Main Street Flats — Local services in Bellevue

I lived at Park Metro for 28 months and enjoyed the complex, including the staff, but don't live here. Moving out has been a NINE-MONTH ordeal due to questionable charges I'm STILL arguing. If possible, I will never live at another Greystar property.

MOVE-OUT Prior to moving out on Sept. 14, 2016, I cleaned using soap and/or bleach; cleaning was topped off with disinfectant sprays and wipes. With the exception of a worn area and a few light foot traffic stains where sofas were, the carpet was vacuumed and ready for the carpet cleaner.

My husband and I left behind an apartment that smelled like cleaning supplies. Imagine our surprise, then, when we received a move-out report that declared the apartment was "dirty" and that ALL carpets needed replacement.

We were told to pay up: $100 for professional cleaning, $1,119 for full carpet replacement. Greystar, of course, also ate through our deposits ($500). One would think the $55,000+ they got out of us in rent and fees would cover quite a lot, but I suppose corporate greed knows no limits.

Unfortunately for Greystar, I read, document, and question everything.

CLEANING FEE? I keep asking Greystar to point me to the part of my lease that mentions a required cleaning fee. No one's been able to do so. Because it's impossible. It's not there.

I could respect a standard cleaning fee; I've lived in other places that had one. But Park Metro didn't have one in its contract with me, so I self-cleaned. Accordingly, I won't pay a $100 cleaning fee, especially when I imagine the "professional cleaner" wiped a few surfaces, sprayed Lysol, and called it a day. Worse, we all know the cleaner, if he or she even existed, wasn't the one pocketing any extra cash.

SHADY CARPET CLEANER My dog has lived in multiple apartments/houses without issue, but Greystar blamed her for apartment-wide carpet damages. Presumably, even if she did cause problems, that's what the $250 pet deposit, $250 pet fee, and monthly pet rent were for. The $1,300+ of pet-related charges I paid over the course of 28 months would cover carpet replacement according to Greystar's own move-out statement.

The carpet cleaner, for whom Greystar do not have a legitimate invoice from--or at least not one they're willing to share--recommended carpet replacement on a handwritten note due to "pet oder [sic]" and a "large stain" in the dining room. (Amusingly, that was not a stain, but wear and tear from an office chair.) Again, the place smelled like bleach.

I did a little digging into Greystar's choice of carpet cleaner. It took effort. They basically don't exist online. The one place you can find them? The Secretary of State's corporation search. There, you learn they've operated without a valid business license for 9 years.

Now, I don't know if Greystar knew they were working with someone shady, but I know they've been dismissive of my concerns about it. I have repeatedly asked how I'm supposed to feel comfortable with this business and its recommendations, and Greystar have ignored my questions and continued to harass me with bills.

WHAT'S THE REAL STORY? Greystar keeps changing their tune. They went from saying the apartment was "dirty" to saying it was in "good condition"--maybe 30ish photos I printed and mailed, twice, helped? They also said the cleaning fee was really a "sanitation" charge; too bad for them nebulous sanitation charges aren't in the lease, either.

As of April 2017, they reduced the carpet replacement charges from more than $1,100 to $399, with no explanation for the reduction or answers to any questions. It appears they know they're in the wrong, but still want that last cent. It's absurd and predatory.

I told Greystar I would write this review if they continued to pursue these charges and ignore my concerns. If you live here, keep all correspondence in writing.

06/20/17: Greystar called my husband at work today and basically tried to gaslight him. "How do you know the carpet cleaner's license was expired?" Lady, it's public information. Also, we've told you...

Main Street Flats was without a doubt the worst experience I have ever had at an apartment complex, and unfortunately that is not an exaggeration.

To start things off, the noise in this place is terrible. As others have mentioned, noise was a disaster. There was not a time in the day when you could expect silence.

The next issue (which relates to noise) was how surprisingly low-quality the units are. Everything from the walls, kitchen appliances, to the bathroom. Our kitchen appliances were a huge headache through our year in the unit. Our refrigerator completely broke, requiring replacement. Our faucet leaked, the dishwasher came unmounted from the wall, our microwave light stopped working the 1st day we moved in, and the bathroom faucet has to be turned on at full power or else it will drip water all over the counter-top due to the poor design of it.

