This place has been one nightmare after another. The apartments look great outside until you have lived here for a little while. I feel that I must warn people so that they do not make the same mistake as my family. When we first arrived at the reserve at charles place, it looked really nice from the outside. The grounds looked clean and the people seemed friendly. The office was exceptionally friendly and helpful. Shortly after moving in we were able to get a closer look and realized that many of the apartments have water damage. You can see for yourself if you get a chance to walk around and look before renting (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU LOOK AROUND FIRST!!!) Look under the doorway entrances and the patios for what appears to be water damage that is painted over. These will not stay painted over for long. After the first rain you will see the water starting to seep through. You have to think how the water is getting from the roof to the overhangs below and eventually come to the answer, as we did, that it is leaking down the inside of your walls.
If you're lucky enough to get an apartment that faces the west, be sure to buy blackout curtains. Very very very thick blackout curtains. The air conditioners they have installed here are around 1 foot by 1 foot, unless you're one of the maintenance staff or an office worker. These are highly inadequate for the apartments and your air conditioners will never shut off. Be greatful if your electricity bill is under $350. However, if you drive around the apartment complex you will see a couple Goodman 2.5 ton air conditioners. These belong to the office staff and the maintenance crews of the apartment. If you bring up the quality of the non existent cold air coming out of your vents, they will send a maintenance guy to "examine" it and tell you that they have recharged the Freon. Anyone who has ever worked on HVAC systems will tell you that if you have to recharge the Freon then there is a leak in the line. Never do you have to recharge Freon in a closed central air unit unless there is a leak. They will repeat this song and dance for several months. Don't bother trying to contact Alliance who owns this place and I'll tell you why. The head lady in the office, a very bubbly ------ who will act like she wants to solve all the worlds problems, is very good friends with the small staff of the satellite branch of alliance who runs this place. I will explain the satellite branch thing in a moment. If you bring up the complaint to the "head office" they will tell you whatever you need to hear to get you off the phone and then do nothing about it. I have found out through several excruciating phone calls that alliance is broken up into smaller companies all sharing the name of alliance. Think state farm agent using state farm as their head name. There is one woman above the head person in the office here, and she could give less than a damn about your problems. On a good note, and I will admit this, If you live in one of the townhomes you can barely hear your neighbors. I will admit this is one of the reasons I did not terminate my lease in a hurry. However, this was before the summer months and I have realized that I have made a grave mistake. Before June my electric bill, although high for a small apartment, was only about $240. After June my bills were touching upon $400. It was so unbelievable that I had oncor come out to my apartment to see if anyone was stealing power through the walls or electric box. They informed me that the air conditioners were not capable of cooling anything short of the cab of an 18 wheeler. I realize he was joking around yet serious at the same time. The intake vent for the air conditioner is upstairs right where the evaporator unit and blower are. This genius design allows for cool air to be cycled through an entire 2 sq feet of your house. Leaving the rest of your house a nice sauna to lose the weight that the stress is adding.
Alright enough about the air conditioners and the power bills. When you finally decide to take a stroll around the apartment complex on a cool night to get away from your lovely 1400 sq ft sauna, you will notice that the grounds in the front are not quite the same as the back. In the back and sides of the apartment complex there is enough dog poop to build an entire new office staff. Due to this you get an abnormally high amount of flies. You will also occasionally get the whiff of weed as you walk by the back end by the river. Particularly, if you pass by the drug dealers ,(raver kids..who raves now a days' 1999 called and they want their parties back) who drive the white scions, apartment. If you're lucky, you may even get to meet the leash less dog gang. These dogs, using some kind of drug I m unfamiliar with, convince their owners that they are cute and cuddly and would never harm anyone or anything. Usually being of a large breed known for jaws that lock as they bite, you can spot them as the giant blur or multiple blurs (if you have a crazy dog lady in your area) coming at you at full speed. As they jump up on you, leaving a nice long streak of poop they have on their paws onto your clothes, you begin to realize that they are trying to dominate your leg and attempts to convince them otherwise will force them to impress you with their lovely teeth and fangs. However all is well when you hear from a distance no less than a football field, "ITS OK THEY DONT BITE". I guess it's good that you're not the 5 year old kid being close lined by paws of fury a couple feet away.
Ok enough about outside. Let s move on to the lovely amenities.
One of the things you pay for here at the lovely reserve at charles place is trash removal. Every Monday and Thursday this lovely couple comes around to pick up your trash. A couple months ago people used to put their trash out the night before however due to a notice that informed tenants that they will be fined $50 for putting your trash out anytime outside of the 7am to 9am in the morning range people have been putting them out only in the morning. This is great! I m sure you're thinking. No embarrassing trash out at night when you have family over. However the trash family comes at random times, including between the hours of 7am and 9am.. Say 7:15am. So if you put your trash out at 7:15am to 9:am you may not get it picked up and be forced to explain to the apartment why your trash is out after 9am. When you explain to them that it was out at 7:30am and not after 9 they will treat you as if you are a compulsive liar. Another lovely amenity is the pool. It s a very lovely pool when no one is in it but when it is full it is populated by some kind of species I m not familiar with. I say this because these creatures, which resemble humans, never seem to leave the pool... for hours. This creature must have an organ that allows their bodily fluids to store for up to 8 hours. I do notice however that the pool is strangely yellow from time to time.. not really sure what that s about.

