Enclave Piney Mountain — Attraction in Asheville

I would have loved giving EPM a good review considering that I lived there for a year and the apartment was beautiful. But I will say, if you give these people a deposit, be ready to fight for your money. I moved out at the end of April. On my last days there, I continuously had to remind the former property manager, Kristine, that I was moving out and asked for a walk through of the apartment. She told me there was a third party company that would come do the inspection AFTER I left and then they would refund me the money I put down. Because I was not going to be present during this walkthrough, I proceeded to taking pictures and videos of how I left everything in the empty apartment, just to cover myself. Let me specify, my deposit was not just the standard $250, it also included an entire month of rent, putting it at close to $2,000 in total. 6 weeks after I moved out, I still had not heard from anyone at EPM about my deposit. I reached out to the property manager via text message, and she stated she was no longer working there, she had just quit. I understood but still wondered why my deposit was never refunded in the time she was there. I then called the office numerous times and not one person answered the phone, ever. I even left a voicemail. No response. I proceeded to emailing the general email and again no response. I had to take time to leave work to actually show up in person. When I showed up, the leasing agent at the front, Savanna, stated she was not aware of the situation and that at that moment there was no property manager but she would contact the regional manager to address the situation. I never heard back. I then AGAIN, on 7/3/23, went to the office and met the new property. I explained the entire situation to her and she also said she was going to have the regional manager look into it. I expressed to her that if this was going to be an issue to please let me know so I can have my attorney directly reach out to the regional manager but she stated she would get it resolved. She did follow up with an email that same day asking me my forwarding address and mentioning she reached out to the regional manager. It is now 7/20/23, and I still have not received any updates nor have received my deposit back or even heard back from anyone. I, AGAIN, emailed yesterday asking for an update and then AGAIN called and asked to speak with Ashleigh, the new property manager, and was told she was in a zoom meeting and she would get back to me. Still have not heard back from a single person. I completely understand that management gets busy, but we are now at almost 3 months post me moving out and my deposit has not been addressed. North Carolina law states property managers/landlords have 30 days to address a tenant's deposits. I have asked numerous times for contact information for the regional manager so I can try and address this more accordingly, and have been unsuccessful at obtaining that information. I was avoiding having to escalate this to the courts because it is really uncalled for but I will not continue taking my time to show up at the office because of their unprofessionalism. If I owed them that amount of money and not paid them by this point, I can guarantee you I would have been sent to collections already. Unreal.

UPDATE: I find it very interesting that the property manager has taken the time to respond to another person's review but could not respond to my phones calls, emails, or even my review regarding the money...

It is said that you learn what people ar made of not when everything is good, but when everything goes wrong. The property management here is a shining example of that. In the immediate wake of Hurricane Helene, there was no contact from them until Wednesday, October 2 (5 days later). Wherein the local management had their own personal challenges to deal with, no one in the regional or corporate offices reached out to the community nor checked on the welfare of the property and its residents. And once they did show up, it was evident they had no emergency plan or skills. We residents did a far better job managing ourselves and the property in the days following the storm than the staff did once they finally returned - and since. Additionally, the first formal communication to residents focused not on identifying resources or sharing their go-forward plan, but on ensuring we remembered to pay the rent - or let them know if we needed extra time and they would waive the late fees. No power. No water. No security system for the entry doors. No cell service, no fire suppression, and.no elevators. But they focused on the rental income. The regional management are unqualified, negligent, and uncaring people - as evidenced by the fact the the local staff quit within weeks of the storm because they weren't getting any support from the national HQ. I think many of us have since learned what the management company is made of. And it's not pretty. Stay away at all costs!!!

UPDATE: After reading the management's reply below, I can tell people I tried reaching out to them. They have NO INTEREST in speaking about what they did wrong or correcting it. They continually deflect responsibility for anything they did wrong. I've attached photos of what another local rental community did for their residents within 10 days of the disaster. It's called Verde Vista with a top notch property management company. Back at Enclave, we had 2 porta potties and unfulfilled promises of showers houses and constant excuses of "there is nothing we can do to get water to the property". Seems someone somewhere...

The very beginning of our stay was decent. At first the amenities being broken down was annoying, there was not a gym as advertised until a few months after our move in. They advertised there was a patio that after it was built a year after we moved in, got abandoned and neglected to the point it was inaccessible. Pro tip: measure your prospective apartment because there are current residents measuring about 200sq ft short of advertised living space. During a natural disaster such as Hurricane Helene there was no emergency plan and residents of Piney Mountain were victims of crime and had no access or contact from management for a week and a half. Other properties managed by Willow Bridge were attended to from the day after the storm and when management did show up we were given promises that were unfulfilled such as a potable water truck and portable showers. Some residents were unable to come back to their apartments because they had flooded AFTER evacuating. It took two weeks to get a security guard to protect residents and their property from further thefts. While residents such as myself, my fiancé, and multiple other residents were doing overnight watches. On top of that there have been battle against roaches in the model apartment that you see in all those pretty photos as well as residents living spaces. The only way I personally found that out was a resident with medical needs had to move into the model after the hurricane and we were killing them throughout the previously unoccupied apartment. I highly advise potential future residents to take caution and research the property management before signing a lease. Post Hurricane Helene they are raising rent by $200 minimum, a two bedroom that was $1875 prestorm is now $2285 after...