Parkside Apartments
AVERAGE RATING
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A nice place, but management problems & watch out on moving day...
From: amfritzDate posted: 10/4/2005
Years at this apartment: 2003 - 2005
If you don't want to read my specific problems at Parkside, scroll down and see general comments elaborating on the ratings.
My fiance and I had a nice time living there until it was time to move out. I am sure it is a unique situation, but watch out, Gallina is apparently more than happy to slap you with any extra fee they can upon move-out, even if you were happy problem-free residents for quite a while.
We lived at Parkside for two years. The on-site management changed 3 times while we were there and was the cause of most of our problems. The first manager (jackie) who signed our lease with us and was there for about 1 year, was great! She was incredibily friendly and helpful and very apologetic if even the smallest thing needed repairs. She even gave us extra deals on move-in (no pet-rent for our cats, 6 weeks free instead of 4). However, upon her moving out, apparently no communication occurred between her and the new manager.
Some examples:
We had a major window leak from icles in the eaves during the winter, which couldnt be repaired until the spring. Jackie was aware of it, but gone by the time spring rolled around. Not until the next winter when our windows and ceiling were leaking did we discover that the problem on the exterior of the were not repaired. We then had to live without living room blinds/curtains and buckets all over for almost 2 months while we explained the situation to the new manager and waited for repairs. We were compensated 1/2 months' rent, but that was it.
The third manager did not maintain regular office hours because of her other job, so it was impossible to reach her without playing phone tag. When she was showing our apartment, she would notify us of a showing appt and then not show. (We had to stay around because our cats were very nervous around strangers.) It took several phone calls to get Hillary to understand that we needed to know if in fact the apartment was going to be shown.
Upon move-out we really saw the bad communication between managers play out. We spent 8 hours cleaning (even called for a check-out extension so we had more time to clean) and they kept virtually the entire deposit. (previously we lived in a very expensive downtown apt and got every cent of our $740 deposit and interest back, so I assure you we aren't lazy or messy.) Jackie had had the carpet replaced in our apartment before we moved in because of cat urine smell in a closet, but since the smell was still present in the apt when we moved out and Jackie never documented the situation or communicated it to the new managers, we were charged a cleaning fee.
We were charged for ice cube trays that weren't there when we arrived (and we were told that we should have noted this on the move-in form, although there was no way to know that ice cube trays were supposed to be included) and we were charged a replacement fee for a broiler tray, which was still there when we moved out! We were charged 3 hours of cleaning fees because "you didn't clean under the appliances like I told you to, there was a milk ring under the fridge" - this is what Hillary told me when I called after moving out. When I asked why we didnt receive the interest on our deposit, Hillary told me it was probably because we didn't have a pet-rent clause in our lease and we were in violation of it (when actually Jackie never made us sign one when she was aware of our pets.) It ends up however, that Hillary had no idea what she was talking about, because when I FINALLY got a response from Gallina about our problems, they said that interest is only paid on full deposits, not partial month ones. And in all of the Hillary admits that she had only done 2 other apartment check-outs and wasn't really sure what she was doing. Which leads to the last complaint. I told HIllary that i wanted to speak to her supervisor at Gallina about all of this and she said she would have the supervisor call us. We called them several times, and only after we filled out a rental survey with all of our complaints did we get a response, and even then it was basically a form letter.
Take this as you will, I know all situations are different, but I wish I would have known what move-out was like before we moved in. Hopefully they have begun to train the on-site management and the turnover problem will settle-down.
Other random things.
Parking is good, 1 free underground spot (spaces are cramped though) and unlimited lot parking.
Not too noisy, we did have loud people above us, but rarely heard anything through the walls.
Grounds were nice enough, fine to look at, but nothing you would really take a lawn chair down and "enjoy."
Seemed very safe, parked one car outdoors for a year and never had a problem with break-ins or anything. It is a good neighborhood, despite other apartment buildings' appearance in the area. (Jackie had 2 kids and they played outdoors regularly.)
Construction is ok...the windows are the only real concern. They are just storm windows, no insulation for wintertime. Many people bought the plastic stuff you can seal them with to keep out the cold and condensation. We kept the blinds closed and a towel on the sill and that helped a bit.
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