Review History for leou84

Deerwood Apartments


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leou84

Resident 2015 - 2016

11/29/2016

My experience with this place wasn't all together bad, but my biggest gripe is with Deerwood's unethical business practices, and disrespectful treatment towards a disabled veteran. My advice would be to find another place to live, especially if you are looking for something long term. I moved here from LA with my family, and we didn't apply here until the following day, after looking at other apartments. In those few hours between viewing and applying, the price had gone up more than $100 a month. But since I was told specifically that it didn't go up from the previous day, I didn't even notice until I had gone through with the application, paid the deposit and committed to a year (my first sign of dishonest practices), but we liked it enough to not make a fuss. So over the course of the next year, we had a pretty good experience; The apartment was quiet, roomy and towards the back, right next to the small hiking trail/ nature preserve where we frequently walked. There were no significant issues, but my second clue of their shady behavior was highlighted by the fact that the Deerwood staff always had a reason to enter our apartment every month or two to do bogus maintenance's (which isn't all together a bad thing, but it just seemed so invasive that they would randomly tell us when they would be entering our apartment uninvited and so frequently) examples: chimney cleaning (never used the fire place), a/c filter change 2 or 3 months post move in, according to their handbook, those filters should have been changed before we moved in (this excuse was used twice in the year we were there). Similar to other's experience here, Deerwood waited as long as legally allowed to notify us of our renewal rate (after going to the office twice asking for it), which was "of course" increased by more than $300 a month or the max allowable by law. They didn't leave us much time to find a new place, but I moved about a mile down the road into a slightly smaller apartment for almost $600 less and a much nicer community with a better floor plan. So I am happy about that, but the reason for my review is solely attributed to Deerwood not only stealing my security deposit, but having the audacity to claim I owed them an additional $180. Just so you can get an idea about me and my family, I served 7 years in the Army where I learned very well to pick up after myself, and keep a neat and orderly living area, which is still not as neat and orderly as my wife who stays home with our kids. I've rented for the past 10 years in and out of the military, where I was always asked to stay longer due to being such a good tenant, which is apparently hard for a lot of landlords to find. I have always gotten back my deposit almost in it's entirety on every occasion. However, at Deerwood this is how things went: (again, not unlike other people's experience). After Deerwood did their pre-inspection of our apartment, they noted the discrepancies; (carpet cleaning, scuffs on ceilings and random things that were most likely there before moving in, but of course I couldn't prove, and was assured before moving in that they don't charge for holes in the wall *picture/ decoration hanging, so I didn't think they would make a fuss over some almost invisible ceiling scuffs) nope, they are the definition of "taking advantage". My wife and I spent an entire day cleaning every room in the apartment to include dusting blinds individually, scrubbing: the refrigerator, stove, and microwave. We systematically went down the list of discrepancies taking care of everything but the carpet cleaning, which is all we expected to be responsible for after moving out. We were wrong! They charged us instead of issuing back a deposit. In addition to the carpet cleaning, we were charged for new paint (un-necessary and probably didn't happen in reality), cleaning (there was literally nothing to clean), and even though I had already paid all the utilities on my final payment before moving out they charged me twice for water and twice for gas. In total they took my deposit of $350, and wanted an additional $180. I immediately disputed these claims with the Deerwood office only to be talked down to while insisting I owe the money by a certain date before it is turned over to collections. I then sent an email to the one I was given by the first (presumably in-house) collection guy that called me, and have never gotten a response to my dispute. They have called a total of 3 times after that, and each time I asked them what their response is to my email where I disputed the charges, and they state that they will look into it, and get off the phone with me. Thinking they realized their mistake and abandoned their unrighteous campaign against me, I went about my business, and it's now 6 months later that I find out they sent the $180 to collections! This is one of the most ridiculous, petty instances I've experienced from a corporation in the business of families. Renters Beware!

    Review 4 out of 59

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    Deerwood Apartments

    March 2024

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