I'm getting tired writing about this place. I will add some quick items that make me want to gut myself.

The stove will not heat anything unless it's set at 7-9. The fridge needs to be cleaned constantly because it doesn't quite cool properly. I'm guessing that s because the temperature is over 85 in the home. There are gaps under the doors which allow for all spiders in your garage to come into your home. Oh and last but not least, the lovely ladies in the office who could not find a more promising career than apartment leasers, will automatically assume that you are an idiot. But.. I will give them credit, maybe you are an idiot for living here.


To the comment below, I was not aware that SCI owned the property and alliance just mismanages this place. I will give them a call later in the day. Thank you. I should add that if anyone else is going to call you should phrase it in such a way that their investment is being destroyed and not with complaints. I say this because I doubt they care about your comfort ability, they probably only care about the numbers.

User Responses
From: Petttts	Date: 08/04/2008
Hello, The owner of Reserve at Charles Place Apt. is SCI Properties not Alliance. Their website is www.sciproperties.com. Maybe if enough of us contact them advising them of the poor customer service and problems with air conditions they will listen. Since they paid 32 million dollars for the place.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/26/2008
I agree wholeheartedly. This place is an embarrassment, not only in its physical appearance, but by it's staff. The property is noisy, feels unclean, is not kept up, and honestly feels like it could be a Section 8 property. The noise from children and music is out of control, the grounds are not properly kept, there is dog poop everwhere, trash on the property, thin walls and the inside of the units themselves are cheaply constructed in every way. Try not to have a concern or complaint, or you can plan on being treated like a 2nd class citizen or even yelled at. The owners and the management company should be ashamed this has happened to a west Plano property. In my opinion, this place is not a good choice for families, or for anyone. Please trust me when I say, "AVOID THIS PROPERTY." For the sake of your sanity and your wallet, move someplace else.
From: satisfiedRenter12421	Date: 10/01/2008
I am in a two bedroom three story townhome facing west and I keep my apartment at 75 in the day and 70 at night. My highest bill has been $171.82 (July usage). Since January, my average bill has been $129.65. Maybe you all are picking bad electric company providers. I am paying 11.5 cents/kWh. I have noticed plans that are about 17 cents/kWh. That could easily explain your extremely high (and probably exaggerated) bills. And before I get accused of it, I am not the apartment staff posting. I have lived here a year, and just renewed my lease (which included a $500 discount on the first month, which I have never received on any apartment renewal). I have lived in many apartments, they all have problems with pets/poop, cars, and children making noise.
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/03/2008
satisedrenter12421, wow, 11.5 cents, can you tell me which company that is ? i am paying 15 cents and i always try and get better. which company is that ? i never heard of 11.5 cent in plano since 2005
From: Anonymous	Date: 10/06/2008
I went from 1126 square feet at an over $300.00 a month to a place that is 400 square feet larger and half the electric bill!!!!
From: Anonymous	Date: 12/12/2008
I'm sorry to tell you. It is an Alliance property. Checked the site. www.allresco.com

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