Mandalay on the Lake

We’ve lived here for a combined 5years… For the price and location it is good, but the new management as of a month ago has been horrible. The new manager is far from professional compared to the previous assist. Manager and Manager, she was actually wearing work out clothes!!! The maintenance can’t keep up with all the work, despite their efforts and lack of management. We want to renew but are having serious doubts bc of these issues. It’s an older apt, compared to all the new ones being built around. Overall it is a quiet community and I’ve seen its ups and downs. If it wasn’t at its price point, we wouldn’t live here. They need new managers!!!

Do not move here the staff is never in office never answer phone very rude the carpet moving was dirty after they assured before it would get cleaned

I have lived here 2yrs, well 3yrs total. I left for 6mths to save some money at the time and came right back. Realized how spoiled I was living at Mandalay and a bad apartment experience in Grand Prairie also didn’t help. I came right back and haven’t regreted it since. The only regret I have is moving in the first place and giving up my lake view. There were mgmt changes during 2014 that made things kinda rocky for a while. Now everything is settled again. Maintenance is always completed in 48hrs or less. I always feel safe here. Even the delivery drivers have a hard time getting in. I would suggest getting an apartment away from the DART line. It is loud and will make you want to pause your tv. That’s really the only con besides the trash chutes sometimes get full over weekends. Overall the area is great to live in. The festivals at the lake. great trail around lake for exercise, near Campion Trail, Orange DART line right across the street, pet friendly, great floor plans (not a big fan of 900sqft layouts) and assigned parking on east side of complex. Krogers is just 12 mins away, Tom Thumb 5 mins and restaurants all around (walking distance — 15 mins). Last pro are the nearby highways: 114, 635, Northwest Highway, 183 and 161.
If you are wanting to live in LC (Las Colinas) this is place with the best bang for your buck. They are the cheapest in price but deliver great quality. There are a lot of newer apartments recently built and being built nearby but you are guaranteed to pay at least $ 1250 for a 1bdrm/​1bth.

Do not move in here if you don’t want to combat wasps & wasp nests. They are everywhere! Basically you have to run to your car to avoid them, which is impossible to do with a an infant who needs to be strapped into her carseat.
There was a wasp on my door recently. I’ve called the leasing office and they «aware of the problem». I was told the pest control comes in every week, which I find hard to believe because I have seen wasp nests for months now that haven’t been taken down.
The finishes are subpar, the model doesn’t represent what you will actually get. We had cracked tiles in the kitchen & foyer. The foyer tiles were replaced after we moved in with cement flying all over the place. Management was supposedly unaware that the kitchen tile was damaged too. If they do fix it now, the contractors will not enclose the area (we asked) & we’ll have cement flying all though our apartment. That would work out great with an infant in the house! The views are nice & get people in but all the nuisance to be encountered later is not worth it.

