Oaks of Timbergrove

#overit
PARKING. HUGE issue. Don’t expect visitors to ever have a space. I was told when I toured my assigned space would be right outside my back door. When I moved in, the spot I was assigned was on the back perimeter of the complex… my building is 1^st in the front perimeter. I complained, they moved it halfway closer to my unit. Still not what I was promised. Now they assigned that spot to another resident! Long story short, it’s been over 3 months & im still getting the run around.
The assistant manager is always friendly and helpful. She always finds temporary solutions. Great price, safe, updated units for the area. But the parking issues will be the reason I don’t renew my lease; if it’s not resolved.

Great very safe and fun area to live in. The neighbors are amazing and very caring. Our appartment is small but it has the basics. The fact that we are inside the loop makes it very accesible

I have had experience with Orion Properties prior to looking at these apartments and was so happy when I walked in the front door and found the same people I met years ago as the management staff! They are great and I am very happy here. So glad this is my home!

I love living at the Oaks of Timbergrove! The leasing office, as well as the maintenance staff, goes above and beyond. They really understand and execute the proper treatment of their residents. I would definitely recommend you go check this place out when looking for apartments. It’s an older community, but it has been recently renovated and the upkeep is great!

Safety I feel is an issue. I feel there could be more security and just patrolling of the premises, it doesn’t matter if you have a gate key, people follow you so close so they can make it in. The parking lot needs MAJOR attention, I guess the one good thing is if something happens they can leave fast. Everyone speeds at the dead end corner at the turn, I’ve almost been hit in the daylight with my dog. The administration loves dogs which is great because mine is huge and he goes everywhere with me.
The «dog poop area» is usually pretty clean. Really on the weekends it gets a little gross.
Getting the keys to my apartment was a huge issue, and it unfortunately was completely infested with bugs. After weeks of ignoring emails, I finally sent pictures of all of the bites and they took action. However, they said an exterminator was at my apartment so I got my dog all treated and maxed out even though he never had anything on him. Well, there never was a bug guy and I figured that out and once it reached management and Orion management the issue slowly became resolved. It honestly wasn’t a pleasant first 3 months.
But now I am very happy, I’m settled in, I know my neighbors who all look out for each other no matter how old. Everyone around the premises is very nice and knows me (I don’t know if that’s a good thing) and my dog and always say hi. Overall it’s a good place, I would recommend it if the pricing was right, I like that it’s not in the hub of everything, it feels like it’s own little community :)

DO NOT MOVE IN! This was the worst experience I have ever had living at an apartment complex. My a/​c never worked correctly despite several work requests and promises from the staff. I had an infestation of roaches (every species) along with several other bugs. The office sprayed but told me I would have to pack up all my things to have it sprayed again. There were several aggravated robberies in the parking lot. The office will not notify you if you have a package arrive. You just have to keep track yourself and tell all friends/​family to inform you if they shipped you something. The water was intermittently brown which made showering and cooking fun. After the failure of the staff’s part in every way, they would not let me out of my lease and charged me for electricity even though I had moved out 3 months prior to my end of contract date. They are screwing people over in this infested, unsafe apartment complex. Stay away from this place!
(This is my first review and I normally don’t complain. I have never been treated so poorly and want to save others from the same fate.)

I’ve been here in a 2 br/​2 ba for about two months and I really enjoy the staff. They’re very attentive as long as you communicate. The living room is huge, and the bedrooms are comfortable in the shade, but the kitchen/​washer and dryer area is the least intuitive design I’ve ever seen. The neighbors are all really nice, which is awesome. Unfortunately, there are some safety issues with people leaving gates propped open at night, and parking after 6 is a nightmare. To have Internet you’re required to have cable which is unnecessary, but overall we are enjoying our time with the oaks.

So I’m updating my review. I just renewed my lease two months early and it only went up 20 bucks. To live inside the loop for that price is unheard of. The gate and the locking of the doors around the outside gates I think has helped a lot with outside guests. The noise level is down and the old tenants are out of here. If you have issues go to Leslie or Will. They are the ones that actually get things done in there.

