The Commons & Landing at Southgate — Local services in Minot

I am currently living here and regretting ever moving in here. We have had nothing but constant issues with staff since day one of signing our lease. Management is rude and incompetent to their own systems. The first issue we had was recommending someone to move in, at first we were told that if you recommend someone you get a 250 dollar credit towards your lease and the individual you recommend gets 150 credit on their first months rent, what it actually is is 100 for the individual you recommend; which is how we began renting here and in turn getting a close family friend of ours to rent here, the recommend was confirmed after having to make a couple more attempts with the front desk staff..and then was never applied. I further pushed the issue and had the credit of 100 dollars applied to our first months rent, however it was too late to get the 250 applied until next month (month 2). Our first month came and went with no credit, I made another attempt and spoke with the manager, who stated that since it wasn't documented properly in the system, that then it technically didn't exist and therefore would need be applied the following month after our 1st month. The second month our credit was finally applied..except it was applied as a charge and not a credit, spiking our rent up to 1900.00, which had to be corrected obviously. It finally was on the 3rd month that we got our 250.00 credit (they also applied the 100 dollar credit, which went unnoticed by me). I therefore expected our 100 dollar credit to follow the next month which is when it was planned since everything was pushed back a month, well since I did not realize the 100 dollars (which i did not catch, and is ultimately my fault, but could have been avoided in the beginning, had everything been done correctly the first time), I planned on seeing the 100 dollar credit on that months direct payment bill, which means when the payment was pulled, I was 100 dollars short in my account and therefore the payment was declined and in turn the commons charged me an NSF fee, a silly situation however I expected things to work out as planned, which I should not have assumed My fault still, therefore I issued a check the next day and included the 35.00 NSF fee...I was then left a letter on my door that stated since i had a NSF charge, that if I were to get another one then I would be kicked off of automatic payment..well the following month rent was expected to be pulled on the first, considering that our lease states.... well next months automatic payment was not pulled until 7 DAYS LATER AFTER THE FIRST OF THE MONTH ! Our Bank red flagged the purchase and denied the funds transfer..issuing me yet another NSF charge. Even though right before this I was issued a letter that stated we had actually payed the balance, it was not until the next day that I received yet another letter taped to my door that stated the funds were not pulled and that I owed an NSF fee again, and was barred from not only using automatic payment, but their entire ACH system as a whole for 6 months; also means I cant pay with a personal check either... I now can only pay with either a CASHIERS CHECK ! OR MONEY ORDER ! The best part is because my bank account was frozen for suspected fraud I had to pay rent with my brothers account instead, I received a NASTY eviction notice on my door, then was called and told to disregard the notice, because they didn’t check their deposit box yet.....?! If that wasn’t enough, While being here my pregnant wife has received a chemical burn from their hot tub, rude neighbors, allegations of smoking in our apartments (non smokers). Theft is now apparently an issue in our underground garage. Fire alarm tests are randomly done, maintenance walks freely into peoples homes unannounced. Actual fire alarm system failures force people to leave the building for the cold of winter, which MANAGEMENT never showed up for, leaving Minot Fire Department scrambling to try and fix their software issue on site. AVOID THIS PLACE ! I highly recommend you live...

I have been living here for 2 years in a 3 bed 2 bath. The apartments are great and will meet your every need. There is a full gym with squat rack, indoor/outdoor pull, Granite counter tops, nice flooring, great floor plans, and heated underground parking. What more could you ask for and all for a decent monthly rate.

I don't give this a full 5 due to several cons. Honestly, they are lucky i don't give this a 3 star but I'll explain why later. In the last 2 years, there have been many empty threats to the residents about resident behavioral issues ranging from eviction to fees for not follwing procedures. Although I appreciate having a firm and stern management to keep things in order on property, some of the threats come off as harsh and unreasonable. For example, a threat was made that if packages are left in the main entrance of the building for more than 2 days and a staff member delivered it to your door step, then a $100 delivery fee will be charged to the resident it was delivered to. That is a bit much considering there is no package delivery system on site. It is not the residents fault there is no system in place for delivery companies. And what happens if you're on vacation? Although It is an eye sore having tons of packages sitting in the lobby area, I can understand a $10 fee but $100!? That is harsh. Nonetheless, since then, i have seen the same packages sitting there for more than 2 days even weeks on end which tells me they aren't enforcing that so called consequence.

