Complaint Review: Courtyards of Chanticleer

My family and I moved into the Courtyards of Chanticleer in July of 2012, prior to moving in we were told that there were no 3 bedroom models to show us and I was instead shown a 1 bedroom model by Chris Hirth. The one bedroom was very nice, with somewhat modern appliances, but the unit I moved into was a dump. The appliances were basically the cheapest appliances you could buy 10 years ago and were all off brands. Throughout the unit, the drywall was badly damaged and scarred, it had been "repaired" in places with little effort given to make it blend in. There were holes in the drywall in the closets in different places and many of the fixtures were so badly rusted they had holes in them. None of the sinks even had drain stoppers, just big holes, where I later learned toothpaste caps easily fell into. 

The rest of the unit wasn't in great shape either, there were broken shelves and most everything had been painted over, or had overspray from paint on it. The back porch was much smaller than the width of the unit because--as I found out later--the fencing had been installed incorrectly years ago. The carpet was dingy and came up in spots and some things like the hand rail on the stairs had paint peeling off. 

Unfortunately, my wife suffers from fibromyalgia and was recovering from multiple surgeries so immediately moving again wasn't an option. The staff was polite and gave lip service to our concerns, they sent maintenance people out, but they never actually fixed things. After living there for a while, we found that the water heater barely provided enough hot water for one shower, let alone two and the HVAC unit was too small for the 1300 square foot town home which led to exorbinant electric bills, along with hot and cold spots throughout the house. 

Things got worse though. In the laundry room, there was an access panel to the roof and one day my wife heard a noise and looked up to see a set of claws and a raccoon's face peering throug the ceiling. We immediately notified PRG Real Estate who assured us that it wasn't a racoon and must be a squirrel. They said that there were no raccoons in the area and they sealed up the ceiling, but we began to hear noises in the walls like an animal running around through the walls. Eventually a critter exterminator of some sort was called in and they--along with the maintenance staff--proudly announced that they'd located the place where the vermin had made it into the walls and sealed it up. I asked what would happen to the animals in the wall and was told they were probably babies and would eventually die. Just typing this makes me feel a little crazy for accepting these responses, but I did. 

About a week later, as a I was leaving for work, I saw a dead raccoon laying in the street. Months later, as I was throwing some trash away one night I bumped into some raccoons again and have seen them on mulitple occasions since then. 

The maintenance staff made 20 trips to our unit in the first two months we lived there, but in most cases we just gave up trying to get them to fix anything and resigned ourselves to living in a dumpy town house in a great school district, until my wife recovered enough for us to move again. 

Eventually I couldn't take it any more and contacted the new property manager, Andrea Singleton, in the hopes that new management might make a difference. She agreed to meet me at my home and walk through the unit to address the litany of maintenance issues. She said she could only meet on weekdays, during business hours so I took time off of work to come home early and meet her and her maintenance supervisor. Unfortunately, when the meeting time came, neither of them was there. I emailed her to see what was going on and she eventually showed up, 25 minutes late. We walked through the unit, she took notes and agreed to fix everything, regardless of costs. Since the maintenance staff had had issues with hitting on and intimidating my wife in the past, she agreed to schedule the work several days in advance so my wife could be gone for the day. 

The maintenance day came and I came home to find some modest improvements, but all of the major issues remained. What's more is that the maintenance staff had managed to get paint on my couch, paint on my shower curtain, paint on my shower curtain liner and paint on a towel in the bathroom. I continued to try to work with them for the next month, until I finally had enough and asked to get out of my lease with 60 days notice, which they granted. 

Before I could move out though, one night I smelled a burning smell in the closet that held the water heater, I went in and found that some exposed wires (which I had previously complained about) had caught fire and nearly burned the house down. There was black smoke marks going up the drywall and the wires were charred. I called maintenance since several other units had completely burned down recently, but when the maintenance person arrived he reeked of alcohol and told me the ground had just gotten too close to the other wires, but he pushed them apart.

I complained that someone had come to my house smelling like booze and notified them that I would like to be let out of my lease as soon as possible. The next morning, the same maintenance person showed up at my house and without mine or my wife's permission entered, said only "here to fix the wires" and then proceeded to demonstratively tell my wife that he didn't appreciate what I'd said about him in front of my children. Despite all of this--and I didn't even mention the cockroaches--PRG wants me to stay in my house another month, while one of their employees, who has an ax to grind, has a key to my home.

All told, maintenance has made 47 trips to my unit in a 19 month period, often entering my residence without my consent when I had simply asked that they call first. 

It's not just me though, in speaking with my neighbors and looking at online reviews, this is par for the course. Some of my neighbors have damp carpet, ceilings that leak, bug problems and outrageous electric bills as well. They've told me that there experience has been much the same, but most of the people who live here don't have the money to hire a lawyer and take them to court. Stay away from this place.