Montclair Apartment

This apartment is now called Pavilions at Pebble View. My bet is they’re trying to distance themselves from horrible reviews with the new name. My personal favorite is a Google review that says «drug dealers DO live here I assure you.» Absolute truth.
The only reason this place even gets one star is because for the first year and a half I lived here, I had relatively few problems. Now it’s zero star worthy. After their contract to house TI employees ended and they got a new property management company, this place has gone to hell. People in the office hardly ever answer the phone. Only one person who does is actually pleasant — the rest are apathetic at best. You get a different answer depending on who you talk to. They lose records. They threatened to fine me for not having proof of renters insurance on file when I had already provided it directly to them twice. Same with pet records.
I currently have a 1992 water heater that puts out brown hot water. The maintenance man referred to it as «one of the nicest in the complex.» What a joke. The maintenance man isn’t sure when they’ll get around to ordering a new one for me. I’m on day 8 without AC. The cheap fixes the maintenance man tries never work. I feel bad for the guy. He’s handcuffed because they won’t let him order parts until there’s absolutely no other alternative.
The previously awesome water feature (creek) is now a nonfunctional cesspool of mosquitoes and other bugs. I pay a premium for a view of a drained empty creek and fountain full of mud.
The car parked next to my assigned spot has not moved in over a year. The windows are open, so it has become a place for stray cats to hang out. I’ve informed the office but no one cares.
The interiors aren’t bad. Since I’ve lived here they’ve renovated the units. So although I have original 1995 appliances and features, most of the other apartments are better. Certainly overpriced considering all of the property’s issues and the crappy neighborhood.
The worst part about this place has become crime, and sketchy residents. Several people have been robbed. I caught a teenager trying to get in my locked car. The area around my building frequently smells like weed. We have been stopped in the parking lot by strangers asking for drugs. I have seen people doing drugs on the property. People near me on the 2^nd floor dump dozens of beer bottle caps and cigar wrappers over their balcony so I have to wade through them while walking my dog. Several families let their kids run around unsupervised and they do dangerous stuff like throwing things at people (and dogs) off the third floor landing.
Speaking of dogs, so many residents here refuse to pick up their dog’s poop! It’s disgusting, and inexcusable given that we’re provided stations with poop bags. I get that there’s only so much the office can do about that but this place is a minefield.
About the only positive thing I can think of is that I’ve never had a problem with noise coming through the walls. Being on the top floor is helpful for that.
I’ve never had a problem with an apartment complex. I’ve always completed my lease with no problems. This apartment is so bad now I am paying over $ 1000 to get out 3 months early. I can’t take it anymore.

I lived here with my wife and kids from December of 2011 to May of 2014. This review is for all of 2013 to May of 2014 when I moved out. Prior to that I would have given this place at least 4 stars.
When I first moved in the office staff was friendly and on top of things. Then in 2013 the complex was purchased by another management company, they replaced all of the office staff with incompetent nitwits and the whole complex went downhill fast. The office staff is rude and condecending, they never know whats going on or at least pretend not to. The most commonly uttered expresion from their mouths is «Uhhhh, like yeah I don’t know»
When I first moved in I had one of the best views in the complex overlooking a waterfall feature that was part of the grounds. They shut it off a year ago to do repairs that were supposed to last no more than 2 weeks. I paid a premium for this view.
The grounds are covered in dog feces, I could no longer let my children out to play. Complaints to management never resulted in anything.
Crime got bad in the last year or so. Several of my neighboors cars were broken into. A drug dealer moved into a neighbooring building and was able to deal drugs out of their apartment without issue because the gates were always open or people were able to piggyback in. Complaints to management never resulted in anything.
Maintenance requests would take forever to get done if they got done at all and were generally fixed with the cheapest/​quickest fix possible so that they would have to be fixed again a month later.
Last but not least while I lived there they had at least 2 bedbug outbreaks that I am aware of. They tried to keep it quiet but I learned what was happening from other residents.
Stay away at all costs. This is fast becoming a slum and is definately ran by slumlords.

The apartments themselves are not bad, but the office staff/​management was the big issue. There was a lot of crime in this area too which it scary. My car was hit in my parking space, no note no nothing. It also took them over 2 months of harassing to return my deposit. The lake was a big selling point for me and I paid extra to have this view, well it only had water in it half the time I lived there. Apparently there is a leak. They also leave a note that they are coming in your apartment for various reasons which is good but they were in there more than once a month the entire time I lived there. I don’t like that. I think this place is definitely not worth the money. I would go elsewhere.

