My husband and I had the unfortunate experience of stumbling across this place in the summer of 03. I was pregnant with our child at the time and we were desperate to find housing and had heard good things about this place from friends of friends. UNFORTUNATELY, what we didn't know was a new management company, Mayo Six LLC, had taken over from the GOOD one, so things went downhill as soon as we moved in.

This review could get long REALLY fast, because we have a LOT of complaints, so I'll put it in list format to make it easier to read:

PROBLEMS:

1: Maintenance. Any time we had regular wear and tear on the cheap things in the apt, it took forever for them to come, and multiple calls to remind them.

2: Security doors: The buzzer on the security door to our apt building just plain didn't work for a YEAR AND A HALF!!!! Then the lock would hold onto your key and it would take just the right twist and jerk and angle to get it back, THIS IS A HUGE PAIN WITH AN ARM FULL OF GROCERIES AND A SLEEPING CHILD!!! FINALLY, when the door started "eating" keys, they removed the lock and "fixed it" with electrical tape. For TWO MONTHS, anyone could just walk in off the street. The finally fixed it, after over a year and a half.

3. Plowing: OMG were they SLOW!!! They were supposed to have our lot plowed at 8:30 AM, this is according to THEM, THEIR SCHEDULE that they'd plaster all over the building. They would do a quick run-through so that the cars could get out of their spots and park along the street, then they'd do the big plow job, getting the majority of the snow up. One snow storm in the winter of '07, the snow was so high that no cars could even move to park along the street so that they could plow the lots because they never did the run-through so no one could get out without at least spending 45 minutes outside with a shovel and LOTS of pushing. Fortunately, we had a shovel and let other tenants use it and helped them out too, but maintenance was no help. As I remember, they didn't bother plowing until mid-afternoon that day.

4. Parking: sure, there are parking tags, but it's a joke. Non-tenants aren't supposed to park in tenant parking after 4 PM, but there were never any signs up and no one ever told their guests this (except us!) so those of us who PAID RENT would frequently have to park in the overflow GUEST lot. They NEVER checked the tags to see who was supposed to be there and who wasn't. It was a joke. (BUT they'll charge you $35 if you lose this useless piece of plastic!!!)

5. Dogs: when we moved in, there were no dogs allowed. Towards the end of our stay there, they started allowing dogs, WITHOUT informing the tenants!!! These apartments are WAY too small for large and even medium-sized dogs. They are LOUD.

6. THEY HIRED A ***REGISTERED*** SEX OFFENDER TO WORK THERE, THIS PERSON HAD ACCESS TO EVERYONE'S APARTMENT WHILE WE LIVED THERE. This guy lived in OUR BUILDING!!! We got a pathetic "oops, our bad, sorry" letter three months after moving in, saying they'd mistakenly hired a registered sex offender. THAT'S A BIG OOPS, considering there are a LOT of families there, a LOT of stay-at-home-moms, and this guy had access to ALL of the apartments while he lived there. If you live there or are going to, INSIST THAT THEY CHANGE YOUR LOCK!!

7. Not only do they not bother doing substantial back round checks on their employees, they don't bother looking into their tenants either. These folks will rent to ANYONE. When we moved in, we were told that they were going to be renting to a "better" class of people. Lies. They rented to some young teenagers who had the cops at their apartment at least once a week, usually more like 2-3 times. They never paid their rent. They'd blast music, peel out and speed through the buildings down the access road (there are LOTS of children living in the apartments, this is not safe to do at any time, but with so many children around it's just plain dangerous). There were people living in a tent on the grass outside of this apartment for a month. No action. There were always people in and out of that apartment, I think they were dealing drugs. After several letters to the management team about that apartment and at least weekly, if not multiple calls each week to the cops about noise, parties, etc, they were finally evicted after a year and a half of not paying rent. This is not unusual. These are the types of people they frequently rent to. A woman in our building didn't pay her rent for 3 months, left bikes, bike tires, and a dead Christmas tree on her deck, and skipped out in the middle of the night. Other tenants we shared a wall with for a few months were always having loud parties and we complained about them multiple times, fortunately they either skipped out or were evicted.

8. There are a few nice tenants there, but they tended to hide in their apartments, like us. The white trash tenants have the run of the place. Their kids would scratch our car, teenagers would loiter in the halls and smoking outside on the stairs, yell off of the balconies to people in the parking lots or driving by... you get the picture.

9. Sure, there's a play ground, and sure, there are a few new things (new in 2004 I think) but no one keeps up with it. We NEVER went there, we'd just see things driving by and from our deck. The trash was always over flowing. Parents were supposed to watch their kids, they wouldn't, there were rarely parents there and when there were, they were loud, car radios blasting and they'd be drinking (18-packs of their cheap-o beer right out on the picnic tables) and smoking while their kids played.

10. Kids were always running and playing in the road, even when cars drove by, because no one ever bothered to watch their kids. And, oddly enough, these kids would give you a dirty look when you drove past them, even if you were going SLOW, like you were the one who shouldn't have your car on the road!!!

11. Washers and dryers. Sure, they're in the building. But there's too few and they're usually broken or just work poorly. We only used them for a few months and took to doing our laundry else where.

12. The lease: READ IT ALL before you sign anything. They told us when we left that they were going to start making new tenants PAY OUT THE WHOLE ENTIRE REMAINDER OF THEIR LEASE if they were leaving early, EVEN IF THEY GAVE MORE THAN 30 DAYS NOTICE, even if they were going to buy a house!!! So, unless you want to live there with out a lease and just HOPE that they don't raise your rent (trust me, they will, they don't do anything around the place but they'll come after you for every cent they can and more), you're pretty much screwed unless you want to pay out your whole lease if you finally do get out of their and buy a house. Unless you just happen to stumble across the perfect house just as your lease is up and before you sign a new one. This is just a way for them to line their pockets because after every tenant, they always go in, replace things, make updates, and jack up the rent for the next tenant, so they make their money back no matter what and then some anyway, making new tenants pay the remainder of their lease even if they give more than 30 days notice is just plain greedy.

