5 Mockingbird — Local services in Dallas

I am typically not one to write negative reviews, but I feel a duty to let people know: DO NOT LIVE HERE. First, maintenance is horrible. It can take days or even WEEKS to fix things. We put in a request because our washer and dryer broke, and it took over a week along with multiple requests to even get someone in person to fix it. We had to pay to get our laundry washed somewhere else. The upkeep of the property is horrible; there was a door handle completely ripped off from one of the walkway entrances for over 6 months. Second, if you are a single female, I really caution you again DO NOT LIVE HERE. There are homeless people walking around, they do not keep the doors completely closed, so it is common to find a homeless person who smells like urine sleeping in the stairwells. Third, the package system they have is horrible. They do not have enough Luxer lockers; the signage and any packages that they don’t take to your door get delivered to the office, but you never get notified if a package is there. We had our mailbox broken into, which the property knew about since they have cameras right there AND NEVER NOTIFIED US. You know how we found out the mailbox was broken into? Only when the Dallas police department called, letting them know they had found a credit card in our name in the wallet of someone they arrested and that was a card we had been waiting to get in the mail. Lastly, THEY WILL TRY TO SCREW YOU OVER WHEN YOU MOVE OUT!!!!! I had the apartment deep cleaned when I moved out, so they did not charge me a cleaning fee, but they did charge an AIR DUCT MOLD REMOVAL FEE. They said I should have put in a work request for air duct mold removal and refer to my lease. I did read my lease, and it never said I had to climb into the air ducts to check for mold; you would think the company would take care of that and must have issues if their air ducts have mold in them? All my lease said was to change out my air filters (which I did) and to report if I noticed any water leaks that could lead to mold (which I never had any leaks). When I talked to management about how these charges were not based on anything I had to do in my lease, they said, “sorry, it's already gone to accounting there is nothing we can do about it” which is total BS because we all know they could have a charge taken off if they wanted to. ALSO, THEY TRIED TO STEAL MY PET DEPOSIT. Which I learned a valuable lesson; LEGALLY if it says DEPOSIT then they must credit you that money back. They were giving me credit for my security deposit but not my pet deposit even though I paid both of those AT THE SAME TIME. Quick backstory, when I first moved in, the property was managed by Greystar, but a few months later Valiant took over. I had renewed my lease TWICE with VALIANT, and they had acknowledged on my lease (a legal binding document) that I had a pet deposit with them, meaning VALIANT owed me the money, NOT Greystar. It is on the management company to get any deposits from the previous management company, NOT the resident. 5 Mockingbird management told me I would have to call Greystar to get my money back. Instead of reaching out to Greystar, I reached out to Valiant upper management instead to the regional manager. I will say Jenna, the regional manager, was very helpful and did say the management at 5 Mockingbird “must have misunderstood.” So only thanks to Jenna did I get my pet deposit back and the air duct mold removal taken off. Thankfully I knew my rights, but I bet they do this to other people all the time to steal their hard-earned money based on mistakes 5 Mockingbird management makes. Again, I do not usually like to take the time to make negative reviews, but I truly don’t want people to have to suffer the way I did at this place. TRUST ME, THERE ARE MUCH BETTER PLACES TO LIVE IN DALLAS. I learned a very valuable lesson; MANAGEMENT matters the most about an apartment complex. I live at an apartment complex now that has some of the best management ever, and it makes me appreciate them more after my horrible experience with 5...

