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Since I have finally moved out and got my final bill, I can now fully and without consequences write this review.  This is my first review ever on an apartment complex.  To give you an idea on how picky I am: I have now lived in 4 different apartment complexes, owned by all different owners, gone through 3 floods and fire alarms going off consistently at the other complexes and can honestly state that Cortland is the worst.  I moved to Rialto due to a move from Houston to Dallas, not because I disliked my last apartment complex.

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I have regretted moving to this complex since day one.  If the cost to hire movers was not so expensive I would have moved out in the first 30 days.   

 

First let me explain why I chose Rialto, my former roommate was planning to get a job in Irving and my job was in Plano so we decided to meet half way in Carrollton.  When I looked at the reviews online all I saw were great ratings, not sure how this is possible considering how Cortland treats their residents, but the ratings reassured me to move to Rialto.  If I would have seen one review with what I am going to mention below, I would have never considered moving here. So I am hoping this helps any future apartment hunters.

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Now to explain my experience.  Before moving in I talked with Sara the assistant manager to let her know we required a storage unit due to the fact I have my own washer and dryer and would need to store them because they refused to let me use mine and put theirs in storage.  Sara said getting a storage unit would be no problem, and would add it to the lease.

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I moved in on June 9th with only a car load of items since my job started June 11th.  Then the movers would show up the week of June 23rd with all the other items.  I arrived to get my keys, pay the rent for the month, and sign any additional memorandums needed.  However, they did not have a storage unit for me. I explained to the leasing consultant (I can’t remember her name) this was added to the lease and I would need a storage unit. The consultant stated she is going on vacation but will put a note in my file and they’ll have a storage unit ready for me in the next few days.  I explained this was fine since I wasn’t moving those items in that day. After I leave the temporary leasing office (aka another apartment unit) it turned out my gate remote was not recorded into their system and thus would not work.  So another trip to leasing office to get this fixed instead of being able to move in. A week later after phone calls never returned and emails never addressed I still did not have the keys to a storage unit and the movers were coming in the next few days.  To finally get a storage unit and to have our other apartment problems addressed, we had to threaten that we would use the Cortland 30 day move out policy if the matters were not dealt with.

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What other apartment problems you ask? One night during the first week of staying there I go into the kitchen and turn on the light, and the next thing I know there are MANY black/brown dots moving on Cortland’s pretty gray flooring. Bugs crawling and scattering everywhere once I turned on the light.  I e-mailed the apartment letting them know there is a BAD bug problem and I am requesting a bug extermination service request for my personal unit. Why not submit the service request online? In addition to the leasing consultant not setting up my gate remote correctly, she also forgot to turn on the online feature allowing me to submit service requests online.  The service people came while I was at work so don’t know what all they did, but they left their bug spray on my counter; the container was no bigger than spray paint.  Did this solve the issue? NO. Turns out after me doing some research of my own, these little bugs are German Cockroaches. Now before you say I brought them, recall I was living out of a car load of items and on an air mattress and not using the kitchen, except for water.  So I let Sarah know the spray did not fix the issue.  They came to spray again and again, but it did nothing. Per more research I found out Boric acid kills them, so I went out and paid for it myself and laid the Boric acid throughout the kitchen. We plugged any holes we found in the walls and floorboards between my neighbors and my apartment, and then ate on paper plates and took out the trash every night for 6 months before we finally felt we had killed them all and could live without fear of seeing a roach.

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Next let’s talk about this wonderful gated community.  Gated about a week each month, otherwise one of the gates is constantly broken.  They fix it about once a month and it works for a week and then goes back down. Because of this, you will constantly get Chinese menus on your doors and even a Frontier sells person going door to door to sign-up customers.  In addition, the gym was down for an entire year, so I never even got to use it once.  I understood that they were under construction when I moved in.  However, you can tell this complex is only worried about getting new residents and not keeping the old since their brand-new leasing office is open and is twice the space they needed.  The gym was to be opened a month before I moved out, which is why we all had to get new key fobs. This meant I had a total of 4 keys and 2 fobs which is a pain when a lot of complexes have at max 3.  However, right around the opening date of the gym we get an email going that the building flooded and the opening would have to be postponed.  How did the gym flood, when nothing else in the complex was flooded? That was the only explanation we were given. You have to use Spectrum internet and CoServe electricity.  CoServ is not bad, but for Carrollton being a deregulated city why does Rialto limit you to one provider. Electricity cost me double what I was paying in Houston.  Spectrum was a joke and I had to stop watching Netflix because it couldn’t handle the data download and would constantly buffer. When you pay your rent you can only pay the amount of the bill and not any other amounts when you use their portal.  Since I have used this portal before at another apartment complex I know it’s an option available, but for some reason Rialto won’t let you use it.  This would not be such a bad thing, expect they send out an invoice around the 15th and double bill you for water and trash on the portal.  You ask for it to be fixed and get told that final bills aren’t posted on the portal until the late 20s every month, so you will have to wait until then to schedule your payment.  So you will have to work around their schedule, for you to make a payment.