13. Parking lot lighting is too dark and really quite sketchy. When the light bulbs burn out, plan on calling/writing multiple times before they'll replace bulbs. Even when all the bulbs are working, there's not enough lighting and it always made me very uncomfortable walking back to the building alone after dark, ESPECIALLY since our security door didn't work!!! A plow backed over a light post and took out the light (winter 2007), and even though there were plenty of warm spells during the winter when they could have poured a new concrete base and put in a new light, it still took them MONTHS to not only pour the concrete base, but then bother to hook up the light!

14. Management and maintenance were RUDE! During the many, many, MANY times we had to deal with them, even when we were trying to be understanding and polite, they were never friendly, rarely polite, and more often than not, they were rude. I always figured that since most of the tenants there were white trash hicks, that they got enough rudeness from other tenants so I'd be polite, and it was never acknowledged or appreciated. Being polite gets you no where with these people. You have to be rude right back and be stern and be prepared to follow through multiple times, and don't be surprised if there is still no follow through.

15. Even if you are a model tenant, like us, never had the cops at our apartment, never had any noise complaints filed against us, always paid our rent on time, THEY WILL NICKLE AND DIME YOU AND EVEN MAKE STUFF UP WHEN YOU MOVE OUT, SO TAKE PICTURES OF EVERY LAST CORNER OF YOUR APARTMENT BEFORE YOU MOVE OUT, better than pictures, take video of every last nook and cranny of the apartment before you leave, because they will send a collection agency after you and threaten to take you to court just to make a few extra bucks off of you. They flat out lied when going through our apartment and made up damage that was never there, then charged us for it, SO BE FOREWARNED!!!

16. ***READ THIS IF YOU ARE A CURRENT TENANT OR IF YOU PLAN TO LIVE THERE**** If you have a lease with them and they don't bother to fix things around your apartment, around the building, the grounds, parking lot, etc, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO WITH HOLD A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF RENT FROM THEM!!! For example, if your garbage disposal breaks, document the number of times you call them to fix it or the number of letters you send to them to fix it, give them a reasonable amount of time to fix and make sure you tell them if they don't you'll withhold X amount of rent from the next months rent check. If they don't fix it, YOU CAN WITH HOLD THAT AMOUNT OF RENT FROM THEM AND YOU DON"T HAVE TO PAY IT EVEN WHEN THEY DO FIX IT, but only if you have a lease. ALSO, if you'd prefer to have an outside professional come in and do the job, TELL THEM, track the # of times you tell them, and if they don't have it done by said date, you can call in the professional and have them fix it and then make a copy of the receipt and subtract that amount from the rent, just make sure you include a copy of the receipt with the next months rent. AGAIN, ONLY IF YOU HAVE A LEASE. ***DO THIS*** We didn't find out about this until after we moved out, and so we just lived with all sorts of problems in our apartment because we new that even if we hounded them about the problems, they'd never come and fix them. A lease is a contract. They agree to not raise your rent during the lease, good for you, but they agree to keep things in working order around your apartment, and they won't bother to do this even if you hound them, SO USE THE CONTRACT, USE THE LEASE, THEY HAVE TO FIX THINGS AND IF THEY DON'T, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO WITH HOLD RENT/PAY A PROFESSIONAL AND DOCK THE COST FROM YOU RENT!!!

17. Appearances can be deceiving. They keep the grounds nice around the office, planting annuals and keeping the bushes trimmed and keeping the mulch weeded, but there were bushes growing over the path to our door for A YEAR before they bothered to trim them, and maintenance people had been in and out of the building, so they had to have noticed that you had to walk off the path around the over grown bushes. A HUGE PAIN, ESPECIALLY IN THE SNOW AND WITH A CHILD AND GROCERIES!!!

18. In our lease, it said we weren't allowed to use our decks as storage units, because it creates an eye sore. Also, we were not allowed to have grills other than electric on our decks. Also, no real Christmas trees. No trash. Drive around the whole complex. On decks you'll see charcoal grills, huge tote boxes stacked high, bikes, shop vacs ('!!), strollers, extra chairs stacked up, inflated pool toys, random pieces of furniture, etc etc etc. There was a bone dry dead Christmas tree on a deck by our apartment for MONTHS!!! We complained. We were nervous about fire risks with the grills and the dead tree. No action. They'll send threatening letters to tenants, stating if you don't clean off your deck by X date, they'll put your stuff in storage and charge you a fee per day it's in storage. They never did this because everyone knew they'd never follow through because they are lazy. Never mind the fire hazard, it's just ugly. Why should we have to look at stacks and stacks of bright orange totes on someones deck across from us'

19. Cigarette butts EVERYWHERE!!! SO GROSS! Not only do tenants hang out on the steps and make you breath in their putrid second hand smoke when you're just trying to get to your apartment, they leave their butts everywhere. Never get in trouble with maintenance, no one ever picks them up.

20. I WAS ELECTROCUTED because they didn't hire a real electritian to install new outlets. I never complained because I knew they wouldn't do anything about it.

One of some of these problems alone might not be unbearable, like the parking situation or the cigarette butts, but all of these problems put together in one complex is completely unreasonable.

***HOWEVER, IF YOU GET STUCK HERE LIKE WE DID FOR SO LONG, OR IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO LIVE HERE, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT A LEASE IS A CONTRACT, THEY HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES TOO AND IF THEY DO NOT FOLLOW THROUGH, YOU CAN TAKE ACTION AGAINST THEM*** See #16

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