will not accept)with statement that says: Carpet replacement - tenant responsible for 1 year remaining out of a 10 year estimated useful life - 1717.65/10years = $171.77. The carpet is 11 years old and state statute prohibits charges for normal wear and tear. I have friends that left Dakota Park and got the same treatment. If Adams needs to violate statutes to find some money, perhaps I should just return the check for partial refund so he can purchase some groceries if he is so hungry. And to think that I many times recommended that place. Shame on me and I apologize to all for doing so. mgFDbN4-dhkSMZ7zRmVH

Manager's Response
From: Manager	Date: 04/15/2008
Dear Past Tenant: We are sorry to hear that you were upset about charges for carpet damage upon move out. As far as the carpet goes, we pro-rate carpet charges according to how old the carpet is and any damage that was done. In your case it was actually a better deal for you as far as price for us to charge you one year pro-rated for the carpet replacement versus a set amount per stain or carpet patching for the stains that were present on your checkout that were not noted on your move in. I am not sure what you mean by stating that we do not "check out" our tenants as each adult that moves in has to go through a background and credit check. It is unfortunate that not all tenants are respectful of the property and their neighbors but I assure you that you can face this problem anywhere even if you were to own your own home you may end up living next to a disrespectful neighbor. Renewals are going to be different for everyone based on the market rents for the different apartments and wether or not they have an incentive on their account. I find it hard to believe that overall you did not have a good experience while living here in Dakota Park apartments. We apologize and hope that you see that we had to charge for damage as there were new stains when you moved out.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/27/2008
I had the same experience, decent place to live until you try and leave... then they try and screw you over. I've rented several other places and if you are remotely clean and spend a solid half day cleaning everything after you moved out I've never been charged or lost my deposit. Kiss your deposit away if you live at Dakota Park. If you want your deposit back and want to defend yourself from their extra charges, I suggest taking pictures of every inch of your apartment, getting a lawyer, and ask for their receipts, photos etc... That is what I did, once my lawyer contacted them I never heard from them again after they tried to charge me an extra $800 above and beyond taking my deposit.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/24/2009
I totally agree with you. 'Until you want to move out' is the word. I've had already 'three' friends who had same treatment from them. All three stories are the same.(the management people should know the tenants know each other sometimes) The day you move out the management people check the apartment and say nothing and when you contact them to get their deposit back they charge you 'big time'(I mean thousands) on some unknown stains and damages and threaten to take you to court if you protest. When a law school friend of my friend demanded to see the stain(because my friend was out of town)they said they had already changed the carpet or something, refusing to show it and tried to settle then suddenly.(charge slashed big time now) It's just not fair game, right? For example, who'd know how old that carpet really is when they 'pull the record out'? How do you know if they are not lying? Shouldn't we know how old the carpet is form the beginning? If they are so clean why the secret? So, I hearby solemnly swear that if they'd be fair about this when I move out I'll put my story here and clear their name once and for all. I had lived 5 years in another apartment before this apartment and when I'd moved out they gave me my deposit back 100%. My records will show I'm a responsible person with excellent credit. It will be a huge mistake for them to try to pull the same trick on me. If they do though, then I will contact the local broadcast companies, tweet about it and bring in my lawyer friends.(No worries on money there) They should get smarter than this. I never recommend this apartment to anyone even if they keep promising bonus on recommendation as soon as I've heard about their tricks. Review is not everything I admit but horror stories surround this apartment have been piling up off line right at this moment even if they tried to cover it up here. This abuse has to stop! I'll be posting my moving out process so keep watching my endeavors with interest, please. Thanks!

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