All good arguments contain positive and negatives. So here goes...

Positives about Summer Station:
1-The grounds are well maintained. The grass is always mowed and the flowers are nice - it's clean - it looks good.
2-Maintenance - they are relatively friendly and eager to help when asked questions (I once locked myself out when taking the dog to potty - they quickly opened my door at no cost as it was during daily work hours and were friendly about it) - also they repair things pretty quickly when you put in a work order.
3-Location- it's on Holland Road - close to shopping, downtown, the beach.
4-Verizon Fios is available here - good fiber optic cable and lightning FAST internet - highly superior to Cox internet.
5-Trouble - If you pay your rent on time and don't cause problems - they leave you alone completely. We had no issues with the office whatsoever during our stay. I gave 30 day notice of move-out and they were helpful and friendly about it.
6-Pool - the pool is nice and well-maintained. We enjoyed swimming there and spending sunny days. The lifegaurds were mostly friendly and remembered us after a few trips (so we didn't need to bring our pass) and it was clean when we swam there.
7-Hot tub- the hot tub is very nice (when it's working - the heat sometimes craps out) They provide you with a key to it so you can get in even if the office is closed at night. We enjoyed this aspect of the property a lot.
8-Packages - it's nice to have packages left in the office if you aren't home, where you can go get them there instead of going to the nearest UPS. I miss that now that we have a townhouse and there is no office.
9-Movies- They have a movie library in the office of DVDs and stuff - you can rent them free for two days as long as you bring them back on time it costs you nothing - this is cool - they have some pretty new movies.

Negatives:
1-Rent is high for the space - though it was the cheapest we saw when we looked at about 6 different locations - the apartment is pretty small for the rent (bathrooms are really tiny) and it's obvious these apartments are over 20 years old and in need of some serious TLC.
2-Pet fees. These are VERY high - they charge you $20 a month for 1 pet and $5 more for another. (you are allowed a max. of 2) They charge you "pet fees" - for those of you that aren't aware this is a way of getting the most money possible out of a tenant. Pet fees are designed legal wording so that instead of a "pet deposit" - where the money is used towards damage your pet caused when you leave - the pet fee money goes directly into someone's pocket and when you move out you pay EVERYTHING your pet did with none of the previous $400-500 you have paid for an animal going towards damage at all. Pet fees are allowed because properties claim the money goes toward extra money they have to pay by allowing pets. Insurance, etc. Yes this is more money - but when you thik about 200 apartments - and of them 100 have pets and pay $400 plus $20 in pet rent a month for a year - this equals $64,000 in a year! I feel it is rather excessive to charge the pet fee and pet rent plus whatever damage when you move - it would be fair to charge EITHER the pet fee OR the pet rent and then damages. If you charge both I feel you should give some credit for monies already paid when the tenant vacates if their pet did any damage. We paid in excess of $650 over a year and when we moved out they advised us we had to pay additional funds for the pet damage. (as pet fees do not release you from the responsibility) (Let me be clear - we are clean people - there wasn't piss all over the carpet or stains - we had the carpet professionally steam cleaned when we left and it was damn close to being in the EXACT same condition as when we moved in).
3-Parking - EVERYONE has a parking permit. Office people - maintenance - friends of the office, etc. This means - when you come home early from work (before 5pm when the office and maint. go home) - you have no where to park if you live near the office because all of the office and maint. people park in the tenant parking.
4-Crime - There is a group of punks who like to jump the fence from the Super K-Mart and break into people's vehicles in Summer Station and steal stereos and other valuables. We spoke to several people when our car was broken in two 2 days before Christmas 2007 and found out this has been going on for a while. These people do it near the beginning and end of each month - breaking into about 3-5 cars a month in the Summer Station Parking Lot. It's essentially an all-you-can-take buffet for them. When I confronted the office about hiring security or doing something about this issue they snidely replied it was too much money to hire someone but that they were aware of the issue. (Several police reports have been filed to my knowledge). Perhaps they can use some of that pet fee money to hire a night guard to patrol...
5-Noise - These apartments are the worst as far as noise that I have EVER lived in. I've lived in a few apartments prior (duplex) and some college dorms. I could hear the people above us when they talked, cooked in the kitchen, walked, used the bathtub, watched tv and when their baby cried. Essentially, I paid rent for three extra roommates because I knew EVERYTHING that was happening upstairs and I'm sure the people below us felt the same about us. It drove me insane the first few months because I couldn't believe the money I was throwing away to listen to others live their lives. I'm sure if you have a third floor apartment you have no idea what I'm talking about - but for those one floors 2 and 1 you probably know. I know you can hear sounds in apartments - I've lived in them before - but this is unreal. There must be ZERO insulation in the walls of this place.
6- Office Staff - while some of them (Lindsey is about it) are friendly - most of the others are fake. They are friendly to you in a snide way if you go in there with anything to say. If you complain to them about ANYTHING a wall goes up whereby you have become the enemy and you are no longer the customer you must be squished like a bug. (At least this was the feeling my husband and I got when we went in there with complaints - and we DID NOT complain often). I don't appreicate being talked down to and this happens a lot with them. I feel when you run a property your priority should be the people who rent from you - it doesn't feel that way there even if it might be the case - they seem to want money from you at all costs and will even create ways to get it - if you have a legitimate complaint you are addressed with rudeness and rushed out of the office so that prospective tenants who might be there for a tour can't hear what you have to say.
7- Double Standards - The rent price changes daily - so if you pay $950 the people who moved in a week before might pay $800 and the people who move in a week later might pay $1200. Who knows how they decide. I understand they need their money - but that's weird to me...
9- Double Standards Pt 2. - We lived near the office - meaning people who came to tour the property see your space - they are excessively strict on you. Our neighbors would sometimes put their dogs on their porch while they vaccumed and stuff so they could clean - they would constantly get letters with fines and reprimands about leaving their dogs unattended on the porch - while some people who live two or three buildings down left these annoying yappy chihuahuas or something on their porch ALL the time and every day when I walked to the dumpster I could hear them yapping and barking - apparently those people never got letters and fines or maybe they just didn't give a sh%t and left them out there anyway - but I doubt it.
10- Doube Standards Pt 3. - you aren't allowed to leave certain things on the balcony - I agree this makes the place look trashy. However - some people near the office get letters about grills and towels and the chairs they have on their balcony while - if you walk to the back of the complex there is all kinds of stuff out there, trash, grills, towels, ugly old upholstered chairs... yet they must not be getting letters like those at the front of the place get - or they just don't care.
11- Cheap Fixtures - The inside has old stuff (it was built in like 1982 or something). Things break a lot (like water heaters) and need fixing plus the windows leaked. When they were professionally repaired and replaced they STILL leaked. When maint. later came to fix it they did their best but still didn't fix it - so they leaked every time it rained and filled the window sill and then ran down the wall for the whole year we lived there. We just got used to it.
12- Outside Noise - we lived with our bedroom/bay window facing the parking lot. When people parked their cars and slammed their car doors - the pictures on our walls shook. This means when people came home at 11pm and on - our pictures vibrated when they got out of their car - sometimes REALLY loudly. It was disappointing because the construction of the place must be really shabby if it shakes the wall when someone two floors below you closes their car and your bed/walls shake.
13-Towing - They have a contracted guy who cruises the lot constantly looking for parking violators - we were told he can tow your car if he sees your inspection sticker is past due or anything along those lines. Personally I don't think that should be his business if it takes me an extra week to get my paycheck to inspect my car I shouldn't have to check in the middle of the night to see if it's still there...



