Muse ATL — Local services in Atlanta

My apartment was not move-in ready when I arrived with my truck and movers on Friday, January 12, 2024. The 1 toilet wouldn’t flush, the floors were peeling up, and the heat didn’t work despite outside temperatures being in the low 20s. Maintenance initially tried to tell me I’d have to wait till the following Tuesday for assistance until I escalated this up the ladder and was finally assisted when a vendor came to replace the broken thermostat. Over the course of my lease, amenities (including the club house, pool, and fitness center) were closed more months than they were open despite monthly rent payments including “community electricity” charged to residents to cover management’s utility bills. There is no system for parking. People are allowed to park in the middle of the street, blocking those in actual parking spaces from getting out. They also blocked the 1 gate that provides fire trucks access to the back of the property where a fire had just engulfed 1 of the buildings less than a year prior. This was communicated over a dozen times by email/text and were completely disregarded, causing me and other residents to have to Uber simply bc we couldn’t get our cars out of the community. My home was entered without my knowledge not once, but twice. No email, no text, no call, no follow up. When I announced this, I was told that they don’t have to inform me if it’s an emergency, which is untrue according to my lease and standard Greystar policy. I placed multiple maintenance requests for my 1 toilet that continued to not flush properly, the electrical outlets in my kitchen that never worked, and the water pressure that frequently became low due to constant water maintenance on the property. Not only were none of these things handled, but the maintenance requests were closed as completed each time I opened them. Over Labor Day weekend while gone camping, my home was broken into, both the front door being crowbarred in as well as the porch door being broken. This was done by the police and fire department who mistakenly broke into the wrong apartment for a “wellness check.” Despite the city calling a recorded line and telling the Maintenance Supervisor about this, no one called, emailed, texted, or in any form communicated this to me, leaving my home open and exposed for 4 days resulting in a robbery of over $10k worth of belongings that I’m still struggling to recover through State Farm. The property refused to take any accountability for this and told me the best they could do is let me out of my lease 3 months early. I still paid for September rent and was moved completely out on Monday, September 30, 2024 after having the apartment cleaned and detailed. Today makes day 70 that I still have yet to receive my deposit. I was told on September 30 by text that I’d have communication about receiving my deposit within 48 hours. 2 weeks later, I received a text requesting my forwarding address bc they had “misplaced” my information. 3 more weeks later, I was told they had been without a regional manager so things were backed up. 2 weeks ago I was told they have a new regional and I was “on their radar.” Today makes day 70 that I’m still waiting on this. I’m sure this property won’t allow residents to continue living there without paying rent for 70 days, so I’m completely baffled how they consider it acceptable to not pay back funds OWED to residents for 70 days.

I’ve always held Greystar in the highest regard and this being a Greystar property was a major reason I chose it when I relocated to Atlanta, but this is not a typical Greystar property. Time and time again, Muse ATL has dropped the ball, broken the lease, and violated city safety codes with no concern or regard for the residents affected. I would not recommend this property to anyone. The renovations and location do not outweigh the complete disregard and disrespect delivered to...

Update:

My rating was about to increase to a 4 out of 5. Grady from maintenance did come by and tended to the persistent toilet smell, and I appreciate that effort. However, the smell is still present, and I’m still waiting on a full toilet replacement—something I’ve been requesting for months now. On top of that, I recently experienced a major and unexpected increase in my bill, totaling over $250 in just one month, despite transferring my Xfinity account as instructed due to a mistake on their end. (Screen shot attached)

To make things worse, MuseATL adds a long list of additional charges that may not be fully clear when you move in. These include: • High-speed internet access (required, even if you already had a plan) • Pest control (rebilled) • Trash (rebilled) • Water (rebilled) • Sewer (rebilled) • Utility admin fee • Community Electric (rebilled), plus your Georgia Power bill

This has made it incredibly hard to budget, and I’ve reached out to management about spreading these charges out in a payment plan and adjusting them, since I did my due diligence. No solution yet. ———

I moved into Muse Atlanta in October 2024, and overall, my experience has been positive. The apartment is a huge upgrade from my last place, with in-unit laundry and a renovated interior. My patio is about 80% covered, which provides good rain protection, though a little water still gets in. Since it’s an older building, I do hear creaks from upstairs neighbors and occasional loud noises through the walls, but that doesn’t really bother me.

