Winthrop Manor Apts

I just wrapped up a very negative experience with this place. While it has some nice amenities, the soundproofing between apartments is awful. If you live under people who make a lot of noise and don’t keep the same schedule you do, you’re screwed. We were woken up by noise from the apartment upstairs nearly every night between 4:30AM-6AM, including Saturdays. The family upstairs would not put in carpeting even though the lease says it’s required. The property manager was well aware of the situation and had talked to the family as well. They just refused to put in carpeting. Our attempts to drown out the noise barely helped. The sound of people walking upstairs was so loud it could be heard over the loud box fan we had on the floor and wake us up. Some of the loud noises were things the upstairs tenants had no control over, like the sound of their shower running and their garage door opening. These were startlingly loud in our apartment; I’d never heard anything like it.
After reaching the end of our rope, being woken up by upstairs noise almost every night for eight months, we left before the end of our lease in order to live somewhere we could sleep through the night. Even though it was made clear we were leaving because of things guaranteed in the lease that were not delivered, it seems the only time the lease is enforced is when you try to leave early. The early termination fee was not waived. On top of that, when we finally received our security deposit, we were surprised to find a $ 250 «cleaning fee» taken out of it. Since we’d been told not to worry much about cleaning the place since the following tenants were having a maid come in — and I gave the place a good cleaning anyway despite that — the cleaning fee just felt like another slap in the face. When we inquired about this charge, we were told that we did leave the place in good condition, but that the landlord has simply been charging that cleaning fee to anyone who moves out.
Considering why we were leaving, I would’ve thought we’d be treated better than to be slapped with hundreds of dollars in fees. I guess we were lucky they had people to move into our apartment so we didn’t have to keep paying rent. If you happen to not live under loud people there it’s probably a much better experience, but if you do, good luck.