Overall - it could've definately been worse but we weren't happy and couldn't wait for our lease to be up. We liked the price when we moved in, it looked clean, the people in the office seemed friendly and we liked the pool and stuff. AFTER we moved in we noticed several things we didn't before and COULDN'T have until we lived there for a few weeks... noise, parking, fines. I was most disturbed by the noise we could hear through the walls from our neighbors and from the parking lot - it was a miserable way to live knowing you could hear EVERYTHING the people around you were doing and that they could probably hear everything we did as well. I felt like I had no privacy in my own apartment. I also felt like the office and maint. were always watching us and waiting for us to do something wrong so they could stick one of their beloved white envelopes on the door...

I would not recommend this apartment to an enemy. There were just far too many bads that outweighed the good for the price we were paying. We moved out and are MUCH happier now.

User Responses
From: upindust	Date: 08/14/2008
what is a place you recommend. I live in waterfront now and we'd like a sliglty cheaper place. No problems at waterfront except if you live in the new buildings do not get the internet.
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/28/2008
the office staff was the worst part of our experience. they always slapped us with a fine. when we first moved in lindsay said we could leave a bag of trash on the porch if I was scared to take it to the dumpster late at night.. but it had to be off the porch by 6 am. I got up at sunrise at 5:30 to take it to the dumpster and it was gone and a white envelope charging me $40 was on my door. As far as leaking windows- they replaced ours- left our ceiling completely exposed in the process with leaves and debris falling in on our furniture - we didn't even get a warning. One of them had the plastic wrap STILL on it when they installed it and the other one was installed improperly so it leaked. As far as the tower went- the DAY we gave our notice they told us our tags were expired on our truck and they were towing it at 5 that evening. I'll admit that for a month after it expired we let it sit, he was waiting to take it to the shop when he had time off- we were short on money that month so we couldn't afford to get it fixed. We ended up being forced to sell it THAT day for so much less than what it was worth. (Our own fault on how much money we got, but Summer Station twisted our arm and put us in an unfair position)

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