TL;DR: Don t live here unless you have no other choice, and expect to lose your deposit at the very least. They will also try to accuse you of late payments.
My lease for the new house began June 1. By the middle of that month, I had all of my things out of the old apartment, save a few bits of trash and cleaning supplies. The apartment cleanup was done the last week of June, and involved scrubbing the toilet and shower, vacuuming the floors, cleaning the window sills, wiping down the kitchen, cleaning out the fridge, and sweeping out the kitchen and outside porch. Several of these tasks were things I had to do when I first arrived at Apple Creek, but I had been told in the lease that I would be charged had they not been done. I left the cleaning supplies in the now empty apartment through to the end of my lease.
A few days before my lease was over, I went back to my apartment to do a last check of the premises; I wanted to make sure I wasn t leaving anything of mine behind, and that the apartment was cleaned as necessary to get my deposit back in full. On the freshly carpeted floor there were foot tracks which indicated that someone (or several people) had entered the apartment and several of the rooms at some point without my knowledge. I gathered up the last of my things, put them in my car, and drove to the office to check out. During the checkout process, I asked one of the Apple Creek employees about the tracks in my apartment, and was told that they believed I had checked out early (something I had considered in June, but was told I would be charged a fee for) and so they did a walkaround to inspect the apartment. I asked for the results of this inspection, and whether anything in the apartment needed to be cleaned further or repaired; basically, if anything was preventing me from getting a full refund on my deposit.
The answer I got back was that everything looked fine and they had nothing to report. After signing my checkout papers (in which I had noted that the stove burner liners had deteriorated due to poor quality) I also asked the apartment staff whether or not I had any outstanding debts with them. They pulled out my file, looked through it, and told me I was all set. I thanked them for their service and walked out the door, told I was going to get a check for my full deposit in about six weeks.
Sometime in late October, the check still had not arrived. I did not receive any correspondence from Apple Creek despite them having a copy of my forwarding address, and I began to wonder about the status of my deposit check. I decided to look up some reviews of Apple Creek on some rental review websites such as apartmentratings.com to find out if taking a while to return deposits was a common practice. The reviews on the site contained several stories about tenants losing their deposits to the management one way or another; one review mentions the management was supposed to replace carpeting and merely steam cleaned it, then told the tenant at the end of the lease that the old carpet was ruined and charged them for replacement. Another says that after thorough cleaning the apartment the tenant still received a bill for cleaning. At this point I began to doubt that I was going to get my deposit back. I contacted the family attorney to help advise me and he said he would call them. They hung up on him twice, until he explained that hanging up on an attorney doesn t make the problem go away, and then told him that they had a computer problem and lost all of their records for the month of July, and I needed to send them a copy of my last check to them. I hand delivered a copy of the returned check and was told my deposit would be on the way soon.
In December, when the deposit still had not come and still nothing had been sent by Apple Creek management, I again contacted my attorney and he advised me to write a letter to Apple Creek which informed them they had a limited amount of time to either contact me with information explaining why I was not getting my deposit, or else send the deposit at once. This letter was sent with a receipt that confirmed its arrival. Again, no response was given by Apple Creek.
In January, at the end of the specified amount of time given in the letter, my attorney called the management to inquiry what their response was; they told him at that time that I owed rent for July and a late fee and I would not be getting my deposit back because they were keeping it to cover the rent. My understanding was that they were calling it even, and although I remembered asking them when I moved out about any outstanding debts, and was told later that fall that they had lost all records for the month of July, I decided it was not worth further effort to attempt to secure my deposit.
In early April, my attorney received a phone call from Apple Creek in which he was told that I owed $185, which is what was calculated to be July rent, a late fee, a cleaning fee, and a credit for a $300 deposit. He was also told that I was being sent to collections if I did not pay by the end of that week. I called the management and gave them a summary of what is contained in this letter, and asked to be sent specific details regarding the dues they are asking of me. As of the writing of this story, I am still waiting to receive anything from Apple Creek management.

User Responses
From: osujillybean83	Date: 04/27/2009
Even if you do clean it, an apartment complex will always clean your apartment after you leave and then charge you for it. This is not to "screw you over" but to ensure that each and every unit is cleaned properly to their standards. You will never recieve a full refund of your deposit though I'm surprised you didn't get a partial one. In the state of Oklahoma, I believe you are required to submit a written notice to the lessor (Apple Creek in this case) that you want your deposit back within 30 days of vacating the premise. It's a PITA but it's what you have to do. I'm sorry these guys are being a pain in the butt. I can't believe they hung up on your lawyer! How unprofessional!
From: zumaki	Date: 06/01/2009
Update: Still nothing.

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