The Berkeley At Southpoint

Since I lived here for a short time I can tell you the place is ran horrably. Had many peoblems with management. As my neighbors also had problems.

DO NOT MOVE THE BERKELEY AT SOUTHPOINT! MANAGEMENT IS HORRIBLE! Let my story be a lesson to you not to move in! When I moved in, I was told that it was ok to have Direct TV, I asked will I need to remove the dish when I move? The management at the time said no! Also, I had a washer and dryer in my apartment, the old management said I will not be charged because it was part of the sublease. So management changes, and I am unaware of all these new changes. When I informed that I was moving out, and asked someone to come view the apartment no one came. So I receive my security deposit check back and bill statement. There is a satellite dish charge-​$ 25 dollars (the original management never stayed I needed to take that off)
Miscellaneous Balance-​$ 100.83-The washer and dryer charge because all of sudden, they realize that I was not charged. Previously, I called Christine about my security deposit and she never stated or even broken down the charges when she was the one who checked the ledger. Bottom-​line, DO NOT LIVE HERE! Management will charge you for things that they find. I would never recommend this place to anyone!

I lived at the Berkeley at Southpoint apartment for two years. The customer service at the office was okay, but frequently maintenance would not clean up after finishing a job. The BIG problem came a month after I moved out of the apartment complex. I received a 2 line bill for approximately $ 1000 for carpet replacement. I called and spoke with Jeremy and Kristin Fanego (property manager) and requested a detail bill from a carpet company. Kristin would only send me recommendations from carpet cleaning companies. So again, I requested a detailed bill and Kristin said she would send me a bill via email. Never received a bill. My dad called Kristin asking for a detailed bill. Again, no detailed bill. The due date was approaching, so I paid the fee without receiving the detailed bill.
After paying the bill, I emailed Kristin asking her to send me an E-​receipt. No response and no receipt.
At this point, I have no proof the carpet was changed.
If you decide to move here, please do a walk through with the property manager before moving out. If not, you will get hit with charges.

I lived at the Berkeleys at Southpoint for the past six years, and when I first moved in, the place was great. The staff was awesome, and the maintenance guys were top notch. But over the past few years, the quality of the staff and the maintenance has dropped off.
For example, I complained about our air filtration system within the A/​C unit numerous times, which had a slimy green and white substance growing in the inner metal intake vent, and nothing was ever done about it. Moreover, they used to replace the filter twice a year, but after a few years, they stopped completely, and I had to start doing it myself in order to keep my apartment breathable.
The bad stuff didn’t really start happening until very recently, however, upon moving out. I’ve now been gone since June, and was forced to pay my rent until the end of my lease in early August. I was told that they would try to sell the apartment before then to save me the rent for when I wouldn’t be in the apartment, but that was obviously a blatant lie, since it was their only open ground floor apartment through the busy season. I even sent a friend posing as a customer over to the apartment complex to ask if they had any ground floor apartments open in July and the staff told them no! Basically, they were just going to sit on the apartment until they milked me out of all the money they could, because there is absolutely no cancellation clause in the lease whatsoever. And of course, it was rented a couple of days after my lease was up.
Also, in the weeks before I left, the apartment next door to mine got broken into. This complex is gated, but not during the day, and so the apartments in the corners regularly get broken into during broad daylight. I didn’t find this out until right before I left, so I was quite happy to leave. Moreover, the couple that had their place broken into was initially told they would be able to move to another floor in another building to feel more safe… but during the commotion of the police being there and the maintenance man having to come and replace their porch door, their scared dog peed on the floor. And although the maintenance man said he «wouldn’t rat them out», the apartment management notified them in the next couple of days that they were not allowed to move from that apartment because of «pet damage».
And now that I am out, I have been told that I will be receiving a bill for my own «pet damage» to the apartment floor, since they need to «re-​seal» the concrete slab underneath the carpet, when there is clearly no need to «seal» a slab subfloor. And they won’t even let you know the charges or an estimate until 30 days after the lease is up, because of «company policy», a clear attempt to make it so you can’t argue the charges as they occur.
In conclusion, the management of this place has become beyond slimy, which is a shame because the staff when I got there was quite kind. And their pet policies are driven solely by attempts to drain money out of the customer when no wrong has been done. All pets have accidents from time to time, just like tenants sometimes spill things or get sick, it’s not like we were crazy tenants who damaged the place with no regard. We actually spackled and sanded the walls before we left, and made a good faith effort to keep the place nice after our six years there. But the management is making us pay as if we trashed the place.
Moreover, this apartment complex is simply not safe anymore, the management tries to hide it, but apartment and car break-​ins happen continuously. In short, you don’t wanna be here, it seems like a beautiful and spacious place for the value, but trust me, you’ll pay for it in stolen property, broken out windows, and hidden bills tacked onto the end of your stay when all is said and done.

Following up a few years after the fact: we moved out of the Berkeley in September 2010. No one mentioned needing to do a walk through of our apartment with us, so we didn’t request one. I was by the office several times during the day of our move, so there was plenty of opportunity for the office staff to mention this to me.
We lived in our apartment for five years. Our dog, who passed away at age 18 just a month before we moved out, was incontinent in the last months of his life, and had accidentally urinated on the carpet. I told the office about this, and they said that since we’d been in the apartment so long, they’d be replacing the carpet anyway, so I didn’t worry too much.
When we moved out, they nickel and dimed us for every little thing. They charged us for an entire new carpet. They approached my husband after we moved out and said, not only did we lose our entire deposit, but we also owed them $ 500+ for said carpet replacement, plus changing some of the fixtures, cleaning, painting, etc., and a burn on the bathroom counter that had been there when we moved in. We certainly could have done a better job of fixing up the place before we moved out (we didn’t scrub every little cranny, didn’t repaint, etc., but we’re tidy people, so I didn’t think it was necessary), but I expected our deposit to more than cover everything. Other than the pet-​stained carpet, the place was not in bad condition by any stretch.
Part of the reason we didn’t spend time making sure the empty apartment was immaculate was because it was just Al and I alone moving all of our stuff across town. We busted our butts, but it still took us eight solid hours to do it. This whole time the Berkeley office staff kept acting concerned and a little irritated that we weren’t moving out quickly enough. Apparently they’d promised our apartment to a new tenant — who, strangely enough, came by to introduce herself as we were moving out our things — and needed us out of the place ASAP. (I was irritated that they considered this my problem!) If I hadn’t been rushed out of the space, I certainly would have spent more time cleaning and painting, etc.
And I really would have appreciated a walk through after we’d cleared out all our stuff. I am frustrated that we were entitled to it, but it was never offered to us. My husband paid them, and I’m not sure what happened next, but apparently he didn’t pay them enough. We had no idea and went on about our lives in our lovely new place.
Then in March 2012 (sixteen months after we had moved out), I got an odd voice mail message from someone at a legal firm in Raleigh. I thought for sure it was a scam, but then my mom called, nervous because «my» lawyer had called my dad at work. I called the office back — incidentally, they say «hello?» when they answer the phone, which strengthened my assumption that they were scammers — and was transferred to the voice mail of the man who had called me earlier. I left a message and was called back a few hours later. Turns out he was a debt collector! They had my dad’s number because he was our emergency contact on the lease.
We called the Berkeley to verify the information and, yes, their records showed that we were delinquent. I just couldn’t believe that they had sent our account to a debt collector who threatened to ruin our credit scores and make it impossible for us to ever rent again, particularly since they had both of our cell phone numbers and our new address. They couldn’t have been bothered to call or write? It’s just frustrating and offensive for us, who had been great tenants for five years, to have been treated like deadbeats!