I sold my house in 2007 and found it difficult at that time to locate an apartment. I had previously lived at Nottingham Apartments before purchasing my home, while it was an older community and could use some serious carpet upgrades, the management was friendly, helpful, and caring. Monthly activities encouraged a sense of community.

A friend of a friend recommended Hickory Run Apartments and at the time it was one of the only places that had availability when I needed to move. The upgrades were nice and the inside apartment decor was tasteful. The construction of the cabinets are poor. For exampel, the bottom one of the drawers partially came apart, which caused my utensils to fall onto my pans in the bottom cabinet. This was never repaired. The freezer ices over (it is new & under warranty)I have requested that it be repaired. Maintenance came promptly and informed me that nothing could be done. The seal around the refrigerator door was not applied properly. The seal was repaired promptly. The blinds were damaged and not repaired but noted in my file. There were holes in the walls where the door knob meets the wall. These were promptly repaired. One month after moving into the apartment the security system was removed.

The poor drainage of the gutters and 1st floor patio area floods everytime it rains; therefore, anything nice can not be put out or it will be ruined. (my stuff was ruined). Not to mention that my puppy came running up to with two large earth worms in her mouth. I began finding earth worms all over the apartment in random places. It was kind of comical as my puppy was great at finding the worms. Later, we discoved a few piles of dried up earthworms. This occured two different times during heavy rains. The apartments are sprayed every Thursday upon request; however, this does not seem to stop the pest that are brought about by the inadequate drainage problems. For example, spiders, centipedes, worms, silver fish, and an unknown creepy crawler. This may not be a problem on the second floor.

The little clip placed outside your door is used to post any form of a compliant by management. One of the maintenance personal (Wayne) is well known to all of the single mothers in the community as it appears that he takes great pleasure in snooping, complaining to managment, and hitting on single moms. I do not feel comfortable knowing that he comes into my apartment when I am not home and after he has been there inevitably I will receive a "nasty note" outside my door complaining about something. Shortly, after moving in I recieved a copy of my lease and a nasty note saying that I was being fined for not disclosing that I had two pets and being charged an extra pet fee and pet rent and that I must sign the new lease. I presented a copy of my orginal lease that clearly showed my 2 pet disclosure, pet deposit, and pet rent for 2 pets. I was told that the person that wrote up my lease was new, had made a mistake, and no longer with Hickory Run; therefore, the manager Cathy had requested that I sign a new lease. I was accused of being dishonest. Managment argued that no such copy was in my file. I showed my copy and she was not receptive and asked that I leave it with her to give to Cathy, manager. I refused but allowed her to make a copy. I refused to sign the new lease. I never heard from Cathy or the officer personnel about the lease nor did I receive an apology.

Management shows favoristism for cats and cat owners, by allowing numerous cats within a household. The universal rules for pets are that there is 2 per household, no pet is to be outside off leash, and food and water is not to be placed outside. Individuals within my building had more than 2 cats, allowed them outside, and placed food and water outside the front door. I love all animals and did not mention these issues even though I was awoke at night by the cat at my window or my dog barking at the cat on the balcony. The numerous dogs, cats, & wild life that flocked at night to the food and water bowels. However, my neighbor complained that my dog woke her up at night and I received a couple of complaints by managment at which point I pointed out the above state offenses and I was told that while the rules for cats were the same it was unfair to expect a cat owner to take a cat out on a leash or expect it to stay inside. I detailed the issues it was causing and that my dog barking would not stop as long as her cat was on my balcony at night scratching the sliding glass door. Nothing was ever done to prohit these issues.

My neighbor complained that I was not picking up the dog "poop" when when in fact I was picking up the poop. Apparently, managment highly encourages your neighbors to rat each other out. As it turned out my teenage daughter was not consistently picking up the poop after school when she took the dog out. When I found this out I acknowledged to managment what was happening and assured them that I would take care of matters and if she was caught doing this again I would volunteer her services to the complex to pick up all of the poop. Two weeks later I received another nasty note stating that my neighbor told them I was still not picking up the poop. I was asked pick up the poop around my apartment building by the weekend and to pay a $25.00 fine. I explained to managment that I could prove that I had been picking up the poop. I further explained that I had a trash bag full of little pink doggy bags of poop that I could bring to her desk in the next 5 minutes. I also pointed out that my neighbor with the 3 cats outside clearly was not picking up the cat poop and could perhaps some of the mess outside our doors be related to either the cats or the stray dogs that eat the food she leaves out each night. I have to say I never received that type of note or phone call again.

However, I do receive phone calls every several weeks to complain about something such as my dog barked or my flower pot was too close to front door. Mostly very petty and annoying things.

My neighbors apartment flooded and I called about the flood in my apartment and it took a while to get that fixed as the drywall had to be pulled out and the carpet pulled up and the pad replaced. I had numerous books that were ruined but not replaced by managment. The workers permanently discolored the carpet in my hallway, which was new. It was not replaced but was noted in my file. When the drywall people came to complete the drywall in the laundry room my house guest called me at work to inform me that (Wayne) the service guy had went into my bedroom and into my closet. My guest politely informed him that there was no drywall damage in my closet and he shrugged and said he was just checking.

FEES:
The water bill averages 61.00 dollars a month in a two bedroom apartment with two people. The pet deposit and rent is comparable to other apartments in the area. However, most places that charge a monthly pet fee also have trash cans spread throughout the complex. Monthaven even has special pet areas with pet bags and trash cans. Now that is great use of the pet fees and rent!!!

If you want to break your lease it will end up costing you a total of 3 1/2 months rent. If you decide to transfer from a 1 bedroom to a two bedroom or vise versa you will be charged a $1000 transfer fee. The going rate for transfer fees is $300. If you give your 2 month notice (as required) you better have a place to go because they will not work with you if you decide to stay. Guess what' You will have to pay everyone of your fees again, plus a penalty. The cost of a 3 month lease will cost you deeply. The cheapest monthly rent is for the 12 month lease. Most apartments charge $100 dollars extra for a 3 month lease but for 6 month on up the price is the same. Not here!!! It is a different price for each lease type. If you decide to go with the 14 month lease you will pay more than the 12 month lease. If at the end of your 1 year lease you need to go month to month the rent jumps from $897 to $1223 per month. Most places will give you 3 months for the same rent, upon the 4 month the increase avergages $50 extra per month.

This complex pays $200 if you refer someone and now I understand why! They live to make money on fees and have no intention of developing a family community with repeat renters. I have seen too many of my neighbors stuff being set out by management with the police standing by watching. This is mostly single renters. If you have to call the police for anything the typical arrival time is 17 to 20 minutes. The speed bumps are irritating.

The atmosphere is unfriendly and the one visit to the pool that I made was my last after individuals from In Towne Suites across the street were loudly removed & a violence was threatened. If you want to score drugs just stop at the school bus stop on most mornings.

I am miserable at this place and even thought I had decided to stay because of the expense of moving. My new rent increase jumped from $827.00 to $897.00 which made the decision an easy one to make.

If you are looking for an unfriendly and uncaring managment team this is your place. If you only care about the nice upgrades, have no pets, and are male or married this place may be for you. However, if you are female or a single mom then look else where because you will leave with an ulcer & numerous gray hairs.

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