It wasn’t great when I first moved here, but now it’s even worse now that it’s under new management, BH Management Services.
Overall:
I hate this place. Sure, the apartments are kind of nice, but the appliances are old and the maintenance and staff are terrible.
Maintenance:
Never shows up. And when they do, they don’t actually fix anything. So you have to go back to the office (since they never answer their phones) and tell them that they have to send maintenance again. And then they get confused because they look up the work order and it shows that it has been completed. We literally have to tell them every time, for the past 2 months, that it hadn’t been completed and we are still waiting.
Parking:
SUCKS. If you don’t have an assigned spot, then good luck getting one at all. The free spots are usually taken and you’re forced to park in the main lot next to the office. if there aren’t any in the lot, then you’re totally out of luck.
Staff:
Kaitlyn is the only one that got anything done for us. She’s friendly and knows your name and apartment #. I haven’t seen her lately, and have had to deal with the other staff members, including managers, who really don’t care about anything. They play dumb when you remind them about maintenance requests and some managers were outright rude.
Rent:
It’s expensive and gets raised every time you renew your lease. I don’t think the amount we pay is worth it for the space we have. It’s definitely not worth it for the lack of maintenance either.
«Fitness center»:
All the machines are old and rattling. There are never enough treadmills and some treadmills are even broken. The weight machines need to be lubricated badly and there’s always free weights missing. You can tell that it is never cleaned because there’s dust and dirt everywhere.

I lived here from the summer of 2011 to early 2013.
Nice things:
On the plus side the units are not bad, and most of my neighbors were nice people. The grounds are haphazardly kept but the pond and walking path are nice and have a local population of ducks and wildlife. I really enjoyed walking my dog around the pond early in the morning.
The location is close to my work and provides somewhat easy access to both 635 and 75.
Safety & Maintenance:
The neighborhood has gotten much worse since I moved in 18 months ago. Since then there have been two break-​ins in my building, plus thefts from 1^st-​floor patios. I heard about a nearby building having problems with drug dealers as well as someone from the sister apartment complex (St. Andrews) who was carjacked.
The gates rarely work as intended and it’s pretty easy to tailgate into the complex.
They did something relating to the drainage of the pond last summer, and never replaced the sod over the big hole they dug. I get to pay a premium for a view of a dirt patch. Nice.
The dishwasher that was in my unit always leaked (even when I didn’t put detergent in the dishwasher). I complained multiple times about the dishwasher and it took them 17 months to finally replace it. E-​mailing the manager’s higher-​up in Crest Management must have done the trick; she can be reached at: kvallianatos (at) crestasset (dot) com.
It took them over a month to replace a broken microwave, partly because of their own poor communication — I was never informed when they were planning to go to the unit and when maintenance found my dog was loose inside the apartment they left. Maintenance typically doesn’t leave notices when they visit units, so I had no idea that they even attempted the repair.
The parking here used to be atrociously difficult for guests, but the place has really cleared out. From observing the number of parked cars on a recent stormy Saturday afternoon, Montclair must not be running anywhere near full occupancy.
Office Staff:
The people working the front desks are typically nice but clueless; the former manager (Melody Davis) is both incompetent and a self-​absorbed, condescending harpy to everyone (tenants, office staff, maintenance staff). I’ve since learned that Melody has moved to manage a newly acquired Crest property (Sonterra at Buckingham) and the manager from St. Andrews has hopped over the park to manage this place. I’ve never met the new guy, but he never hassled me and promptly fixed any maintenance problems. He also refunded most of my deposit (deducting the last six week’s utilities from it; isn’t that sort of illegal and he was supposed to bill me separately?).
One time when I needed to speak to Ms. Davis the office girl claimed that Melody had «been in court all day». I can only guess that it was another bed bug small claims case that she didn’t handle properly (I know of one case from March 2011). It took them over three weeks to respond to the pest problems I had in my own unit, and only after I captured some of the bugs and took them to the office.
The office staff and Crest Management prefer to talk to you over the phone because they don’t want anything in writing. They also cannot do math; I had to give them separate checks for the rent and the utilities after they tried to bill me when I sent them one check for the whole amount due.
It’s sad that my small-​town college dorm had better package security than this place.
Every time your lease is up they will raise your rent. One neighbor who had lived there for over 8 years moved because of their inflexibility on this policy. Their month-​to-​month rates are silly for the area. Renewing your lease is an exercise in frustration. It’s obvious they don’t want repeat customers.
I typically paid via the night-​drop box on the first of the month, until one month when the manager (Melody) decided to leave a warning-​of-​eviction notice in my apartment for non-​payment of rent and utilities. When I called her to tell her she should look in the night drop box, she called me back to say, «Oh yeah, your check is right here,» and *never* apologized for her mistake. I sent my rent via certified mail & return receipt after this incident. Even then she had problems picking up the rent from the post office when it arrived. I would end up e-​mailing her superior at Crest who would then take care of it.

Great location. Nice apartments. Quick response on work orders. Horrible office staff.

This place couldn’t be more dreadful. Worst place to live. Rent is very expensive, no parking spaces, and very rude office staffs especially the manager. I would not recommend anyone living here. This apartment complex will rip you off with every penny.