Altamont Summit — Local services in Happy Valley

BEWARE! It's heart-wrenching, reflecting on this dream-turned-nightmare 😱. It ended with manager Aaron’s unethical/unprofessional gaslighting, undermining verbal agreements/information provided by staff, and excessive move-out charges (SEE PART 2). This unnecessary distress and trauma prevents me from ever returning to Altamont, nor recommending it. I am posting this review months later as I feared further retaliation.

PART 1: December 2022, I enjoyed a spacious 1 bedroom for $1425/month, wonderful amenities (jacuzzi, pool, club lounge with coffee and tea, basketball court, walking trail) and supportive staff (Hunter, Abbie, Kelsey, maintenance staff). It was amazing, except my car was towed without my knowledge for days as working from home (accidentally parked in the handicap spot next to my poorly marked spot on a rainy night). It cost $700 cash to reclaim my car from River City Towing; Kelsey assisted with a $100 discount, $50 gift card, and improved procedures notifying residents to move their vehicle before towing.

PART 2: Around April 2023, I upgraded to a 2-bedroom with my boyfriend and his kids. Altamont was the best place I'd ever lived, until Aaron’s gaslighting. "Invalid" notice to vacate: March 14 (more than 30 days before the end of the lease), I emailed Altamont my notice to move out by the lease expiration on May 9 plus informed them my roommate already moved out and gave me the keys to return. Months later, Aaron deemed my notice “invalid” since my roommate was "not copied on the email.” He threatened to charge for breaking the lease early. When my ex-roommate emailed Aaron, verifying my previously emailed notice to vacate, Aaron responded “you did not let us know that you had moved in writing so we would have no way of knowing if what Kristen said was valid." More gaslighting. After many emails requesting that Aaron honor my initial notice to move out in good faith, he reluctantly agreed to “put the move-out date as a courtesy on May 9th.” 🤯 Prorated rent refund: May 7, Abbie confirmed I could get a prorated rent refund if I return the keys earlier than May 9 so I rushed to clean and vacate that day. If not, I could have taken my time and washed my clothes. However, after I called to ask when the prorated refund would be issued, Aaron emailed "Dropping off keys early does not relinquish rent responsibility. We apologize if you were under the impression of something different yesterday. We have made no assurances in writing that we would stop rent earlier than May 9th and at no time until late April were we fully aware of the intentions of ALL parties regarding this home. Further, our decision to forego the full 30-day notice requirement was done as a courtesy and we opted to only charge you through the lease end date." Again, gaslighting. Abbie apologized for the hassle, any miscommunication as agreements should be made by the manager, and assured that she would ask about the refund again or at least some credit to make it right. The prorated refund was issued on my move out statement thanks to her. Excessive move-out charges: After factoring in my deposit ($500.00), I was additionally charged $1,080.79 for damages/repairs in a retaliatory manner. I found mold in two wall corners after moving the beds and despite submitting a work order before moving out, I was unjustly charged for carpet and baseboard replacements for “pet spray. However, I have 2 female cats, it did not smell like urine, and maintenance staff confirmed mold grew behind beds without adequate ventilation. I’ve NEVER been charged upon move-out before, and only expected to be charged for carpet repair (my cat accidentally locked herself in the bedroom), but was shocked by the extra expenses! I paid the excessive charges to be rid of burdens here but wish justice was served.

PART 3: More concerns: January 2024, my bike and another bike tire was stolen from the rack between buildings. Despite being a "gated community," the front gate remained open for months due to ice damage. Jacuzzi was often out of order....

First things first, Abbie who works there is by far the most hospitable person that I have ever worked with when it comes to Apartment renting, from the first day I got there to the last day that I left she had remembered all sorts of small details about my stay there and was always in a cheerful mood.

On to the bigger topic of why the 1 star. If you are going to be moving out make sure that if possible you are there to do the walkthrough with whomever is doing it for the complex.

As you can see by the photo I posted of the expenses charged for my move out I have 0 issue with the 3 months utilities aspect that I got charged since its not charged right away when you move in. The issues that I have with the charges are ones that I have never had in the past 20 years of renting Apartments let alone the past 8 years that I have moved frequently with my job for Amazon which were the "Cleaning" fee and the carpet replacement fee. I had posted every photo that was taken of the carpet due to it being in fair condition on their report but then later "recommended to be replaced" by the cleaning team that came in. Im not saying that i left the carpet in mint condition as there was a hole in the carpet about 2" by 5", caused be a Dyson vacuum when it unseated the carpet from the base hooks and then proceeded to try to suck the whole carpet up with and I had to cut it out to get it unclogged from the vacuum, not from "pets" as the one form attached claims, there were 2 other locations in the apartment where this had almost happened as well due to strands of the carpet being able to be sucked up but thankfully they didn't do any damage in those areas other than just pull up the carpet and i was able to reseat it, 1 was in the master closet next to the "vents" and the other was in the back left (when looking at the window from the hallway) in the non master bedroom. But i guess because whomever was in charge of the carpet decided it was "pet" related they stated that there was also "urine" and "heavy odor" based on the form i submitted which you are all free to take a look for yourself in the photos as there were 0 stains anywhere because no pets existed to stain the carpet....So carpet paid for the "33 months of life left" $700+.