I don’t normally write these types of reviews, but I feel that the experience I had with Mandalay on the Lake warrants that I write this to let others know what they might be getting into by staying here.
I have rented 7 apartments/​houses over the past 7 years and I have never once had any problem with management of any of those places. This was not the case with Mandalay on the lake. I will list out the issues that I have with this property and the people running it.
1) When I requested a copy of my lease from Kim before moving out in order to read over the terms, she could not produce a signed copy of my lease. This wasn’t egregious on its own, because, admittedly, I should have printed and kept a copy for myself. What was egregious was that I originally signed a 6 month lease, with it turning into month-​to-​month at the conclusion of that 6 month term. It was agreed upon that my rent would not go up after the end of the 6-​month lease. Management at Mandalay on the Lake tried to give me a lease copy, not signed by me, that was for 12 months. I had e-​mail proof that I never agreed to a 12 month lease, and actually requested that they send over an amended lease at the beginning of the lease term that reflected the 6 months. Mandalay would not accept this e-​mail proof and continually tried to tell me that I signed this 12 month lease even though my signature was nowhere to be found on it. They wanted me to either stay for the rest of the 12 months, or pay for breaking the lease, which was not being broken as it had been 8 months since I signed the 6 month lease. They forced me to pay a fee in order to move out, which I reluctantly agreed to as it seemed like it was going to be the most painless way to get out of this god forsaken place. It was downright extortion at its finest. Either you stay here or you have to pay us money to leave. Also, be warned that they want SIXTY DAYS notice and not 30, which is a joke.
That was my big issue with management and I wanted to let anyone know who might be looking at staying here that they should keep their copy of the lease and try to get everything in writing from management otherwise they WILL try to screw you over when you want to leave.
Other issues:
2) The hallways of the complex were literally lined with hundreds of wasp nests and nobody ever did anything about it. You have to run to your car in order to avoid being attacked by them.
3) The garbage system is disgusting. We kept a very clean household, but every time you would open the door a thousand gnats would fly in because the dumpsters are kept in very close proximity to some apartments. Maybe some people were lucky being further away and avoided the gnats, but it was a constant issue for us. Also, the SMELL was absolutely atrocious. Even the movers who helped us move out said it smelled like a dead body around there.
4) The mosquitoes from the lake are overwhelming. We thought we would be able to enjoy the back patio that we got, but in the warmer months, you couldn’t sit out there without being swarmed by them.
5) The «security» gates are constantly broken. The gate that I would use to take my dog in/​out was never properly locked the entire 8 months we were there. Anyone could come along and just open it up whenever they wanted. The other gates were like this for most of the time. Also, the gate in the parking garage was operational maybe 50% of the time. So if you value your car or anything in it, maybe look elsewhere. We never had any break-​in issues, but we heard of other residents who did.
I could keep going on the things that were wrong with this place, but I think you get the picture. If you want to constantly be uncomfortable and you want to be screwed over by management, Mandalay is the place for you!
With all the other apartment options around, don’t try to save the money by coming to the cheaper Mandalay on the Lake. In this case, you really do get what you pay for. We could not wait to get out of there any faster and even paid them to let us leave. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.

Worst management ever. They have stinky carpets with too much pet hair and fungus growing in them and they still won’t change it or do anything to fix the issue. They make up random rules to justify themselves. Just want to make money that’s all, no ethics or professionalism. This is one of the older buildings in las colinas, and it shows. Go somewhere else!!!

The Mandalay is under new management and I have seen an improvement in the property. Trash chutes have been repaired, work orders are answered in a timely fashion, new maintenance has been hired, they typically answer the phone in the office now. There has been an issue with dog owners not being respectful of public space and leaving their dogs off leashes in the field by Lake Carolyn. I asked the office staff to address this by informing tenants of city leash ordinance… this took them a few months after my initial complaint, but it was addressed.
I love the location. I feel safe here. Most neighbors are kind. The Dart is loud though.

Not worth your money! Maintenance is non existent! My disposal hasn’t worked since I moved in (4 mos ago), my patio door doesn’t lock so I had to buy a bar to block it, they promised to clean the carpet before I moved in (they didn’t), there are gnats and Mosquitos everywhere, you have to hold your breath to get to you car because they do not empty the dumpster often enough, the elevators are broken, and the garage gates are always open (broken) which means zero safety for you car, the office does not answer their phone EVER, and if you go into the office they don’t acknowledge you or are hiding in a back room. I should have known this was a big mistake when I had to keep calling the agent to ask when I could sign my lease, and I asked 3x for things to be fixed before I moved in– and of course they weren’t. And apparently if you would like to just live in a parking spot you have that option as well (see photo of what seems to be someone’s studio apartment for the last two months)

I have so far had a great experience at Mandalay.
I just moved in this past weekend and didn’t get the exact floor plan I was expecting, but they were quickly and easily able to move me to a different apartment that I would be happy within a matter of minutes. They also were very flexable with my move in date and let me move in two weeks before my scheduled date.
My only request is that they would have more office staff. There is usually only one or two people working, which can be a hassle if you need to call them or there are a couple people waiting to get help.
I’ll updated my review in a couple months, but so far its a nice complex with a great price for the location.

