Bayou Park Apartments — Attraction in Houston

This review is simply going to relay factual experiences i have had. Please know i may be an outlier. But if you read other reviews that are near the time of this one you will find that i may not be. but that is for you to Decide.

My experience. During my time here a only a few doors down form me, there was a murder, I am not event kidding, an old man was stabbed to death in his apartment around July 2018 google it. There was glaring discrepancy on my lease with the original management which i had not noticed until new management , then new management purchased the property (kayra) from the other one (Birkshire hathway) who (kayra) then breached an agreement on the lease that lead to unjust fines (these were taken care of after several days of communication) , there have been a prodigious amount of random fees added on since new management ranging from forced garbage valet services (that are inconsistent and dont pick up garbage even when rules are followed) to up-charges on dog rent to firing the concierge service providers who walked dogs, house sat, AND held your packages for you to be picked up 8 hours a day and forcing us to use Fetch services that only allow a short 2 hour window of time to have your package delivered to you. Every pool has been shut down and there have been 4 power outages since my time here.

Grounds. They are pretty nasty, many people do not pick up their dogs poo and any areas that are not visible to the leasing office have no landscaping or grass. The dog park apart of the complex has a dangerous amount of unpicked up dog poo and it is either dust or mud. Every pool is shut down majority of the year and as I write this all three of them have been for nearly a month. One has actually been completely filled with cement. Im not kidding. Cement.

Staff The staff work hard but unfortunately do not have very good communication skills and the office is in absolute complete disarray. There has been a lot of turnover in just a few months. They did not communicate my 90 days of notice to vacate nor where they able to locate my lease in correspondence to the lack of communication. Often times the head manager is said to be "out making rounds inspecting apartments" for 3-6 hours at a time and is unable to be spoken to in person, which unfortunately was a lie as both times i was told this I came back and was told it again after many hours of waiting. Then after 45 minutes of waiting at the office to hopefully catch her before closing I forced the issue of the matter i needed to discuss and the available agent ran upstairs "to get information" because apparently all major information can only be found on the one computer upstairs (which may also be a lie because that sounds silly but that is speculation) and the agent let it slip that "She (being the manager) said XYZ.." and awkwardly caught herself in the lie.

Maintenance This aspect is fantastic, fixed anything i ordered quickly and very well.

Neighborhood This is another wonderful aspect, location is amazing. Great parks, great food, great neighborhood.

Noise Next to a major road in Memorial drive and that is very loud. Many loud barking dogs. Some days are quite most are not.

Safety Someone was literally murdered, however I have never had any issues but that does not mean i dont keep my doors locked and dont leave my home at night.

OVERALL My first 7 months here were tolerable and pretty alright for the price and location, nothing that was deal breaking and it made sense for what i was paying. Since the new management company Kayra took over it has been all downhill...myself and many neighbors i have met are leaving with really bad tastes in our mouths for a lot of the reasons above. you pay for what you get in this place it is incredibly affordable and in a great location however you will have to deal with a lot of egregious miscommunication/mishandling of documentation and a lot of very below average aspects of normal...

I lived almost 10 years, so I have a lot to say. I saw 3 different managements run this place and I left the last year and some months when Karya took over. With just over a year, Karya was the worst to run the place for the reasons I listed below.

For the short review: Would I recommend this place? It depends on what you want. If you want to save money and live at a great centrally located place in Houston, and you can deal with the list of examples below, go for it. If dealing with things breaking, etc (see below) is too overwhelming for you or money is not a concern, don’t do it.

For long review: (I reached the character limited, so see the pictures below for everything). Location 10 out of 10. You are in the center of everything and far enough from downtown that you aren’t caught in that mess.

For its location it is an amazing price. But you will have to deal with an old complex where things break, mold problems (See pictures below), rusty pipes where yellow water comes out at times, random pipes bursting and not having water, and dealing with the new management company Karya is terrible.

Some units have washer and dryers inside, some don’t. They have washeterias on site you can use and pay for with credit card. Choose which you like.

I rarely used the gym, but all my friends who visited said the gym is amazing for apartment gym. There is one main larger 25 m length pool and I believe 2 much smaller pools in the complex. Parking garage is great to have if you live on the side of the complex that has it. The 2015 tax day flood affected 1st floor apartments, Harvey 2017 did not (or at least we didn’t get emails about it). Harvey did trap everyone inside the complex, but we parked cars in the garage on the upper levels in front of others with the understanding nobody was leaving. I only saw one broken car window in the complex in the last 10 years. Outside the complex is a different story. There is security that patrols, although they are difficult to find when you need them.

