I moved here because it was one of the few places near the UT campus that would accept my small dog. When I moved in, I discovered that there was a gas leak, so I had to leave the apartment immediately. Needless to say, I installed carbon monoxide monitors immediately afterwards!

For the first few months, River Oaks was OK. The apartment was large, I had a nice tree view from my bedroom, and it was fun being right there near Lava Java, the Red River Cafe, and Eastwoods Park (which my dog loved and, I'm sure, sorely misses).

But then the complex reinstituted their permit parking, and flatly refused to give my mother a parking permit. This would have been understandable, except that my lease explicitly stated that I was to be issued two parking permits. I worked this out with a Rainier employee before I signed the lease, and I would not have moved there if I knew that my mother couldn't park there when she came in from out of town (note: there is pretty much NO free parking anywhere else in the area, and towing at RO is strictly enforced. Seriously. Don't let your guests park there!). When I tried to acquire this second parking permit, I was told that portion of my lease was invalid because it was written in ink. Um...no. My previous lease had been entirely written in ink. The people who worked at Rainier at the time were petulant children. I was 21, and some of the employees were clearly younger than I was- and they didn't have the intelligence to compensate for their lack of experience. A bad combination. Anyway, the manager finally came to her senses and gave me the permit, but only after we spent many long, frustrating hours dealing with this situation.

Then my AC started leaking. A lot. More than a gallon a day, actually (I was strangely fascinated by the amount of water spewing out of it, so I routinely measured). I called the Rainier office several times a week to tell them about it. FROM AUGUST UNTIL NOVEMBER. I'm not kidding. It was only fixed after I went down to their office in person to complain about the parking permit issue. And after I told them that my mother is an attorney.

Other issues: the hot water frequently went out during the time I lived there, so daily showers were not always possible. The hot water was usually fixed within a day, but it still wasn't fantastic. My tub refused to drain- a problem I haven't had anywhere else. Oddly enough, a person who lives at another property told me that he also had problems with a huge amount of standing water in his tub. I just took a wild guess that it was a Rainier-managed complex, and guess what...I was right!

The one good thing about these apartments: the electric bills were allocated, so they were really low, especially in the summer when many residents were gone. Still, I can't help but think that you can find better housing elsewhere. I was so desperate to get out of RO that I preleased an apartment in the Far West area without having seen the exact floorplan- 3 full months before my move-out date. It was a good call- Far West may not be great, but it is SO MUCH BETTER!

User Responses
From: ahelaumakani	Date: 02/06/2008
Funny, I live in Kensington Green owned by Rainier and have the same problem with the tub not draining! Drano didn't work and the previous times we've had maintenance issues they were never fully resolved. I'd rather just live with it for rather than have them tear up my bathroom which may or may not solve the problem. I will never rent with them again.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates