Review for Chapel Hill Apartments

lived in chapel hill for 12 months and would like to share my opinion on the place. I know as you read through the reviews, you see a lot of people with bad experiences with this complex. You might also see few good reviews from the management bragging how great the place is. Generally speaking, the vista ridge area is a nice area to be in. Its safer than many places plus a good location (you have the mall, walmart, resturants ... etc). As far as Chapel Hill apts are concerned, I honestly DO NOT recommend the place. I summarize the reasons below: 1) Noisy tenants: you see this point in a couple of reviews. I frequently was woken by drunk tenants who got in a 3a fight in the parking lot. And other times with loud car music late at night. 2) Heavy smoking environment: I couldn't enjoy the patio as much because of this. I had a neighbor who is constantly smoking marijana outside. If you are smoker, do not worry about this issue. 3) Maintanence issues: Many apartments have maintanence challenges, but not like this one. I was one of the lucky ones who did not have a rat nor severe leakage, but if I did, I imagine how upset I will be especially with the slow response time from the maintenance team. I did have some trouble once with a smoke detector which gave false alarm signals, it took them sometime to fix it. The other funny aspect with the maintenance, is that the guys come in like "ghosts" and do not knock the door properly. This was mentioned in a previous review and it is true, so you better close both locks to avoid intrusion !! 4)Management problems: To be fair, the complex has amenities including: gym, pool, white house (resting area), and stuff like that. But unfortunatley, it is poorly managed. The management do not have good judgement and obviously lack problem solving skills. I once had a residual on a payment and was out of town for a week during Christmas. I received a call from the management about the payment and immediately paid it online. (they have an online payment site, w/ 1 or 2$ transaction fee). But when I returned back, I was locked out of my apartment !!! They justified their action with -------- explainations, but when I investigated the issue, they DO NOT have any legal rights to lock you out of your apartment EVEN if you do not pay your rent(which i did). if there is anything you can learn from this review, is DO NOT LET LANDLORDS ABUSE YOU OR SCARE YOU. KNOW YOUR TENANT RIGHTS. Of course, you should pay your rent consistantly, you do not want to get into trouble. But do not fall into their temptations. I also had another issue with them. When I moved out, I was falsefully charged with $400 dollars carpet replace. They sent me black w/white pictures of a dusty footprint on one of the stairs. I know it did not come from me because I ordered a cleaning service few days before I return the keys. This is their way of abusing tenants who are not willing to renew their lease with them. But what ticked me off, is that not only they refused to hand me my deposit, but they also requested an additional charge of $200 dollars to be paid OR THEY WILL SEND IT OVER TO THEIR COLLECTION AGENCY. The moral of the story is: Take pictures of everything and know your rights, this is something I was not aware of. When you sign a lease or leave an apartment, it does not bother to take a couple of pictures of the place so that you can protect yourself. No body has the right to lock you out of your apartment because of late rent (at lease not in the texas property code). I learned a lot of lessons from my stay in chapel hill. Although bad experiences but I hope you do not repeat my mistakes. There are other alternatives if you really want to be in that area. I mean check out the Aby's next street, I had a friend who lives there. There is also a nice complex back of Walmart( Broadstone)