Apartment Reviews for Copper Beech - Columbia

I have lived at Copper Beech for the past 3 years (2009-2011) and I have had good and bad experiences. The apartments are very spacious, but sometimes I feel as if they are a bit too spacious. There is way more room than you need. This may seem great at first, but it just leads to a bigger mess to clean up. The bathrooms are small and cramped. They do have a furnished package at a reasonable price, but the downside is that the chairs and coffee table are not manufactured very well. I have lived in two different apartments in the complex, and the parking at my current apartment is great. On the other hand, the parking was nonexistent on the other end of the complex where I lived previously. The internet is very slow, and goes out a lot. When it goes out and you call the office to report it, they will take forever to come fix it. The last time our internet went out the management staff was very rude to my roommate who called to report it. My roommate was in the middle of an assignment for class and needed the internet fixed right away. The maintenance men are all very nice, but sometimes it can take forever to get a maintenance request taken care of. There have been numerous times when all of the roommates would have to call to complain before the request was taken seriously. The pool and clubhouse are both very nice, so no complaints there. The gates are another issue entirely. One of the major selling points for me when I was deciding on an apartment was that it was gated. As I stated previously, I have lived here for 3 years, and the gates have MAYBE been closed a total of 4 months in 3 years! My car was broken into and my iPod and GPS were stolen last year. When it is time to move out, or move to another apartment in the complex, they will not give you your security deposit back unless the apartment looks better than it did when you moved in. They invent ridiculous charges for things like a light bulb being out. The management team only cares about you if you are signing a lease. Once they have you on a lease they completely stop trying. This last year I am in a four bedroom apartment, and we had some major issues with one of our roommates. The management staff only made this worse. Our roommate would refuse to pay rent some months, and the management staff would constantly call the roommates who had paid their rent and threaten to turn us over to collections. I understand that you take a chance when you sign a joint lease, but come on they knew which roommate was not paying rent. They also knew about the situation and did nothing to help ease our troubles. Also, this roommate took the electricity out of her name without telling us. The management staff tried to charge us a $100 fee for the electricity being in their name for one week. Keep in mind that the electricty being switched into their name costs them NOTHING, because we still paid the electric bill. As soon as we were aware of this we called the electricity company and switched the electricity back in our names. There was no warning from Copper Beech informing us of the switch, but they just sent a letter stating we owed them $100 and if we did not have the electricity back in one of our names by 5pm that afternoon there was going to be another fee. I will say that once I spoke to the property manager directly and complained about this fee she waived it. The noise level can be a problem on Thursday nights and the weekend which is understandable considering it is a college community. However, this noise is sometimes outrageous and nothing is done about it. I graduated from college during my last year at Copper Beech and am now working full time. This noise level has kept me up many nights, especially in the summer months. Over the past 3 years I have had good times and bad times at Copper Beech, but looking back on it I would have to say it is not worth it. They will put on a sweet face and treat you like gold if you are considering moving there, but once they have you that all changes. I am finally moving out this weekend and could not be happier. If you are planning on living here be sure that you know each of your roommates very well to avoid any issues. Also keep in mind that even though it is advertised as a "gated" community, the gates never work. Good luck!