MAA Research Park — Local services in Durham

If I could give this place zero stars I would! And many of the positive reviews are false and coerced by staff for contests within the company. Where do I begin?! It started as a nice place to live, but as we have gotten toward the end of our time here, we have had several complaints of things NOT appropriate/honest unaddressed. First, I have made SEVERAL requests to have maintenance come out and see what is in the attic of my townhome. I can hear something what I expect to be squirrels (maybe rodents) running and stirring in the attic, which I can hear from my bedroom very clearly. It’s cringing!!! When I brought it to the office’s attention, they said they would contact wildlife and I have heard absolutely NOTHING of the results from that. No one seems to take my requests seriously nor hold them as valid. Secondly, we were promised a complimentary carpet cleaning for renewing our lease and to date have yet to get that. When brought to the office’s attention, all of a sudden this person has to talk to that person, and no one seems to know a thing about what THEY said even though I have emails supporting so. I have reached out to property management several times about wear and tear on the carpet where the spaces separate, spoke to property manager after numerous mention of it in and maintenance requests, but nothing! Property manager was supposed to get back with me to “come look at the carpet”, but that didn’t work out either. I sat home one day, waiting, and she didn’t show up! No call, either. The maintenance has seen exactly what condition the carpet is in and still nothing! Next, bugs!! I have contacted several times about the bugs in and around the home. I DON’T DO BUGS!!! At all! I was advised to make requests EVERY time I wanted the apartment to be added to the list for extermination, however I have yet to see an exterminator in the townhome or even near for that matter. I have seen roaches, water bugs, spiders, ants, and many more! I have small children visiting the home and a newborn that lives in the home, this is not acceptable. The air unit is old and has given me issues. I complained and made maintenance requests all summer because it does not work properly. We spent MANY hot days in this townhome because maintenance claimed the unit is “just old”. And I’m no HVAC specialist, but I know it should not have felt like that all summer. The windows are old and some don’t close all the way, which I believe (coupled with the old unit) helped contribute to my excessively high power bill. I have also mentioned that and again that was brushed under the rug. The attic flooded, and although it was remedied, they were supposed to come back and paint over the blemishes/traces of water damage, they DID NOT, which has been an eye soar. I still have visible water marks on my wall. The laminate in the kitchen is rolling up and coming off on the cabinetry. I mentioned it and it was brushed under the rug. Needs updating! We were supposed to get power washed and never was…despite my requests. The outside appearance of the townhomes are horrible. Too many cobwebs and environments inviting bugs. All of this and MAA still expects you to make rent each month. People do not want to work hard to pay for living conditions such as these and be ignored and bullied into paying for it anyway. It’s unfair and we have decided to move on. I enjoyed the leasing consultants, and some of the maintenance, because not all of them are personable and friendly ( look you right in the face and won’t speak) Nobody else in the office, did I have a relationship with, the whole year and a half we were there, which says a lot about them. Going forward, I advise anyone looking, to do their research on this place. The location is perfect, and it seemed like a great place for us to reset, but ended up being a thorn.

I have many recordings of whatever is in the attic making noise and stirring around (wish I could add here). At this point, we just want to be let out of our lease and will be consulting with our attorney on our...

This is by far the WORST leasing experience of my life! I would encourage NO ONE TO MOVE HERE. Save yourself the headache! The people in the office do not truly care about your requests. They will speak with you, hear you out, and give you a false assurance that it will be done and then when the time comes for completion, someone has dropped the ball. When it comes to the ongoing PEST issue, specifically roaches the mindset of the property manager is "we have to share the living space with them. There will never be a time where you have absolutely no pests whatsoever." Implied undertone of "so what." & "deal with it." Not the most comforting or service oriented response.

