Fairway Lakes Apartments

09/29/11

Not a Good Choice

by hazzard99 at Citysearch

From: hazzard99

Date posted: 9/29/2011

Years at this apartment: 2011 - 2011

I've lived in Fairway Lakes for two years now. I previously lived in the complex in the early 00's under different management and was suprised to find that things had changed. WHIle the location is good and the Townhome apartments offer a nice floorplan and space for the cost anyone considering this option needs to come in with eyes wide open - Fairway Lakes has an actual monthly cost 75-200 a month higher than advertised based upon the floorplan you choose.

THese hidden costs come in the form of a utility bill through Heartland Power Company. Heartland should ostensibly be the water bill for your building - which is shared between units and divided, however inspection of the bill shows that the complex is passing on a number of other "public" costs to its residents. Charges incclude pest removal, public lights/electricity (which by the way are not in good working order around the mailboxes or multi-floor apartment buildings), Trash disposal for the complexes weekly dumpster service, gas and electric for the business office, etc. While these charges are mostly minimal individually, together I have yet to have a total less than $90 a month.

Recently the complex contracted with Insight Communications to install "bulk" basic cable and internet service within the units. Heartland added $90 more a month to reflect this service change. Unfortunately - buying the same service directly from Insight runs between $24-30 a month. If you are an Insight customer and add services like Enhanced High-Speed Internet or Digital Cable or Phone Services, you will receive another bill from Insight that does not include the "core" $90.

My Cable utility bill went from a budgeted $100 a month when I bought everything through Insight to $160 thanks to the $90 bump from Fairway Lakes agreement with Heartland.

Existing tennants did not get a choice in this change - we were simply notified that the cost of our heartland services would increase $90 on August 1, 2011 via a flyer lef at our front doors on July 24th. I was lucky, I am actually an existing Insight customer. Imagine those who were Dish/DirecTV customers or UVerse users.. they now have an additional inflated utility charge for services they are not utilizing and may contractually not be able to adopt.

These sorts of fast and loose situations are common with the current management. The Maintenance folks are nice and do fair work, but when we moved in our apartment was still dirty and in some cases damaged from the recent "upgrades" made to modernize these older properties.

I am a fool. I spent a year here and when I was offered the option to renew I sat down with the management to discuss my concerns. I believed the word of the manager and signed another lease. I will not make that mistake again. I'm sure my money is better spent at close local complexes like The Estates. They'll be adding another tennant as soon as I hire a lawyer to help negotiate breaking my lease after this change in terms. Insight unfortunately has also lost me as a result of their partnership and their "we can't control what the complex bills you for those services" answer.

07/15/10

This place should be called Ghetto Lakes Apartments

by Angel 91 at Citysearch

This is a terrible place to live. We moved here thinking that it's on a golf course so it must be nice. This place has very high rent with very low class residents, and office staff! The grounds are very dirty, and unkept. The pool is small, and full of unsupervised kids. You can't relax there at all. The apartments are old, and not well maintained or updated. It took me three weeks to get a work order addressed, and when I told the office manager (yet another one) she told me I didn't need to be rude! None one should have to wait 3 weeks for anything concerning an apartment. This place is really a nightmare. If you care at all about where you live, don't move here! However if you loud, and dirty, and don't give a crap about where you live them you'll fit right in here at Ghetto Lakes Apartments!

• Pros: none
• Cons: Terrible place to live

07/13/09

On a downward spiral!

by movingonasap at Citysearch

Management and maintainance are TERRIBLE!! They are extremely unprofessional, and are very "party girl" types. They are exteremely slow to return calls, make repairs, etc. I had a pipe burst in the shower, which was flooding my dining room and all the way to the basement. The maint guy asked if I HAD to take a shower today, or if it could wait to another day, mindless to the fact that I had water coming through my light fixtures!!! There are dog ____ everywhere, and they actually want you to take photos of the people who do it, while in the act, if you want anything done. They have screwy ways of milking out money for every little thing. I hear that they try to say your security deposit is non-refundable (illegal!!!) This place was wonderful when I moved in 4 years ago, but for the last 2 years, it has been on a dangerous downward spiral. They allow all the college kids to drink and party at the pool, making in very uninviting to families. Parking is terrible, you have to race your neighbors home to get to park near your home.

• Pros: Decent sized townhome
• Cons: MANY

04/03/08

avoid it

by disatisfiedresident at Citysearch

unprofessional staff. Dog Faeces everywhere you look. never disclosed they they use electronic check processing and by law they should tell you this at time of signing lease. Maintainance takes a while to show up for any repairs, old appliances. Not good environment if you have kids as they are bound to step on some dog Faeces anytime. no matter how many times you complain they never do anything

• Cons: service, quality, overall maintaince

10/09/07

Not Worth Your Money

by osulawstudent at Citysearch

I've lived here with my huband for three months now. Even though we saw all the negative comments, we really wanted to give it a fair shot because it's in a great location for us and is on the golf course. After living here three months, I cannot recommend it to anyone. It took us a month to get a bedroom door after we were promised three times that we would get it within a few days. Our stove didn't work for three weeks and I'm fairly certain our oven hadn't been cleaned since the 80s. At all hours of the day people literally sit in their cars in the parking lot blaring music with an enormous amount of bass. We have put in an order for a functional screne door three times now - to no avail. Our hot water heater started leaking about two months ago and the front office said they'd have it replace within a few days. Someone came out a month later and replaced a small part and said it should work. The next day it was leaking so badly that mold started to grow. We told the front office right away and two weeks later someone came and "took care of the mold problem." We looked that night and it was still there. Finally, today someone came to replace the hot water heater because - surprise - it was still leaking. That's when the fun started - my husband and I both started getting light headed from a gas leak. Eventually they came back with a bottle of 409 and a wrench, did whatever they did, and walked out without saying a word to us. At least we still have our mold patches to keep us company.

We checked this site, read the negative comments and still decided to move here because we thought other people must just be overly sensitive. If I had it to do all over again I would avoid living here at all costs. Good luck on your decision, but if you do decide to move in, be sure you give yourself at least a week between your move-in date and when you absolutely must move so that you can can make sure they actually do the repair work before you give them your money.

• Pros: Great location, beautiful views
• Cons: Service, Maintenance, Noise