I am a current resident and have bumped into a couple of issues within the two years of being here. When I signed my lease I was told that the carpets throughout would be replaced due to the previous residents pet damage. That didn't happen so I just shrugged off the urine smell and clean the carpets every couple of weeks myself.
The second issue was that there is so much damage to my apartment from previous residents that I can start a photo album. Luckily it's in my phone in a file so when I do move out, my family isn't blamed for it.
The maintenance here sucks. I tend to fix whatever goes wrong because for them its to hard to figure out or easier to blame children. Currently, my Air con has been making strange noises and my boyfriend and I have noticed that our hallway carpet has been soaked from it. When we called the maintenance men one said maybe someone spilled water?.. What a whale? Then, he suggested that maybe one of our empty 5 gallon glass bottles leaked. Those are expensive and the only leak that comes from them goes into my mouth.
So I decided to look up YouTube videos and Google searched articles on air conditioning and what would cause my issue. Come to find out the parts are filthy and there's a pipe that runs from the air con and into the hallway closet inside the wall, that I'm guessing may be busted or cracked. So I'm going to see what I can do myself because nothing seems to get fixed when I call the maintenance men.
The plumbing here also sucks...a whole lot! When a neighbor has an issue, guarantee that you will too. They often call a plumbing service to unclog pipes. I usually have to buy a ton of bleach and Drain-o, then take apart the pipes myself in the bathrooms and kitchen to clean them out. It's really gross because I find clumps of stuff that I really couldn't guess what it was made of.
After a year your rent does raise, which is something they don't tell you before you sign the lease. When I first moved in my rent was altogether including utilities $834/month for 2bd 2ba. Now that we're in year 2 its 900/month. Which isn't too much but a heads up would have been nice since I'm renting an apartment and can't afford a house right now.
Sometimes people make a lot of noise at the pool late at night and break glass. So be careful if you have kids and take them swimming often. There isn't a huge pest problem, then again that would vary between complex and neighbors etc. We tend to have earwigs that creep up from the drains and also gnats which are annoying. But if you have a cat or lizard or know how to rid of them then you'll be okay.
These apartments are made cheaply so be very careful with everything. Just a warning. It's not a horrible place. Not completely at least.