Then another $260 to "clean" the place which im assuming was added on AFTER they had replaced the carpet because everything in the building was cleaned by myself and a handful of others prior to me leaving the building and they will probably state "It wasn't to the "Standard" that we clean to, which is why you were charged" as a way to justify their cleaning, The only spot I know that wasn't "cleaned" was the freezer bottom drawer because where the freezer is you cannot remove the drawer what so ever so we cleaned out as much as we could but still, should have have cost $260 for what was essentially a "wipe down" if you were to take a look at all the other photos of the place.

Lastly I had talked to Abbie that i would be moving out but didn't have an official date yet due to not knowing when i would be moving out but gave her a soft timeline so to speak, talked to Aaron about 2 weeks later when i got an official timeline of when I would be out and I explained the whole ordeal, only thing he cared about was the lease break fee and that my keys be turned in on my last day, and since I didn't email anyone of my tentative break i would need to submit an email stating my last day and my official move out date would be based on that email date which was the 2/6 so 3/6 I would be "out" and just need to cover those 6 days, well my plan of being out on the 28th of the month didnt happen due to Uhaul not having my stuff available so i then let them know that i would be out on the 3rd to which they replied "We should be able to accommodate an adjusted move out date of 3/3. However we are unable to accommodate beyond 3/3 due to having a scheduled pending move in" even though I was still set to be in till the 6th Per their "clause" of 30...

Before you consider renting here please read at least this review...

Keep in mind I have never written a review for anything no matter the circumstance but this dignified a response.

I rented a single bedroom for a year then proceeded month to month because I was moving into my GFs condo. Everything was fine up until the move out process started, I had never had a problem with them until my last month there. (October 2015)

I called them at the beginning of the month to let them know I'd be moving out and to ask for the next step in the process, the lady I talked with was very nice and assured me everything was recorded and my keys had to be turned in by the end of the month.

I travel a lot for work so by the time it came to my move out date I had already planned a trip for Saturday morning. I dropped my keys off that Friday night and made sure to call the next day to make sure they got them, according to the lady I spoke with, they did.

The couple days pass and I want to be sure I do not owe anything, so I check the their website and there is a charge for rent and utilities? I call back the next day and talk with the same person and she assures me the website will show this but I do not owe anything. Excellent right?

Wrong, 3 months go by and the people I used to live with notify me saying I have a collections notice for unpaid dues from Altamont Summit. I thought this was strange considering I always pay my rent on time. I call and the accountant tells me I left without notice saying I hadn't filed the any paperwork. Had I not been told I was okay I would have taken care of all of it before hand but to receive a notice about collections without proper warning is poor communication.

She went on to tell me that she had sent me an email and sent a letter to my forwarding address stating what I owed. The only bill I ever got from them was a letter about the cost to clean the apartment. $110 for cleaning the apartment and $130 for shampooing and cleaning the carpet? That is outrages, especially since I hired a personal cleaner (Which I do for every apartment I've stayed at and always got my full deposit back) and the carpet was shampooed as well (Another thing I paid for).

I received pictures of the supposed damage and cleaning that they needed done and laughed at what they justified damages. The lease states "Subject to common wear and tear" there was some spots, that I have no idea how they got there and some dusty window sills and the fireplace was dirty in between the tiles, SERIOUSLY, I am not over exaggerating and that's what they justify as damage I guess.

Next on the list is the utilities charges, which you pay water/sewer and garbage. Most places will charge you a month of use prior so that when you move out you are all caught up when you decide to move out, BUT NOT ALTAMONT, so when you move out the bill is 2x 3x what you normally pay in a month.

TERRIBLE PARKING, good luck having people over.

Maintenance is acceptable.

Website is nice, makes for easy payments.

Staff, they are all very nice ladies but I just had a hell of a time moving out because of the communication.

After all this, I was left paying a 1400+ bill that should never have gone to collections, I was never notified of the bill, outrages cleaning bills, and communication was so poor that, again, I was left paying a $1400 bill.

I highly recommend you look at other places because for what I was paying here you could get yourself a small house....

The 3 star rating doesn't lie so please help yourself and look somewhere else.

Sorry for the huge story but it...