Pennytree Apartments SUCK!

I lived here for a year with my boyfriend. Let's start off with the apartment itself... The buildings are very old and the landlords aren't doing anything to maintain them. When we first moved in the front door had one screw in it at the top of the door so basically one hinge was on the door held by one screw. The cupboards had been painted over so many times they no longer closed. They were painted this weird white and they painted it unevenly. They also stuck and sometimes I couldn't open them. The ceiling had five leaks. One in the living room, two in the kitchen, one in the bedroom and one behind the bathroom sink. The one behind the bathroom sink got everything in the cupboard underneath it wet and it ruined everything we had under there. We constantly complained about it, they never fixed it. In fact when they did "fix it" it started two more leaks and never stopped the other ones. Our bath tub also wouldn't drain. It took us a week to get it fixed and we had to do all the working finding someone to fix it. The disposal to the sink was also broken, we had to call around to find someone to fix that too. The oven also did not work. It turned on but didn't turn off. I ran down to the office to let them know about it and they sent up a Mexican half an hour later who did not understand what the problem was because he didn't speak english. Finally, he turned the oven off, but didn't fix the problem. So we never used the oven again. Not to mention the one time we did it burnt our food because it was too hot. I even played with the knob trying to get it to work, still no. They never fixed that either.

The neighborhood is horrible. The kinds of people they rent the apartments out to... let's just say I don't know how they balanced their rent and their drug addictions. I never left the apartment alone no matter what time of day it was. We were completely in the wrong area that's for sure. Our neighbors fought a lot. One day while my boyfriend and I were outside of the apartment coming in the lady next door told us that she may have to call the cops because she is afraid of her boyfriend and scared that when he comes home he is going to hurt her. She showed us a huge bruise on her leg and missing teeth. She let us know he had dislocated her jaw and broke her ribs previously. I didn't really think anything of it, as I didn't care. But that night he was hurting her I guess and she was screaming help. I phoned the police and they came and took care of it. We wrote statements and later spent a year going to all the court dates. We told out landlord about the problem next door and how they were always so loud. She told us that there was nothing she could do about it. Later in the week the girls boyfriend who lived next door to us knocked on our door to apologize, my boyfriend told him it was no problem and they sat down to smoke a cigarette together. A month after that the neighbors left their door unlocked, with the keys inside. They only had one key to their door. They came over for a second to use our phone then went back to find their door locked. It took two hours until almost one in the morning to get the grounds keeper to open the door. He told us he didnt have the key, then went down to the shop on grounds and "made one" how do you make a copy of a key with out having the key to begin with? When he opened their door, their cigarettes, alcohol and game system were missing. Her keys were sitting on the kitchen table. We also found things missing when we were not home. One day I came home and my digital camera was missing. We came home another night and found papers on our bed that weren't there before we left. Their was a marriage certificate and a creepy letter. I have no idea who the people are in the letter or on the marriage certificate. I think that the grounds keeper came into our apartment with trash and forgot to take it with him when he left. The neighbors also were never evicted, one day they just left. The boyfriend was in jail for smashing another tenants head in with a cinder block and the girlfriend I have no idea where she went. The boyfriend also punched my boyfriend in the face twice because my boyfriend told him that he didnt want to go with him to the landlord to complain about their break in. Even after I told the landlord about that incident she still said she couldn't do anything about it. I called the cops about five times and the manager never said or did anything about our neighbors.

The grounds themselves were always messy. There was trash every where. There were stray cats that the landlord told us we were responsible for catching and taking to the pound. I didn't move in with a cat, I didn't have a cat that ran around impregnating everything. Why should I be responsible? The utility bill was included in the rent. How ever if the building went over the estimated amount we paid before, the excess was split up between the four units in the building and we each had to pay a fourth of it. This made me mad because I didn't run my a/c. My neighbor did, it was like Alaska at her house and the desert in mine. But because they decided to crank up the air, we had to pay about 40.00 extra dollars a month.

The parking there sucked, you parked on the street or paid a nonrefundable 25.00 for a remote to get in the gate where you could pick between the ten parking spots inside. There was no key pad or a pin code, and there was barely any parking.

BUGS!!! There were roaches, bedbugs and mosquitoes. We also weren't allowed to smoke on the apartment grounds at all or in our unit. If we got caught smoking we had to pay a 20.00 fine. So I have to leave my apartment complex every few hours when I need a cigarette? What?

HOMELESS PEOPLE! There were a ton of homeless people, and the apartment manager applauded one of them for going through our trash. He was in the dumpster going through everyone's trash and she clapped and talked to him like he was three years old saying "great job!" What?!?!?!

My over all experience here at Pennytree was completely ridiculous. The apartment I have now is so much nicer, cheaper and in a better community. Skip Pennytree and come to Sandal Ridge!