Review History for RealVeteran

Chateau DeVille Apartments


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RealVeteran

Resident 2007 - 2009

6/15/2009

Explosions on the property

Late Friday night, there was an explosion on the property. This explosion was in the laundry room and was large enough to take out a wall. Rumor control (ie, other tenants) were telling me the police, fire, and bomb squad were present because of a 'pipe bomb' in a drier of the laundry room. This happened at approximately 9PM on Friday night (12 June 2009). On Monday (15 June 2009) morning I called the office for details. Let me repeat that. I had to call the office on MONDAY to find out if the apartments were safe to live in. I was informed that the property manager was just finding out about the issue, herself. Excuse me, this is unacceptable. Chateau De Ville IS just a job for her. It is, unfortunately (and only a short time longer), my HOME! If there is an incident such as this, it is the property management's responsibility to get ACCURATE and FACTUAL information to the tenants, quickly. In the absence of information from a responsible resource, an intelligent person MUST evaluate the information available. Knowing a history of issues with CoinMach Vending for the laundry equipment, I would not be surprised if there had been more vandalism. Second point, we have persons in the apartment complex that are certainly capable of reading internet pages that describe how to make explosives. It is certainly possible to believe someone was either being stupid and experimenting or (even scarier) someone has an issue, and decided to reap violence upon the complex. Additional information on this situation is that we have no hot water. This complex uses a common, shared stack of water heaters. There is, at this time, no information available as to when hot water will be restored. Next to the laundry facility is a replacement of the old 'chiller' that was used to provide coolant to the apartments. This was not working prior to the incident. It has been damaged. Any hopes of getting cooling services to the individual apartments is now a pipe dream. I guess it is a good thing (for me) this is a 'bills paid' facility. I have window units in place to keep the apartment comfortable for me. I pity those tenants on a fixed income who don't have the luxury of being able ot afford a window AC unit. I must say that the previous manager, a thin blond woman with a New York accent and even nastier personality, has really run this place into the ground. With 50 units total, I have been told that 4 are down for severe remodeling and only 4 units were full rent paying tenants. That means 42 units are on housing assistance, usually 'Section 8'. This has been blamed for the increase in police presence (through increased calls for drugs and violence). A neighbor tenant is a good guy, always helpful. I went to talk with him about the explosion on Friday night, only to have his upstairs apartment filling with smoke from a barbecue grill in the quad. Another neighbor decided to cook out, and was not courteous enough to move his grill farther out into the yard. The smoke was not going into HIS apartment, so he had no reason to care. Another tenant parks a motorcycle under the stairs. A reasonable compromise, rather than taking up one of the very few protected parking spaces. I've seen that two days after that bike has been cleaned, it is covered with 'stuff'. I've seen a shake spilt on it. I have seen used diapers on it. Kids are often playing on it. I know the owner has had to replace the seat covering because of tears and other damage. The chrome pipes are ruined, as well, because of chemicals spilt on them. The tank is finely speckled with tiny drops of gray paint. Yet the bike was parked on the OTHER SIDE of the complex, as asked by management, on the day they were painting. (The painting was being done by tenants, not maintenance or other professionals.) Management will not do anything to help protect the property of a paying tenant and the tenant dares not doing anything because he is white. All of the people I have seen disrespecting him/his motorcycle or letting their kids play on it are, like myself, black. And if those kids get hurt playing on it, the owner becomes responsible for those injuries. This is, simply, wrong. I know that I am now looking for another apartment to move to. I'm reporting this place as unsafe to the city and state agencies. The maintenance guy, Frank, is a nice guy, but he is rarely permitted to fix things correctly. I hope he comes out well from this. Anyone else from Vanguard is not someone I would share a sidewalk with. I will be using this incident and the lack of communications as the cause to break the lease. I doubt it will happen, but the ONLY way I would consider staying is written time lines for these repairs, improvements and changes from a member of Vanguard's senior management. The local property manager would not be acceptable as she has no authority for any decisions. I would consider this an addendum to my lease and will hold them to it, accordingly. It will not, however, be a cause for an extension to the lease nor an increase in rent. I'm sure very few people actually read this, but, maybe, just maybe, someone with Vanguard will and they will decide to fix the problems. $500.00 a month may not be much to Charley and GA, but it IS a lot to me, and I expect a lot for my money. Veteran

    Review 8 out of 9

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    Chateau DeVille Apartments

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