Elizabeth Lake Estates — Local services in Waterford Township

I’m leaving this place and here is my final review.

At first glance, ELE seems great, but our experience living here was far from it. In the 15 months we lived here, our family was subjected to neighbors who smoked marijuana heavily and others who were extremely noisy. The smell weed was so bad that it entered our unit, forcing us to leave multiple times with our newborn baby. Our neighbors on the opposite side of that tenant experienced the same situation. Despite endless complaints to the front office, issues persisted.

If you are considering living here, I strongly suggest you attempt to meet your potential neighbors before signing the lease. Once you’re in, no complaint or discussion will change inconsiderate individuals who have no regards for lease terms. We had to pay nearly $3,000 to get out of our second lease term here when the issues would not stop. Our family has often been woken by loud noises at night, and many times I actually thought someone had broken in. The noise and vibrations from the neighbors would shake our walls and floor while we sat in bed or on the couch. No TV or music could drown out the disturbance. The smell of weed would enter our unit frequently. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not going to sit here and attempt to moderate their tenants who break the rules. I can't spend every night filming my wall shaking only for Kandie, the new community director, to state she hears nothing in the video (which clearly has audio of the disturbance). No place is worth feeling this anxious and helpless.

In my experience, it’s clear these units have a huge sound issue. The walls are paper thin, and despite not being connected through the HVAC system, smoke and smells are shared between units. We have lived in many shared wall spaces and have never experienced anything like this. The carpet in our unit was very worn and stained when we moved in, and I had to clean it in multiple spots. This was quite annoying, considering all the other units next to us had fresh carpet installed before move-in. The cabinets in the kitchen are poorly painted, and one cabinet near the floor had mice droppings and a nasty smell. We cleaned it after moving in, and thankfully, we haven’t had any rodent issues.

Regarding the property, I’ve seen reviews stating there are no animal droppings, and you can walk freely in the grass here. This is very false, and I would be careful as walking through the grass will quickly lead to a very bad experience. We actually had an extremely large dog come at us just a few doors down, dragging its owner down the sidewalk as it ran towards our small 12-pound dog. It was an absolutely terrifying experience. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. This, along with the daily outdoor cats and noise, has made even our poor little dog crippled with anxiety. The tennis court doesn’t have a nets like the picture shows, and that along with the basketball court is frequently used by kids from nearby neighborhoods. We also have seen a few car windows busted in the carports, and many people have cameras to stay safe.

I doubt you’ll have an experience as bad as ours, and I’m just glad to be leaving. After all the hell we went through here, no help was offered from the landlord. I wanted to share a true experience with the people of the internet. Proceed with...

I lived at this apartment complex for 2 years and left due to the rent doubling with minimal notice and the many issues with the apartment and office staff, as a whole. To begin simply with issues with the apartment, there was issues with black mold in the kitchen, bathrooms, and living room. I had a recurrent leak in the kitchen that I called maintenance about multiple times. Unfortunately, no one showed up for this repair. They would schedule an appointment and not show up (even when I explained I would have to take off work to be there). I had additional issues in the main bathroom with the shower. Water would substantially leak from the dials to control the water temperature/pressure. I called maintenance, they did not come at their specified time, but showed up unannounced while I was in the shower (and entered my apartment with minimal notice for me to get out of the shower and dressed). There was another incident where a maintenance man showed up to my door at 7pm stating he had to repair a leak occurring in the apartment below us. We asked for 10 minutes as we had to move shelfing Out of the closet to get to the AC unit causing the leak. After about an hour, he told us the repair was fixed and left. Two days later, without notice maintenance men came into my apartment without notice while I was working. This became a recurrent pattern for Elizabeth Lake Staff to enter my apartment without permission or warning until I address the issue in a stern manner (and was mistreated thereafter). There were several instances where my building didn't have water for DAYS, and when we did have water it was debatable if you would get any hot water (which where was a period where we didn't have hot water for at minimum 2 weeks).

There are issues with cleanliness. I saw roaches in the laundry room of our building. The entry doors to the buildings seemed to be easily broken as at times you can just open the door to the building without a key.

Many of these issues I reported to the leasing office, and the owners/company who runs this living community. The only feedback I received was threatening statements made by one of the lead leasing agents, and once she left, inflated kindness with lack of follow through. Unfortunately, I only obtained this kindness once I had to put my foot down and not take their abuse any longer.

The ONLY advantage of living at this complex was the Waterview and privileges near by. Unfortunately, that's not worth it if your living space is bare minimum and...

Edit: I'm moving out, done with this place. Let me tell you the state of the unit. Mold is growing on the wall from the steps to the first to second floor. The basement has massive leaking. The second floor deck is dry rotted and leaking into the first floor ceiling, which leaves water spots and drips. None of it is getting fixed. Seriously, if you value your health and personal property DO NOT MOVE IN HERE. The management company has competent maintenance staff but they aren't well managed and they dont prioritize well at all. They aren't investing in repairing the properties. Stay out.

No calls no shows for scheduled maintenance appointments. The property is under new management and since then communication has become horrible with the tenants. Online rent pay instructions were not correct when setting that up, not incredibly hard to figure out but I'd imagine less tech savvy tenants could struggle. The homes themselves are nice enough but the serious mismanagement by the new prop manager Tim is appalling, I couldn't recommend anyone do business with this new management company. The new management company really seems to be cutting corners and not wanting to provide well for tenants just to make short term gains. They need to do a lot of work on every unit if they want to keep my business. I will clarify one point, the maintenance guy currently on staff, is excellent. He is very knowledgeable and professional and cares about each job he comes in for. The maintenance team does a good job, I just dont think the management is...