West Pine Lofts — Attraction in St. Louis

I moved in 8/23, the first thing when me and my bf moved in is that they moved the time for our moving in through the day. They said that maintenance was still cleaning the apartment but yet when we finally walked in at 2pm (move in time was for 11am) the apartment was dirty. The walls had scratches all over, the door frame from Room B was falling apart, the door barely close, the shower didn’t drain (we had to call maintenance right away, mind you they were “cleaning” thats why we couldnt move in at 11am). The couches were peeling off and yet they said that everything was “new”.

Through the year, the experience was very bad, going from rats in the apartment to lies from management. Lets go from the beginning: our washer was damaged for 2 weeks, me and my bf spent most of our days at the apartment studying so we could see who walked in and out of our apartment. Two weeks later maintenance says that the part they were waiting for arrived, which part exactly? How they know what part is missing if they never came to see the washer, just based on our work order (which said the washer not draining nor spinning), when they walked in i was there and the only thing they day was put a clean control panel, nothing else regarding the agitator. Later in January the washer stop working again, 2 more weeks without a washer, this time they finally replaced but only because we called on them for their poor job the first time.

We lived on the first floor down the hall, very far from the trash room. In October we had a mouse coming from the laundry room, we made a work order for them to fumigate the apartment but they never came and the work order appeared as done in the system. By that time me and my boyfriend knew that we were not renovating the contract but yet they would call us every week to ask for renewal of the lease.

This is when things get better, in March another mouse is found in the apartment. Tell me why I’m having rats in my apartment according to them they fumigate? We went to the office right away, Mia was there, she made us call an emergency number from our apartment, turned out to be her office phone, on the call she said she would pass the call to maintenance. What was the whole point of that? We don’t know, because maintenance never got back to us. My boyfriend had to take out the mouse because maintenance was not answering the phone, when we went back to Mia (around 4:30) turned out she left the office, apparently trying to get in touch with maintenance, all this was in a 20min span.

Once we are done with the mouse situation, a couple of weeks later we had to go by the offices to pick some packages (which is a whole different situation the mail thing, you have to wait for them to send you an email letting you know you can pick up your packages although the carrier told you your package had arrived, if you went there with no email you were basically sent back to your apartment to wait for the email). Mia was there once again and said that she left us some mouse traps for us in our front of the door for us to catch the mouse that day that is why she wasnt in the office when we went back that day with the whole mouse situation, which was a completely lie because my boyfriend went out 3 times after we went back and forth with Mia and yet there was nothing in our door, in fact WE had to buy the traps. She also mentioned that the rat in our apartment was due to our room being close to the trash room… which was two hallways down, meaning that if my apartments had rats, all of the apt in between the trash room had rats?

And as of nothing, we are being charged $432 EACH for cleaning the carpet and painting the walls, but yet when we moved in a year ago, the walls were dirty, carpet dirty, door frames falling apart. Nothing was clean when we moved in. Unfortunately our time in WPL has been the worst, from lies to unfair charges despite everything. I would also like to take a moment and mention Payton Pierce, who used to worked in WPL and she indeed was the best thing WPL had, always...

To start with the good, the office staff is amazing. They're always super responsive, and will listen when I come to them with problems. They always greet my roommate and I by name when we enter the office, and they even know our apartment number so they don't have to ask before retrieving our packages. The complex also puts on some awesome resident events with free food, which is great for a broke grad student like me. The apartments are good for what they are. They're affordable, and the convenience of location and not having to find furniture made living at WPL worth it for me. They also feel safe with the keypad entries on every door and the gated parking lot.

HOWEVER, there are some glaring issues with this property at this time. For one, the maintenance platform they are currently using just does not seem to work. Requests are often cancelled instead of resolved, there is no communication with tenants about when work is going to be done, and despite our lease clearly stating that we are to be notified when someone enters our apartment, we never get notified... which means that they're entering without us having any idea as to when they were here. Furthermore, to actually get most maintenance requests resolved you usually have to go to the front office and complain for them to come look at it. This has gotten a little bit better as we have complained, but I think the system needs an overhaul. Our apartment was also filthy upon move in. Just to make the apartment initially livable we had to do hours of cleaning in both rooms and the common spaces. It was clear the apartment was not cleaned between tenants which was concerning and gross. My last big complaint is that the upkeep of the building itself and the amenities provided is lacking. They were unprepared for the first big snow this year, as they did not salt the sidewalks or the parking lot, and numerous cars got stuck in the lot and alleyway. Since they did not pre-plan for the storm they were unable to get someone to plow the area for multiple days which made walking or driving around our building super dangerous. There are also two elevators in the building and one of them has been down more than half of the time that I have lived here. They claim this is going to be fixed for good soon, but it has been continually breaking all year. Also, the fitness center is half full of broken equipment. Of the 5 treadmills in there, only 2 work, and half of the other cardio equipment is broken too, so it's not like you can use another machine while you wait for the treadmills to open up. It is almost always busy in there during the evening, so a working fitness center seems to be a priority for the residents, but does not seem to be something the building is willing to work on. The bosu ball is deflated and some of the medicine balls are cracked, I'm guessing just because they are old. Routine maintenance is needed to keep fitness equipment in working condition, and I don't think check-ins were being done on this equipment which has now manifested in safety concerns for using what is in the gym. Management was informed of the broken equipment in November and no progress towards removing the broken equipment or getting new equipment has been made since management was informed that the equipment is not repairable.

Overall, WPL has it's perks and it's drawbacks. Consider how much help you're going to need from management and maintenance to successfully live in an apartment before signing...

Amenities: one of the main reasons why I picked this place is the amenities. The gym is super nice with everything you could need and it is always clean. The TV room and study space are both perfect for studying and hanging out with friends and residents. I have not gotten to use the pool yet, but I am sure it is great. The only downfall is the bathrooms for the amenities are disgusting. Also I sometimes feel as if people hanging out in the TV room are high school students just needing a place to hang out after school since the front door is unlocked during business hours. It is not too big of a deal but kind of weird. Apartment: I live in a one bedroom apartment and I knew I was getting a much smaller apartment when I signed up so this does not bother me. What bothers me most about it is the included furniture. The bed is like sleeping on concrete and the couch is a love seat so not big enough for someone who is 5'10 to relax on. The only lights in the whole apartment are in the kitchen, bathroom, and closet despite the presence of multiple light switches that do nothing. This can make it very dim sometimes. The included washer and dryer are nice and updated stackables. Overall very nice apartment for the price. Would not recommend getting their furniture. Maintenance: Love the maintenance. They are very quick and thorough about handling any issue I have had. Staff: Very nice staff! They host events, update you on packages to pick up, and are just overall friendly people. I have only had one issue and they handled it very well. Parking: The uncovered parking lot is a plus because it is gated. Unfortunately someone breaks one of the gates at least once a month. There is not enough parking for the number of residents so if you get home later, you may have difficulty finding parking, even in the over flow lot. Had one security issue in the parking lot but was handled well. I have always felt safe and seen security walking the premises throughout the night. One major issue with parking is that they give you a bright read hang tag that says west pine lofts in large print. I do not like to keep this tag hanging in my window all the time because it very obviously tells everyone where I live. However if you forget to put it back up there is a very aggressive and rude towing company that they are connected with and they will tow your car 20min away into the suburbs and require you to pay well over $500 in cash only. Sadly, once you are towed apartment complex cannot do anything about it.

Overall I like the community and staff. I still love this place due to location, amenities, staff, and cleanliness. The apartment gets the job done. There are some areas that could be improved upon such as lighting in apartments and parking. However, great place...