Apartment Reviews for Countryside Estates - Osseo

It's really the perfect apartment you'll never stop judging. It's clear that the owners of this complex care more about filling rooms with tenants than providing a comfortable living space. Inspections and end-of-lease cleanings are merely for a satisfactory rating to continue the status quo of "medium-sized older apartment in great location" without much substance found nor a caring quality staff interested in tenant comfort over their business.

The location is perfect, but the buildings are too old for modern comfort. Crumbling exterior and outdated, strictly regulated interiors. We cannot paint the dingy white walls, the electronic appliances in the kitchen are OLD and junky but in working order, the carpet is old (dirty, patched, stained, uneven, stinky, worn, crusty, etc) and the wood trim is faded. Features have been added and removed over time with much evidence, such as chain locks on doors being gone but the holes proving their prior existence remains, bad patch jobs, paint drips and drops on nearly anything that is normally covered and protected during a painting job. The decks are wobbly, constructed of wood from the initial build and obviously never updated. Floors are SQUEAKY in every room except the tiled bathroom, in which the tiles are heavily discolored, skewing, poorly patched and generally crummy. The water is extremely hard with a bit of a wait for "hot" to get hot and "cold" to get cold. My apartment is on the third floor which is always +10-20 degrees warmer than other floors, but this is typically part of living on upper floors.

Lastly, the security is ****. Not from strangers, there are locks on the main doors as well as locks on your own. I mean the access that the staff has to your apartment is appalling. Maintenance refuses to issue a prior notice for entry into my apartment after a direct, vocal request and continued reminders. If you submit any problems to the office their rationale is via your interaction with them that, "there's an issue, can you fix it?" is an implicit understanding that a worker will enter your residence eventually to assess the situation. This is illegal, so it depends on how much you personally care and how personally willing you are to press them to acknowledge their wrongdoings. For me, I don't have the time to fight them to obey the law and also with the shoddy record this place has already I wouldn't risk ruining my chances to have things repaired.

When I signed my lease it was stated that after the 12 month lease has been fulfilled there is a lease-by-the-month option. Since I was not given a copy of the lease I cannot confirm nor deny this, but once I can I will and if it's true that's the best policy I've ever heard.

*TL;DR* - I enjoy this apartment because of the location, quiet/unobtrusive neighbors, and space. I loathe this apartment because of building quality, its staff, and the current lack of room for improvement in those two categories.

***As of Jan 2012, new windows were installed (took ~3 months to complete, mine were done 2 weeks *after* the expected time frame that they slipped under my door), new decks were 'planned' when my lease was signed summer '11, siding and roofing projects are underway and are a priority over in-home improvements, winter has shown the plowing is a low priority, and many apartment issues I've had have gone long unnattended to during their constant shift of maintenance staff being promoted and hired within the company that owns the complex, VIP Properties, which does ALL ITS OWN work (decks, windows, repairs, roofing) according to staff I've talked to. This is one reason I've been given as to why it takes so long to get things done around here.***