The Lakes Apartments

My boyfriend and I were around the Hillsboro area looking for an apartment and decided to stop by The Lakes to see what they had to offer.
We walked in and weren’t greeted by anyone. We didn’t see anyone in the office and were confused by the sign on the door that said someone would be back at noon even though it was almost one with the office unlocked.
When we finally saw someone she had her leg propped up under the desk and proceeded to give us no information, no tour and didn’t have the common courtesy to get up to greet us.
We walked out and, before the door even shut, decided that this place was not meant for us.

These are pretty terrible apartments. I would venture so far as to say these are some of the WORST apartments you could live in. Before you even move in they will bait-​and-​switch you. The office staff will show you this BEAUTIFUL apartment and claim that the one they have available for you is the EXACT SAME however when you actually move in you are greeted with appliances that are older than you and your husband. On top of barely functioning appliances, you will also notice the dirty and bent window blinds since they cannot be bothered to replace cheap metal blinds. If you walk into your bathroom you will notice kitty litter EVERYWHERE from what I can only assume is the previous tenant. It will also reek of cat pee that you get to spend days and days cleaning up. The tub will ALREADY have the caulking peeling and cracks in the bottom. You pay over $ 1000 a month in rent to live in substandard housing that makes you feel like you live in what was probably a crack-​den.
I had a stove from the mid-‘70s that had a broken burner and they would not replace anything so I could have a fully functional stove. They refused to replace my dryer that broke for weeks. I had to beg them to get it replaced since it did not heat the air to dry the clothes. The staff did not want to do so since the dryer still technically worked since it turned on. The maintenance is LAUGHABLE. If they actually did their job I would not have had a running toilet for TWO YEARS. And yes I put in work orders upon work orders but every time they just replaced a minor part that did nothing to fix the problem. I have also put in a work order to fix the fluorescent lights in the kitchen since they burnt out. Even after I surrendered the keys they were STILL NOT FIXED but you can bet I was charged for that upon move out!
If you live in a downstairs unit you have the joy of hearing everything that happens in the unit above you. Are they cutting vegetables for dinner? Betcha you can hear that! Going to the bathroom? Be prepared to judge their urine flow! Don’t forget that if you move in with an animal you will NOT get that deposit back. Once you place your pet deposit they let you know that only half of the deposit is refundable. Depositing $ 300 for Fido? You better hope they find nothing so you can, at least, get $ 150 back. Oh yes, that’s right. Despite having to pay utilities THE FIRST MONTH you move in they claim that utilities are paid in arrears and will charge you for those utilities upon moving out. They will also not provide you a bill whatsoever to let you know that they are doing this either. You get to discover that gem on the final account statement they provide you letting you know what they are spending your deposit on. It will be labeled in as «rent owed» in case you want to know why after paying your rent on time for SIX YEARS you are suddenly met with a bill saying you still owe back rent.
The place was also COVERED in mold and mildew. It was in all the windows and the bathroom. No matter how much I cleaned, used bleach, everything I could find it would not go away. It could have been from the leaking windows (windows that were not even designed to open). Add that to the wood-​burning fireplaces that were cleaned ONCE in SIX YEARS and I can smell a recipe for disaster. It got so bad that when we tried to start a fire to stay warm the apartment would just fill with smoke.
The office staff have some of the worst customer service I have ever encountered. They are uninterested in helping you. They will «lose» work orders. If you give them a deposit they will write that amount on a sticky note and give it back to you for «proof» since they have no way of «printing an actual receipt.» They will randomly come along and powerwash your windows EVEN IF YOUR WINDOWS ARE OPEN. They will not give you prior notice. Good luck with your ruined stuff. They do the same thing with the leaf blower. They do not care about the residents AT ALL.
All in all a pretty terrible living experience and I am so glad I am financially stable enough to afford first/​last literally ANYWHERE ELSE.

I couldn’t use sink and bath top because the water won’t goes down and it might overflow for a week and I called the office and the maintenance emergence. After I reported the problem 5 times nobody respond or call back to check. Today I called the office again and the woman told me since we have two bedrooms and two bathrooms apartment she doesn’t think it an emergency (come on we have two couples here). I said I can’t just go to the other couple’s private room to take shower (it is really odd) and I prefer them to come to fix it either today or tomorrow since I reported the problem a while ago. And she said I have to wait another three days. She said that she only will set appointment when I am not upset and then hung up my phone. It is really rude and bad customers service!
After I came back to home the problem be solved but the office emailed this letter to all the people in the apartment without telling me and I don’t think the Lakes office should threaten me like this!!!
Good afternoon.
We received a negative review and an aggressive phone call earlier (from Junyu) regarding one of your sink/​tubs being clogged. Please note, our office will not tolerate this type of behavior or aggressiveness towards our staff. Furthermore, the work orders are taken care of in the order they are received w/​emergencies being priority & this does not classify as that. We have almost 300 units to a maintenance staff ratio of 3 technicians so generally, 48 hours of a wait can & will happen at times.
I just had maintenance go over there to address this issue & there was no response at the door. Please contact our office asap & let us know if we have permission to enter and if not, when would be good. Maintenance is available Mon– Fri 9am to 4pm.
Your prompt attention is appreciated. Thanks.
–Carol,
Assistant Manager.

