Highlands at Sugarloaf — Attraction in Duluth

Don’t live here as long as Woodward is “managing” the complex. As soon as we moved in, we began getting warning texts addressing things such as: “marijuana use in the complex” and “children throwing rocks at cars”. So immediately, Day 1 when I got those messages, I began to wonder what had we gotten ourselves into. Day 1 is somewhat of a stretch as well because I’m fairly certain we received those messages as we were moving in.

I wish the issues at stayed that simple. About a month into our time here, our A/C went out for the first time. Not a big deal - it wasn’t too hot and I was familiar with what the issue was. Nothing but a clogged drain line. I was able to let a member of the maintenance team know, and they brought the appropriate tool to flush the line.

That was was the first instance - our A/C has gone down a total of 7 times within 3-4 months of moving-in and for extended periods of time. My initial frustration began about the 4th time - the same day there was were 50+ car break-ins in ONE night. [They did get into my car, but didn’t not take anything. Many people were not so lucky as there were many smashed windows. Keep in mind this is a gated community]. Every time they “fixed it” according to the words of the maintenance team. They absolutely did not and are clearly unfamiliar with how to properly service A/C units.

I think the interaction with the maintenance team that makes me the angriest is the time my PREGNANT WIFE called them to come help, again, and a maintenance member (who I will not name so this review cannot be removed) looked at the A/C unit outside (literally just looked at it), walked into our apartment, and said “your A/C is working fine” despite it being over 80 degrees in the unit..clearly not working.

Or maybe it was the time the A/C unit went out and I had to call the fire department because it started a wire fire and filled our home with smoke - while we had company over. Quite embarrassing.

Or maybe it was the time I went to leasing on the weekend and pleaded with a member of leasing to help us because my wife was pregnant and maintenance REFUSED to fix the A/C - leaving us without A/C for the entire weekend when it was over 95 degrees outside. The leasing member refused to contact the the new property manager because she was “the new property manager” and doesn’t work on the weekends.

Or maybe it was the time the new Property manager, who is currently in place, took over two weeks to reach out to her regional manager and get back with us about some resolution only to offer us a “one time rental concession of $250”. We told her everything that had happened. I was somewhat baffled by this ridiculously low offer to indemnify us. I responded to the email stating that I would be sure to include their “offer” in my review - which she quickly responded to this time. She stated that she would be happy to speak with her Regional Manager again, and that records only show our A/C going out 3 times. I’m not sure if she’s incompetent or crooked - the later I suspect - but the maintenance requests don’t reflect the number of times we called about our A/C because it does not log emergency calls. You have to make emergency requests via phone call vs logging-in online and making a regular maintenance request. Like I said, I doubt she’s that incompetent and is familiar with how their system works.

Oh and the icing on the cake is the fact that they’ve limited pool hours to leasing hours (8-5, I believe) because the locks on the pool are broken…they’ve been broken for over two months. And the fire pit has been broken since the day we moved in - now about 6 months ago. Why am I paying $10 a month for an amenity fee if the amenities aren’t working or repaired in a reasonable amount of time?

Enjoy your tours here, but never live here! The only thing they ever did for us was being a small a/c unit that could not even cool our master bedroom properly.

Nice to look at and a beautiful community, but managed incredibly poorly. It’s quite sad to see such a nice community on a...

