I lived at the Lake Terrace Apartments for approximately one year and I had a horrible experience and I would not recommend living there under any conditions.
I met the owner of the building and she seemed like a very nice older woman. I thought the apartment was reasonably priced and in a good location.
However, there were warning signs. The first is the owner is incredibly secretive. She provides her tenants with a pager number. After paging her she responds by calling back on a blocked number. It's weird and something.
Early into my residence I began to see how involved the owner is in the lives of her tenants. She would frequently call and ask if my boyfriend was parking in resident parking spots. I would tell her no he was not. A few times I switched cars with my dad and she would call me and ask if that car belonged to my boyfriend. I would explain that it belonged to my dad and I was borrowing it. She also constantly asked if my boyfriend was living with me. I repeatedly told her that he owned his own house but yes sometimes he did stay with me. It was very uncomfortable to feel like we were being monitored. It wasn't a huge deal but it was weird.
The biggest issue I had was one weekend I received multiple voicemails from the owner saying she had an urgent matter to discuss. My boyfriend and I were out of town that weekend and she called from a blocked number so I returned her call when we returned. She said my boyfriend was identified as "smoking weed, drinking, and listening to loud music at the apartment over the weekend." She said the police had to be called twice. I was in total disbelief because we were out of town that weekend and just to clarify that is not our character. He's incredibly conservative and respectful and I wish I could even remember the last time we were out late! Also, my boyfriend is a federal law enforcement agent and he would lose his job if he engaged in that behavior. Not to mention he would have never been able to receive that job in the first place!!! I told her that it was not possible and that could not be further from his character. I went on to say that he is ------- American and wears glasses. She stated his car was in the parking lot and he left before the police came. She even said she had concerns about me bringing "that" to the building. I told her we were out of town and that he's a federal law enforcement agent. In all honesty, it was insulting, degrading, and the first time in Seattle I felt such blatant discrimination. In this instance her accusation was insulting and disgusting.
After that incident living there was uncomfortable. Although the owner does not live there her husband does. He doesn't talk to the residents but he monitors and watches the residents and it is very awkward. I felt as if I was living with a relative and did not have the privacy you would expect when leasing your own apartment.
The apartment is not kept in very good condition. A resident above me let her bath tub over flow one morning. Buckets of water began pouring out of the ceiling in my bathroom. I paged the owner and cleaned up the mess but it created huge water bubbles in the sheet rock on the ceiling of my bathroom. The water damage led to mold and the owner never acknowledged my requests to have it taken care of. I lived in a small studio apartment and it was not healthy to breathe it in.

When it came time to move out I was shocked by the lack of professionalism and ethics of the owner and Bachtel Propery Management. I provided the owner with notice of my intent to move out. I asked that correspondence be in email. She ignored my request and continue to communicate via her pager / blocked number routine. The owner and I spoke regarding a move out inspection she said her property management company would contact me. I provided her with my contact information.
During the month prior to my move out I called the owner 7-8 times letting her know I had not heard from her Property Manager regarding a move out inspection. She provided me with an incorrect phone number and I could not reach them. I paged her and let her know I did not have the correct contact information and still had not received any contact from them. On the last day of the month I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom and I paged the owner. She did not return any of my calls after that.
Weeks later I received a notice mailed by the Bachtel Property Management with their contact information. I emailed Christine Bachtel and she did not respond. A few days later I called her to discuss the return of my damage deposit. She was very aggressive on the phone and accused me of trashing the apartment. I was blindsided by this untrue accusation. She said I owed hundreds of additional dollars worth of damage and I had to pay by the end of the week.
I was shocked. I had already paid a damage deposit and a non-refundable cleaning fee. I told her I had yet to receive any paperwork or communication from them and asked again to communicate via email. When the move out report arrived at my house (almost three weeks after my lease ended) I looked up the owners address through city records and mailed a good faith offer letter to the property manager and the owner via certified mail. Luckily, I knew my legal rights and they are not allowed to withhold a deposit past 14 days without providing a written move out report. My offer said they could keep the damage deposit and I would owe no additional money and each party would go their separate ways.
I never received a response and assumed that they had accepted the offer letter. Two months later I received a phone call from a collection agency saying I owed close to $500.00 in additional fees. I had never been sent to collections before. I could not believe that they would lack the ethics to do so without responding to my offer or contacting me. I never received a phone call, written letter, or email. I was forced to pay the collection amount to prevent the claim from negatively impacting my credit.
I then filed a law suit in small claims court. After seeing my case and evidence the owner agreed to settle. The entire process was a time consuming disaster. They are both true oppurtunists and I'm sure they've done the same to other tenants. Most people who rent don't know their rights and they take full oppurtunity of that. They are true bullies.

They both appear professional upon first meeting but they were horrible to work with. I felt heavily discriminated against and insulted every step of the process. I wouldn't rent there under any cirumstances.

DO NOT RENT HERE!!!

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