The rats and rabbits are everywhere. I just spent $780.00 because the rats ate their way through the wiring harness in the engine compartment of my brand new truck in my units attached completely enclosed garage. And surprisingly the manufacturer doesn't consider that a defect - go figure. In talking with my neighbors I found that the guy in the apartment right next to me spent $250.00 on similar incident last summer when rodents ate through the wires that connect his AC unit in his car. You can't take a walk without seeing something scurry mostly rats and that isn't just in one building. The place boasts that it is near a nature preserve but trust me this is an infestation, and I've never seen any observable measures to deal with it. (Traps etc) So, unless you want to live out your own not so comical version of Ratatouille think twice about moving to Austin Ranch, as their cuteness fades quickly when you see senseless money flying out of your wallet. I've notified the office of the problem, I will follow up and let you know how effectively it was handled.

***Update***
The complex has been very responsive. They had poison bait stations put out-side today. I contacted the office tonight when I found a rat in my garage again. And the gentleman came over with sticky pads for tonight and is going to have an inside treatment tomorrow. So other than the $780.00 I have to shell out I am very pleased.

Manager's Response
From: Manager	Date: 01/25/2008
Yes, we have areas that have reports of rats. We have bait stations in those areas and do put sticky pads in garages. However, we do have approx 2,500 residents and over 200 garages. I am not sure I would call this an infestation being that we are only getting reports of isolated incidences which we do take very seriously. We are extremely proactive on our trash policy, the fines are $25 per bag and we have four porters for our property that picks up trash daily including the weekend. It is imperative that residents follow the trash pick up guidelines to keep animals such as skunks away from the buildings. We do have rabbits on site which the resident adore. It adds to the natural environment and they are not destructive pests. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to alleviate your situation. Sincerely, Austin Ranch Management

User Responses
From: dgdgagdae	Date: 01/23/2008
Yes, rats and rabbits. That's actually one of the reasons I got a garage. Fortunately for the reviewer, he wasn't around when the skunks took over. It took months of calls to even get management to contact Animal Control.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/24/2008
This happened to me with my truck in my garage, so beware the door doesn't stop these suckers. I have also bought a trash can to make my garage less of a temptation although this happened the night right after trash day when there was nothing but my seemingly tasty truck in my garage.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/24/2008
The rats are as big as cats, and they love to eat garbage! I wish everyone would stop putting their trash out on non-trash days becase this is encouragin the epidemic! Read your Community Policies folks!
From: bobbo1179	Date: 02/12/2008
oh, they put out sticky pads...that'll get all those pesky rats. They have 4 porters collecting garbage of 2500 residents...no wonder why the hallways smell of overflowing trash shoots. Residents wont follow your guidelines. They're mainly college students or people that just dont care. They wont leave the trash by their apartment door, they'll toss it somewhere...you can't fine someone $25 if you dont know who they are. Management needs to act and stop defending themselves here.
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/23/2008
I have seen a total of 6 rats- dead and alive- outside of my apartment in the past 3 months. I've filed maintenance requests for 'dead rat removal' and some sort of pet-friendly rat bait, but all they did was throw the rats away and stick a rat house AT MY FRONT DOOR. Makes you really want to invite guests over right? The office argued that it's not a big problem, but comes naturally living near a nature preserve. Sound familiar? It's a horrible excuse for rats. Rats are not part of a nature preserve like the cows, birds, skunks and rabbits. Rats are dirty. These are diseased and have left dead patches in grass where they die. Nothing has been resolved in my issue either. They are shameless about how they excuse this problem.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/08/2009
We had rats INSIDE our apartment. The management does not care at all. They tried blaming us for a dirty apartment!!!!! We caught one rat on a sticky trap inside our apt. and woke up at 5 am to hear it squealing...It took about 5 calls for them the finally get maintenance over but when they came they had no clue what to do! Finally after a month they called pest control and found a whole bunch of wholes...The guy filled them but told us we wouldn't see results until 2 weeks!! If only the rats would pay some of their share of this ridiculously priced apt.

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