Another con is the design management team. What do i mean by this? Well, we live on the 1st floor. Everyone knows that no matter where you go you WILL here some footsteps above you depending on how considerate the upstairs neighbors are. But who made the decision to take out the carpet from the upstairs bedroom and put hard flooring? How do i know? Well i can hear the sound of high heels walking above our bedroom. The lack of carpet makes more sound pass though much clearer. I can hear the upstairs neighbor snoring at night, cell phones vibrating, and peeing! Its horrible! Hard flooring should not be installed throughout the apartments unless its on the 1st floor. Having carpet in upstairs apartments help with sound efficiency.

The other bad thing is that there in virtually zero storage. Most apartments come with an outside closet storage space that usually sits in your balcony area. These dont. The only storage offered is the underground parking storage cabinets. This is good storage for about 4 medium sized boxes. Might sound like enough but it's very limited. So What about the families with multiple strollers? Where do the sleds go? Where do your skis go? What about the big box your xmas tree go in? Non of those large items can be stored on the back wall in your parking space. So you have 2 choices, keep it all in your car or sacrifice closet space in your apartment to store all of these items. Solution would be to have floor to ceiling cabinet space in the underground parking. You cant even store the grocery foldable carts, strollers or anything other than bicycles in that area. If you do, they go into your parking area and throw everything out and will charge a $25 throwaway fee. This is what was threatened before but i haven't seen it actually done, at least not to me. There is an option to rent out the outside parking garage but they charge $85 dollars for that! Way too much if you ask me. Oh and unless you have a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment you don't get underground parking which means no cabinet storage. So good luck storing anything extra you own.

The reason i give it a 4 is because between all the unreasonable threats and warnings, non of them have fully inconvenienced my day to day life. It's annoying at the moment when emails are sent out but We've learned to ignore them or simply fix the problem for that moment in time. They then forget about it and people go about doing the same thing. It is not a full 5 because rent continues to go up every year and no loyalty rates...

To the IRET "owner", I would advise that before you start listing what you presume to be discrepancies in my story in regards to your NSF policy, I would advise that you overlook why you and your staff consistently disregard policy when it comes to your own lease agreement. I would ask that you air out any "discrepancies" that you have here, my "benefit" is of no concern of yours, however I do believe that potential clients be forewarned of how you "conduct business". I would like to point out how funny it is that the first comment from management is a nice comment, and one that actually details the issues and even tries to resolve the issues. But then you have to come on after and give a nasty comment, calling me a liar and how essentially lucky I am that you wont air out your NSF policies, since we are playing that game though, would you be able to tell me what the penalty is for a complex that allows staff to enter a dwelling without giving notice, by the way your staff as well while trespassing had the Gaul to tell my wife that we have to notify you guys that we want to be notified first when someone is going to enter our home, I also hope that is not also your policy, because that actually is against state law. By doing so you allowed your staff to enter a dwelling without proper notice in writing, As well as no written notices that don’t specify time or date, as well as entering without tenants permission and Allowing others, such as service technicians to enter unaccompanied. Could you also tell me what the penalty is for causing chemical burns to my wifes legs because of inadequate chlorine measurements in your pool area ? Do you want to also tell me why you guys sent me a notice that my second month was paid, and then another right after saying it wasn't, and then didn't actually make a withdraw until over a WEEK later ? While your at it, could you do me a favor and quit parking your truck in front of the loading area ? Its also very inconvenient when you park next to the yellow cement poles, blocking an entire exit, and making it difficult for myself and others to move around your vehicle, let alone park. Usually an area labeled yellow is a place where one does not park their vehicle.

Luke Warm...