Next up, I want to talk about the lack of follow up or response from the leasing office. Throughout all the issues and headaches we had during our stay here, the leasing office did not make it easy to get anything resolved. It was a successful day if an email was replied to, getting action taken was a miracle. Above I talked about our appliance issues. When our refrigerator / freezer broke (would not cool or freeze), we submitted a ticket to the maintenance team requesting someone take a look at it. No one replied for a day and our food was going bad, so we walked down to the leasing office to ask someone take a look at it. Someone showed up a few hours later while no one was home, took a quick look at the refrigerator and "re-calibrated" the temperature. We came home expecting a repaired fridge, but of course it was still broken, and now due to having the fridge open to "re-calibrate" it, all of our food went bad. Once again later that day I had to go to the leasing office again and express my frustration, that an attempt to repair was actually done. During this time they also 'fixed' a broken hinge on our dishwasher that they claimed to repair. But the repair was to drill a dishwasher into the cabinet which then split the wood causing the screw to fall out, thus the problem did not get resolved. After this happened, we submitted a separate ticket to get that looks at, and our ticket was never responded to. This is one example of many that there was no follow up or help from the front office, and it caused constant stress and issues that were easily preventable.

The last note was upon moving out. Upon moving out, we cleaned the apartment thoroughly, and scheduled an appointment to walk through with the leasing office so they could clear up what we would need to fix / clean before move out to avoid paying extra money. No one showed up to our scheduled appointment. We talked to the leasing office and asked to reschedule because no one showed up, they said we could walk through with someone on our last day which came and passed and once again no one showed up to walk through with us. When we turned in the key we explained the situation and asked how we could avoid being charged due to their lack of follow through, the leasing official said they would pass it on and make a note of it. Low and behold that did not happen and we still got charged money for these exact things we scheduled an appointment to hopefully fix. Now after receiving the final bill, we have called to ask why we are being charged for certain things, and they are holding firm that it is our fault we didn't resolve this before moving out, even through we tried plenty of times to resolve prior.

Overall a frustrating experience and I recommend everyone stay as far away from this community...

My spouse and I just signed a lease at this apartment. The entire process was VERY pleasant. The management team (Matt and Meghan) were friendly from the moment that we walked in. Meghan gave our tour and did a FANTASTIC job. She was so knowledgable of the building and surrounding area. The cleanliness of the building and niceness of the amentities speak for themselves too.

The apartments here are gorgeous, especially in building 2. Completely renovated with AC, two sinks in the master, vaulted ceilings, granite counter tops... the works. They're running deals right now too (1-month free, free move-in). Meghan made the leasing process very easy. We did everything on-site, though, could be done completely on your own at home. Everything (application, lease) is done through their portal which was easy to use. We finished the entire process (from tour to paying the move-in cost/signing lease) in about 3-4 days.

The one point to note here is to be careful reviewing the lease. It's massive, longer than any lease I've seen for renting an apartment (78 pages). They charge additional fees on top of your apartment rent (Parking around $150/spot, Fetch fee, utilities which they say run $50-$100/month/person, account creation fees, monthly maintenance fee, pest fee). Also note that all residents pay the electricity for the common areas too. We are moving from out of state, where the standard is for the landowner to pay a lot of these fees/utilities. This was an adjustment. These fees are spelled out perfectly clear in the lease if you read it carefully enough. My recommendation here is to just keep this in mind when thinking about what your total cost would be for the apartment that you're looking at. It's not something that'll knock down any stars here as, again, it's listed clearly in the lease. It would be nice if management did a better job of being up front about this at the onset.

Related to previous reviews about cars being broken into - it is apparent that there is an issue with the main building that the management team is actively working on. Building 2 (the renovated one) does not have this issue and it appears that the parking is safe (will have to update after living there). Overall, HIGHLY recommend this place. I'll update this review after living here...