I've lived at Forest Park for over a year now. Before you jump on my back about writing a negative review when I've already renewed once, I must stress that we renewed our lease out of financial necessity, no necessarily on the merit of the community.

That being said, I have to say that Forest Park used to be one of the nicer inexpensive apartments around. When we first leased, there were so many positives it was an overwhelmingly easy choice to lease. The grounds were nicely kept and it was rather quiet for a Friday afternoon. The assistant manager was so wonderful, she ran a very well oiled machine and we never had any issues with maintenance or parking. We were even impressed with the leasing agents, who seemed competent and fully aware of the location they were leasing in. They catered to our lower income needs, rather than treating us like ghetto porch monkeys.

We were so taken with the property and our apartment at that time, we planned on moving to a third bedroom once we chose to have our second child.

However, once that assistant manager left, she took all of the intelligence and common sense out of the place. With her went any modicum of customer service. We have had numerous problems with the leasing staff, as well as the maintenance. Our requests for maintenance have been ignored numerous times, or even brushed off as a lie on our part. When our son's sink was leaking and destroying the cabinet (and creating mold, he has asthma) they insisted we were lying about the leak and refused to look at it for weeks. There are even big issues that were overlooked and blown off (our smoke detectors were faulty and they ignored our requests for two weeks, our heater broke in the middle of a very cold winter and maintenance refuesd to answer our 911 pages so we had to leave for a day).

The office staff is very, VERY lazy. Whenever we call to submit a maintenance request or whatever, they will gab on and on but never put anything into paper. We also had multiple issues regarding our lease renewal in April. We were initially promised rent as low as $640 (if you research this complex, a 2x2 is now listed at over $700) and a free carpet cleaning. However, when we renewed they tried to charge us the full price of a 2x2. We had them rewrite the lease, but they could only reduce our price by $10, since $640 was far too low and they would never promise that (again, inadvertantly calling us liars). Even after all of that (it was a whole hour process) we had to resign the lease two more times since the incompetent person handling the resign kept making mistakes. On top of that, we were charged the higher rate in our next rent check, which meant we had to once again resign.

That's another thing about the staff, they have been circulating several new staff members in and out of the office for the past seven months. It's incredibly confusing because it happens fast and we're never informed of new hires, they're just thrust upon us with almost zero knowledge of working in an apartment complex.

In regards to the complex itself, the parking is crap (way too many non-resident vehicles taking up resident spots, and forget trying to find a reasonable spot past 8 p.m.) and they stopped towing non-residents cars months ago. The "patrol officer" stays in the leasing office 90% of the evening and never questions people who are loitering in the parking lot. It's relatively quiet, but on occassion residents will have parties and thump their music late into the evening. The pool is never open (they've had recent issues with people defecating in or around the pool, and dirty diapers in the pool filter) and the "fitness centre" is a joke.

Yes, they do offer a free YMCA programme. But, be wary if your child is over the age of 7 or 8. The programme is full of little kids and not oriented towards older children at all.

I will also give them the fact that it's affordable. And it's tucked back in a lot of trees, but the over flowing, putrid dumpsters definitely detract from that scenery!

Like I said, it could be worse. It's kept far enough away from the seedier parts of Rundberg, so there isn't a big issue with drugs and prostitution. It's merely mildly insulting the prices they charge for crap service and an apartment that, when it falls apart, no one takes the time to fix it.

I recommend caution when leasing. It might be right for some, but for others it's all wrong.

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