These are the worst apartments I have ever had the chance to stay in. Our neighbors music is pounding through the floor every day and even after calling the cops numerous times and talking to the apartment, weeks later they are still there.
They have admitted to stealing off our porch and the neighbors and they are still living above us. After numerous times telling the office how they have yelled at my roommate, ganged up on his girlfriend and intimidated her, thrown their trash on our porch, they are still living there.
I have never felt so helpless and hated an apartment so much. I am counting down the days when we don’t live here any more and move to an apartment where when people are threatening you and making life awful that maybe the management will step in and take care of things instead of not caring.
Called the cops for the 10^th time tonight and after they left they cranked the music back and it is shaking our walls. Do not move here.

I lived here for about 4 and a half years (2011 to 2015), and overall I had a good experience. Compared to other apartment complexes I’ve lived in, I thought it was relatively quiet. I did occasionally hear my upstairs neighbor walking around, but that’s to be expected, and there was usually not too much other noise from neighbors. My building was just to the left of the office, and I felt fairly lucky to have neighbors there who were relatively quiet.
I thought the staff were friendly and professional. And the maintenance staff responded to issues in a decent amount of time (usually the next day) and took care of issues in the apartment.
Another nice thing about this apartment complex is that they have a main office, so if you buy things online and have them shipped, the carrier can leave them at the office if you’re not home. That way, you don’t have to worry about going to the carrier’s warehouse to pick up your items after they try to deliver a few times when you’re not home. The main office also has an exercise room, public activity room, a swimming pool, and a public outside activity area.
In addition, one of my favorite things about this apartment complex is its location — It’s at Tanasbourne, right across the street from a selection of good stores and restaurants. Stores, restaurants, and businesses nearby include Target, Best Buy, Oil Can Henry’s, Office Depot, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, Five Star Guitars, Thai Orchid, Chevy’s, and others. Providence Tanasbourne health center is also nearby.
I also like that this complex has a lot of trees throughout the place, which provides shade and helps keep things relatively cool; I also think the trees give the place a more comfortable feel.
One thing that did bug me a bit about The Lakes is that sometimes their office would close early, seemingly randomly. Occasionally, if I was expecting a package to be delivered, I’d make a point to get home from work before their closing time (6:00PM), only to find that the office had closed early that day.
I’ve lived in several apartment complexes, and overall The Lakes was one of the best experiences I had.

I would give a zero if I could. Bait and switch to the max! We applied for an apartment after looking at a model of what we were told was the exact same apartment we were applying for. We decided to apply for an apartment that was $ 100 more because Bailey and Maddie stated multiple times that it had laminate flooring everywhere but the bedrooms and there was a lake view.
The day we went to sign the lease and get the keys, we asked to see the apartment first. We walked to the apartment and did not see a lake. There was a large hole with gravel in it. We walked inside and the apartment was all carpet and stained carpet at that. We let Maddie and another office girl our issues. Maddie stated that it was their mistake. They had not seen that apartment and assumed that it was like another one they had seen upstairs. Maddie said that they didn’t have control of the water level of the «lake». We had movers scheduled for the following day and were in a panic but we did not feel good about the situation. We decided to not take the apartment and asked for our application fee back as we would not have paid to apply for this apartment. The girl stated it was non refundable. We asked to speak to the manager and were told that he was on a conference call. We said we would wait. The manager would not come out. We left and said we would call back.
We called back the following day and first spoke with Bailey. She stated that she told us it was wall to wall carpeting, keep in mind, Maddie had already admitted that her and Bailey had said laminate flooring. We then asked to speak to Maddie as Bailey was accusing us of lying. Maddie said there was nothing she could do and to go to a website to complain. Every complex we have talked to since cannot believe how poor The Lakes Business practices are. Do not rent here! Dirty, old, apartments are rented to you after showing you a beautiful model. Worst of all, illegal sales pitches going on for sure!
To answer to Jane’s response… We were told we were paying $ 100 per month not $ 55. Your team would not refund our $ 70 application fee after admitting that we applied for an apartment that we were not provided with. There is no way we would have paid a $ 70 application fee to apply for the apartment we were ultimately given. Poor, unprofessional business practices all around!

Bailey, Maddie, and Dan really know how to run a professional yet personal business! Friendly service that makes you feel at home before you even move in, I wish I could give 10 STARS they are worth so much more credit than Unilocal could allow me to give! I’m looking forward to calling The Lakes Apartments my new home
–Corinna and Chris

mice mice mice!!!
do not move here, the front office sent critter control to get rid of mice in my apartment and their license expired so they did nothing
they do not reply to request in a timely manner and the manager does not handle any issues that a tenat has.
i have contacted every news station in the area and will be doing every thing i can to get out of this lease. this place is a crap hole.
again do not move here!!!

