My girlfriend and I both moved here last year because of the excellent rent price. I currently pay $553 for an 850sq ft 1 bedroom and my girlfriend shares her apartment with a roommate (also very affordable).

However, this affordability isn't without its drawbacks. My utility bill here (probably because of the age of the units) is upwards of $140 bucks a month during the summer. That's twice the MAX I've paid at any of the other 6 apartment complexes I've lived in.

The AC unit itself is old and extremely disgusting. I've asked for it to be cleaned, but the condo leasers said it would be my responsibility. Mold grows like crazy here. I have to hose down my bathtub once a week with Tilex to keep it at bay. Even then, the caulking around the tub is cheap and peels back, allowing more mold to grow where the gaps are.

Ants are a constant hassle. They aren't fireants, so I've never been bitten, but it's pretty disgusting to grab a (semi) clean glass from the cabinet (the dishwasher is too old to properly clean dishes) and see an ant running around in it.

I've also had a number of hornets and wasps in my aparmtment in the summer months, though I have no idea how they get in.

The seal on my washer was old and caused a leak that caused my downstairs neighbor to clean out his patio of all its contents until the leak was fixed. Afterwords, mold has formed all over the wall in the utility room.

On the plus side, hot water is easy to come by. The water heater in this unit is very large, so I always have an ample supply of hot water.

It's relatively quiet most of the time and the landscaping is also nicely kept up with in most parts of the complex. They do seem to enjoy scheduling the mowing crews to come in early on Saturday mornings to wake you up though.

THE MAIN DRAWBACK to living at these condos is dealing with the management. Don't bother to read the reviews that rate this place a 5. No place is absolutely perfect. And the phrase "the best kept secret in San Antonio" should tip you off that it's Devonshire management writing the reviews rather than people who actually live here. That phrase is on all of their advertisements for this place.

Linda is not too bad to deal with, though she's not particularly caring and just seems to be conveying the wishes of her master -- Jean. Jean is the real bane of these Condos. She is the head manager and is probably one of the most uncaring people I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

Recently, a pipe burst in my girlfriend's condo and flooded 80% of the square footage. First off, management called my girlfriend and told her there was a 'minor' incident in her unit. NEWS FLASH -- an inch of water over 80% of the place is NOT A MINOR incident.

Well, by the time my girlfriend was able to leave work and meet me there, her furniture (which was all soaked on the bottoms) was already cramed into one corner of the unit and in the patio and kitchen. Her roomnate's brand new laptop happened to be in its case on the floor and was also soaked.

Management was nowhere to be found during the entire event until I called Jean. I asked her if they were going to replace the carpet, which they didn't, but she said they would wait to see how it turned out. She also stated, "This kind of thing happens ALL the time here." Well, if that's the case (which it apparently is after speaking with some of my neighbors) then perhaps I should have been made aware of that little blemish on the so-called "Best Kept Secret in San Antonio" before I signed my lease.

I also asked her if there was a number I could reach her at after 5:00pm when the offices closed and she replied, "No, you can reach me here till 5." After she basically hung up on me, she sent her minion Linda to try to keep us at bay.

Linda refused to speak to me, citing that I was not on the lease, even though I am a renter at the same complex and was representing my girlfriend as she hadn't arrived yet.

She would speak to my girlfriend's roommate however, and stated that the condo would be uninhabitable for a week or more while giant fans and a humidifier were run in the unit to dry it out.

Her roommate asked if they (Devonshire) were going to give her an alternate place to stay during that time and Linda said that they might be able to find a vacant unit for them, but it would be unfurnished and up to the girls to make sleeping arrangements, etc.

So, after she left, the carpet guys tore up all of the carpet and removed the padding, then placed the wet carpet back down. This involved moving EVERYTHING off the carpet. (Beds, dressers, desks, unplugging everything --- EVERYTHING).

My girlfriend's roommate's sole request was for Devonshire to call her before they did anything with the carpet to let her know what was going to happen, but they snuck behind her back and just put in new padding with the same old carpet.

Very sneaky indeed since I'm sure the claim to their insurance company was for the entire carpet to be replaced. It must be a nice bit of profit to pocket a couple grand instead of spending it on what you're supposed to.

So anyway, as you can see -- the only times we've needed the management team, they did nothing but make our lives harder.

