I have lived here for a little over two years so I have had significant time to see Highwood's pros and con's which I will list below.
Pros:
1. Free DTV
2. Great Maintenance guys- nice and good sense of humor
3. Nice and well maintained pool
4. Free heat
5. Many nice tenants
6. College students living here are not troublesome, they are actually very polite. The young people have held open doors for me and helped me bring in my groceries. They have even helped me shovel out my car for snow removal.
7. The UPS man is unbelievably sweet.
8. Stephanie always has cookies in the office.
Cons:
1. "Free internet" is not really free. First of all you have to pay a connection fee (and if it stops working you have to pay to get Fusion here to fix it). Secondly it is incredibly slow. My kids have dial up at their house and it is much faster than this "high-speed". Thirdly the internet hardly ever works properly which is difficult when you depend on the internet to pay your PSNH bill and receive paperless statements online(to be more "green"). I hate to think about college people who live here and have assignments due. There is a nice couple who lives here that said they have lost their internet late at night and have to save their work and drive to their college to finish tests and homework.
2. I have had problems with multiple things (doors, closets, toilets, shower, etc) the office sends maintenance to come and look at the problems but never sends them to actually fix it.
3. The floors are extremely thin. You can hear what your neighbors (above, below, besides) you are doing. You have no privacy here. I can often overhear people's conversations (or activities) all the way down the hall. In addition to this I find that I can often feel a shaking in my apartment from people playing music. They are not playing it loudly, the floors and walls are just so thin that you can hear everything. Heaven forbid you live under a family that has children in it- good luck reading or doing any leisurely activity during the day or early evening.
4. Mold. The windows are poorly insulated so all of this water comes through. I have tried three or four times to get rid of it but it keeps coming back. When I brought this up to management they told me to "keep trying" I see this as a lack of caring on their part. I live in their building and they will not even help me' I am an older woman, I cannot climb ladders to get the mold at the top of the window. Management knows my age but lacks any compassion and refuses to help me.
5. The condition of the appliances in my apartment are awful. I saw them before I moved in, but when I did move in and tried to use them, they hardly worked. I have given up on my dishwasher. Luckily I grew up washing dishes by hand. My refrigerator is falling apart. My son tried to fix the refrigerator but he said it was just too old and needs to be replaced and that it cannot be fixed.
5. Parking is not always available. I get home from church by nine, almost always by 8:30 on Thursday nights, but many times when I have driven to the parking lot, there were no spaces left near my building. I have had to park near visiotr lot. At my age I do not enjoy walking in the cold, in snow, and in the dark across the huge area. I have noticed that many cars parked near my building did not have stickers so Highwood needs to do something to make sure visitors park in the visitor lot. Every so often that have done something, for instance, February 13th. They left notices ahead of time that if you did not have a sticker and parked there that day that you would be towed. Obviously with a warning people will park where they are supposed to, but the very next day I saw more cars without stickers parked there. Bring the cop back! That was the only thing that worked.
6. Management lies and often seem like they do not know what they are doing. Maybe one of the college educated students here could help them out. I also hear that they take the full security deposit for doing maintenance cleaning when tenants move out.
7. Young kids run around the parking lot without any supervision- their parents are never home. I have almost hit them a few times. This should not be allowed. They have a small playground for a reason. This playground comes from our rent so they should use it instead of the parking lot. If someone hit one of them it would be a tragedy blamed on the driver when it is actually the parents fault. I drive very slow and am cautious and I still came close to them. Can't management do anything about this' Do they not know that they could be held responsible as well'
8. Snow removal is awful. They plow you in and then expect you to shovel yourself completely out and if you do not do this they tow you! Unless you have a young back it is painful to remove that much snow. Like I wrote earlier, thank goodness that I have had young people volunteer to help me out.
9. You can hear when any tenant on your floor comes in or out of the apartment. The doors do not have the silencers that I had at the last place I lived. It seems as though some people do not understand that it is not proper to slam your door at 3:00am or 5:00am when others are sleeping.
10. If you live in the front on the bottom floor car lights shine through your windows which can be very annoying in the middle of the night when you are trying to sleep or midday when I need my nap.
11. If you live near the entrance doors you will be woken up at all times of the night unless you sleep like a log.
12. Heater and water heater take up a lot of the apartment's square feet.
13. Heater and AC are in the family room. The bedroom never gets any of this heat or AC so you are usually freezing or over heating. Good luck taking a shower in the winter- the air is so cold it is difficult to get yourself out of the shower...the water heater runs out quickly too.
14. My fire alarm and my neighbors fire alarms go off all the time for no reason which often alarms us.
15. Slider is so old that air comes right through it. If they fixed it they would save money on heating costs.
16. Closet space is very small.
17. Parking lot is not appropriately lighted.
18. Gym equipment is outdated. I had equipment like this fifteen years ago. As a small woman, the equipment is much too large and bulky for me.