My piece of advice is to believe the rating of this apartment on Unilocal ! It’s actually overrated because I can’t give it a ZERO !!! This place is very overpriced and you deal with very dump staff, the comments from Holly W. are very true ! They will lose all your packages and will not even apologize or take any responsibilities for it ! Bugs are everywhere in the apartment, they will charge you tons of weird fees that they don’t tell you about when you sign the lease, even I specifically asked about the utilities charges before I moved in, but hey, if you like surprises, this is a PERFECT place for you !
Oh, and when you come check out the apartment, they will tell about the club house, gym and everything ! Don’t believe a single crap word they tell you, when I moved in, they say the club house will be done very soon, then January, then asked again, it’s February, now they say it will be done in March, next time you ask it’s always it will be done soon !!! So yes, I m sure the club house will done eventually, only if you plan to live here for 10 years and you probably get to use it for 2 years !!! From that, you can see how efficient they are ! So if you think you will be able to use the gym and pool, think twice, the pool is locked most of the year ! This is Houston, not Chicago ! We don’t just need the pool only 3 months a year !!!

This is the worst place to live inside the loop of Houston. This is not a fancy place. They took our Mardi Gras decoration down. But you can decorate for anything like Christmas and Halloween but not Mardi Gras. The management team is the worst I have dealt with. Orion real estate needs to remove them! Do not come rent from them!

Very sad place to live. Besides going up on my rent extremely and not doing a damn thing to my apartment, I get a call today saying I have to take my Mardi Gras decorations down. Evidently you can decorate for Halloween and Christmas, but not far mardi gras… just do not understand. Avoid this place at all cost…

Safety is a HUGE issue: when Orion purchased the property, they removed the guardhouse and left access to the complex wide open. In the time since, there have been almost weekly notices of violent crime; armed robberies in the parking lot, break-​ins, assaults. Their response was to install a gate; this does nothing as whenever a resident drives in, there are, at all times, 5 or more cars waiting out front to follow in, as the gate takes a full minute to close after opening. This has not been effective.
I’ve had work orders for a leaky A/​C, bad plumbing, a broken window open more nearly 9 months that I’ve gone unresolved despite repeated reminders.
Their renovations are a joke, and a bad attempt at an insane cash grab; painting and half-​assing a roofing job does not justify a $ 500/​month increase.
Their front office is unprofessional: they’ve attempted to raise my rent twice during my lease using shady and misleading accounting and invoice practices. They’ve also routinely signed for packages not delivered; they allow the carriers to return at a later date with the packages, if ever. They refuse to acknowledge their legal obligation to deliver mail to residents in cases where packages are marked delivered, and lost.
Their renewal process is absurd: we are required to give 30-day’s notice if we do not plan to renew, but will not receive a quote on the lease for the following year before the last 30 days of the lease. Leaving us in the position of having to have a lease ready if the offer is unsuitable.
I would never recommend leasing from Orion on this, or any property. This is my second bad experience with their property management, in nearly 20 years of good experiences leasing from various companies.

