Lark Bellingham — Local services in Bellingham

Rent is due on the first but you can't move in until the 15th or 16th. Does this mean I get to move out on the middle of the month and if not, Why do we have to pay for 2 weeks of not being able to live here, I know that is not legal. There is 400 parking spots for 700 units, I am told this is within city ordinances, I tried to buy a reserved spot but there were none available ,but will be looking into that personally. I have never lived in an apartment complex that did not offer each unit at least one parking spot. I keep seeing reviews about insulation, our heating bills have been running $220 a month, seems a bit high to me. The first 3 or 4 months we lived here we got mega phone calls, emails, text trying to get you to sign a new lease, we kept telling them no, and kept getting calls until I had to get rude with them and was told that I needed to unsubscribe to text, etc.. but then if you got a package they could not notify you because you I opted out. I got an email from management complaining about a serious offense, I tried to find out what the offense was, but I was told I had to come in person and talk to them, I am 53 yrs old. I felt like I was being punished by a principal or something, I go in and am told that there was loud screaming like a child screaming late at night and early in the morning ( felt like I was being accused of child abuse. My grand daughter is almost always asleep by the 11 pm Noise restrictions, and sleeps until 10 or 11 am. Sometimes when she is playing she has a high pitched scream, but I guess we are not allowed to play. although I have an elephant and a hyena that live above me and have parties until all hours of the night especially on weekends, they must have got in trouble too because the parties have been less frequent. They have quarterly inspections, or the rental agreement says approximately quarterly, but it has been 65 days and another inspection today. You start getting rent reminders before the end of the month is up letting you rent is almost due, on the 1st of the month you get a reminder that your rent is due per your rental agreement, they were sending out e-mails that stated you could use the night deposit box to put your rent in. but there is not one. Managements name was on it, but she didn't even know what was in the automatic email that was being sent out. last month my rent was counted by several of us. and on the 4th or 5th of the month I got a notice telling me I needed to come pay them $1.36 (seriously) I am also in fear of retaliation of this post. The girls at the front desk are nice, the security gates don't work properly, sometimes the entrance gates are open all night long, the exit gates you have to sit and wait to get out of the complex in the middle of the day sometimes, I had to call the police one night as I heard the neighbors boyfriend pounding on the window at 2:30 am followed by the sounds of something like the siding getting ripped off of the wall, I heard my neighbor crying, I went back outside and seen the screen all mangled and her crying inside the window so I called the police. (only for her safety) I don't complain about the noise, as I know I live in College housing. its only expected. I was told if I didn't keep my grand daughter (2 yrs old) from the noises I would be kicked out and still owe the remaining of my lease. (After 1 warning) This is unfair, they knew there was a child when we moved in. Kids make noise sometimes, I guess its not OK for the kids to play and have fun during normal hours but is OK for me to have to listen to all night parties, furniture being moved all over the house, beds banging against walls, elephants trampling through the upstairs and , and hyenas laughing...

TLDR: STAY AWAY FROM LARK. This is gonna be long. At first living at Lark was nice, the only real issue seemed to be the lack of decent parking. My roommate and I quickly found out that not only was there not enough parking for all of the residents at lark to even park inside the gates, but calling and trying to report cars without passes accomplished nothing. Trying to get any help from the office accomplished nothing. The only thing that was handled quickly and efficiently was adding my cat onto my lease. Other than that the office staff has been unhelpful and just plain rude at times. I made at least half a dozen noise complaint calls in the middle of the night that never seemed to do anything before finding out that they DEFINITELY weren’t doing anything when I received a call and voicemail saying that they talked to my neighbors for the first time about the noise and next time I needed to just go talk to them instead since they were so polite and understanding. (Not sure where in my lease it says I need to uphold their quiet hours, but I digress). When my roommate and I went in with a friend to switch to a three bedroom for next year (we already renewed to keep the lower rent and are stuck in our lease) they told us what we needed to do and it seemed super simple. But we were unable to go online and request each other as roommates, my friend wasn’t receiving any emails from them about her lease, and for the next couple months all three of us received multiple calls about who we wanted as roommates for next year. Each time we told them the names of our roommates and that we’d been into the office several times now and been called even more about this. They told us they would make a note of it and it would be changed. They either don’t communicate in the office at all, or they’re all not doing their job correctly. It shouldn’t be that hard to write down the names of three people living in an apartment. Trying to get maintenance is a pain. Most recently we tried to get some help for the carpenter ants that are invading our apartment because we live on the first floor and our door has visible cracks and holes in the seal around it. We were told that it was OUR LIVING CONDITIONS that attracted and caused the ants and they were not going to come and even look at the door or offer any help other than “sorry, it’s probably your fault.” A couple times they haven’t bothered to come at all, marked the request as completed and sent a survey on how the maintenance was. STAY AWAY FROM LARK. It’s an overpriced, inconvenient, and incredibly stressful...

To give you an example of how much Lark actually cares for their tenants, let me layout how I was recently treated. I have lived here the entire year with my car and recently found out my car was towed. How I found out is where the issue lies; my phone number is on call, my license plate and car description is connected with my car (as well as a sticker showing that I am a resident here), but I had to CALL the towing company myself after however many days it's been impounded and find out that I'm being charged $500 to retrieve my car that I have parked in my own apartment complex. Not ONCE was I notified by any of management that my car was being towed nor do I know WHY my car was towed. I have been unable to reach any of management for the urgency of this issue to find recourse for this or to even find out why I wasn't even simply contacted. Lark Bellingham takes a shoot first, ask questions later kind of aggressive approach with all issues that don't concern them, yet when you as a tenant have an issue, I guarantee most of the time you won't actually get more than a "We're sorry!" This has occurred in multiple situations. My roommates car was broken into earlier this year while parked on the complex and had an expensive subwoofer in (his car was lock, the window was literally sRuntimemashed.) Something like this would normally be easily solved by having security on site, right? Well, Lark claims they do, but they have gone through at least 6 security officers in the span of this year and none of them have offered any actual protection to a complex as big as this. When he contacted management, all they did was point to the lease and say they're not responsible. Lark will take to their lease agreement and offer no recourse or assistance in any time of need; my neighbors were broken into and it took them weeks to send out an email which just stated "Just keep your doors locked!" I would not recommend Lark to anyone.

EDIT 02/01/2020 You probably see Lark's response below me, assuring that they'd take care of any issues. Don't be fooled. They basically just reiterated to me that I'm SOL and I never was given any apologies. Management...