Review History for anonymous

Orchard Village


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anonymous

Resident 2010

7/29/2010

I moved in to my apartment at Orchard Village several years ago, back when it was owned by RMK. It was my first apartment, and I loved how it was affordable and spacious. It was also clean, and the property was well managed. Then, about a year later, BES purchased the property, and everything has been going slowly downhill since. It seemed good initially, as the first thing they did was repaint the exteriors of all the buildings. But the cosmetic upkeep basically stopped there. The bushes on the property were rarely trimmed, so that they always looked overgrown and messy. Several large bushes and trees on the property died, and all they did was remove them and leave large, ugly empty spaces. There were many large cracks in the sidewalks, and, rather than replacing the concrete, they filled the cracks with some gray goo that, in my opinion, looked worse than having the cracks. A couple of months before I moved out, I started to get ants in my apartment. In the previous five years I lived there, I never had a problem with bugs, aside from the occasional spider. When RMK owned the property, they used to have an exterminator come out several times per year and spray for bugs. As far as I could tell, BES never did that. In fact, shortly before I moved out, I received a notice that the complex was going to start charging it's residents an extra fee each month for insect removal. RMK never charged its residents for this service. Upon my move out, I spent an entire day scrubbing the place from top to bottom. Aside from a couple of stains on the carpet, and some marks on the walls, the place looked as good as it did when I moved in. I figured since the carpet was ten years old, and looked kinda ragged, that they would replace it after I moved out, like RMK would have done. Nope. They just charged me to have the couple of small stains removed. I feel sorry for the person who moved into my place, who now has to live with that ugly 10 year old carpet. I'm sure maintenance just slapped a new coat of paint on the walls and called it a day. As for the property staff, I never really had any problems with them. There was one guy who worked in the office who always seemed grumpy and inattentive, but he no longer works there. On several occasions I did go to the apartment office and find it closed during business hours. I assumed this was because they didn't have enough staff to show apartments and cover the office at the same time. Maintenance issues were always dealt with quickly. A couple of times the drain under my washer/dryer backed up (apparently several drains from neighboring apartments are connected, and a backup in my neighbor's apartment affected mine), and maintenance was quick about fixing it and helping clean everything up. The water heaters in all of the apartments need to be replaced, but that will probably never happen. My water heater always made loud banging noises when it was running, a sure sign that there are deposits inside the tank. I asked maintenance to flush the tank, and they claimed they did, but the noises didn't stop. I tried flushing it myself, but the outlet at the bottom of the tank got clogged with deposits and stopped draining. During my move out, I stopped by the office and overheard one of the staff talking to another tenant on the phone about their water heater problems. A few reviews on this site mention them as well. One of the biggest reasons for my move out was the increasingly higher rent I was paying each year. I started out paying $850/month for an 870 square foot place. After 5 years, that rate had shot up to $1050/month (not including utilities)! And now the starting rent they list for my size apartment is about $1000!. That's a ridiculously high amount to charge for the mediocre quality they offer. I found another place, where I'm living now, that is double the size for only a couple hundred dollars more each month. It's clean, spacious, has all the amenities, the property is beautiful, and I have new carpet! Oh, and I should mention, it's an RMK property (I love them). Some final thoughts to end this long review. Look around before you sign a lease at Orchard Village. There are many nicer properties in the area where you get more for your dollar. If you decide to rent there, make sure you see the actual apartment you'll get before you sign the lease. The models all look nice, because no one has lived in them. Also, make sure you're absolutely meticulous about writing down every little thing that's wrong with the apartment, otherwise they WILL try to charge you for it when you move out. They tried to charge me for a missing broiler pan and shower curtain rod that were never there when I moved in, but I didn't write it on my move in sheet. Don't buy a parking sticker. They overcharge for them, and nothing ever happens to your car if you don't have one. I love how they make you pay them for things that they require, like a parking sticker, key fob, etc... It seemed like every six months they were adding some new "required" fee. In review, Orchard Village WAS a very nice complex that has been slowly going to crap since the new management company took over. I wouldn't recommend anyone rent there, as there are much better deals to be found elsewhere. Good luck!

    Review 24 out of 46

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