After Orion bought the place, Everything was turned upside down, Rent has nearly doubled before any «Renovations» have been made. They are very, very, very greedy.
I was here for 3 years — I’m outta here Sept. ‘14
I can’t name names but the «Man in a Suit» aka The Boss is NOT TO BE TRUSTED. He *will* tell you one thing and do another.
Year 1 Rent, $ 640
Year 2 Rent, $ 665 (no biggie, standard 25 increase)
Year 3 Rent, $ 690 (again, no biggie)
–Orion Buys the Place–
Year 4 Rent, Was quoted 790 but the man himself (+100…wtf)
But he back doored and it turned into 820… then 850… then 900 — wut?
Sadly my lease ends Aug 31^st but my new Apt. won’t be ready till Mid Sept — It’s 1100 to go month to month, Awesome.
So Rent Aside we’re also getting in an influx of new tenants because the CRIMINAL BACKGROUND REQUIREMENTS HAVE BEEN EASED and also these guys are running to this complex because everything in the area has jacked the prices up and folks are moving out of here left and right because of the rent increases.
In the Summer the outdated AC units from the 1970’s DO NOT WORK. I have to keep my AC on 50 to even get it in the high 70s/​low 80s here. I’ve been on them all Summer about this — Nothing.
The pools are NEVER cleaned now, They are too busy «Renovating» and dumping old roof tiles in them.
The tap water is still brown, I’m told that will never be fixed — they would need to rip out the entire plumbing system to fix it — Not going to happen. The Man himself told me all they can do is add chemicals and water softener and hope for the best… yeah I really wanna bathe and brush my teeth with chemicals and softener ON TOP of the rust that’s already in the water here.
Cars have been broken into now thanks to our «newer» neighbors, Cars have been keyed now, Vending Machines broken into — The place is going downhill… and FAST.
This place user the be a hidden gem thanks to the decent rent and location — This joint is not worth $ 900+ a month for a ¹⁄₁ without Washer and Dryer.
For the record I’m moving AROUND THE EFFING CORNER just outside of 610 and I’m getting a ²⁄₂ with full size Washer/​Dryer for $ 775/​mo and 1 beds start at $ 550 — Blue Star certified as well BTW (google it)
The water is clear, the A/​C works and the complex is newer — Double pane windows and just more energy efficient all around.
Screw this place.

Update to my initial review: after moving out I left my forwarding information with management and let them know that I may receive some wedding gifts in the mail. I realized after a couple of weeks that the address on my registries hadn’t updated correctly (my fault) and went to collect the 6 items that had been signed for at the Oaks of Timbergrove office.
After several phone calls, several visits, and a couple of employees checking their storage area, it turns out that the assistant manager signed for the packages and then they were lost or stolen from the office. They never notified me of the packages arriving despite having left my forwarding information, and they certainly didn’t send them back to the retailer. The on-​site manager and staff wavered between rude and apathetic.
The ownership company (Orion) never returned my calls or answered the phone. After I sent a certified letter, they finally returned a letter stating that I signed a form saying I can’t hold them responsible for losing my packages when I moved in.
All in all, a terrible customer experience to say the least.

Great price and location! Management is top notch. Do yourself a favor and lease at the Oaks of Timbergrove!!!

What a horrible experience. When we moved in here in late 2008, the place was all right. Decent place, decent price. By the time we left in early 2011, we couldn’t get out fast enough. Here’s a list of stuff that happened, in no particular order:
We went without a decent shower for almost a year. Not in a «I’m le French» kind of way, we still bathed, but it was NEVER a consistent temperature. And the maintenance is clueless. We’d complain, and they’d come change the freaking knobs for the shower. We’d complain again, and we got a new shower head. Hey, replace the really dated things, but fix the problem I called you for!
The maintenance issues all stem from the main office. They’re rude, cold, and don’t give a damn about your needs. During our water ordeal, as we were trying to get our water taken care of, they literally threw their hands in the air and said «well you know what? You can move, we won’t charge you for breaking your lease.» much better than the «well, take a shower faster» that we got previously. Seriously, who treats their customers like this?
The mail sucks. My godson’s pictures arrived with a giant crease through the middle, right through the big words in Sharpie that said Do Not Bend. I guess I was lucky to get them, plenty of stuff just got lost.
Some pretty shady tenants. I couldn’t walk to my car without getting contact high, the tenants above us would beat his wife from time to time, a Jack Daniels bottle in the bushes. Oh, and then there was the syringe I found in the bushes. That was fun.
I think the pièce de résistance has to be the bullet that came through our bedroom wall. Cops took forever to get there, the guy had a couple of different stories, and cops didn’t even take the gun from him. The apartment complex only jumped into action when I mentioned that i was having a lawyer friend take a look at my contract.
Don’t be a hero, rent elsewhere!