Jackson Hill — Local services in Houston

Hello! I’ve been a resident for 10+ mo. at Jackson Hill and am terminating my lease within the next 2 weeks. I normally consider myself to be a very easygoing person, however, my experience living at Jackson Hill was truly a living nightmare. Whatever you do, please don’t rent at JH. I’ve lived in several different complexes across the city and never experienced a worse living situation. Don’t believe the 4-5 star reviews. Security was a joke: multiple cars were stolen out of the parking garage on a monthly basis, in addition to frequent tire robberies. My friends & family would be afraid to visit me because they didn’t know if their car would still be there when leaving. The gates are also unhelpful considering anyone can tailgate since the front gate takes so long to close. Noise: For the first 6 mo. of my lease, my upstairs neighbor stomped around at all hours of the night, which woke up both me and my partner almost every night. My family & I went to mgmt with these concerns, including audio and visual evidence. Despite the evidence, mgmt dismissed my concerns. BLACK MOLD: My final straw was with the black mold all over my unit. My unit had black mold in the HVAC, laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen. I had to throw out almost 50% of my belongings because mold was growing on them (see pics). • The AC was consistently broken, reaching temps of 80° inside during the middle of summer. • There was a leak in the seal of both the balcony door and my bedroom window that was allowed AC to escape, humidity to enter, and excessive noise from the street to come into the unit. • I put in multiple maintenance requests - to which their solution was to put a flimsy strip of plastic on top of the seal. I gave up trying to beg for the seal to be repaired about 6 mo. into my lease. • Further, I have severe anaphylactic allergies to mold and other environmental allergens. While black mold in of itself is a severe health risk for everyone, my allergies to mold compound the preexisting and dangerous risks of black mold on health. I started getting sick frequently about 6 mo. into my lease, including waking up in the middle of the night to an asthma attack and throat closure (that required an EPI pen) in April. I also started getting severe ear infections on a monthly basis. • Upon conducting an at-home mold test and subsequent lab testing for mold, I found an insidious case of several varieties of mold, notably black mold. Frighteningly, the black mold in my apartment was concentrated in my air vents and next to my washing machine. When I initially found the mold, I took extensive video and photo records of the mold to the office hoping to work out some kind of agreement to treat the mold. Instead, I was told by the leasing team that the mold was “just dust”. I had to pay out-of-pocket to get the mold tested and temporarily treated using an ozone generator, and yet all the while I was still paying for rent during the months I was displaced due to mold. • While I was living at Jackson Hill with the black mold infestation, I was fatigued on a daily basis from the smallest tasks and experienced overall worsened health, which was shown on labs done at my doctor’s office.

Unless you want to experience worsened health and overpriced rent without support from mgmt, don’t move to Jackson Hill.

Thankfully, I was finally able to terminate my lease early “without penalty”, but it took the black mold spreading from my HVAC to all over my apt for mgmt to let me.

I hope that by sharing my experience, Jackson Hill can learn to take better care of their tenants. It’s a shame because the residents are friendly, the location is central, and the proximity to Buffalo Bayou park is great. However, the age of the building itself (20+ years) and the issues I listed before make the cons far outweigh any pros to living at Jackson Hill.

I hope my experience can help others choose new homes carefully and be aware of the importance of monitoring for mold. Thanks for reading and best of luck on your apartment hunting journey! Stay...

Edit: management confirmed that they failed to keep proper documentation regarding the issues I faced while staying here. Management also refused any pictures I sent to them*

I originally moved to JH in 2010 and absolutely loved it! Maintenance and management were friendly and attentive. It truly felt like home. When I returned to the area I signed a lease again; however, my experience was nothing like before. Not only did I move into an apt that needed repairs, which were never performed, but the apt did not have the upgrades like the model - it had the same appliances that were in the apartment I rented in ‘10! There were continuous talks about the repairs and upgrades with Brook (who no longer works there), but management never took any action. There were issues with parking, which occurred through the time I lived there. After 5+ follow ups without action, I stopped following up. I did, however, get the floor upgrades but at a monthly price. I was originally told I could get the upgrade for a lump sum, but then that statement was retracted because the complex found “they were not making any money” by doing it that way. I stayed because I was still relying on my ‘10 experience. Since that time - I had issues with rain fall flooding my living room on countless occasions and AC and appliance issues for over a year that were never resolved.