We are charged each month for pest control services but will only have our units/areas treated IF REQUESTED---and maybe not even then. I literally have put in countless requests for pest control services every single month that I have lived here for nearly one entire year now and it was not until LAST MONTH-- AFTER I gave my notice to vacate that they took it seriously. Many of my prior requests were not entered by office staff, or overlooked, or when the former Terminix tech came out to "service" my unit in my absence he spent less than 2 minutes in my unit, checked one of 6 traps that they put down left a note saying he was there and left. That is NOT service. My only saving grace in that scenario is that I have security cameras in my apartment and I took the footage to the office to show them how insufficient their so-called pest control was.

This place is OVER priced for the hassle you go through living here. My rent fluctuated every month! They will find a way to throw an extra charge on your account every month. They are sneaky, underhanded, greedy people here. That is the culture of this leasing staff. SAVE YOURSELF.

It is lie after lie dealing with these people and they are oblivious to the lies and do not accept ownership or accountability when they drop the ball. I am a very easy resident to work with as I communicate often and I am a solutionist, and I typically will self-correct an issue where possible before even bringing an issue to the office. Solutions from a collaborative standpoint are nearly impossible when the other party, especially the one in the wrong, does not understand what it means to work together.

This "team" does not understand the value of collaboration or effective service. They do not value their residents, despite what they type at the bottom of an email. They will say one thing in writing and then say the polar opposite with their actions.

The atmosphere of the exchange with the property manager and the staff is very cold and uncaring. I cringe when I have to walk into the leasing office and have to slow my breathing and mentally prepare to do simple things like go pick up a package because I feel the need to brace myself for another BS interaction with them. I did not and do not enjoy my stay here and cannot wait to leave! I WISH I COULD MOVE 6 MONTHS AGO, but my time here is ending and I'm more than ready to leave! I am mentally exhausted from being here. These people literally SUCK the life and energy out of you because you have to chase them down to TELL them to do their job, and then continue to chase them to have it actually get done IF you're lucky! smh again I say this has been and is by far the WORST leasing experience of my life! I have been leasing for...

I am a new tenant in the community and just wanted to post my initial thoughts on the place, I will try to come back in 6 months and write an updated post.

The good: The apartment is large, I am in a 2 bedroom with sunroom model, in my opinion the rent is equal to the amount of space you get. Some rooms have ceiling fans, washer and dryer in unit plus a (small) laundry facility on site. The second bathroom has a garden/soaking tub which my girlfriend loves. The community itself looks nice and seems to be well kept, the pool area is really nice and open all year, though the pool is not heated so I'm not sure how many people would need it during winter. The gym is larger than those of the last two apartment communities i have lived in, though I have been warned that lots of people use the gym and it can be full in the evenings. Hector, one of the service men, was very nice and even grabbed a box when we were moving in to help carry it up stairs.

The bad: About those in unit washer and dryers....The complex refuses to take them out, so since i owned a washer and dryer ( a nicer pair as well ) I had no place to put them. So i could rent a storage building somewhere and store them for a year, or sell them. The washer and dryer that is in our apartment looks like the cheapest set you can find at Lowes, Home Depot etc. Those ceiling fans...the apartment complex offers to help install ceilings fans for free if you want to buy one for a room, the catch is that it belongs to the complex once its installed. So if you have a ceiling fan in your apartment, its more than likely because a previous renter bought it and had it installed but had to leave it behind. That TWC cable they offer......$50 a month added to rent for cable, no option to remove. Its your choice to hook up your TV or not, but either way you are paying $50 a month for it. AND its the crappiest cable package TWC has. I checked the TWC website for prices and what channels they offer. Basically the apartment complex is charging you $50 a month for the $25 a month cable package from TWC. You get the 4 major networks, NBC CBS Fox ABC and then a bunch of garbage channels like GetTV MeTV and local access TV, and you get them in double or triple because they list the standard, digital and HD broadcast as separate stations even though its the same thing over and over. For $50 a month from TWC you get 700+ channels, movie channels and on demand channels, you get none of that here.

I like the apartment, I dont like the way the services...