Agree with the one star reviews here. I think even a star is wasted on them, but I guess the 1 star is for the views around the apartments which are quite nice.
Management — Very poor. Simple maintenance jobs take weeks or sometimes months to complete and even the maintenance job is done very poorly. I remember when I first moved in, there was no one clearing the trash and it was overfilled dump.
Apartment –Very poor. For the rent (1400+ for a 2 bed) there are much better apartments all over the DFW metroplex. Kitchen has very cheap appliances. My refrigerator door has a mind of its own. They gave me used/​poorly maintained carpets when I moved in.
On the bright side though, this is my last month at this place.
Highly NOT recommended.

Overall the location and appearance of appartments were nice. There are some inconsiderates who don’t clean up after their animals. It’s easy to avoid the poop though.
It was great to live their when it was cheap, but now they have increased prices. I found a newer and bigger place for the same money. I tried to negotiate with them, but they didn’t really want to even try. I moved out.

I wouldn’t move here again due to the poor management. They seem to not care or have any authority in the place… i think both apply. People clearly dont clean up after pets, yet they do nothing about it. They let the mess just sit on the sidewalks near people’s doors without a care. It them a long time to even get maintenance requests done. Something as simple as changing a lightbulb right outside my front door took almost a week to do. That could be considered a safety issue, but there was no urgency to resolve the issue. The wasps are very annoying as well.
Advice for moving out… Always make sure that you schedule a walk through with one of the ladies in the office (assuming you can get ahold of them). This may help you avoid paying the hundreds of dollars theyre going to hit you with about a month after you move out. I would also advise that you take pictures of the place right after. They’re looking to get as much money as they can from you.

DON’T LIVE HERE. This office staff is an absolute joke. They go through employees and managers like it’s going out of style. Nobody ever knows what’s going on, how much things are, or what the policies are. This place will charge you for random things that they cannot explain. They have ridiculously expensive fees for every minute change you might want to make to your apartment. They must have some sort of deal with Time Warner Cable, because you have no choice but to have TIme Warner Cable and internet. If you want DirecTV, you have to front a $ 500 «balcony deposit». Isn’t the $ 700 that I put down as a deposit when I moved in enough?!? They do NOT care about their tenants, only getting you out of the office as quickly as possible while rolling their eyes and pointing fingers at other employees. This complex was nice when we first moved it, but it’s going downhill in a hurry. We have friends that live at Alta and Bella Casita right here in this area, and they have no complaints at all, so you’re better off looking there.

DO NOT LIVE HERE!
The apartments are fine, nothing too special but nice. The complex has serious issues with wasps… they are everywhere! Other than some minor issues, I don’t mind the place itself.
The management, on the other hand, is awful. I would receive random bills stuck in my door for hundreds of dollars, even though I always paid rent on time and in full. I spent hours arguing with the ladies in the office on two seperate occasions. They sifted through piles of file folders and post-​it notes (highly organized, obviously!) and after calling random other residents to verify whether I was telling the truth (!!), finally admitted I was right.
The next month I got a bill for $ 4.32. Pretty random amount when I owed exactly $ 0, but I didn’t want to bother with the office staff so I paid it. The office staff was always nice at first, then very rude to me when they knew why I was visiting the office. When they discovered I was right about things they would start blaming the manager (who I never even saw until I moved out).
Ah, moving out! BEWARE if you live here! I won’t go into the gory details, but my final bill was 150ish and they said that’s «nothing». btw that deposit was BS. They apparently almost always replace the carpets (mine were perfect but I was still charged 100 bucks for maintenance) and YOU foot the bill. The management was disorganized, rude, and dishonest throughout my stay here. Go for a different complex in the area or skip Las Colinas altogether – it’s pretty boring!

What a beautiful place to live, but what HORRIBLE customer service! The office staff is abhorrently unprofessional, rude, and does not care about the residents at all! They almost never answer the phone because they’re understaffed and they have no urgency to return your call after you’ve left a message. The current staff feels no need to followup or call you if there’s a problem — even when they say they will. Again, it’s a wonderful place to live if you don’t have to interact with the staff because the buildings are fairly new and living in the lake is great, but the competition is much better at customer service, and there is plenty to choose from around Lake Carolyn.