Overall I liked the apartment and the area I lived in. It really is a beautiful area close to everything. Unfortunately, when you try to move out, they do everything they can to take you for all you're worth. First of all, the TAA lease states that if an apartment requires more than a 30-day move out notice, then the apartment complex is supposed to send you a reminder between 5-30 days before that notice is due. It also states that if the apartment fails to send that reminder, then the resident is only required to give 30 days notice. Gardens of Valley Ranch requires a 60 day move out notice. On June 6th, my husband was offered a job out of state and we realized that we needed to move. Our lease was up on July 15th. We went to the management to explain what happened and that we needed to move when our lease was up. They told us we had to give them 60 days notice. We realized that we had never been sent a reminder and tried to negotiate with them since we were still trying to give them 5 weeks notice, which is over 30 days. They tried to tell us that our requirement for 60 days notice was not contingent on their reminder letter. When we left and came back with our lease to show them the clause, they mysteriously brought out some kind of book that had a date scribbled on it supposedly proving they had sent it. Funny they didn't have that the first time we came. Of course they couldn't tell us how they supposedly gave us this notice on the date written in this book, because obviously we never received it. We just gave up trying to reason with them and when we asked how much it would cost for us to keep the apartment for 60 days, which would go past our lease, they told us it would be almost $300 extra per month because they charge the market rate plus some random $100 fee for going month to month. Again, we just gave in thinking this would be the end of our troubles with them. Then to our surprise, after the move, we received a bill for almost $400 in damages and cleaning fees. We have never had any kind of charges put on our account at any other apartment we have lived at so it was quite a surprise to us especially after two days of cleaning the place. Their charges were just outrageous (charging for brand new blinds because they were minorly bent in two places, and charges for "discards" because of perfectly good shelf liner left in the kitchen cabinets)and of course as other people have mentioned they give you 10 days from the date of the letter to pay or go to collections. I tried to reason with them but these people only care about money. I think they try to nickel and dime everyone to avoid paying for any upkeep in the apartment complex. I doubt they even did the repairs that they charged me for. Make sure you take pictures of every inch of the apartment when you move in, including taking apart every piece of your appliances and removing them from the wall to check behind, every scratch and piece of dust, because they do and will charge you for everything in the end whether you did it or not. They even charged me for things that I have never seen in the whole year I lived there, like mysterious rust stains in my bedroom that they probably made when their cleaning crew was there. Watch out and cover yourself!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/21/2008
AVOID GARDENS OF VALLEY RANCH LIKE THE PLAGUE. AWFUL PEOPLE EXCELLENT LIARS = YOU'RE SCREWED. COMPLETE ------- IN THE OFFICE. RUN RUN RUN.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/21/2008
It is just amazing that 1. This place still has a 25% rating 2. People continue to lease apartments here
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/03/2008
This article is TRUE -- AVOID GARDENS OF EVIL !!! The lady (Assistant Manager) at the office is all nice to you when you move it .. She is an evil one when you are moving out. They will charge you 35 dollars to dust of the top of a counter. AVOID THEM ... RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/03/2009
Well, I'm currently a resident at this dump... guess there's really no point in a thorough cleaning if/when I move out? Thanks for your comments, at least it won't be a total surprise when I move out.

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