Here is my review on the Grove at Oakbrook apartment complex.

I had a two bedroom, one bath (about 1000 sq ft), ground floor apartment in Building number 5. My montly rent was $740 for the first six months. Management offered a renewal for another six months at the same rate.

The apartment was clean on my arrival. I found no defects with any of the appliances.

Pros:
- Noise: Unlike other reviewers here, I found the complex to be very quiet. At night, I was almost never kept up by any road noise or other tenants. Surprising, considering the large quantity of dogs in the complex (many tenants have them) I heard no barking or howling. If there were any loud noises, it would be the landscaping crew who usually are finishing up their work around 5-6pm on Tuesdays or kids playing around in the center quad or pool. None of this ever bothered me. Note:
my apartment was adjacent to the pool but faced away from the pool. There was one tenant with a dirt bike or motorcycle. Usually, he would fire up the bike and take off out of the complex. So, this was only a 30-second nuisance.

- Grounds: The grounds were well maintained for the most part. Except for some dog poo in some areas.

- Maintenance: Service was quick from my single experience. On a Friday night in May, I called the main office number at 830pm (past normal hours). The condenser(or air exchanger') of my AC was dripping water in the utility closet. A technician arrived within 30 minutes and had the problem fixed in 10 minutes. He was courteous and was "in and out" and all business.

- Management: Management was always nice to me. It might be that I'm nice to them so they return the favor. I never caught an attitude from anybody in the office As of July 1st 2009 they are under new management. I only dealt with them twice, but both times I had no problems.

- Parking: There was always plenty of parking all the time. Even if I came home at midnight, I was parking maybe 5-7 spaces away from my door. I received no dings or dents on my cars. The spaces are also rather large.

- Shopping: There is a Publix supermarket less than 1 mile from the complex.

Cons:
- The drain in the master bathroom garden tub drained very slowly. I had to run drain-o through it once every two months to keep the water flowing.

- The carpets are very cheap. They are not soft on the feet, but they did stand up reasonably well for the 13 months I was there.

- It does seem that many residents are inconsiderate of others. That's not to say everyone who lives there is like this, but a few bad apples ruin things for everyone else. On various occasions, some tenants: A) don't pick up after their dogs, B) let their dogs relieve themselves inches from your screened in porch, or C) simply open their door and let the dog out to do its business. Note that there are many tenants that take full advantage of the "poo bags" and receptacles installed by management. Some tenants simply can't be bothered with that.

- Bugs: There was not a *lot* of bugs, but it is the So uth. They are here. The most I saw was in the first few weeks I lived there. After that, the amount of bugs decreased with the temperature outside. I didn't see any bugs inside the apartment from October to May. However, I can recall one unpleasant experience when I showered and a water bug came up from the drain. *shudder* It's not like you get a big palmetto bug once a day and usually when you do see one, they are already dead.

Bugs that I saw: palmetto bugs, water bugs, small spiders (smaller than a dime), some sort of cricket looking thing.

- Dishwasher: While it did do its job decently, it had the longest running cycle of a dishwasher I have ever seen and was absurdly loud. I could not run it unless I was either A) going out or B) going in the bedroom, but not going to sleep.

Other notes:
Originally I was going to break my lease in February 2009 to buy a house. The "move-out cost" for breaking the lease was around $2500. I would have to pay something like 2 month's rent and payback the "subsidy" for my rent. Management (sometimes) offers a discount rate. My apartment was supposedly worth $940/mo but I paid $740/mo. I had to pay the difference for the entire lease term, plus 2 month's rent etc.

Also, management would only accept your "60 days notice" effective the last day of the month. For example, if you tell them on January 31st that you are moving out, you can leave March 31st. If you tell them on February 1st, you are on the hook until April 30th. Its a scam. However, when the deal on the house I was buying fell through, they let me pick up my lease again as if nothing happened. No fees. So that was good.

I informed the office in May that I would not renew my lease at the end of June. But, my closing date got moved by 45 days. They were able to get a prospective new tenant to take a different apartment so I could keep my apartment long enough for my closing date. That is not something I usually expect from apartment management.

Also, I received back 100% of my security deposit. I had to put up one month's rent, so it was good to get it all back. I've heard horror stories about management nitpicking on certain things and finding ways to take most of your security deposit from you. These were the issues with my apartment:

- 2 square foot of carpet clawed up by my cat.
- cat munched on blinds in 3 of the rooms, making small teeth like marks
- some blue stain in the freezer from a freezer pack that leaked its blue goo
- few nicks in the wall from moving furniture in and out

I replaced the carpet, but the color wasn't perfect and you could see the seam. I did not replace the blinds. I cleaned most of the "blue goo" from the freezer, but there was blue stains in there.

I didn't touch up the wall. I still received all of my deposit. I would guess that the people that claim that management here are "stingy" when it comes to being reimbursed the deposit are leaving their apartments as absolute disaster areas.

For the prospective renter from out of town, here are my various utility charges so you can help budget:
- 35/mo for the water/sewer bill. This almost never changed.
- 180/mo for electricity. Mind you, I cook every night (electric cooktop or oven) and have 3-4 computers running sometimes simultaneous and kept the AC at a chilly 70 degrees in the summer. In the winter, the bill dropped to about 100/mo.
- 36/mo washer/dryer rental from Azuma (not affiliated at all with Grove at Oakbrook). These were bottom of the line machines, but worked great. Note: the W/D hookups are all located in the apartment.
- $165/mo for cable, internet and phone. Supposedly, the only provider you get for these services is Knology. They have an exclusivity deal or something with the Grove at Oakbrook. I don't believe you can get Comcast or Time Warner. I also don't think you are allowed to install a satellite dish. So, Knology is the only gig in town. My package included one DVR box, HBO/Starz/Encore package (25
movie channels or so), unlimited local and long distance (anywhere in the US or Canada) and broadband. Cable service was good. No complaints. Only lost service once during a storm for about 1 hour. No issues with the phone (note: you lose phone service if you do not have power). Internet was a bit slow. Service was good though. Only a few outages. Keep in mind they have a package deal if you drop the DVR box and the HBO/movies for $100/mo.

All in all, if I was still renting I would have stayed there. I have had worse renting experiences.

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