Pros: • There’s a gym on the property, and while it’s outdated and could use some maintenance on the equipment, it’s typically not crowded, which is a huge plus. A hidden gem, to say the least. • I’m excited for the pool to open—it looks like it’s been newly renovated, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. • They provide dog bags and have designated dog turf areas around the property, which is great for pet owners.

Cons: • The biggest issue has been the dog waste throughout the property. Before one of the maintenance guys (I can’t recall his name) returned from injury leave, dog poop was everywhere, making it unpleasant and even embarrassing, especially for potential new tenants on tours. Thankfully, he took the initiative to clean it up, which made a huge difference. He’s also very proactive about keeping the trash area clean and overall does a great job. On the other hand, the second maintenance guy doesn’t seem to put in the same effort. • My other major issue has been with my toilet. Since moving in, I’ve had multiple problems, starting with the flooring beneath it, which was caving in. While that was repaired, the toilet has had a persistent urine smell that won’t go away, even after deep cleaning with bleach. The toilet seat is loose, and it originally had running water issues. The less proactive maintenance guy admitted he just put in a temporary fix multiple times instead of actually resolving the issue. I’ve put in several work orders, and while the dedicated maintenance guy sprayed a solution to help with the smell, it hasn’t solved the problem. I’ve asked both maintenance and the leasing office for a toilet replacement or to fix the smell, but that hasn’t fully happened yet. • Even though I don’t have a car, parking seems very limited, with only 2-3 main places to park, which are parking decks in the front and back of the property. This makes way for residents to crate their own spaces making it even more difficult to park sometimes. This makes things like loading groceries or furniture pretty difficult.

Despite these issues, I do like my unit and the overall improvements compared to my last place. If management addresses my maintenance concern, this can definitely be a...

This is the worst place in the area to stay. It was recently bought out and they remodeled everything so that they could charge as much as the nice complexes surrounding it. But the remodeling didn't actually make it nice - basically just a fresh coat of paint to cover the rot. For instance, they painted the railing of my stairway, but didn't replace the rusted out section of the hand rail. Here are the things you will deal with at 251 North:

Worthless staff. The managers dodge customers, and don't process maintenance requests properly. Plus they are often rude, and if you have a problem it is always someone else who has the authority to fix it. Absolutely no accountability.

They will tow your car and make you pay to get it back. They were doing work on the renovations, and put up a map of where you could and couldn't park on certain days. My car was in an area marked to be ok to park in and they towed it. Spent 2 months waiting for the manager to get word back from the owner (who they won't disclose the identity of) only to never get an answer. See #1.

Lights out all over the place that they won't replace. Even after a friend of mine fell down the stairs leaving my apartment, they still won't replace the bulbs. There was complete darkness in the hallway leading to my apartment for three months. Eventually I replaced the bulbs myself.

Rats. Yep. Not mice, six inch sewer rats. Since parts of the complex flood, the rats flee the flooding to higher ground. I have literally seen sewer rats in my apartment on numerous occasions.

High power bills. Our air conditioning has never worked. The standard for AC is that the air coming out of the vents should be at least 13 degrees cooler than the air in the room. When maintenance checked ours, it was 4 degrees cooler. So this means that the air has to run all day just to keep the apartment at 78 degrees. Our power bills in the Summer approach $300 for this reason. I discovered that why this is that the AC units are actually too small for many of the apartments, so to fix it they would have to replace the entire unit, which they refuse to do.

This is not nearly all of the problems, just the big stuff. Obvious drug deals, car alarms going off constantly, pets not cleaned up after... the list just goes on. Do yourself a huge favor and stay away...