Aviara Apartments — Attraction in Mercer Island

RUN! BEWARE THE SUCCUBUS OF MERCER ISLAND!!PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN, WALLET AND SANITY!!! Imagine yourself touring the utopian suburb of Mercer Island. You find Aviara but have some questions. You ask about the lack of air conditioning and they assure you that the high efficiency windows and afternoon breeze make that a non-issue. It's not concrete construction so you ask about the noise in the building, "Will I bother anyone if I want to watch tv in the evening? Will they bother me? Can you hear people stomping above? Below? Next door?" "No," you're assured by the leasing agent, "We don't have any noise problems. My wife and I have been living here and we never hear a peep." "I see cameras. What's that about?" you ask, going down in the elevator. "Oh, those. Those are in the event of a crime only. I'm not sure I even know how to get the recordings," he again reassures you. Now you're told it's going to cost you a few hundred dollars annually for your dog to move into the "pet friendly" building. No big deal, right? "I'm sorry, no utilities included." Darn, you wish you had know. Anything else? "Oh yeah. Not included in the utility bill OR your rent is another $100+ monthly to Conservice to keep the trash chutes functioning 70% of the time, AND there's the $75 monthly charge for REQUIRED 'secured' parking spot." You move in and find you may have been misled about some things. You can hear your neighbors clearly in the halls. You become convinced that the footsteps above must be that of your neighbor Paul Bunion and his Big Blue Ox. The first weekend the car next to yours in the "secured" parking is broken into; you find out it happens often. You realize that no amount of "afternoon breeze" is going to cool down your 92 degree apartment before September so you decide to spend the next few months sleeping in an ice bath or a friend's house. You walk your dog in the courtyard to use the "puppy potty station" one morning and see red letter warnings about dogs urinating before they make it to the astroturf in the middle of the court, and the $250 fine to any dog owner who "couldn't control their animal." You know your 10 week old puppy will never make it. Next week you're riding in the elevator with maintenance discussing the mess that's sometimes left in the elevator and he says to you, "I'll sit and watch those videos all day so I know who it is..." Weren't you told they only watch those in the event a crime is committed? What else are they watching? You and your family coming and going? Who your visitors are and what they look like? When you're home and when you're away? What about all those times you picked your undies out of your butt because nobody was watching you? You know you can't afford a $250 "puppy puddle" fine so you never walk your puppy in the courtyard again. You know footsteps, voices, televisions, dogs, radios, etc. all echo through the hallways so you live your life in silence. You buy an alarm to further "secure" your car. You stop picking your butt in the elevator and think you're at peace. Until, one dark day, a new neighbor... She pounds on your door midday as if the building was ablaze. Shouting about the noise from your daughter's iPhone. She calls the Police countless times. Sunday afternoons because the cookie baking noise is upsetting her, etc. You let KISAOL THE MANAGER know as the police advise. Then, one Saturday afternoon you don't answer an unexpected knock. An hour later the police are apologizing again for the bother. KISAOL HAS CALLED THE COPS AND THEN LEFT WORK EARLY WITHOUT SPEAKING TO THEM. Apparently uninterested in what they found. Monday she says she's evicting you because of the noise complaints from a sole, unstable neighbor. MONTHS AND $1000's LATER YOU WIN THE BOGUS EVICTION SUIT. KISAOL THE SUCCUBUS REMAINS. Her reputation is HORRIBLE. She's driven out countless families. If she hasn't lost her job yet I'm afraid she never will. Mercer Island has other apartments. Go there. BEWARE GOOD CITIZENS! YOU...

Before I write this review, I want to recognize the maintenance staff for their responsiveness and willingness to help and go the extra mile to do everything they can within their control to make this a better place. Thank you!

That being said, I have lived in this complex now for a month and a half and it has been a horrible experience. I am not one to ever write reviews on places (previous buildings I have lived in, restaurants, etc.) however, I feel obligated to write this review for the sake of other prospects that are considering living here. DO NOT! From day #1, it has been a horrible experience. There is no management staff on-site and everything is very disorganized. On my move-in day, I was looking for help and came across two employees (apparently not management/office staff but work for the property in some capacity) and when I approached them to ask a question, they were incredibly rude and were "frightened" and "caught off guard" that I, a resident, would approach them.

Over the past month and a half there has been a laundry list of inconveniences that have made me hate living here. It took the management team three weeks to sort out my parking situation as I was assigned to the same spot as another resident upon move in. When they moved me to another spot, my fob did not work to get into that part of the garage. I have also been locked out of my apartment twice, once causing me to miss an important meeting and the other time it almost caused me to miss a flight to London. The building uses a bluetooth app (no physical keys) to access and the two situations mentioned above, my unit was "off-network" even though there was no issue with my wi-fi or anything else that would have caused this. Additionally, I was not given a mailbox key at move-in and it took a month for them to figure out which mailbox I was assigned to. Once I finally got a key, the office staff gave me several different mailbox numbers to "test and see" which one was the right one. None of the ones they gave me were correct and I had to individually test every single mailbox in the mailroom. The list could go on of how disorganized this place is and overall it just feels like a chore to live here. I have never lived in an apartment building where the management/office staff is so aloof/absent and when I reach out for help makes it seem like it is an inconvenience. Every other building I've lived in has made me feel "at-home" and Aviara has been anything but that.

I would highly encourage anyone considering Aviara to look elsewhere. My experience has been...

I am saddened to be one of the many people leaving a one star review because of fraudulent charges magically appearing upon moving out.

I moved out two days before my lease ended, this was because my father passed away and my family wanted to be close in this time of grieving and to try and salvage some happiness with my family during the holidays. Of course I was in no condition to get the one carpeted room professionally cleaned, as is required by the lease, so I told the building manager to just clean the carpets and send us the bill, as is also allowed in the lease. Days before Christmas we are blind-sided; finding out that on top of the carpet cleaning charges, there were hundreds of dollars of other cleaning required and we are being charged to entirely repaint the apartment, oh alos two extra days of rent?. Of course I responded wanting to see an itemized list of damages or photos or some sort of explanation as to why over $500 dollars of damages needed to be paid for. It took me emailing the person who inspected the apartment, the leasing specialist, and the building manager to finally get a response late Christmas Eve of which was a vague “you are charged for rent until you move out” and “photo in ‘Rent Cafe’”. The move out photos were not posted to my rent cafe, but rather my wifes, so I was not able to see them until I had to get my wife on the night of Christmas Eve to pull up her ‘Rent Cafe’ and see some blurry photos of smudge on the walls that somehow justify entirely repainting the apartment on my dime. It is now the day after christmas, I still haven't heard back from any at Essex as to why I am being fraudulently charged for two days of rent, excessive cleaning, and an entire repaint.

All in all, DO NOT rent for any...