First year I lived here, Hannah was absolutely amazing! Great hospitality, extremely welcoming and accommodating. We would see her out and she’d always have the biggest smile, offer us snacks/coffee, play w/ my kid, my golden retriever and ask how we were doing or if she could help. She truly made this place feel like a home. We moved here from the Midwest and felt proud of our decision to choose highlands. After the 1st yr, we got an offer to renew and I decided to resign. Now there is new staff, Jae in particular. Since Jae has started my experience w/ highlands has been nothing short of devastating and disappointing. I feel extremely bullied literally every month for rent money. It first started when he called & tried to over charge me for rent and I explained to him my renewal offer for a lower payment, he literally argued w/ me stating that this offer was not true and I must pay the higher amount or a month to month amount. I then had to email him my renewal offer as proof... this was my first experience with Jae, first impression. He introduced himself to our family by accusing me of lying and asking for more money, its been more of the same since. I feel targeted as if he’s stalking my accounts and payments. I called the office (unfortunately he answered) to let them know I only had cash one time and was on my way to deposit it in my bank to make payment, I had never been late on rent before and it was the 3rd. I just kneww it wouldn’t be a problem. WRONG. He locked me out of my portal, charged late fees, and told me I had to go to Kroger to make a WIPS payments. I was devastated. I didn’t even know what WIPS was, this had never been my experience here before... He then started harassing me to resign my lease agreement stating that he “forgot to put things in the contract”... He began calling multiple times, stopping me out in public, and messaging/emailing me constantly to resign the leasing contract. This seemed odd to me. He locked my portal 1/9/2024 & I’ve been unable to make payments via portal since. I sent an email to the leasing office about this in which he reopened the portal this morning 2/5/2024 and pretended as if he didn’t know how the issue occurred… blaming it on “the system”. “The system” didn’t do this until he began working here. He then told me since it’s back open I have to pay now or I will be charged $250 in fees. Now? I am at work, he locked the portal and my partner is at work and won’t be able to make a payment until after 5pm. He said “the system” will charge automatically. I then questioned why this had never happened before!? He then hung up and called back 3 minutes later saying well I have 2 hours to pay or I will be charged $250 in additional fees. Again, my partner won’t be home until after 5pm. This feels like some type of extortion mob. I’ve been charged over $1000 in additional fees since Jae has started here. Rent is already 2k so I’ve paid 2500 twice now and he’s apparently adding an additional fee in 2 hours due to HIM LOCKING MY PORTAL! I’ve had to go to Kroger twice now to make WIPS payments because I couldn’t access my portal online. He is the biggest bully I’ve come across. I am now nervous about going to the leasing office to even workout because of his harassment. He’s turned this into a money haggling environment. This seems to be ‘just a job’ for him but this is a home for the residents! This is where we are raising our family & children. Jae has the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced and has made my stay at highlands extremely unpleasant. Nothing about this place feels welcoming, homey, or friendly anymore. It is sad to see this place become such a hostile environment as it was once a safe haven. I’ve found out from neighbors that apparently swapping leasing agents is a regimen here & that lack of retention is alarming.

I will note that the maintenance guys here are nice. I’ve created a relationship w/ two of them & will be sad to no longer have them servicing me once I move as this has been a subpar experience and I will not...

UPDATE: WE GOT A CALL FROM COLLECTION AGENCY STATING WE OWE THEM MONEY! EVERYTHING WAS PAID IN FULL WITH CHECK AND CHECK HAS BEEN DEPOSITED BY THEM. I SPOKE WITH NEW MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT MANAGER MELISSA AND SHE STATED THE PREVIOUS ASSISTANT MANAGER DIDNOT NOTE OUR FILE HAS BEEN PAID, SO THEY SENT TO COLLECTION VIA PROTOCOL. IM VERY UPSET WITH THIS PLACE JUST CANNOT EVEN EXPRESS IT. I WISHED WE DIDNT MAKE STUPID MISTAKE OF MOVING INTO THIS PLACE IN A FIRST PLACE. LONG STORY SHORT MELISSA DID CANCELLED THE COLLECTION BUT STILL THIS IS JUST WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!! WISH THEY DO SOMETHING ABOUT WASTING OUR TIME AND SENDING US TO COLLECTION WITHOUT EVEN CONFIRMING WITH US THAT IS NOT EVEN OUR FAULT. APOLOGIZING IS NOT ENOUGH, IF THIS EFFECTED OUR CREDIT IN ANYWAYS!!

We loved it went we first moved in. It was clean, amenity was great, great location, staff was nice and etc. But after few months this place just became a total mess. The staff changed so many times during our stay and what was promise was never kept. They didn't answer the phone or respond to voicemail. Few staff who are no longer there was so rude, I had to complain to the manger couple of times. Their words always changing for their benefit. After Don new manger came it got little better but not enough for the money we paid to live there. Few of complaints during my stay.

1. pet deposit/fee does not go toward any damage done by the pet (according to new manger). The money is to just have pet live with us. Plus you have to pay pet fee monthly. (Old manger told us it will go toward damage but guess what they are no longer there)
2. doggy waste area was never kept clean/ bags were always empty so I had to requested it.
3. whenever i need to print, printer never had paper had to ask for it.
4. water bottle that was on the small refrigerator, always empty when I stop by office.
5. They offered changing light bulbs for free in the beginning but they decide to stop without notice.
6. parking was always an issue. They were never enough place to park, so we had to park all the way pass the bridge and walk to our unit during rain, snow, and late at night. We lived in unit 100 and had to park at unit 800. There is few more things but I will just pass writing more. Everyone has different experience but ours was...