Apartment Review for The Ohio Stater (Inn Town Homes) - Columbus, OH

My boyfriend and I both rented apartments here during 2006-2007. To put it nicely, it was a dump. The parking was horrible. There were three floors, but we could only park on the top two. Apparently management sold more passes than there were spaces and there was never any parking, so people would park at the top of the ramps. This also meant we had to park down at Gateway parking, because they will tow you if you aren't in an assignment spot or park in the managers parking or in front of the building. So on top of $30 a month for parking, we had to pay to park at gateway overnight and walk back to our apartments. Eventually they added parking on the bottom floor, but this isn't really the best place to park as people like to congregate on the bottom floor of the the garage at 3am and spill beer on your car and leave broken bottles all over the floor. They also find it fun to scream loudly, so hope to God you don't have any early classes or exams. Might I also add that the garage is so narrow you have to do a 2 point turn to get around corners (and I drive a fairly small car). There is also a senile old man who will back out of his spot until he hits a car, pull forward, turn, and back up until he hits it again. He repeats this procedure until he is finally out of his parking spot. And winter??? Well, when we asked the woman in the office to do something about the (literally) foot and a half of snow and ice on the top floor (the only spot with open spaces) she said "well, there really isn't any place for it to go... can you maybe use your foot to kick it out of the way?" Great idea... I'll kick 18" of snow out of the way. Cars are regularly broken into. One car had its windows busted out toward the beginning of the year (it sat in the same spot all year, and the glass was never cleaned up) My boyfriend once came home from work at 3am just as the police were arriving because a bunch of vandals were spray painting random cars in the garage. Management of course did nothing. One of the cops actually told him this was the place they got the most calls to in the campus area. And now on to the apartment... Well, mine always smelled like cigarette smoke (I don't smoke, neither do any of my friends so it obviously wasn't me). My boyfriend had a total of two outlets in his room... Try to use a toaster and a microwave at the same time and your fuse will blow. The management refused to turn on the ac when it was about 80 outside and even hotter in our 20'x12' apartments. The articulate manager again had an explanation... "it's inconvenient to turn the air on and off, and this is Ohio. It will probably cool down again." Well they finally did turn the air on... only to turn it off again because they claimed it was broken (it was on again a day later) they claimed to have ordered a new ac unit which would arrive and be installed in approximately 2 months (mid June when most students are moving out)!!! On top of all this, there was a homeless man who regularly roamed the halls and a drunk man who routinely slept in the lobby or or in front of the stair well. We have finally moved out (thank god) and are now facing the deposit nightmare. We each paid $275 in deposits. The rooms were cleaner than when we had moved in. (We told them the day we would be moving in and when we arrived the had not cleaned our rooms, they sent someone to start after we started moving in, but I dusted, vacuumed and scrubbed my own and my boyfriends upon move-in) So when we moved out I spent 2 or 3 days scrubbing these apartments and I got 120 of my deposit while my boyfriend got 165. They claim I did not vacuum my carpet ($20). I did, in fact I left their sweeper sitting in my room as the office was closed when I went to return it. They didn't charge my boyfriend for sweeping his carpet even though mine was cleaner than his and I had swept both rooms several times. We both got charged $50 for what they claim to be dirty walls (I cleaned the walls thoroughly) and where also charged 60 a piece to clean the carpet. There was a large stain on his carpet when he moved in for which they are charging us. My carpet was spotless as we always ate in my boyfriend's room and there was never any food or anything in my room which could have stained the carpet. The are also charging me for the bathroom not being clean, although I scrubbed it several times. The only thing I can figure is they are charging me for the grout between the tiles which was black from dirt when I moved in and so disgusting I put a rug in the bathroom to avoid touching the floors. All in all, the place is dirty and gross and not terribly safe. The only benefit is that it is close to campus. The rent is obscenely high (Mine was 530 a month for a room that was 9'x13'). And management will avoid as much work as possible... unless this work involves scamming you out of deposits. Save yourself the trouble and find someplace else... anyplace else!