The people Karya hired to work at the location are all nice people. Initially there seemed to be high turnover, but before I left, they seemed to settle down. Before they would never answer the phone, now they do, but it’s not as easy to get a hold of hold of them. It’s best to go into the office. Sometimes emails take a few days.

What makes Karya so bad is the decisions the company made about the complex not the staff who have no control over those decisions. They are terrible at their implementation of change.

1. Karya lost my lease agreement from the previous company, they were about to charge me month by month until I had many talks with management and then they finally found my lease. Everything was digital and they shut down the old website, so I had no control over this.
2. When they launched the new website, it didn’t work, and the times were wrong. If it’s not done, don’t launch it.
3. They changed to this fetch service for our packages that got shipped to a different location north of 610 (not exactly close) then delivered to our door with a 2-hour window of when we had to be home to receive them. Everyone complained about it, and they did finally change to lockers. At least they listened.
4. 4. I can’t count how many different payment systems we switched from in the beginning. It was a pain and things wouldn’t work right. I was charged fees at some point with no grace period. Eventually they settled on this weird money order system. It was like we back into the 20th century. I couldn’t figure out how to use it, but I only had 2 months left to pay. We used to just have autopay that pulled right out of your back account. You do have the option to pay credit card to make it easier, but there is a significant fee. I bit the bullet on that because the pain of their system for 2 months rent wasn’t worth my time when I’m trying to move out. (See Pictures...

Because of the word count limit, I couldn't share all of my emails. I also had to cut some of my initial email out. I have sent an email to the office staff nearly every day without any response. I have even sent two emails to the national property management without any response.

Monday, December 23: "Hi, I moved into my apartment Saturday, December 21. Though I've been here a few short days, I have already had many problems with virtually none of them resolved despite being promised they would be.

I have addressed the leasing office a few times now. I'm not sure what else to do. To start off with I never got an apartment inventory list. If I had, I would have immediately noted all of the things that were off about the apartment. I don't believe it was cleaned properly because I had to do a lot of that as I moved in.

Today, I went back to the leasing office after being told my gate/gym key would be ready two days ago, but it was not. I tried yesterday, but the new leasing office was closed?? Today, I went and we went to where maintenance is now to get the keys and address my concerns about my apartment even though I went, like I said, two days ago. It wasn't being taken care of until I went back a few times which is ridiculous.

Today, with the leasing agent and maintenance department, I voiced my concerns about the following:

1.) The stovetop is completely unusable as it is out of the socket, etc. The inside also is very temperamental and doesn't come on until much later, if at all. I have a Christmas dinner to cook. The maintenance woman told me she would be by between 3-3:30. I canceled my plans and I waited. She didn't come until an hour later. Additionally, I was told that someone would be by my apartment today to fix it. I waited and waited. No one came. Absolutely unprofessional and how am I going to fix any of my food, let alone Christmas dinner?? Also, I have now had to go over my own personal budget because I'm eating out since I can't cook food...

2.) Pretty much all of the doors in my apartment have something wrong with it.... c.) The front door's second lock does not work at all when the door is closed. I cannot move it to get the added layer of security. Additionally, when I leave to go somewhere, it is very difficult to lock up because of the resistance from the door; in fact, at one point I believed the door to be locked (because I had the key in and turned the way it should, in the correct position) but it didn't in fact lock.

3.) My mailbox key wasn't working at all.I was told I would get a new one. I still don't have that key.

4.) I have about 20 cabinets. At least half of them are not closing properly and/or keep opening. When the woman from the maintenance office came inside of my apartment to look around she noted the there was paint not removed or whatever surrounding the fixture that wouldn't allow it to close properly.

5.) For whatever reason, my fridge is making a very consistent and loud noise that is very bothersome. This isn't your typical fridge noise making ice or staying cold, but it sounds like it is malfunctioning.

These are all of the things I have experienced thus far. I haven't really been able to use the sink yet (no need because there's not a working oven to cook) and I'm not sure if it's running properly. I also haven't used the dishwasher because again, no stove to cook food and therefore no dishes used.

At this rate, my biggest problem is the stove. I need to prepare food for Christmas like today. I needed to cook food for myself, like, a few days ago when I moved in. This is arguably one of the worst purchases I've made as of yet. I paid over $300 to move in during the middle of the month, yet the things I paid for are not in working condition for me.

Please let me know what sort of fair reimbursement Bayou Park Apartments can offer to offset some of these...