Retreat at the Woodlands Apartments — Local services in The Woodlands

Update to 2 Star Review: After posting my review, management commented asking me to contact them about the issue. I spoke with Cori and she worked to coordinate with corporate to figure out what was going on. They acknowledged that they never contacted me back after my multiple attempts to get ahold of them and re-reviewed my file. Upon further review they determined that I had been incorrectly charged for carpet cleaning. They pulled my account from collections and I received a portion of my deposit back.

I’m grateful for Cori working to make this right. However I’m only updating this to 2 stars because this was a huge unnecessary headache. Looking at other reviews, it seems like multiple people experienced the same thing as me around the same time. If you choose to live here, be sure to record, photograph, and document everything when it comes time to move out.

Original 1 star Review: I am so disappointed in my experience with The Retreat. I lived here for a little over 2 years. I enjoyed my unit and the floor plan was great. However, management needs major improvement. After my first year, the rent went up 10%. My renewal letter after the second year would have been another increase of 11%. So over a 2 year period, my rent would have gone up 21%. That’s when I decided to move out. Once I moved out, they took my whole deposit and are now trying to charge me more money. I did a walkthrough with management prior to turning in my keys and she complimented the state of the unit and said she wished they all looked like mine. Needless to say, I was shocked when I got a bill saying they charged me for cleaning and wall damage. My apartment looked amazing when I left (and I have video proof of this). I immediately called the apartment but they informed me they had sent my file to GreyStar and couldn’t help me. I tried calling GreyStar 4 different days, each time leaving call back numbers/messages. Never got a call back. I then emailed their receivables department. Still nothing. This was in August/September 2023. At the end of December I was notified they had sent me to collections. I’m livid. It’s not my fault they failed to respond. When I reached out again after getting the collections letter, GreyStar said they couldn’t help me because they had handed it over to collections. Their business practices are so underhanded. The apartments are pretty and in a good location, but expect to get screwed when...

My time as a resident at the Retreat at the Woodlands was lovely - the apartment was nice, the community was safe, and any maintenance requests were dealt with promptly. The issues developed when I moved out after one year. I paid every fee on my account. I wiped everything down, mopped, swept, and vacuumed, leaving the apartment in as good a state as I found it. I had worked as a leasing agent, and made sure the apartment was in the state I would have professionally considered in great condition. To my own detriment, I did not photograph everything, because I assumed they would operate in good faith; everything else had gone well, why wouldn't this? That is a mistake I will NOT be making again. I should have listened to a coworker who had also had a negative move out experience here.

After moving out and waiting a few weeks, I tried to get information about my deposit. The staff the Retreat could not tell me, including if any fees had been assessed regarding the condition of the apartment; according to Jeana, the account had been closed and was now in the hands of the main Greystar staff. I ended up in contact with the accounts receivable department. Calling them three times over a week finally got me to a person who told me I had a 500 dollar BALANCE on my account. As you can imagine, I was shocked - I had been moved out almost a full month, and no one had reached out to explain that there was a balance. No phone call, no email, nothing. Not only that, but I wouldn't be getting ANY deposit back, because they judged the fridge, microwave and tub not clean enough. These three items were apparently worth 200 dollars. The accounts receivable staff member I spoke to then called me back and said, "oh, it's only a 300 dollar balance, because of a discrepancy in the ledger". This did not aid in my opinion of the work Greystar does or how they treat the people who move out of their communities. I'd considered moving to another Greystar property - suffice it to say, I'm glad I didn't, and I will never live in another Greystar property.

The failure to communicate with me regarding a balance and the deposit was remarkable. In times of inflation, when we are having to pinch every penny, this sort of behavior is simply unacceptable and has entirely soured my opinion on...

I give this place a 1 star as the management (aka Cory) is incredibly rude and deceitful and they will try to scheme their way into making you pay crazy fees at move-out. We were charged $1,450 EXTRA upon move-out because "we did not give a full 60 days notice". WE MOVED OUT 5 DAYS EARLY and when we asked Cory what we should write as a move-out date, she said to "put today's date". She never told us that we would be charged $1,450 to move out 5 days early and we would have gladly paid for those 5 extra days to reach our 60 day mark. I would think it would be common sense that a person would rather pay a pro-rated 5 day charge (around $300) than a $1,450 fee for an early move-out but according to Greystar, it's not. Little to say, we were shocked when we got out final bill from them a month later and now they're using that move-out paper against us. When we tried to contact Greystar management and told them what Cory said and that the fee was never disclosed, they contacted her and she denied it. It's absolutely childish and petty and I will NEVER recommend this place to anyone and will definitely tell everyone I know what a horrible location this is. Even Greystar corporate has been horrible to deal with and my husband has been blatantly hung up on several times. We even told the woman we spoke to, Natali, that we will pay our final balance right on the phone with her if she would just remove that ridiculous fee and add the correct pro-rated move-out amount (it was a no-go). At this point you can take your $1,450 to collections Greystar, I'm not paying you...