19. Quality attention and workmanship have gone down as rent has gone up.
20. They have disabled the option to rent movies through the TV.
21. There must be a truck place close by because you can hear what sounds like those noises trucks make when they back up and you can hear it all day and night.
22. Slider screens (well mine) has had a rip in it since I have moved in so bugs can get in easily. I have been stung because ofit.
23. There is no place to put my outgoing mail.
24. Laundry facilities are inadequate.
25. You cannot always take a bath. My tub will not plug.
I also heard that they have taken off the promise of free internet for new leases which is a disappointment. They have been writing to us that they were getting us better free internet since the end of the summer and now they are not giving us any.
Beware of this place. They sucked me in again since I had no way to move. I am envious of who gets out of this place.

User Responses
From: bookworm1800	Date: 02/20/2009
You are so right about everything you've detailed, and I feel for you -- I'm especially anxious for you when you move, as they will do all they can to take your security deposit. Be on guard for this. I wish you the best and hope your next home is better.
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/26/2009
I completely agree with you. Can you please post all those complants on the lease ladies door I would love them to read it. This whole internet issue is a disaster. I check there website and it still says free internet but it just plain awful and they arent getting there act together to fix it. I rather have them mow the lawn alittle less in the summer and use some money to fix internet. Also I recieve a nice new HD tv for Christmas and I cant even use it bc they wont let us have HD. It makes me so mad cause I love sports and I want to see them perfectly.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/21/2009
My comments (in numbered order, as per the original post): 1) Nothing is "free". Highwood builds the internet connection cost into their rental rates. While I have had my share of internet connection issues, I have learned that they are at the mercy of the provider - currently Fusion Connex - to fix any issues with hardware, etc. While I have heard that Highwood has been working on changing providers, they are once again at the mercy of the new company that would provide the service. While I don't have any advanced notice of what's happening, I do believe that they are trying to improve reliability as much as possible. As far as the internet connection in general, I'm not sure that any provider has a bullet-proof connection ... I have many friends with Comcast that have at times faced issues with their connections, email, etc. 2) At any point that I've needed things fixed, it has been done. In the event that the "fix" didn't work, they have been more than helpful in scheduling a convenient time to return and making sure it was taken care of. 3) While I have had to deal with occasional noises, I think it may be more an issue with the neighbors rather than the general building structure. I've dealt with this not only in apartments, but also condos, etc. Personally, I try to keep my music, etc., at a reasonable level, but even when it might have been a bit loud, I've never had any complaints. If you have a particular concern, let the management office know, and they will take steps to correct it. 4) I can't comment on this, as I don't live in a lower-level apartment. 5 - #1) My appliances are generally okay. My AC unit is brand new, as is my refrigerator and dish washer. My stove is a little older, but works as expected. My AC was replaced without too much hassle after I complained of issues with it. 5 - #2) parking - I work some pretty long days, so there are times when I get home anywhere between 6 and 9 pm. I can't honestly remember a time in all of the years that I have been here that I needed to park in the visitor's parking area. Granted, parking might not have been available "near my building", but what are we talking about here? Parking ten spaces down farther than normal? Sorry, but this is a fact of life, and the parking area isn't "huge" - and it isn't "dark". 6) "Management lies" ... can't comment on that since you aren't being specific as to anything in particular. Also don't know about their keeping security deposits. 7) Kids running around are the responsibility of the parents. Speed limits are posted, so slow down and know that you live where children are present. Management has no control over what the children are doing. They aren't babysitters for the parents. 8) Snow removal - if you get "plowed in", and can't get your car out, I'm pretty sure that the maintenance staff would do what they could to help. 9) see # 3 above - I believe it totally depends on if your neighbors are considerate with their actions. 10) lights will shine through blinds during night hours. If it's that bad, then consider adding something to reduce the amount of light that enters the apartment. I'm not sure what mid-day has to do with car lights. 11) see #3, above. 12) no, actually, they don't. Sorry to dispute this, but considering what their functions are (heat and hot water), the amount of space taken are minimal. 13) As is the case with many apartments, the AC and heating units are in what might be considered the living room. My AC unit is set to maintain a temperature within the apartment. Being in the living room, that space will generally be colder than the bedroom. The same goes for the heating unit. If your hot water is running out quickly, contact the management office to check it. 14) Haven't experienced this... 15) contact the management office 16) closet space isn't great - agreed 17) sorry - disagree - I have no issues with this 18) don't use the equipment - can't comment 19) you need to be more specific 20) I'm not sure that it was ever an option 21) Not sure of what sounds you are talking about. I haven't heard them. 22) Contact the management office to get it fixed. I've had a few wasps get in, but have never been stung. 23) There is an Outgoing Mail box in the Office building. Has been there for a very long time. 24) Laundry - I may need to wait for the machines at times, but I'm not sure I'd call them "inadequate". 25) Contact the management office to fix. If you had so many complaints, I'm a bit confused as to how you say they "sucked me in again".

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates