My wife and I have lived here since 2000. Let me tell you I am happy to do my part in telling people to NOT move in here. I will try to keep this brief and to the point.

Moving in:
We were told that the policy on pets was for there to be a $300 pet deposit. That was false. It is a pet FEE, a.k.a. non-refundable. When I deposit money into the bank I expect full well to be able to withdraw said money. Whenever we move out I know that there's $300 I'll never see again.

Parking:
There are no assigned spots for parking. It's normally a nightmare to park. However whenever there's a big holiday it's worse than a nightmare, it's practically Armageddon.

Noise:
WHOA BOY!!! Let me tell you about this one. I'm not sure what they used for insulation, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was nothing more than crumpled up back issues of the Columbian newspaper. I'm able to tell whenever our neighbors are having sex, going to the bathroom, showering, getting in/out of bed, and just about anything else. Also this place doesn't seem to have a policy for keeping all dog owners in the same area, rather than putting them anywhere. For one year we had a couple live above us who had a pit bull. They left the poor dog in a cage for 8 hrs a day, and the animal made sure to let us know. It barked all day long. When we complained about it we were told by the management that it was our problem and that we were the bad renters (even though we were never late on a payment, and there have never been any grievances against us). We finally had to resort to threats about turning the management in to the city for noise violations. Since then we've had no dog owners live above us.

Grounds:
The lawn crew does do a good job of keeping the lawn mowed and the hedges groomed. I will say that. The parking lines and speed bumps are always kept up with new paint each year. Still there was a long time when the management allowed dogs to poop and pee anywhere. Again I confronted the management about that, and they once again accused me of being a bad tenant. And as before I had to quote to them the city ordinances where dogs are not allowed to be off leashes, and where animal feces are to be cleaned up by the owners promptly. It took me having to threaten to turn them in before they made it a rule on site.


Safety:
Oh my gosh, it's horrible. At first when we moved in things were a dream. There was nighttime security, and we were able to contact our manager 24 hrs a day (for example if neighbors were causing trouble). Since then they took away the night security and the 24 hr contact, and raised our rent hundreds of dollars. Not a good deal, but I'll elaborate on that later. Needless to say when neighbors are loud at night, I have to take care of it myself, definitely not something I should be paying rent for.

Since moving in there have been 3 or 4 car thefts. My Schwinn bicycle was stolen (might I add suspiciously after the lawn crew finished mowing around my apartment), as well as an expensive hummingbird feeder (who the heck steals a bird feeder'''). Over a Christmas holiday there was a raping on site. Our former side neighbors were running a meth house in their apartment, and a mobile meth house from their conspicuous full sized van (complete with tables and benches in the rear). (Note: The management actually had to completely remove the carpet and repaint the walls of the meth apartment). Another neighbor of ours held his ex-wife hostage at gunpoint in his apartment for a week. It ended in the Vancouver police storming his apartment. They found over 15 firearms in his apartment.

Another time it was discovered that a sex offender was living on site. There are families with children, and the complex is located a block away from an elementary school. How did a sex offender move in to our apartments' Did they even bother to check his background'' What is my rent going toward'

Construction:
Refer to my above comments about noise and poor insulation. I used to live in Minnesota where the weather gets far more extreme than it does here. What's my point' I actually have to run my heater more here than I do in Minnesota just because the insulation is that poor. I bet my upstairs neighbor gets lots of free heat compliments of me.

Next comes electrical work. The outlet sockets are too big. That means anything that plugs in will easily fall out unless I bend the prongs. I've requested it fixed in the past, but to this day nothing's been done. From time to time (maybe once a week) when I press start on my microwave, the circuit breaker trips in the utility closet.

Next comes the exhaust fans in the bathrooms. If/when a next door neighbor smokes, it gets piped into our apartment via the exhaust vents. That means I have to turn on the fans (wasting precious electricity) just to be able to enjoy the right to breathe clean air.

The fireplaces are a complete waste of time/energy. Don't be fooled into thinking they're a good thing. There is no distribution fan on them, so the heat doesn't get distributed into the apartment. The flew in the fireplace doesn't stay closed. Even when it does heat escapes out of it. We had to actually put a sheet of plastic over the opening of the fireplace just to keep the heat from escaping.

Our appliances in the apartment are decent. Once our washer broke, and maintenance replaced it promptly. Our refrigerator had developed a problem in the past year where the freezer would randomly thaw out, and lead water into the fridge. However the maintenance recently fixed that issue too. Our current maintenance guy is really good actually.

Staff:
Meh....the staff has been good at times and bad at times. Our current maintenance guy is fantastic, and our current manager is decent.

Overall:
Do not move in here. Do not move in here. Do not move in here. In case you don't understand what I'm driving at DO NOT MOVE IN HERE.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/17/2007
Former tenant. I have to agree with alot of these comments. NOISE is a huge problem...but the managers seem to think it's OUR problem.The lady above me would let her monster children run up and down the hallway, bounce a basketball in the kitchen, and jump off the back of the couch (amongst the normal noises). When I complained the manager told me it was my problem, and I should contact her (which I had and she said she would not make her children stop), and told me it was my problem. She also never did anything about my 5 complaints about the cigarette butts on my porch (I DON'T SMOKE THX!)! I don't know about thefts or rapes, because I have not lived there recently. It is VERY true and annoying the the outlets were too big for all my plugs and they would frequently fall out if not bent. And parking?? What a nightmare. Good luck if you live in the far corner building back there. And IF you get a spot, some other tenant's or their homie is sure to double park you on Friday and Saturday night. The only real good things about this place is the spaciousness of the floorplans and the convenience of the nearby grocery store/pharmacy. Overall: This place sucks a$$.
From: Crystal2007	Date: 07/29/2007
We were in the process of renting, and we are going to back out now after reading the two reviews. I live in a quite place and can't deal with noise and I have my own parking space and I know when I come home it's all mine and empty.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/11/2007
WoW!!! This is a surprise to me. I just spoke with a leasing agent, and I asked her questions about these same issues.. She told me that noise is no issue there. She said management lives on site, and she knows for a fact that is no issue. I don't think she knows what she is talking about. I am tempted to call her back and tell her about this site. If I do, and you read this.. You should not over sale an apartment, especially one with these kinds of issues. Lying to get a sale is wrong. Us renters need to find a way to get this info out to the public better. We have the right to know everything about our potential 'home.' It is rather sad anyone leasing apartments would go to that level for a couple bucks. I told her my situation with noise, parties, dogs, etc.. She made me feel as those these were nothing the same. I love the internet!

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