My wife and I lived here for a total of about 3.5 years. We each had our own apartments, and then when we got married we moved into a 2-bedroom. Collectively we've lived in three buildings:
I - studios, lots of students, can be fairly loud especially in the summer.
R - 1-br, young families, etc. I never had a problem with noise.
U - Quiet as can be. Families, kids, etc. We had a 2-br on the corner unit and LOVED it.
We liked the staff, the location, and the price was comparable to other places in the area. The location is great though, so that tipped the cards in their favor.
The staff was very friendly, but we did get the feeling that they'd tell us whatever we wanted to hear to make an issue go away. That's assuming of course, that you can get ahold of them in the first place. They're very nice, just not that effective.
None of this was enough to prompt a negative review. In fact, we've posted reviews and responses to online reviews defending the Breakers. It's been a great place to live.
...but then we moved out.
Our deposit was $1250. Out of this they are returning to us about $67. The reason' They want to replace the carpets. Why do they want to replace the carpets? Cat piss.
In their defense, cat pee is incredibly difficult to clean. Our issue is with the fact that there was no cat urine on the carpet. Never has been. Not here, not in my wife's apartment in the I building, not at her last apartment, her folks' house, or any other place the cat has ever been. This cat has never - not ONCE in the four years we've had her - peed on the carpet. They saw a stain caused by a leaky trash bag, saw an opportunity, and charged us to replace the carpets.
We know which stain it was, they called to tell us about it. They listed all the reasons cat urine is cause for carpet replacement, without actually checking to verify that the stain was urine. For example, they said cat urine has a strong odor. Not in question - but this stain didn't stink because it was from a trash bag we used to empty the fridge of food we weren't taking with us (i.e., the food wasn't even bad). Cat urine shows up under a black light. Again, that's fine - did they shoot this stain with a black light to verify it' Nope.
They saw a stain, assumed it was cat piss, and took a huge chunk of our deposit as payment for fixing it.
A couple other things to consider. When I moved from my 1-br in the R building to this unit in the U building, they replaced the carpets. They told me I'd been there for a little over a year and it was time to replace them. They did not charge me for this. We stay in another apartment for the same time frame, they replace the carpets, and charge through the nose for it because we had a cat and they can use that as leverage to have us pay for their normally scheduled repairs.
You can tell a lot about a landlord / property manager by the way they treat their outgoing tenants. If we still lived in the area we'd be telling everyone we knew to avoid this complex. As we've moved to a different part of the state, this review will have to do.
Pros: Great location, price is okay, staff is nice
Cons: Cheated us out of our deposit.
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