Villages at Essex Park Apartments

The good: The apartment itself was pretty clean and the prices are fairly reasonable compared to other places.\r \r The bad: The buildings have VERY thin walls, so you constantly hear loud TVs, doors slamming, dogs barking and babies crying. Maintenance is a joke. We had a closet door come off the rails and they came while we weren't there to ""fix it"". All he did was put it back on the rails, he didn't actually fix the rails themselves. So of course it came off the rails again. They never followed up with it. We had a fridge that would pool water at the bottom. Again, they came while we weren't there and left a note saying they ""couldn't find it."" A huge pool of water at the bottom of the fridge, but they couldn't find it.\r \r The ugly: They have very shady business practices. They have move in specials, like reduced deposit or a free month of rent. When we moved in, there was a special for the first month of rent free. When we went in to sign the contact, before we finished signing, I asked about the special. The guy acted surprised and said he ""mistakenly"" grabbed the contract without the special and we had to start over. I can't say what would have happened had we signed the contract without the special, but my gut feeling says it would not have been favorable for us. When we moved out, we were charged several hundred dollars for cleaning fees. We looked around at professional cleaning services and at their labor rates it would have taken several dozen hours to rack up that bill. We asked for any sort of cleaning bill receipt or documentation and they said they used ""internal labor"" so there wasn't any kind of proof. We asked how much they charged per hour or how many hours it took and they told us they didn't have those numbers. I have no idea how it's possible to total up the final price without knowing both those numbers, but they assured us that ""the cleaning charges were necessary and actually should have been higher."" I'm sure :P It's pretty obvious that the numbers are made up. Not to mention the fact that Minnesota Tenant Rights prohibit landlords for charging for cleaning except in cases of excessive filth or damage, but they didn't seem to eager to talk about that.\r \r Overall, I would NOT rent from here. They have attractive prices and the place seems very nice upon initial inspection, but once you sign the lease, living there and moving out is a huuuuge headache. \r \r P.S. Small thing but really freaking annoying. Large packages are held in the office and have to be picked up. They say they are open till 6, but many times, the office workers would close down and leave the office early. Meaning if you worked a standard 9-5, by the time you got home the office would be closed. So if you got a package you would either have to get it over lunch or leave work early to beat them. more

I lived at essex park and while signing the lease, the box entitled rent included was checked on more than one part of the lease. The staff member signed the lease, along with my two roomates and myself. They later informed us that heat was not included in the rent, making our lease faulty. We took it up with the manager and she claimed that there was nothing she could do, that heat was not included. Also the different staff members that took care of our paperwork the numerous times we came to sign different papers and go over deposits and such were very unorganized and didn't know what either of them did the time before we had been there. Pros: spacious apartments Cons: non income based is obvious, income based gets the ""shaft"" on everything, easy to see the difference more

lived there for two years. Had a very bad experience moving out.\r They told me that they will not return any of my safe deposit because they need to used it clean the carpet, and charge me some more. They also lost one of my check, which shows how unprofessional they are. Pros: washer and drying in apt Cons: expensive for what they offer and very poor management, next to low income housing more