This apartment was such a disappointment. It had so much potential but failed at every turn.

First, let me mention the very few good things about this apartment before I get into all the reasons why it was the worst apartment I have ever lived in. The office staff, for all their disorganization and impotence (we ll get to this later), was usually very nice. They only made us pay one pet deposit when we adopted two cats and they refunded half of that after we moved out. The complex is conveniently located on the Texas State bus route and is near the big HEB and within easy driving distance to everything in San Marcos. Of course, I-35 is so close that when we opened our windows on nice days we could hear it all the time, but it was sometimes convenient to be able to shoot onto the highway with little effort. However, there was always a backup on Aquarena Springs in the mornings and evenings when it takes 15 minutes to travel the few yards to the access road, so if you live on that side of the complex be forewarned.

We moved in last summer before school started. The office staff was so nice and the model unit they showed us was so cute. It looked like a real home and not "student living" which is something we wanted to avoid since my boyfriend isn't a student and I'm a graduate student. We wanted somewhere clean and quiet to live for the next three years, but by the end of our lease we could not wait to leave!

When we first moved in, everything seemed okay. There were a few cosmetic flaws and the stove and oven did not work at all. It took maintenance about a week to get us a new unit and when they brought it to us it was obvious that they had taken elements from another unit and put it on this one because they didn't fit properly and slanted to one side. They never fixed that so we cooked on a slant for a year. The office staff seemed pretty disorganized and we had to ask several times for different addendums to our lease and to get the keys to the pools (which are almost always filthy) and exercise room (which is a glorified broom closet with about three machines and a medicine ball in it).

A week later it became apparent we had moved into a serious roach problem. We called the office and they sent out an exterminator who took about thirty seconds to squirt something inside the kitchen cabinets before leaving. Needless to say, our roach problem did not go away no matter how clean we kept the apartment. Eventually we really started scrutinizing the walls in the cabinets beneath the sinks in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom and that's when we noticed the holes in the walls. We also noticed a whole lot of roach and mouse poop near the walls in the cabinets. One of the plates around an electrical socket in the kitchen was loose and when we wiggled it, mouse poop came out. We ended up having to buy duct tape, plumber's foam, and boric acid to take care of the problem ourselves. Once we did that, the roaches went away.

I have never owned a bottle of mace before in my life, but after three months of living here I went out and bought two canisters of pepper spray and had one near to hand at all times when I was at home. The quality of people living there continued to spiral downwards throughout the duration of our lease. We had a continuous problem with our next door neighbors and their subwoofer as well as the neighbors living across the way holding loud gathering outside their apartment until 4:00 AM throughout the work week as well as the weekend. We complained to the office several times but nothing concrete was ever done. I was even once threatened by one of my neighbors and ended up having to call the police when the office said they couldn't do anything about it. I've never felt less safe in my own home before in my life.

We never had enough hot water in the shower. We got about seven minutes of hot water in the shower and then it started to get cold rapidly. Also, the ancient dishwasher never got our dishes completely clean and we ended up having to wash most of our dishes by hand. Our pipes in the upstairs sink and the kitchen sink also SCREAMED and SHOOK really powerfully in the walls if we ran hot water through them for too long (about 30 to 45 seconds usually did it). Our neighbors' pipes did the same thing so we heard them every time they used the hot water in their apartment. And don't be fooled into thinking you're not going to get a water bill when you don't get any bills within the first few months. We did not get our water bill from the first month that we lived in the apartment until three months after the fact. We were paying the bill for the water that we used in FEBRUARY of this year in MAY. They claim that they pay 25% of your water bill, but they never show you the full amount of the bill and how much of that they are paying.

There was zero storage space in our apartment. The two bedrooms upstairs each had a closet but otherwise there was no where to keep vacuums, brooms, mops, etc. I've heard that the smaller two bedroom and one bedroom apartments have a downstairs closet, so those might be better. They also won't let you keep anything but furniture and plants on your balcony or patio, not even things like inner-tubes or bicycles. They will give you a warning and then fine you if you keep them outside, but good luck finding somewhere to keep them inside. The complex also had a major poop/feral animal problem while we were there. No one picks up after their dogs and there are so many loose cats in the area that I defy you to find a "lawn" area at Autumn Chase that does not have a pile of poop (or five) in it.

Garbage was also an issue as oftentimes we would walk our trash out to one of the dumpsters to find it overflowing with garbage, so people would just start piling their trash bags outside the dumpster. That could go on for a week or so before the dumpster was finally emptied.

Overall, this was the WORST living experience of my life. I have never felt less safe and less comfortable in any apartment I have ever rented. We would have been better off living in the "luxury" student apartments than this place. Take my word for it: don't even bother looking at this place. They'll just dupe you with their nice model units and their friendly office staff. Then you'll be stuck living in this horrible place for a year like we were. It has a 39% recommendation rate for a reason. Don't ignore it like we did. Besides, for the amount of money you pay for rent here you could rent a small house. We paid $715/month for our two bedroom apartment, but they were going to up the rent to $735/month if we stayed. No thanks, Autumn Chase.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/13/2008
You are exactly right, I live in the smaller 2 bedroom with the downstairs closet, and there is still no room for anything. They say they pay 25% of the water, they don't. My bill was $72! That is ridiculous! DO NOT LIVE AT AUTUMN CHASE!! Management has been extremely rude to my girlfriend and me.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/07/2009
I live in a one bedroom and I don't have a downstairs closet, just the one closet upstairs.

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