I've been in this apartment complex for about two years or so now. When I first arrived I didn't think it was that bad... at least not on the inside of the buildings. The exterior is pretty dirty, though on that summer day it was relatively clean out.

There has been a lot of trouble regarding the parking situation. The complex did recently reseal the parking lot, but due to poor planning the entire lot was forced to be done within three days of the start. This meant that roughly a third of the parking lot was closed down at a time. Meaning that the already cramped parking situation was made worse. This also meant you would have to walk at least two blocks to get to your car.

This was particularly worrying since car theft is rampant here. I've seen at least two Honda Civics and a Lincoln broken into here along with one of our cars being broken into and another compeletely stolen. I also found an abandoned stolen car in front of one of the apartment buildings. I noticed it when it didn't move for approximately four days. When I mentioned the obvious security problem and how my car had been stolen the secretary told me sympathetically that was too bad. Then she told me that I should rent one of their garages for $75 a month. These garages appear to be difficult to squeeze even a small car into.

When work or changes are going to take place, such as the resealing of the parking lot or as we just got tonight, a letter saying that trash is no longer to be picked up near the apartments, but rather now will be required to be dropped off (by the tenant) at the other end of the apartment complex property (approximately three blocks away). This means many tenants will e wanting to load their heavy trash bags into their car to drop it off at the other end of the apartment complex. the complex is tryign to tell us that this is to beautify the grounds and to lower cost and keep prices form going up. It makes me wonder if they're just downsizing though. The change is supposed to occur on the morning of the 16. I write this on the 14th. Notice is usually less than 48 hours. Within the law, but not very courtious to many of the changes we must make in order to accomidate the complex staff.

As has been said before, parking at night in particular is a pain. If you leave after dark and come back, not only do you have to walk through the dark to your apartment (in a very unsafe feeling place) but you will be hard pressed to find a parking spot.

When we moved in the washer was broken and the dish washer leaks all over the kitchen floor. The front door doesn't seem to have a solid seal and when you walk by it you can feel the outside air coming into the house. To close the back door you have to shove your entire body weight against it or else it can't lock. It appears to have installed poorly. The larger window in the bedroom leaks cold air in too. Fortunately for us, it feels like our neighbors below us (an empty apartment nonetheless) house a grow room directly under our bedroom. Our bedroom routinely gets up to 90 degrees in the bedroom even though our heat is off. Other days the entire housing unit is freezing. It seems very difficult to regulate for such a small floorplan. Our balcony also wasn't finished until I had been here at least year and a half.

We also renewed our lease recently and the price went up $50 a month. We also have recently began to go month to month instead while we look for another place and the price went up $100 a month.

Oh, and pet feces, though the owners are supposed to pick it up, often is just left on the lawn. When maintenance cleans up the parking lot they also use leaf blowers and blow the leaves and dirt straight onto the tenants' cars. This is equivalent to sand blasting a car's fresh paint. They will even point the leaf blowers straight on the car and blow the leaves off of the car, which is actually also damaging to the paint. I'm a detailer so I have experienced these kinds of problems before.

User Responses
From: life4rent	Date: 11/15/2006
Perfect - you hit many nails on the head. And people are definitely furious about the trash situation (especially after the resealing/parking issues).
From: cavewanderer	Date: 02/03/2007
Right on! Good review. Hi Honda-girl. We were your downstairs neighbors last summer - and I swear we didn't have a grow room in our bedroom! We were lucky - our vehicles were never tampered with as far as we know. Yes that parking lot re-sealing was a huge fiasco, mostly due to poor organization and communication by the management company. However, I found overall the office staff were generally helpful and courteous - with the exception of some of the weekend staff, who didn't seem to know what they were doing sometimes. You forgot to mention the paper-thin walls/ceilings/floors! Black Lake doesn't have the best sound insulation compared to other apartments we've lived in. There's no air conditioning or ceiling fans in the apartments, but the heating was fairly efficient. Some type of cooling would have been useful during the warmest part of summer, as leaving the windows open for a cross-breeze also brought in a lot of highway noise on our side of the complex. Good luck finding a new place! Aloha
From: NOFX	Date: 05/15/2008
lol I didn't really think you had anything like that downstairs, but it would get REALLY hot in there. It was unbearable to sleep in much past sunrise. I tried to keep a good eye on the vehicles I could see. I remember your two cars were usually right in view, along with both of ours too. It must have been after I wrote this that I saw someone try to break into our neighbor's red Jeep Wrangler. I heard an alarm outside and happened to be by the door. When I looked out I saw someone trying to pry the hardtop off the Jeep! I called the cops and luckily they got there quickly since they were right down the road. They swept the entire area but didn't find the guy. The owner didn't know until I told him a few days later. They owned their own business and would sometimes work odd hours so I imagine they were either at work or passed out in bed. I was just lucky to be next to the window. And yes, I know I'm writing this very far after you posted, but I just now came back and noticed I had replies. I'm glad I no longer have to drive through the hot parking area avoiding the kids who apparently have no parents just to crawl upstairs to my tiny humid little apartment. I think they've since repainted the buildings, but I can't help but not expect much to have changed. If anyone living there hasn't had a bad experience yet, just wait. It'll come.

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