Review for Meadowview Apartments

For Franklin, Tennessee, the rent is relatively cheap and the location good, but Meadowview should be a place of last resort. If you can afford to do better, respect yourself and your quality of life enough to do so. The phrase You get what you pay for applies, although that is less and less the case as the rent continues to rise. Meadowview is probably not the worst place in town to live, but its standards are diminishing.

Maintenance is spotty and often ineffective. A good example is the leak that I lived with in the upstairs bathroom whenever it rained hard or for an extended period. I made multiple calls, including one to the property owner himself, but the repair strategy was always the same: Treat the symptom, not the cause. The ceiling would be caulked each time, in other words, and the roof was never even examined. The drywall was in horrible shape, crumbling and bubbling, yet the root problem was never addressed. The buildings in this complex are not new by any means, so I can only assume that similar problems are occurring in other units and being addressed in the same manner.

The lease is poorly enforced on a day to day basis. Depending on where you live in the complex, small block or sidewalk parties and public intoxication can be a problem periodically, as can parking, and in both cases usually at night. Parking spaces are not reserved, so the family with only one or two cars can find themselves forced out when the family with three vehicles and one or more guests chooses not to recognize and respect their neighbors.

The grounds are generally kept in good condition. However, when exiting tenants discard furniture on the ground near dumpsters, it can sometimes remain for days at a time. Likewise, while cleaned regularly during my first year in residence, the on-site laundry room suffers more and more from neglect and misuse. Machines were often filled with debris from construction workersgravel and dirt. And machines needing maintenance would sometimes be unavailable for more than a week. The facility is small, only six washers and six dryers, and tenants from neighboring complexes also used the machines, so a single out of order machine could cause a serious dilemma for someone preparing for the work week.

Tenant screening is also an issue. There are some very nice, very respectful tenants at Meadowview with a variety of backgrounds. That said, I have had firsthand exposure to tenants with drug issues (both use and sale on the premises), as well as tenants who fight, play excessively loud music from their vehicles, and generally make their presence known in ways that the lease makes clear are unacceptable. Evictions do occur, but evictions wouldnt have to occur if new tenants were better screened and the grounds better policed. My first year at Meadowview was relatively problem free, then the bottom fell out, and in nearly every case my problems could be attributed to another tenant in gross violation of the lease. I grew so tired of this that I simply made the decision to leave and stopped complaining altogether.

My advice: Think twice. If you can afford to spend a little more somewhere else, treat yourself. I got my finances in order while living at Meadowview, but I paid a different kind of price, and I would never recommend Meadowview to anyone I cared about.