Last but not least, the level of safety here isn't that great. My neighbor's car was broken into and a woman up the street was assaulted in the parking lot. The complex is gated, but the location is pretty close to some serious 'section 8' housing, if you know what I mean.

So if you can deal with mold, high utilities, slow (if any) maintenance, an uncaring management staff, and rapant bugs then, by all means, come on over and have a "cheap" place to live!

User Responses
From: devonshireishell	Date: 02/10/2006
PLEASE I beg you DON'T come live here because you will most likely regret it. The atmosphere of Devonshire is very beautiful and peaceful, and definitely lovely in the spring and summer with all the flowers and greens everywhere. But even that has its drawback: GIANT HORNETS. These huge hornets come during the summer and are very intimidating- not a place for children in the summers. I've never seen hornets before in my life until I moved here, which is weird because I've lived in San Antonio my whole life. Anyway- I once saw a hornet the size of a hummingbird! I'm not kidding. Besides that, the units/condos are getting old (23 years old) and they're falling apart. The place will look nice during a walk-through, but once you're actually living in one, its aging will reveal itself. The a/c units are old and our bill here is around $170/month in the summer for a one-bedroom condo! The large appliances (fridge, stove, microwave) are from the Stone Age. Some condos do have newer microwaves, but ours has an OLD one. Parking is usually pretty great- unless you want to park near the gate- that's usually crowded, but further away from the gate, there's a bunch of spaces. However, beware when trying to have company; they like to put threats on cars that don't have a Devonshire parking sticker. Which is good usually, but not if you have a guest which comes regularly, then they may get a fine. Mold and ants are a big problem here. We've had to have our unit sprayed at leave five times now, and we’ve been here less than a year. Our A/C rent area is really disgusting looking- it looks like a mixture of rust, mold, bacteria, and growths all inside. We've tried to clean it ourselves but it seems like it's been there so long that it won't budge, and the office staff blew us off when we asked for help- they said it was our problem. Devonshire is a gated community, and the condos themselves seem pretty safe, however, the area around Devonshire is really bad and the crime rate has increased since we moved in. Just a month ago two teenage girls were raped by two guys on Braesview, and another woman had an attempted assault on her the month before that. Now for the grand finale: The MANAGER and office manager. The office manager is nice as she's showing you around on your first tour, but once you move in, if you call and report any sort of maintenance problem, the first thing ALWAYS out of her mouth is "we're not responsible if you're liable for the damage." It's rather offensive to hear, considering every problem has been directly related to our condo falling apart, and not something we did. As for the MANAGER, let’s just say she is the most evil person I have EVER encountered in my entire life. She does not care one bit about anybody, she is extremely rude any time you talk to her about an issue, and she's on a serious power trip. A friend of mine also lives in Devonshire, and her condo flooded badly one day while she was at work. It was really stressful on her, especially since the furniture was all piled in one corner (and later 3 pieces of furniture were found to be damaged from them being stacked on each other), and all she asked of the manager was that she get a rebate on the 8 whole days that they told her the place was uninhabitable. They said no way. When she detected the smell of mold in her condo (the management didn't bother to replace the carpet) and reported it, the manager flew into a rage calling her a liar and troublemaker and yelled that she wanted her to move out. So she moved out of her condo and moved into her boyfriend's condo which is also in Devonshire unfortunately, and a week after she did that, the manager sent the boyfriend a notice of lease violation stating that he'd had an occupant stay over 30 consecutive days at his place and his right of occupancy was terminated and they had 24 hours to vacate the premises! Now if you do the math here, how can my friend have stayed more than 30 consecutive days at her boyfriend's condo if she'd just moved out of her condo a week before?? Like I said, the manager is a very vindictive person and wants to fight with everyone. My friend and her boyfriend tried to meet with the manager regarding this, and she was very combative on the phone and refused to meet, so now they're facing a legal battle with this woman over something absurd. Yes, the story I just told you is pending. And on top of that, the manager is refusing to give my friend her deposit back without a reason (hello! that's illegal!) so not only did her boyfriend just get a lawyer to fight this evil manager, but she too had to get a lawyer to try to get her deposit back. This place has just been hell for everyone I know who lives here and the manager, who is the ----- incarnate, is running it.

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