DO NOT, by all means, move into this place. Besides being lied to before even moving in, they hide fees from you until after you are here. So here are some highlights.
The first bill comes and I notice it's from a third-party company. This was a little surprising, but not a big deal, I guess. Then I notice they charge a monthly fee as an "administrative" fee for doing nothing more than what they are actually contracted to do. So I contact the manager, Dawn Wirt, and said I was not going to pay the fee since it's not in my lease and I wasn't told about it. I paid my rent, on time, for two months and simply deducted the monthly fee. She defended the fee by saying that it was a fee charged by them and that I agreed to pay any administrative fees that are charged by the utility company. She notified me that they were no longer going to accept any rent less than the amount they say I owed, including the monthly fee. If I didn't pay it, they would start the eviction process. I read over the lease multiple times and figured the fight wasn't worth it at this point. So they win this one.
In December 2017, we receive a notice on our door that said they have canceled their contract with this third-party biller who was apparently overcharging for utilities (something that is extremely common for these types of companies--many states regulate them, Michigan does not). The notice said they will be "billing" us each month; except that they aren't actually sending a bill every month and they're not even making the bills online in a .pdf format. The water and sewer charges aren't even broken down into how the charges are computed; they refuse to tell us what the formula that is used to determine how much each apartment owes; the listed charges on the website doesn't provide any sort of meter reading nor does it state how much the base fee is and how much for usage.
They also have decided to only accept payments made via their website and will no longer accept payments made by check, money order, or any other form that was approved on the lease. So, after receiving this notice, I figured that the monthly "administrative" fee would no longer be charged since it was a fee from the third-party company. Sure enough, though, the fee remains. I again contacted the manager's office and notified them that I would not be paying the fee and that I would be sending my payment via check as provided by the lease agreement.
Dawn contacted me and said we are all still responsible for paying the service fee and that whether they bill us or not, it still costs money to upload the fees into the system. She said they are well within their rights to modify the terms of the lease upon 30 days notice. Despite mentioning specific provisions in the lease that prevent it from being modified except by the agreement of both parties, she replied that the lease is not subject to modification, but the addendums are. Not sure what really means; regardless, there is no provision for such a claim in any addendum or the lease.
As if this wasn't enough, they posted notices to everyone saying that they are going to charge us $20/bag of trash left out on the porch or balcony. Again, something they have no actual ability to do according to the terms of the lease.
Another issue I had was when I was laying on the couch one evening and heard someone open my locked door and come into my apartment. After the initial reaction one has when an intruder enters your home, I found out that the guy who walked in was someone who came here to look at the model and opened the wrong door. He was not escorted and he said Jim (one of the employees in the office) gave him the keys. When he showed me the key ring--he had keys for the entire building!! So I went to Jim and told him about what happened. All he did was apologize FOR THE OTHER GUY walking into the wrong apartment. He said it's not a big deal and that the guy has been here 15 times and knows where to go so he doesn't know why he went into the wrong apartment, but he is sorry it happened. Jim completely missed the point and had no clue about the danger we are all in with these sorts of practices. When he asked what I wanted him to do, I said I want you to tell me that you guys will change your practice and not give keys out to people looking at apartments. His reply: I can't promise that. Simply amazing.
I talked with an attorn extra "admin" fee they charge isn't in the lease, then I'm not responsible for it. He also said they have no right to change the terms of payment that were agreed upon in the lease. read more