Waterford Village Apartments

Property Manager at Waterford Village Apartments, Responded To This Review

I am the owner-property manager of Waterford Village Apts., and I am responding to this review. The tenants in question did live at the complex for 22 months and always paid their rent on time. The husband was in the military stationed close to our Apt. complex. The tenants occupied their first Apt. a 2BR for 15 months, and requested to move to a 3BR for more space for their family. They informed us they would be here for 2 more years, and were willing to sign a new year lease when moving. Our policy is the tenant does not pay a transfer fee, but they do pay a pro-rated rent for the number of days they have keys for both Apts. If they can move and return keys from the original Apt. on the same day they sign the lease for the new Apt. no charges are due. This tenant agreed to take the new Apt. and move in on Oct. 10, 2017. The Apt. was cleaned, painted and ready for occupancy. Right before the move in the husband got military orders to assist in flood relief from a major hurricane from Oct 9th with an expected return date of Oct. 17th. Because of the difficulty for his wife to move everything with 2 children, we agreed to this. We did give keys to the wife so she could move the items that she could, and they would be moved in completely by Oct. 20th. At this point the husband was ordered to stay longer, so we extended the date to Nov. 1st. As a company this accounted for a loss of rent from the new Apt., and stopped the ability to prepare the former Apt. for a new resident, for move in Nov. 1st. We felt we did the right thing in helping them in their situation. Concerning the rest of the review, it is very disappointing to read the statements made by this tenant, because we take great pride in maintaining our complex to high standards. Our grounds are very well landscaped and we completely trim and re-mulch everything twice a year, typically putting down 1500 new bags of mulch each year. The basketball courts got all new professional style poles, backboards and goals during the time this tenant lived here. We have 2 goals with a full court, and the rims adjust for all age groups. Many of our tenants comment on how nice the court is. Our playground is serviced regularly and any time a tenant gives us a concern we take care of it. We would never want children to play on an unsafe playground. We furnish 2 gas grills for the tenants use along with the propane and brushes to clean the grills. We keep 2 extra tanks of propane on site, accessible to the tenants to change when one runs out. In addition we have always told our tenants if for some reason the propane is out, you can purchase it and we will reimburse the cost to you. We always have sanitizing wipes available in the fitness room on a shelf, and check every day to make sure. As far as snow removal, for anyone not in the Barboursville area for the winter of 2015-2016 it was brutal, one of the worst on record. We always clear and salt walkways to the Apts and common areas. Even though our complex is completely on flat ground the snow sometimes reached 20 inches deep requiring us to keep all roads and parking lots as clear as possible. To be able to do this we brought in extra help and our staff would come in at 3:00 AM to insure the tenants could get out for school or work. This winter it typically snowed all day and night, for close to 2 full months making it a constant struggle to keep up with the weather. I am exceptionally proud of the work our staff did with many overtime hours and constant hard work. We received numerous positive comments from our tenants. This tenant broke their lease after 7 months of a one year lease. The lease calls for forfeiture of the deposit if the lease is not fulfilled. We did make the deposit available as the husband was in the military. Because they lived in 2 Apts. We had to make deductions from both Apts after move out. We give each tenant a checklist to follow, and they are expected to remove all belongings and clean the Apt to the condition it was when they moved in. We give 4 hours of our time at no charge to each Apt. and then charge 25.00 per hour labor time for work necessary to bring the Apt. back to our high standards. We do not charge for cleaning or painting supplies. We average returning the full deposit to our tenants 90% of the time. Because of the labor hours and various items we had to replace for both Apts. It took their deposit with a balance to us. We did waive this balance. This tenant mentioned a charge for the drip pans because they were the wrong type. We did charge them because we had to install the correct ones.