We have lived here for about a year now, and our experience has been OK.
When we moved in we had signed our lease for one apartment but I guess the previous tenant refused to move on the day she had originally said, so we got placed in a different one. This actually worked better for us, so no complaints there. We were really excited to be moving here because of the indoor pool. My husband is an avid swimmer so this was HUGE for us. Although on the website it says olympic sized, it definately is not. It get’s the job done though. It is very well maintained. The only thing I wish they would do is give a little notice if they are going to be performing some kind of routine maintenance so we don’t walk all the way over there in the cold to find that the hot tub is closed.
Our apartment was updated a few years ago, and our appliances work decently. They aren’t great, but they aren’t horrible either. Whenever we have a problem, maintanence is easy to work with. We have never had any major problems with them.
Because we are on the top floor, we have had a couple of roof leaks. We called the office and they told us maintenence would come the next day to look at it. Kind of a pain, but the leak wasn’t too bad so we just put a bucket under it and cleaned up the puddle that had been accumulating for a couple days without us noticing.
When you move in, you walk through the apartment and note things that are previously damaged, etc. Upon arrival, one of the sliding closet doors did not easily move. You have to actually lift on it and then slide it to get it to move. We tried for a couple months to get them to fix it but they never came.
My biggest complaint (and the reason for 2 stars) is the road noise. Our apartment is right on Cornell so we can hear traffic ²⁴⁄₇. There are no double pained windows in our apartment so we can literally hear everything. There is also a parking lot across the street where some guy likes to park at 6 am, open all of his car doors and blast his rap music for the whole complex to hear. This happens at least once a week. If the management would update the windows, it would solve alot of our problems.
During the winter we couldn’t afford to run our heater (had a $ 300 bill. it was ridiculous) and the double paned windows would have been nice. It was so cold outside and humid in the apartment that we had mold/​mildew on our windows that would not go away. We also would get pools of water on the window sill from this that we could never keep under control. We called management to complain and they said there was nothing they could do about it.
Utilities are billed based on the whole complex’s usage. So if you get a really expensive bill and think you can trim costs by using less water, think again. When they drain out the pool and they have to refill it, guess who has a higher water bill?
There have been several times that cops show up here. I came home one day and they had every entrance blocked off. I also have come home to 6 cops and a swat team lined up on the sidewalk with guns. I know beaverton police can overreact sometimes, but that one I doubt was an overreaction. It is always with the same apartment. I can literally stand in my parking spot and watch all this happen.
The only way I would recommend living here is if they do some more updating, and get better management that will listen to even the minor needs of the tenants. We will be moving at the end of the year to somewhere a little more tenant friendly.

I’ve lived here for a year now and we don’t plan to move if all keeps going as well as it has. The screens on the windows are easily pushed out, as Mike P. said. My cat has pushed out the screens a few times. Our appliances are all brand new; maybe we just got lucky, but they’re all energy saving and superiorly clean. Our carpet is brand new, too. The pool and hot tub are older, but kept a lot cleaner than other apartment complexes I’ve seen. Management is generally very friendly and helpful. The work out room is usually pretty private; the only machine I’ve ever had to wait for is the one eliptical. The grounds are nicely kept and the amount of foilage is fantastic. I don’t hear Cornell/​185^th traffic much as I’m in the back of the complex, right by the little lake. I also haven’t had any problems with my porch being right off the stairs as I’ve had great luck with neighbors. Close to buses, HWY 26, and about a 20 minute walk to the blue line. For the price, I dig it. We also have a fireplace, washer and dryer, and 2 full sized bathrooms. The rooms are nicely sized with a kitchen that can hold quite a few people (bonus!) and tons of storage. I can not and will not ever rent a place with a teeny galley kitchen; it would drive me crazy. The amount of trees around us is great as they block views from neighbors. We do have a lot of spiders, but my cat takes care of most of them. Plus any time you have this much vegitation around you’re going to have some spiders; no ant problems for us.

I’m going to be objective as possible about The Lakes, where I resided for over a year. Apartment websites are full of horror stories and bad ratings from people who wouldn’t be happy anywhere.
Pros:
Location: One block away from Highway 26, a few blocks from 158^th, on 185^th and near Cornelius Pass.
Convenient shopping: There’s a Haggen, Trader Joes, Safeway and Whole Foods within walking distance, 3 Starbucks, a Barnes & Noble and a lot more. Want to live green and reduce your carbon footprint? Live here.
Nice management for the most part. LOTS of storage space. Convenient recycling containers.
Cons:
We personally had ant and spider infestations in the Spring and Fall. The apartments are cheaply equiped with screens that our cats could push out and appliances that were old. Gaps around the windows made it hard to keep warm in the winter. No private balcony, just stairs that lead to your unit. Rather loud with 185^th so close and parking lot so close to the buildings.
If anyone needs any further information and wants an honest assessment, just message me. Thanks