Review for Lafayette Towers Apartments

I'll start off by saying that I'm not the kind of person who rants on everything...I give my opinion, and I try to be honest and nice.

Well, my review is based on 13 months of living there, not the best months I've had.

Where to start...the staff is not the best, especially Nadine in the front office, she's the assistant leasing manager. She is one of the most rudest people I have met, she does not give a you-know-what about you, what it is you need, or what you have to say. She is downright rude, ignorant, and a bitch. She rushes you through what you have to say, she does not follow through with what she says she will do, and she tries her best to ruin your day. Here's a few examples:

Move-out day: It's 8:58am on my phone, so I went into her office to ask her for the elevator key to reserve it for moving. "Oh, I didn't know my sign said I was open," was the first thing out of her mouth, as she looked at her door and then glaring at me. I apologized and told her that I had requested the elevator for the day (she told me the time I had it, 9:00-12:00). She sulked and moaned, got me the got, grumpily told me what to do after I had said I didn't need any assistance. She also told me at that point she would get the key to unlock the second half of the back door.
2 hours later, waiting just to get our large TV into the u-haul, the door is still locked, and no key. My girlfriend went to ask her, all she was doing was playing Solitare in her office. When asked, she said she would do it...alas, still no key. We just moved the tv anyway, a little more of a struggle, but it was done.

This is the story that sticks in my mind the most, since it was most recent. Any time I had to ask her for anything, she pulled her usual moaning and complaining stuff...like she was pissed at your very existence...I swear she's the devil.

During the beginning of the 2009 year, we were granted some uninvited guests...roaches. Turns out, after a talk with some neighbors that we weren't the only ones. I ended up buying a bunch of roach traps for our tiny kitchen, worked a charm, thank god. I noticed then our neighbors also had these traps...you can see them if you peer into their door when you walk by. The building is never sprayed, checked, anything for bugs...the only thing you get done is a filter change for the ancient AC unit, once a year. You can't do it yourself unless you have the right key to unlock it...hope you enjoy multi-colored fungus, because these units get very damp and start growing a new science experiment. Better get the bleach ready.

We had problems with both our neighbors on either side of us. The lady to our left enjoyed "singing" at the top of her lungs from 7am - 1pm to her music...though it sounded like a dying cow...prolonged "ooohohhhhhhahhhuuhooooohhhhh wooahhhh oooooh"'s each morning...not a nice alarm clock. Our other neighbor enjoyed partying until 3am, loud music, loud guests...well he moved out after 2 months of us being there, and a new guy moved in. We think he feasted on human corpses, you could smell his apartment the moment you stepped out of the elevator. If it wasn't corpses, he just enjoyed living in his own feces...that's what it smelled like. No wonder we had roaches, hey?

The area this building is in...what can I say. Norfolk is a dump...there's nice spots engulfed by the ghetto. If you're a local, you will understand...if you're new to the area, stay out of Norfolk. It is not safe. You will hear gunshots plenty of nights, hear of shootings, stabbings, rapes, homicides, car-jackings...you name it. Just check Norfolk's city crime watch... http://www.norfolk.gov/Police/crime_view.asp
Not very assuring. Once the sun is down, you better stay indoors.

There's a hospital a block down the street...so you will hear a LOT of sirens, at least 5 a day. This isn't very comforting either.

Norfolk floods. It really really floods:
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All of these are personal photos...
Make sure you park in the far far back of the back parking lot, because during that same flood, the water was over the curb, and creeping up to the second step of the building in the back. It was that bad. I ended up having to park a few streets back for that.

When Nadine tells you about a "$40" water bill...don't listen to her. They say the water is sub-metered, it's not. We've had some outrageous water bills, one for 80 something, the other for 70 something...we had a 50 dollar bill for December...we were only in the apartment for a week in December...go figure, everyone had family over, more water used, more we pay.

We've seen plenty of rats around the area too, including by the back door, trying to get inside...

The laundry facility is decent, there seems to be a lot of broken machines though. There has also been sever problems with homeless people making their way into the building and stealing clothes from the machines. I'm missing a few things myself.
My girlfriend was also approached by a man telling her that he got a blowjob from a shemale or something...the building is riddled with creeps.

There's plenty of parking though, just remember about the flooding though, several cars have been ruined because of the high water...that's more of a Norfolk problem then the complex problem.

IGNORE THE PICTURES OF INSIDE THE APARTMENTS THIS WEBSITE HOSTS!! There is no swimming pool, there are no stainless steel appliances, and they certainly do not look as nice as those pictures do...whatever complex it is. What a joke.

When we were shown an example of what our apartment would be like...it had a distinct wall between the bedroom and living room. When we got our keys...we were missing that wall...and a kitchen door. When I confronted the staff, the answer I got was "They're discontinued, there's nothing we can do."
Yes, false advertisement...just like what I said about those pictures before this.

The maintenance staff are mostly nice, I've only had a problem with one of them, and I think he's the head of them all. Don't know his name, only guy with gray hair and a pony-tail...he's a douche, has the same attitude that Nadine has. Everyone else was a pleasure, they made sure you felt welcome and taken care of. That also includes the door lady; she was very nice and easy to get along with.

Expect your gas stove pilots to go out regularly...don't know what the issue is with that...air in the lines or something. We've had 2 major problems with this...one of them was where we both woke up in the morning feeling nauseous, light headed, weak...the entire apartment smelt like gas. Pretty dangerous.
The first time we had a problem, we tried calling the emergency contact number for the maintenance staff...we didn't know anything about gas stoves. I got nobody on the line, so I left a message...waited 3 hours, called the fire department to come out and have a look. They tagged the stove as inoperable until fixed by the fire-marshall... apparently there actually was something wrong with it too. An hour after they had left, my maintenance call was returned to a "Oh, sorry, I didn't hear the phone go off." Why call it an emergency?

Wireless is decent to steal :)

The water out front tends to stink several times a year...probably to do with the construction and all of the waste in the water. Not sure though, it can really smell though.

The paint in the apartment cracks a lot, especially on the ceiling...it's peeling and falling apart in multiple areas of the entire apartment... apparently it's lead paint...they give you a "lead paint" book when you get the rest of your stuff. I can't be sure though.

Cats are allowed in this building...no dogs allowed. Of course, that doesn't stop anyone. On our last week, we saw a girl taking her pitbull out, but the dog pissed in the elevator...the next morning it wreaked of ammonia...you'll see a lot of dogs in the building, and hear them, along with all of your neighbors on the same floor.

When we finally left, a weight was lifted from our shoulders, and we feel so much safer than we ever felt there.

I would NOT recommend this complex to anyone...we were both fully dissatisfied with what we got. Not worth your time or effort.
Locate elsewhere, stay away from Norfolk.