Estates of Bellaire — Local services in Houston

Things were OK before the new management team took over in Oct 2022. After that, I have had some uncomfortable experiences living here. After the new management took over, they requested us to submit income verification (this does not make sense at all since we provided all the documents needed when signing the lease) and switch to new electricity company in less than 1 week time. They didn't call or email us about this change. They slipped some paper in the front door. This caused huge inconvenience for me since I went out of town that week and didn't realize the change until I was back. Even if I were in the apartment that week, I would use the garage door instead of the front door and still had great chance missing the notice document. I emailed the manager that they should at least call or email all the residents to make sure they receive the notification, but didn’t hear anything back. The new staff in the main office doesn’t seem to care about their residents. Some staff always look at their own computer focusing on something else while I am talking or asking questions. I am not comfortable about their arrogant and impolite attitude. One of our neighbor’s apartment was broken in and burglarized lately, but the management team refused to send a notice to all the residents. The neighbor told me there were strange people knocking the door before the burglary happened and looking for a good target. I am EXTREMELY concerned about the safety living here. The water was off several times and power was down multiple times in the past 1.5 years. I am not 100% complaining the management team for this, but they were not doing a good job communicating with the residents about issue/update (their tone doesn’t seem like they are trying hard to resolve the issue, but shirking away from the responsibility) and it makes living here not convenient. The renovation has been going on for more than 6 months in the club. A lot of amenities are not available and picking up packages/mails is not very convenient. I have to say the maintenance team is doing a great job. Whenever I submit a request, they come and fulfill it quickly and efficiently. Overall, I am considering moving to a different property after my lease ends.

New edit from Nov 2023: They switched payment system lately. Both systems were down for a while. On the first month when I was still getting used to the new system, I paid rent on the last day of the month as usual. Utility fee was not reflected at that time. They later charged me $250 late fee for unpaid $100 utility fee. They claimed that they sent notification to my husband's email. However, all notifications went to my email in the past. I don't think it is all our fault of this late payment. And $250 penalty for $100 late utility payment?! They also charged extra renter insurance and only cancelled it when I argued. You need to read your bill so carefully to notice it.

New edit from Jan 2024: I have emailed and talked to the property multiple times about the penalty fee as they SUGGESTED in the comment. Nobody responded the email and the staff directed me to some manager, who explained that the late fee was charged by some percent of the rent. But even using his percent, the number was still wrong, then he said he needed to do some math and will get back to us, however, he never did... We tried to contact him later but were never able to talk to him. Their team was so rude and impatient saying - Jonathan is the only guy who can answer your question, he is busy he is checking the units he is blah blah, we can't do anything if Jonathan is not responding. They pretended to be they care as my comment was reviewed thousand of times, but they are not actually...

TL;DR: Originally had a good impression. Very beautiful. Customer service depends. Surprised by NON-REFUNDABLE - JETTY Surety bond instead of Security Deposit. Now they charge for parking? Still highly recommend. I hope it stays great bc I don't want to move.

We have been living here for 5 months now. Originally, I were very impressed with the apartment and what it had to offer. We worked with Jonathan and Shay who have since been promoted. We originally worked David? who was pleasant when making appointments and calling in for questions. When we moved in, David was gone and we were working with Ariel. I was concerned as we just left an apartment that had gone through personnel changes every few months. And they all have different emails? PROS

1. Safety - Friendly neighbors and lots of families here with the school nearby and town homes in the complex.
2. Amenities - The Estates at Bellaire are very beautiful and decent apartments as far as our unit is concerned! The pool and hot tubs are gorgeous and it seems people are using them year-round. There is a nice club room with bar area and billiards table. They have a kitchen there too. The gym is well-equipped and usually clean. There's a basketball court which is always busy. I appreciate how they have a nice lounge area, and a studying area.
3. Washer/Dryer - Our unit comes with a washer and dryer in-unit so I can say the rent is reasonable unlike our last place.
4. Location - we love the location.
5. Customer Service - The leasing agents and managers are usually responsive and friendly. Your best bet is to call or go in person as I believe they all have different emails.
6. Maintenance - Issues usually get resolved in a timely manner.

CONS

1. JETTY. After we had agreed to sign however, we saw we had no choice but to do something called JETTY, which is based off your credit. I wish that was told to us earlier as we were sure we wanted to move there. It was blemish on the impression I had. thankfully our credit is good.
2. Parking - So parking for us is free for now. Great! But come our renewal, they will charge $24 for parking? Why? They just made us register with Houston Towing. It seems like every apartment eventually leads to charging for parking even after requiring registration. What else will TAM decide they can make an extra buck on?
3. Customer Service - I said it's USUALLY great. Sometimes when I call in, it seems the lady that answers seems inconvenienced to answer my questions or assist. Sometimes they will speak to you in an argumentative manner. I understand the stress that comes from the job, but hey, I have to be honest here; the customer service will depend on the person and the day.
4. Parcel Pending - Parcel pending still hasn't updated our information even after 5 months. This is outside the Estate's fault, though.
5. Water Filter - I'm still waiting for them to change the water filter in the gym.

After reading a review about charges after moving out even after paying that Jetty bond. I'm worried we'll face the same situation. That's what our old...

We’ve been here for a week and it has been problems since the lease application. The staff are all very friendly and knowledgeable but I assume the place is understaffed and the staff are overworked because everything is so slow being addressed.

We submitted the application a week before the lease started, and yet they didn’t tell us we passed until the morning of the last business day before the lease started, which gave us no time to prepare to move in when it started since we were moving from a long distance.

We signed everything and paid for everything promptly, yet the day our lease started they automatically charged us extra for not being on renters insurance (which we were). It was rectified as soon as we told them of their mistake, but it left a bad taste in our mouths.

The day we finally moved in, not only was our reserved spot taken by another resident (who wasn’t told to move until the afternoon of the next day) the apartment was not move in ready with several problems that have only been partially addressed to this day.

For example, one bathroom’s water heat was not adjustable so it was just scalding hot water making it unusable, the shower curtain rod was straight up missing in the other bathroom so we couldn’t even have curtains on them which made both showers unusable, the dishwasher wouldn’t open all the way (the kitchen appliances are brand new, so the installation was probably bad), many of the doors didn’t shut or open properly, a bathroom door had a lock that didn’t work, the dryer wasn’t plugged in (which we couldn’t plug in on our own since the plug didn’t match the one on the wall) and worst of all the floors were sticky and dirty and our feet ended up black however many times we cleaned it (still not addressed).

I’m sure there are more issues we haven’t even uncovered yet, but they are charging us close to 1900 a month for this fixer upper. Not to mention, we’ve seen 5 tree roaches inside the house in the one week we’ve been here, so there is probably an opening somewhere they are crawling in from.

Also, forget about emergency maintenance. It’s not responsive. You leave a voice mail and that’s it.

The amenities are nice I guess. The pool is clean, the spa is nice and warm, and the fitness gym functional.

The location is very nice with lots of stores nearby close to one another with good access to the city.

It’s a shame since I really want to like this place but the issues with the unit have been...