AC: at first, maintenance was super attentive, but then because it was an older unit and could not “keep up with Houston summers” I had issues with maintenance coming to resolve the issue but rather putting a bandaid on it.

Flooding: contractors came out for an entire day and still did not fix the issue. I spoke with Kari and was told she had to rely on corporate (which was the response I received for months and never received the adequate repairs). Maintenance came to the apt 4x during that span and each time I was told- we have to get contractors to do that kind of work. From my understanding, all apts on that side of the complex had to undergo repairs at some point when the issue “got too bad.” While Kari usually provided blanket reassurances, there were times that she made passive aggressive responses or ignored calls. Brenda was of no help because each time I went in the office she either ignored me or when I spoke with her refused eye contact as if I was bothering her. When maintenance finally came to fix my appliances only half were fixed. The maintenance man did not even know how to work the microwave or dishwasher. I was told to keep doing what I was doing - running several loads to get stuff cleaned, etc. Head of maintenance was then sent out, and he replaced the microwave with one identical but with scratches and marks that required heavy duty cleaning and an old dishwasher that required several cleanings because it smelled.

While I won’t continue with further detail, know it was a continuous battle to get anything properly fixed and typically took at least two or more visits by different maintenance members - even then it was never properly corrected. The biggest thing was instead of following up as much as I should, I started making repairs and doing the heavy cleaning on the appliances because I did not want to “annoy” or inconvenience management or maintenance (which was discussed about another tenant once when I was picking up a package in the leasing office), but it got to the point that I had no other choice.

I’ve moved out - management notified me that the pictures I took are not considered proper documentation, but rather, because management failed to make proper documentation in my file, they are charging me for some of the repairs they failed to perform.

Other nuisances: parts of the complex are disgusting because tenants do not pick up after their dogs. (Area around the mailboxes.) Issues with security and people’s vehicles and once apt broken into. Living here is a disappointment. * Note that some of the reviews on here are drafted the way they are because the leasing office was raffling off prizes to those who left a...

I lived there for a year.

Maintenance was always done as soon after requested, the guys are very responsive and they explain what the problem may be. Location, I mean that's the reason you pay what you pay (nothing else really) haha. Facility, I never used the pool or gym but they looked okay. Safety, I was one of those whose bolts were left off on the ground as thieves were trying to steal the tires of my car. I heard of 3 successful events during my stay. The respond always was there is nothing we can do, I didn't have peace of mind living there until they hired a guard for a little while, I never saw him again towards the end (not sure if they kept him). I remember when they showed me the property at the beginning and they said " well you know that's what it takes to live in a city" after I asked about the robberies mentioned on the reviews, I didn't relate or understand and this is coming from a person who used to live in Brooklyn, Queens, and I also lived in Manhattan for years and I had never felt such fear for my safety, fear to lose my delivered packages, or car. I can't even imagine how those who found their cars without tires felt. It doesn't matter if you live in a "luxurious" apartment complex when your sh* is being stolen left and right haha, in fact you are a target for living there. These people would leave the property with at least 16 to 20 tires unseen by anyone which I found weird, Idk if they got the tires up their a* or something...

Again, I don't know if management kept working on giving the residents a sense of peace but that's what bothered me the most, and even with the guard there I couldn't get rid of my anxiety after "almost being a victim". I'm not rich by any means, I worked hard for every penny i had to pay rent (which is not cheap) and just the thought that at some point I had to incurred tires expense was overwhelming, and you could get new tires and get them stolen them again three months later.

I had to keep telling them when the main doors to the stairs were locked open, anyone could have access day or night. There was one time I waited 3 months to say something and no one realized that one of the doors at the front was not staying locked.

Rooms are spacious, the building is old and rent shouldn't be comparable to the newer apartments around the area, they gave them a deserved face lift though.

No complains with the personnel, they were all doing their job and what they were told from management. For some reason they wrote down that I lost my job and that's why I moved out, NOT IT, I moved out because after my experience I wanted to live in a place where I could have a garage and put my car in there and there are cameras that actually work. It definitely feels a little bit safer, so getting more for the same...