24 Flats Apartments

We’ve been living here since end of July 2012 and while the place is in a great location and the rent is reasonable, the utility bills are insane. We just received another utility bill from NWP — the utility billing company — that includes water/​waste water/​trash/​gas and it was $ 178 for the month. Not what I expected. According to NWP, the rate is high because we are a family of four (two adults, two kids) so we are charged at a per person rate. It’s insane. Just a heads up that you’ll want to consider these fees into your monthly costs.

I just wrote a review about the last place I lived and how much it sucked, so I decided to write about where I live now because so far I love it here.
I have been here almost 3 months now and couldn’t be happier with the location. 24 Flats is walking distance to a lot of awesome restaurants and biking distance to downtown (about 2 miles). You can drive to the lake in under 5 minutes too.
The neighborhood is nice and quiet and everyone here has dogs which makes my dogs really happy. There is a park about half a mile away that has a dog park and a pool for the humans.
The apartment unit itself is pretty big. I live in a 2 bedroom/​1 bath and its 1,000 square feet. The best thing is the closets! I have 2 walk-​ins and 3 normal sized closets. The only thing I didn’t like at first was the small bathroom, but it does have 2 sinks.
Before I moved in I read a lot of negative reviews about Rainier Management, but they have been amazing so far. One night my power went out around 3am and when I called the after hours maintenance someone actually came out… at 3am. I have never had any apartment complex do that. The guy who came out was super nice too. The only other time I called them was a few days ago when I was having air conditioning issues, and again, they sent someone over after hours. It also seems like they keep their units in good shape even though its an older complex.

Been living here for months now. Love it, love it, love it! Big two-​bedroom for the neighborhood. And WHAT a neighborhood! A block away from Fresh Plus market, two blocks from Nau’s Enfield Drug and Jeffrey’s, three blocks from Caffe Medici. After the suburban wasteland and a severe apartment complex, it’s like plugging back into the world again. Easy to walk/​jog to look at the mansions off Enfield. Easy access to Mopac and a short drive or bike ride to downtown. The maintenance staff is responsive, the neighbors are extremely friendly and flexible, and aside from somewhat erratic water heat, everything has either worked or been promptly fixed. Great place!

******PART TWO******
Spring comes, and they finally come again to check on that heater. (There’s that snappy response time again) It’s 3pm on a Friday afternoon. I was napping when the guy comes over so I let him in and go back to my nap. An hour or so later he calls out that he’s going to need to get another part (not order, but GET). I tell him to just let himself back in when he returns. He agrees and is gone. Right… so apparently he had no intention of returning that DAY or the next. He had shut off the entire system. The thermostat wasn’t working and there was no A/​C. The apartment got up to 90 degrees that weekend. My poor hamsters cleared out an area of their cage floor and laid sprawled out on the glass, panting. Also, the unit was in the ceiling above the shower. He had taken off the cover and left it propped next to the toilet. Chunks of dust and probably asbestos had to be rinsed out of the tub before every use. So, Monday morning rolls around and I am NOT pleased. I go to the management in person and explain the situation. She calls the guy over and in Spanish, asks for an explanation. Now, even with my rudimentary grasp of the language, I could tell he was lying. He was explaining to her how he didn’t touch the A/​C, just the heater. I had to call him on his B.S. And why he would start a job late Friday afternoon and then leave his mess there for the whole weekend? I also let the manager know about how I had to show the girl the apartment while we were having issues with the dishwasher and how bad it made them look. She sounded somewhat apologetic.
There was also a couple of cars broken into while I was there. My utter disregard for cleanliness saved me here. My bird poop-​encrusted vehicle filled with newspapers and empty Slurpee cups remained untouched while the big, shiny truck next to mine had its windows smashed and stereo stolen. The parking could get kind of bad too. I didn’t appreciate having to park on the street while guests took up all the spots. Also, the sidewalk leading up to the building flooded tremendously whenever it rained. You had no choice but to walk through it.
The last and biggest issue with them was the security and pet deposit due back at the end of the lease. When I changed apartments, the manager at the time offered to just transfer my refund to the new place and have me pay the difference of the non-​refundable portion. When I got the check, it was $ 200 short of what I expected. I made phone calls and the new manager could not explain anything to me. She claimed to have contacted the old manager who said it was right. (I later called her and found that she had no knowledge of the matter).
I got the BBB involved and was referred to the district manager. (Kathy Hull located at Oak Park complex. My friend lived there once and had a rat problem…) She was EXTREMELY rude. She lied to me, insulted me (saying the old manager was probably doing me a favor because she knew I didn’t have money. As if she would know how much money I made.) and threatened me with legal action if she found out that there was any money that we owed them. It boiled down to the old manager doing something that was apparently not policy, screwing up and then no one wanted to own up and take responsibility for the mistake.
I ended up contacting student legal services at UT (highly recommended if you’re a student). The lawyer said that while they should honor the refund on good faith, ultimately nothing was in writing so there wasn’t much to be done. He also mentioned that Rainier has a history of treating students badly, trying to rip them off, etc. and they’ve handled other cases against them. He said that he wouldn’t let his kids stay in a Rainier-​managed complex. I told the BBB to consider my case closed but unsatisfactorily resolved.
Before all this went on, I had already moved into another Rainier-​owned complex. Now, I know what you’re thinking, I must be masochistic or something. Well, I contacted an apartment locator and didn’t know the apartment was owned by them until we got there. Also, it was not in the same part of town and run by a different manager (the one that I first had at Antilles, the one who screwed up the whole refund matter) who I liked at the time.
******END OF REVIEW*****