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Now on to noise.  Since I moved in my below neighbor called me in no less than 3 times for noise complaints.  It would not be such a big deal expect the way that the management treated me.  The first time I let it go because my roommate was moving out, so it was possible we made noise.  The 2nd time was right around the week of September 15th. For a lot of people September 15th would not mean anything, but for tax accountants, which I am, this is a big tax deadline and you are lucky even to make it home during this week. And if you do make it home all you want to do is catch up on your sleep.  So to have my neighbor saying I was playing loud music all during this time was not possible as I was at work. I explained to the manager based on the date there was no way it was me.  Rialto did not listen of course.  Then the lovely neighbor calls management and they send over an off-duty officer that lives on the complex to talk to me.  I explained to him the issues and he told me that this neighbor had the same complaints about the family that lived here before I did.  That the previous family actually moved out of this unit and into another unit at Rialto due to this neighbor’s complaints about noise. So instead of management addressing the issues of a noise sensitive neighbor they will call and bother you and even send an off-duty officer to talk to you about your noise.  I was so fed up with the complex’s management at this time I wrote to the Cortland property owners explaining my issue I got an email from the area manager going I am sorry this is happening, but never a word from the Rialto staff. Luckily after getting in touch with the area manager the phone calls saying my neighbor was complaining about my noise stopped.  Now to the outside noise you hear from your apartment, you are right off 121 so expect to hear a constant humming sound from the freeway no matter the time of day. However, make sure you don’t live on the side of the church if you are a light sleeper, because every Monday and Friday you will be woken up at 5am to a lovely trash truck picking up the church’s dumpster.

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In regards to trash, you are going to pay $25 for valet trash plus another $5-10 for the dumpster they have on the property.  They constantly send out emails going here are the rules on valet trash but no one follows them.  One morning I was going down the stairs to see a raccoon coming up, because one of my neighbors didn’t’ follow the rules, and the Raccoon was attracted to the smell of what was placed in the trash. Plus the Lewisville dump is not far, and here recently if the wind is right you get to smell that wonderful smell every time you got outside.

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The one good thing of this community is that simple service requests for changing lightbulbs and other minor stuff usually gets fixed rather fast.  However, it’s best for you to be home to instruct them. Case in point, I submitted a request for my carport light to be changed since it was out and I was leaving for work about 5 am.  I received an e-mail completion letter stating the light was fix, but it was never fixed.  Not sure what they fixed instead.  

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Now let’s go to these ridiculous move out charges, and yes I have pictures of the apartment for the day I moved in and the day I moved out. But Rialto by Cortland does not care.  I have lived in 4 different apartment complexes and never received move out charges, until Rialto.  I got billed $22 for holes in the wall.  These holes are due to having to put black-out curtains up, otherwise you are looking at paying $150+ a month to cool your apartment. In addition, I had a normal amount of pictures I hung up.    The response I received was that they don’t charge for 10 or less nail holes, but I had upwards of 30.  In addition, they were bigger than a nail hole and so Rialto usually charges $2 for each hole over 10.  So let me explain how ridiculous this is, no where are you told this when you are moved in.  Plus they have your living room setup so that you can mount your TV. I don’t know anyone that is mounting a TV with nails.  The next fee I got billed for was carpet cleaning, because they will only pay for $17.00 for the carpet to be cleaned and based on an estimate, that states they are going to have to buff my carpet, it was going to cost more than $17 to clean my carpet.  First I have never heard of buffing a carpet, but maybe it’s legit. My issue is, I doubt unless you are paying to get the carpet cleaned yourself before you move out, cleaning a carpet will cost more than a $17 dollar bill.  In addition, Rialto by Cortland felt it was okay to send my new address and the closing statement to my former roommate that was no longer on the lease during the move out. I’m not an expert on laws for apartments, but you just violated my privacy.

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Yes, I have listed all the reasons why not to rent from Rialto by Cortland.  However, I have visited other locations owned by Cortland and actually have a friend living at another complex owned by Cortland.  The friend might not have the noise or neighbor issues I have had, but they have had other similar issues with Cortland.  My friend’s Cortland apartment has had their gate down multiple times, swimming pool was down for repair right before Memorial day and was never told it was back up, and of course they have had bugs. For being charged a pest fee you should not see any if they did what they said.  The friend cannot pay their rent until the 28th because the water and trash does not get posted until this time. 

 

Summary of the above: do NOT rent from Cortland, especially Rialto in Carrollton, Texas.