Apartment Reviews for Malta Pointe - Mechanicville

I lived at Malta Pointe for 2 years and had a mixed experience. Nothing is all good or bad when dealing with apartment living. So here it is:

The good:

-The rent is relatively cheap for the area and the location is pretty good since you are close to Route 9 and the Northway. It takes about 15 minutes to get to Saratoga or Clifton Park and 35 minutes to get to Albany in traffic.

-If you are a single person or a couple and don't have allot of stuff, the apartments are an okay size.

-Parking was pretty good and there never seemed to be an issue getting a spot to park despite the fact that several people definitely had more than the two vehicle limit.

-My particular apartment was in a fairly quiet area and I had a nice view of the little pond out back.

-Whenever I had issues with anything in my apartment, the maintenance guys came within a day or so and fixed it right the first time. I also noticed that this years the walks were always very well salted and shoveled.

-Despite the fact that there were often lots of kids hanging around, I never had any packages stolen, break-ins, or other issues.

-I don't know what type of apartment the other person had, but in a two bedroom downstairs (not on the end), my utilities were dirt cheap compared to what they were at Strawberry Ridge and I keep it WARM in the winter (like 75) and in the summer I was running two window A/C units.

The bad:

- When I moved it, there were some deficiencies in the apartment. The carpets were all ratty and worn. They were so mashed down that vacuuming them didn't even leave tracks. There were a few cigarette burns as well. The refrigerator was so old and scratched up and it looked like someone had used it as a bullet shield during WWI.

The apartment was not at very clean when it was turned over to me and I had to waste a day scrubbing the refrigerator. There was even some crusted green stuff inside the butter dish area. Bathroom counters were stained.

A large chunk was also missing from my front door, lower bottom corner where the previous residence had cut it out in order to use a satellite TV dish and run the cable for it in through the hole they put in the front door...They did replace my door after about a month, but they never did paint it, restore more doorbell or peep hole.

- The first year I lived there, we had a ton of snow and often it was late in the morning before the parking lots were plowed effectively enough to get out. This year as I mentioned it was better - but then we didn't have hardly any snow.

- There was also a problem that year with snow mobilers who should not have been riding on the property that were using the pond and the area around it as a racetrack. Unfortunately, these people in addition to having no respect for private property, also had no respect for the fact that they were riding 3 feet away from people's bedroom windows at all hours of the night creating noise and horrible fumes inside the apartment. Police had to be called. The office was supportive, but little help since they were not there at night when this was happening.

-My upstairs neighbor was fairly quiet as far as walking around and other stuff, I didn't have too many issues. They did seem to let allot of trash blow off their balcony and it was very annoying. They were also caught on multiple occasions USING the large gas grill they were storing on their wooden balcony and the office said they would put a letter on their door, but that had no effect on the problem.

-Another huge issue that the office would just leave notes for was people that rudely did not pick up their dog's waste. You could definitely not walk across the grass without seeing at least a few piles. In one case, my next door neighbor and a guy in another building were acting tying their dogs outside their door and letting them do their business right on the lawn in front of people's doors. The people next to me were not cleaning it up and I noticed it one day when the snow began to melt and I saw no less than 30 piles of dog waste in the area between my patio and his - right where the meters were for the utilities too.... Charming.

-Closet space was kind of a joke. There were only 4 closets in the two bedroom apartment. A coat closet, a small linen closet and one non-walk in closet in each bedroom. The closet in the bigger bedroom was half filled by the furnace and hot water tank.

-Hordes of unattended kids of all ages allowed to freely roam the complex at all hours. I can't blame the office staff really as this is something the parents should have stopped. I really got tired of having anywhere from 5-10 kids hanging around a few feet from my front door all the time. I felt that I could not even go outside to use my gas grill without having these kids in my face. Not that they were bad kids, but really they should not be allowed to just hang out like that in front of people's doors.

They also would often be using the concrete walkway as a place to throw footballs and would not get out of your way when you were trying to carry heavy bags of groceries. I don't blame the kids for their poor manners as the parents would often be sitting or standing nearby and not tell their kid to move either. Keep in mind that the kids had an entire lawn to play on (though maybe they didn't want to because of all of the horrible dog owners that never cleaned up after their pets). There was also a basketball/tennis court across the street that should have been used for kids playing and not in front of people's doors and the sidewalk.

-Although, I didn't feel horribly unsafe, I also didn't feel all that safe if I came home when it was dark. There is no lighting at all in the parking lots. I always left my outside light on if I knew I was coming home after dark. The number of teens lurking around and the long unlit path from the dark parking lot to my door was a nerve wracking trip at times.

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To sum up - As far as my stay here, the most unpleasant aspects had nothing to do with the apartments themselves, the office staff, or maintenance, but rather rude and annoying people that live in these apartments. That being said, when you live in apartments, it is really a roll of the dice and you just have to hope that your neighbors are not inconsiderate or disgusting. Although every apartment supposedly has rules, I have lived in a few places and very rarely do you ever see anything done to people who cause problems as long as they are pay8ing rent.

The apartment itself is okay. Its affordable and not a bad apartment and floor plan. If you are mostly going to stay inside your apartment and don't need amenities, its really not too bad. I would have probably renewed except that I am moving in with my boyfriend and we need a place that has a bit more room and closet space for the two of us. I'm glad to be leaving, but it is mostly because of the rude neighbors and roaming teens than the actual apartment and staff.