All I can say at this point is STAY AWAY!! So many sketchy people in the parking lot, and unnecessarily harsh restrictions on the residents. Last week, my apartment was ROBBED, and none of the security camera footage has been offered to us. The office has done absolutely nothing to help me (with the exception of Eddie, who was very helpful and kind and seemed to have sympathy for my case and the “bad luck” I’ve been having), and last night my car was smashed into in the parking lot. You have got to be kidding me. They better have security camera footage of this incident, because I am beyond done. They market this place as an upscale development, post pictures on their website of a place that looks like paradise with amenities that are always open, but this is so far from the truth that it’s borderline comedy. There are dumpsters overflowing with trash outside, homeless people sleeping under the stairs in the hallway and in between cars in the garage, and multiple broken doors and easy points of entry, leaving residents at risk of things that have happened to me within the first three months of me living here. First, you rob me of my sense of security by failing to maintain proper safety practices by ensuring that (1), there are cameras in the first place, and (2), that those cameras are, in fact working. Now you rob me of a place to study and act as a student, because apparently the study room was “broken into” and now they have to close it early to prevent vagrants from stealing stuff and sleeping in it😡 How is that our fault? This is crazy. Why should residents who are way overpaying to begin with have to suffer because of community inadequacies and be restricted from using the facilities that we pay a hefty price to have access to? Why should we be kicked out of our own facilities, while security officers sit and do absolutely nothing. Oh, go ahead and rob someone’s apartment or shoot up on drugs outside the front door, but God forbid, i’ve got homework and have to study. what a dangerous task. Now I have to make the trek in the cold, at night, to go to the library, and i’m not sure if i’m going to come back to sketchy people standing outside of the door ranting and raving about nothing and waving around a stick and talking about how he’s the third prophet. The dumpster is overflowing, yet sitting by the pool deck at night gets us yelled at and threatened with a FINE! I understand that the pool is closed from 10pm to 10am (which isn’t exactly fair in the first place, and nearly every other apartment complex has their pool(s) open 24 hours for resident use, and definitely open in the morning for people who want to swim laps), but that’s beside the point. That study room and the gym are open 24 HOURS, which I was specifically told when I moved in, and either this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, or I was lied to yet again. i’m done with this😢😢. This has to be a violation of some law or something. how can this even be allowed to happen? i’m fighting tears and anger. This is no longer an issue between me and a faceless criminal. This is between me and the place that I thought I could call home. After speaking with multiple other residents, it’s clear I’m not alone in my feeling of helplessness. I feel like I’m living in a prison, but the criminals (trespassers and vandals) win, while the law abiding citizens (residents) are punished and have to suffer. CONTROL THE CRIME AND LEAVE THE RESIDENTS ALONE. Don’t take it out on us. I am going to continue to speak out until SOMETHING is done in favor of the residents. I thought I was going to love this place, but man, was I wrong. Someone needs to fix this. NOW. I would love to see changes made, but it goes without saying that I will NOT be renewing my lease after this. Hoping things will be fixed in the future for...

Two days after We moved in it rained and our living room and bedroom pooled with water. Maintenance "fixed" it by adding weather strips. Unsurprisingly the next time it rained we had the same amount of flooding. The water reached our electronics and left stains on our furniture. We put in another maintenance request and they just applied more weather strips. Eventually my boyfriend was home during one of maintenance's visits and suggested caulking the areas that the water was seeping through, and that fixed it for the next few rains. We did have a few other leaks, but it was at least better than before. But of course the constant water leakage severely damaged the floorboards, and it wasn't until we were moving out that we realized there was what looked like mold growing.

This complex is located in an unsafe area. A block away from the DART station. There are a lot of unhoused people who appear to suffer with substance addictions that circulate the area. While this isn't the property's fault, their security's response to it is. We were given security's number and told to call them, but they failed to prevent a serious security lapse. During the winter I used the apartment gym before work meaning I would be walking back into my unit at 6 am. One morning I chose to use the stairs and when I opened the door to the staircase a homeless man was sleeping at the floor of the stairs. I called security, gave them every detail and was told they would make a report and ask IF someone could come out there. A few weeks later during the freeze I took the elevator back to my apartment (I wasn't using the stairs anymore) and got stuck. I had to pry my way out and climb up onto my floor. I called my boyfriend who was still at the gym and told him to take the stairs so he wouldn't get trapped like I did. Wouldn't you know it, a homeless man was sleeping in the stairs again. This is also due to the fact that at any given time there are several gates that should only open through fobs that are broken and remain open.

We paid monthly for valet trash services. For the first few months we lived there the process worked smoothly. You put your trashcans out after 7pm, and they get collected at 8 pm. That eventually fell apart, and we paid all 13 months of our lease for trash valet services that we did not receive in the way they were written out to be. Trash started getting picked up way too early, and if you missed it then good luck until the next day. There were several weeks (not consecutive) that that trash was not picked up at all. Trash eventually was getting picked up between 9 pm and 12 am and remained that way until we moved out.

I have many more issues with this complex, but my final one I'll write about is that we have not received our security deposit after 46 days. Legally, we should be given it 30 days after the end of our lease, or we are owed 3 times the amount of what is due to us. My boyfriend went in a few days ago asking where it was, and the lady up front that spoke with him told him we should expect to wait 45-60 days to receive it.

The ladies in the leasing office have always been kind to us, and we appreciate them. I believe the issue is coming from management above them. I honestly wouldn’t rent from here, I live in a much nicer complex now in knox/henderson, just one exit down for only $100 more than what I was...