Avalon Newcastle Commons — Local services in Newcastle

My husband and I took a self guided tour last weekend. Our experience was very positive during our visit and the leasing staff were very helpful during our visit. Unfortunately things started to go sideways after that. I had received an email from Sidney one of the leasing agents inquiring if we had any questions. We were actually seriously considering to lease an apartment and had few questions specifically about one of the units that was listed on the website. So I responded to her email with questions about the unit, but I never received a response. I sent a follow up email to Sidney to ensure she had received my first email. Again, I received no response. Few days later, I received another follow up email from someone else. I sent an email back asking my questions. Again, no response. I decided to call the leasing office and even though I called within business hours, an automated voice message noted that the office is closed but I can correspond via text to get questions answered immediately so I chose to communicate via text message. I received a text message from guess who, Sidney and asked my questions again only to receive a response advising that they are unable to answer my questions and that they would ask a colleague. This whole correspondace over email and text seemed to be AI generated. I waited for another day to receive a response and when I didn't receive a response, I decided to call back the leasing office and speak to an agent. When I got a hold of a leasing agent, I was told that they are external leasing agents and they are unable to answer questions about a specific apartment. They provided me with a number to call. I called that number and left a message. At this point I had sent 3 emails, one text message, one voice mail and one phone call. I finally received a call from the leasing office today and received the answer to my questions. My husband and I were seriously considering leasing a unit from Avalon. However, if this is the type of response and service we are receiving before even signing a lease (which has financial incentives for the leasing office), I am not sure what type of service I should expect after signing a contract. Despite the fact that both my husband and I really enjoyed the tour, our experiences after the tour has raised a big red flag for us and I am not sure if Avalon community would be a good fit to call...

I take bad reviews with a grain of salt. Especially the short ones. So if your like me and like an in-depth review on why Avalon went from 5 stars to 1, then read on.

Carpet/Black Light Test

Upon move-in, we were able to do a walk-through and look over the apartment to see if any issues that might be wrong. We did that without knowing the full length that Avalon would evaluate some items upon move-out. About a week prior to our move-out, one of my neighbors that already recently moved out talked to me. He told me he was hit for a $1,900 bill for carpet replacement in a 3-bedroom; and that Avalon used a black light to determine the carpet being damaged. Of course, my neighbor had no idea they would do that sort of test - So they had no documentation or before pictures to show what the condition of the carpet looked like under an ultraviolet light. This seems like the going story as I asked other neighbors about this and none of them knew and are now worried about what they will find.

We had our first move-out walk through. Which was a pure estimate that said "TBD" and that “Place looks good”, I guess to the human eye? Even though at the time we requested a final walk, it was only an estimate. I did rise my concerns about this initial estimate and asked for maintenance to do a final move-out inspection with me. Upon the walk through we were told that our carpet was damage and had to be replace. When it was clear it was not damaged. They are now charging us $410 for carpet that, yes has normal wear and tear, but they are saying it is damaged. You may think you are getting steal in the beginning with 1/2-month free, but they will get you at the end. They also sent our remaining bill to collections in the same week of billing us. They did not even give us a month to pay it. We are still fighting this.

This is what the carpet looked like when we handed the keys back to them. They wanted about $700+ to replace this.

Be ready if you move here, because you have to move...

I want to start by saying the maintenance team has been awesome, especially Victor Arenas. He has always been attentive, and proactive about helping us with whatever comes up, and he even makes suggestions for what we can submit tickets for with a genuine urge to help.

Otherwise, the experience has been a mixed bag with the community itself. The gate to our parking area has only worked for greater than three days twice in the more than year and a half since we moved in. And when it DOES work, we are now supposed to pull out our cell phone and open an app while driving to open the gate?? Makes no sense.. I don’t touch my phone while driving and everyone else should do the same. I confirmed this their intent when I asked for a new battery for my push-button remote for the gate and they stated they didn’t have any more since we should be using our phone.

Also, we have been looking at the same exact broken light fixtures around the community since we moved in. There’s one near us that they put a cone on to protect or mark (I guess), and over 18 months later the same cone is sitting on the same broken light fixture except now it’s completely sun bleached.

The townhome itself has been good. We’ve been battling with the heating/cooling system without a proper fix yet, the garage fan turns on if we step too hard on the stairs (and is incredibly loud), and the washer/dryer combo that’s provided is AWFUL. If you have drawstrings on an article of clothing put it in a bag or the dryer will twist it into oblivion.

Overall an good experience, but if anything it reminded me that an apartment community is still just an apartment community, no matter how expensive.

EDIT: Moved to four stars after Victor and an outside HVAC technician who was here today came by and reset our...