Brookside Manor Apartments
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Not worth the price - Stay away from Morgan Properties in General
From: -Anonymous-Date posted: 9/21/2009
Years at this apartment: 2008 - 2009
I've lived at Brookside Manor for about 17 months now, and in recent months have become very unhappy there. I live in a 2 bedroom townhouse and pay over $1300 a month. I will start with the positives, as the negatives outweigh them.
Pros:
If you want, you can paint your place. I wasn't informed whether or not I had to paint it back when I left, though I do know they paint whenever someone new moves in. It is nice to not have to be stuck with white walls.
The upgraded kitchens are nice though there are issues with them.
Full W/D in the unit is a huge bonus.
All the rooms are very big, lots of closet space.
The pool is very nice, though it should open earlier on the weekends. It doesn't open until 11, which is a bit late on the weekends.
It's not too loud between walls(for me anyway) with my neighbors. I don't have anyone above or below me, but I rarely hear anyone on either side (never on the one side, and only sometimes on the other where there are two young boys and a big dog that barks a lot). I might hear the kids running up and down the stairs, but that's about it, and it's never unbearable. HOWEVER...it is loud outside. There are speadbumps and people with utility vehicles that drive over them VERY early in the morning. I am almost ALWAYS woken up by that. Between that and people talking/shouting outside, car horns, etc...sleeping with the windows open is sometimes a challenge.
Cons:
With the house itself:
The houses are drafty and it's impossible to keep the second floor comfortable. In the summer, the first floor stays very cool, but the second floor is always scorching hot, even with the AC on. I have to keep a fan over the floor vent to circulate the AC so that the room was more comfortable. In the winter the first floor is EXTREMELY drafty ("windy" might be a better description), so the heat is constantly running to keep the first floor warm, which (again) makes the second floor scorching, and keeps energy costs extremely high. I kept my thermostat set below 70 degrees and my gas bill was well over $100 every month, just for heat/hot water. I had to close my vents on the second floor, so I paid a lot of money just to keep the first floor warm.
The carpet is in bad shape, I didn't get new carpeting when I moved in, and it had stains on it when I got there.
The bathrooms need updating, there are no cabinets in the full bathroom, the linoleum is old and cracked because of a hole under it, the tub creaks and the shower needs to be re-grouted. The toilets run, and the shower scalds you as soon as the cold water is turned on, which is great when toilets run on their own.
The windows are not terribly old, but they aren't great, I have one that won't lock on the second floor. The screen door constantly breaks.
The upgraded kitchen is nice, but the drawers and cabinets are all VERY small. I can't get a silverware caddy in any of the drawers, so I have to carefully stack the silverware, pans don't fit through the openings without putting them through sideways and any bigger pans won't fit in any of the cabinets near the stove. There are some places where I can see the workmanship was barely average.
The neighborhood is not well lit. There are periodic flood lights on the buildings, but the one closest to me is only lit occassionally. We have gotten letters warning against rashes of thefts or break-ins in the area, so this is a concern (see point "c" under maintenance below).
Maintenance
I have either called about or had maintenance out MANY times for the same issues. I have a big problem with maintenance in general. They are polite, however a) there are issues they have claimed to "fix" which are STILL not fixed, b) it took well over a year to get a down spout installed, and that was only after I contacted Morgan Properties (my fridge still isn't fixed, that's also been over a year), c) They have left my door unlocked on more than one occasion when leaving my home, d) when they do fix things, they might make it function, but it's not always right. For example, I asked to have the screws replaced on carpet stripping because they were raised and painful to step on, they replaced them with black screws on a brass carpet strip. It looks awful.
The lease doesn't allow you to call in your own contractor, but apparently we can hold our rent in escrow until things are fixed. I'll be looking into that. I contacted Morgan Properties about something I have been trying to have fixed since my new kitchen was installed (for which I pay an extra $70/month). The fridge door does not seal. I contacted them August 14, still not fixed.
Management
Some of the office staff is very polite and friendly. Others it's hit or miss. There have been times (and not just once) where they have been down right rude. They also tend to be unresponsive. After my door was left unlocked by maintenance for the SECOND time, I wrote them a letter and delivered it with my rent check. They cashed the check, but not only did they never address my concerns about my door being left unlocked (I'm a female who lives alone, so this is a BIG concern for me), but I also mentioned several things that I was still waiting to have fixed. After a week and a half I contacted the regional office (Morgan Properties) with a different letter and copied the rental office. I still have never gotten a response from the leasing manager.
The regional office hasn't been much more helpful. They did get some of the maintence concerns "addressed", however that was also when I ended up with black screws in brass carpet stripping.
I was told that while my concerns should be addressed, they do not make my home uninhabitable. That's great. I pay $1350 a month for "inhabitable". So as long as my water is running and electricity is working, I guess they don't have to hold up their end of the lease of completing repairs in a "reasonable amount of time", and yet I am expected to pay the rent on time every month.
Quite honestly, I have never been treated so poorly as a customer. I have given them over $22,000 in rent since I have been living there, and am dealing with a brick wall. I would not recommend living there to anyone after the issues I have had. I am a pretty reasonable person (after all, it took me over a year to finally lose patience with things not being repaired), and I understand that things get brushed under the rug. But in the past 45 days I have become incredibly disgusted with how they treat their tennants. To them, you are locked into a lease and they decide whether or not they will let you out...so it makes no difference how you are treated, because you have very little recourse. Don't move here.
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