Terwilliger Terrace Apartments

We have lived here for almost a year now and the management has just recently changed to a company who views tenets as rent checks only. I say this because this is how the treatment we have received feels. The first thing that happened that started to change our minds about this complex was when our rent check was stolen out of the dropbox. We had put the check in before the due date and then found a balance statement on our door about 4 days later stating we owed rent and a late fee. We called the leasing manager immediately as we were pretty alarmed since we did indeed turn in our rent check. No answer, so we left a pretty distressed voicemail. When they returned our call the following day, they let us know that they may have jumped the gun because they learned the someone else had their rent check stolen and they knew because someone else had apparently tried to cash it. Also turns out that at least 6 other tenets rent checks were missing. My first thought was «if you were missing so many rent checks, wouldn’t that send up a red flag in your own head?» why didn’t they look at out history of NEVER paying rent late and call us up to say «hey just wanted to let you know that we are missing your check, we see you always pay on time, what is the deal?» The leasing manager told us to write a new check and she would deposit it that same day and let us know so we could close the account (since someone out there may have our account and routing number off the check) and then open a new one. We did not hear from her for 3 more days. When we were finally able to get a hold of her again, she told us that her bosses were not even concerned with the issue and did not want her to take time away from other duties to re-​deposit our check. So we waited 4 anxious days, hoping someone wouldn’t take the money out before they did. Also, that happened over 30 days ago and the rent dropbox is still the exact same shoddy slot. So why would we put our check back in there to get stolen again?! What kind of management does not make a solution to such a threatening problem.
With new management comes new inspections! So we had this new leasing manager coming through with her minions to invade everyone’s space to see what fees they could charge everyone. About a month ago, our fire alarm battery died and we let OLD management know that we needed a new one. It had not been replaced yet when the NEW management was doing the inspection and they decided to charge us a $ 250 fee for this. When we explained that we had already requested a new battery and were waiting for one and that is why the alarm was not attached (also there is a second fire alarm in the apartment, that is working fine) we were told that she would look to see if old management had made a record of it and maybe they wouldn’t charge us «but either way its no skin off my nose.» We aren’t the kind of people who make a ton of money so a $ 250 fee is not chump change for us. This belittling comment was more than offensive. Where’s your compassion?! So we wait with fingers crossed that there is a record, since we followed the rules of compliance regarding a dead battery in a fire alarm, hoping we wouldn’t get charged. Yesterday, we went to leave our apartment and opened the door to find an envelope with a hand written note stating «There were no notes of any kind in your file from Nathan. Same situation for other residents who had disabled their smoke detectors and claimed Nathan was responsible. Sorry.» First of all, we were home, why didn’t she knock and talk to our faces regarding this issue. Second, we clearly weren’t the only ones with this problem, so why do we all have to pay for the mistakes of old management?! It is because it is really no skin off their nose and they saw an opportunity to make some extra money from all these tenets.
We have been treated like we are only rent checks in the eyes of this management company. This apartment complex is pretty low grade already, we have had our toilet stop working, closet doors literally fall off, and garbage disposal stop working in the not even 1 year we have lived here and now all this other BS we have to deal with. We have never paid rent late or cause any other problems. You’d think some people would have some sort of compassion and cut us a break. Not gonna happen seems like.
Just a few words of advice, think more than twice before moving in here.

I lived here at Terwilliger Terrace for almost 4 years. I had moved from Southern Oregon to Portland to finish school, and the one bedroom was perfect for me. I lived in a unit on the top floor, overlooking the lawn/​trees area in front of the freeway. The location was perfect, as I had sold my car to help with moving expenses, and the number 12 Trimet bus line was directly out front of the complex, which took me directly into to downtown for school without any bus transfers. The complex is also within quick walking distance to Fred Meyers, Baja Fresh, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and a Kinkos FedEx. The walking trails off of Terwilliger and Barbur are beautiful too.
Although in the beginning there was a mish-​mash of different managers, my last year and a half at Terwilliger was with Nathaniel managing the property. He was always very attentive, eager to help, and great with communicating. Always friendly just in passing, too. His cats are adorable to boot.
My unit at this complex was 700sq ft, with large windows in the living room. I had one assigned parking space, and honestly the incline never bothered me. The only time it affected me was when Portland had this freak snow storm and I couldn’t physically drive up the hill due to ice under the snow. From my experience, a lot of young/​college kids like myself lived there. It was never too loud or crazy. Judging by a previous review, Nathaniel has figured out a way to rent out AC units, which would honestly be my only complaint about this place. During the summer there were days where the heat was simply unbearable if you didn’t have your own unit (I didn’t). Sounds like some sort of solution has been figured out at this point though.
When I left Terwilliger, Nathaniel did a final walk through with me of the place and I received my entire deposit and even a little extra because my unit had new tenants before my last month was up. I was pretty stoked.
Anyway, great location and place for a single person or a couple who don’t own a million things.

Do not rent from any properties owned by regency. They currently owe me upwards of 2 grand in unreturned deposits. I had multiple managers during my year at Terwilliger Terrace, none of which even knew about the unit or myself because «the paperwork is a mess». Looking at the history on Unilocal this has been happening for years. The whole place is intollerable between barbur and i5 traffic, building on stilts moves with traffic. Told me i never paid january rent in May. I was not given a walk through on move out. It’s been a month and both the manager and the office will not return my calls. I give it another week before I take legal action.

When I first moved in here the price was right, it was close to downtown, clean, and loved the manager Marilyn. She was an amazing apartment manager, very friendly and caring, and most importantly, honest. I would have given this apartment complex 4 stars this time last year.
Since the apartments have switched management companies to TMC out of Vancouver, service, communication, and upkeep of the property has been declining while they jacked up the rent. It’s awful.
The new manager and management company are sketchy. Read everything before you sign it and don’t trust what she says! She will say things that do not match up with what you’re about to sign. You may want to have her alter some of the shady (and not legal) terms/​conditions/​rules documents. Also, something which is incredibly frustrating, is she is never in the office, not even during the posted office hours. It’s hit and miss all the time. Then there are the letters/​notices she writes to the complex that are posted on all the doors. Wow, those are embarrassing. They are filled with spelling and grammatical errors. Can’t spell either of our names right either.
These are all things my neighbors have noticed as well.
I will not be resigning another lease here. The price is no longer decent for what you’re getting. The manager and management company are absolutely horrible!
I would not recommend this place to anyone.