Apartment Review for Laurel Valley Apartments

We looked at apartment all over Oakland and Macomb counties. In the end, this place seemed to have all we were looking for.
Surely enough, we quickly found out that noise was a big issue with one neighbor snoring so loud he would wake us up every other night (this is how thin the walls really are), and the other neighbors next door and below us constantly getting on our nerves playing their loud stereo or TV. As much as these people were inconsiderate, the walls were not adequate as we could hear conversations.
Another big issue for us was smells. With individual entrances you would imagine smells are not going to be as bad as with shared hallways, but we found out that cooking smells were quick to come through pipe holes in the walls.
Baking soda seemed to help some, but when you have neighbors cooking spicy food, forget about it.

The grounds are very well kept and this is one thing that lured us. This and the tennis courts for which the nets took forever to arrive, and the pools that are open only every so often. Interesting thing with the pools is that although pool passes are theoretically required, there was no one to enforce any rules and we had all the squatters from the neighborhood be there constantly, including people from adjacent trailer parks....

Why pay so much money for features you do not get to enjoy?

But what really took the prize for me is the incompetence of the staff. Maintenance people were overall very nice, although they are hard to get. The front office managed to be reluctant replacing our old washer when it completely broke down...so much for customer satisfaction.
But what really drove me crazy is their renovation policy where they decide to sacrifice the well being of tenants for the benefit of renovating and increasing rents.
When some of the neighbors moved out, renovation work outsourced to outside contractors started. While the contractors worked all kinds of hours and as they pleased (including starting at 5 AM and banging the walls, including saturdays and sundays), it took three formal complaints on my part for someone from the staff to look into this issue. By the time they looked into it, the work was done!

Finally this is not a safe place. They have a gate but it does not do much. There used to be an older lady that was just there to wave to you as you drove through the constantly open gates. Since a girl got assaulted into her apartment, taken to an ATM to give the robber money before being taken back home and getting tied down (this was reported in the local news by the way), they replace the old lady with some actual guards who are only working from like 8PM until maybe 4AM and end up letting everyone and anyone in anyway.

All in all, this ended up being a bad experience and definitely not worth the money I spent on the rent. Any rating that would say otherwise would make me question the testimonial.

Anyway, I would never recommend this complex to anyone, because even if noise and smell can be expected in apartments, incompetent staff should not be the rule.