The Grand at Upper Kirby — Attraction in Houston

Wow...where do I begin? I lived at Metro Greenway from August to November 2021, and those are 3 months of my life I wish I could take back.

The first time it rained after I moved in, brown rainwater began leaking in around the bedroom window. I reported it as a high urgency issue (rain leaking is a residential code violation), nothing was done, and several days later more brown rainwater leaked in. Lovely.

Over the next 3 months, I exchanged over 80 emails with property management trying to get the issue resolved. Maintenance came out several times to "seal" the exterior stucco and paint over the water damage inside the bedroom. Common sense and an internet search will tell you that stucco is a porous material designed to absorb water, so "sealing" it won't fix a leak. Needless to say, the sealing didn't work, rain kept leaking, and my requests to inspect and fix the underlying waterproofing were dismissed repeatedly.

Finally after 2 1/2 months of me complaining and getting pelted with brown rainwater, they sent in a contractor to cut holes in the drywall and take a peek inside. You can see for yourself what the structural wood looked like inside...

After sending these photos to management, I was unironically told that the wood was just "wet" and they would be closing up the drywall after letting the wood "dry out." Yep. Totally normal wood, just a little wet. My concerns that the wood was rotten and unsafe to use in a load-bearing wall were "unfounded" and this wall didn't need any repairs.

Not wanting to go out in a building collapse, in particular given the recent tragedy of the Miami condo collapse, I contacted Houston 311 to report a multifamily habitability concern and request an inspector. For anyone still reading this novel, this service is free of charge to all Houston residents; know your rights and resources as a renter.

Lo and behold, the city inspector performed an inspection and confirmed the wood was in fact rotten, and posted notice for the building to obtain engineered plans and a city permit to make major repairs. My unit was on the second floor and the inspector noted damage in the units above mine too... His full inspection notes can be viewed by the public through the Houston Permitting Center.

Needless to say, I am no longer a resident of Metro Greenway. I cannot in good faith recommend living in a building that tried to ignore structural issues instead of doing the right thing and spending the resources and money to repair and provide me a safe and habitable unit. Do better.

On a more positive note, I do think the on-site property management, office staff, and maintenance teams are trying hard. They are just stuck with the unfortunate reality of running an older, poorly constructed, poorly maintained building. Most of my requests had to be routed to upper management (not even located in Houston) causing a lot of delays and frustration.

Overall, 1 out of 5, would...

I’ve lived here for a year and a half now, and here are my issues and concerns:

Gym Closure: Management closed the gym at the beginning of September and sent out the following message to residents: “Our fitness center will be undergoing a much-anticipated remodel that will add more square footage and upgrade the space to better serve your needs. We expect the project to be completed by early December.” It is now mid-January, and we’ve received zero communication on when this will actually be completed. This has cost me hundreds of dollars in gym membership fees. To make matters worse, they did not upgrade or add any new equipment; they simply increased the square footage, which only partially fulfills their promise. The bathroom and sauna have also been closed since September due to these so-called renovations.

Privacy Concerns: They installed a facial recognition vending machine, which raises serious data privacy and security concerns for residents.

Pool Issues: The pool is consistently overrun by outsiders, and management does nothing to address this.

Safety and Security: The Grand at Upper Kirby has been on the news multiple times for vandalism, with over 20 cars vandalized in a single instance. Despite this, management has not added any additional security measures, leaving residents feeling unsafe.

Management’s Behavior: What ultimately prompted me to write this review was an incident with management. During work hours, they banged on my door to accuse me of littering, claiming that I was responsible because they found similar cans in my trash. I find it highly inappropriate and invasive for management to be snooping through my trash and making baseless accusations. I explained that having similar cans does not mean I was the one who littered, but they persisted and even threatened to charge me a $50 violation fee. This level of disrespect and poor handling of the situation was the final straw for me.

They took out the jacuzzi, the tv in the workout center and removed the tv from the lobby. Increased rent and added 'admin' fee to each single utility. Out of the 3 elevators in the building, typically only 1 works. Numerous occasions where i’ve seen massive amounts of dog poop in multiple places. Stairwells smell like dog urine.

The only people here who do a good job is maintenance.

Avoid this place...

After leaving over a year ago, my husband and I were surprised to receive a collections notice. Unsure of the charges, we visited the leasing office to confirm it wasn't a scam.

We discovered the original charge was for overlooked items after moving out. I took accountability for this oversight but questioned why we hadn't been notified of the payment due. Their response lacked accountability, admitting they fell behind in sending invoices and ended up just sending many to collections. They also said we should have contacted them to make sure we didn't owe anything.

Despite preferring to pay Grand directly to avoid additional fees and a credit score hit, we paid the debt through collections. This caused my husband's credit score to drop by several points.

Reflecting on the situation, I recalled being contacted by this apartment about packages/mail mistakenly sent there. While I appreciated their communication regarding this matter, I would have preferred to be informed about my debt. Additionally, I was surprised that their system, used to look up my contact information, couldn't also indicate if I owed money. This reveals operational flaws.

This incident parallels a previous occurrence where they attempted to manipulate my lease terms. Before I moved out, they claimed I missed my 60-day notice window and attempted to put me on a month-to-month lease. However, I was able to prove they didn't notify me and overlooked my statement of not renewing.

This time, in regard to the debt that was sent to collections, I was able to "prove" that they (again) never sent a notification because they couldn't provide a date when I should have received said notice/invoice about owing money. Unfortunately, by the time we discovered it was in collections, we decided not to fight over a couple of hundred dollars to avoid further impacting our credit score.

Overall, my time at these apartments was alright, but I found the lack of notification and inefficient systems concerning. This frustrating ordeal highlights ongoing management issues that...