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September 2024 by Michael Manfredo
My daughter lived at Lark in the Woods for several years. The apartment complex is deceivingly appealing from the outside. Inside they are spacious and apparently well cared for. DO NOT LET THIS FOOL YOU!!!!!!!! The management is terrible. The service is unresponsive and when they finally do show up the problem is seldom recified permanently. Their business paractices are questionable at best and unfair at a minimum. They charge for incremental fees with no justification other than their word and if you do not pay threaten to send it to collections without any desire to accomodate disputes. I would find a different place to live to avoid potential frustrations.
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August 2024 by Mariah M
Today is August 14, 2024 and my move in date was August 13, 2024. I’m writing this review since first impressions are strong and the staff has already left a bad taste in my mouth.
When in the process of signing your lease for Lark in The Woods, they send an email with options on how you would like to financially qualify: self qualify, deferred rent, or having a guarantor. I chose to “self qualify” since I have my own source of income and I was told to send my paystubs to their email address. After sending my paystubs, I haven’t received a response which resulted in me reaching out to them through phone call (which they never answer) and Instagram DM’s. Finally someone responded on April 10th through instagram DM(which I now know was Eric), that someone is “still working on this for you” then finally my lease was signed on April 11th by myself and Eric Burton (the manager or whatever his title is)
On August 13 2024 (my move in day), I came to the lease office to collect my keys. On my resident portal it says we are required to pay our first months rent plus a $200 administrative fee (total would be $1099 for 2 bedroom) which I have already paid. Upon waiting for my keys, one of the staff tells me, “did you know you’re supposed to pay first months and last months rent?” And I told them NO because on my resident portal it shows that I was supposed to pay $889 (rent) and $200 admin fee prior to moving in (which was $1099 as you can see in the photo attached). No one told me about paying last months rent. Eric (the one who signed my lease) came into the office to talk to me about it and was telling me “there was miscommunication somewhere and we don’t know why the last months rent wasn’t added to your balance”. How does someone possibly not add a $889 fee for July onto my balance for 5 months?
Why did I have to find out on move in day that I OWE money that was never communicated to me or added onto my account in the past 5 months of my lease already being signed?
if I had known this in advance, I would have paid a long time ago. I contacted Verizon (my phone carrier) to obtain my phone records because Eric said he called me and communicated that with me however, lord and behold, according to my phone records that I got from Verizon. Lark in The Woods never called me from the moment I sent my paystubs on April 8th 2024, sending them another email reminding them I sent my paystubs on August 10, 2024, them responding through instagram DM that they’re “still working on this for me” to my move in date on August 13, my phone records don’t show any records that Eric claims he called me, even though he tried to gaslight me in the office and say that he did, I now have a physical copy of my phone records that show he in fact did not. Even in the screenshot of my instagram DM to lark in the woods I said “I don’t know how to get anyone on the phone” because they literally NEVER ANSWER.
Needless to say, everyone please keep record of everything. Voice recordings, video recordings, emails, phone records because after only being here for a day, the staff seems to be liars and lazy in their work and not properly check who needs to be billed for what and for how much. Instead of taking accountability, they tried to gaslight me into saying that they informed me of this by calling me when clearly they did not because their phone number is not on my phone records of them claiming that they called me at any point from April 8- August 13. I have the proof and the recordings that I need in case this does come up again.
I will continue to make reviews during my stay as I am here for 1 year and we will see my stay plays out. So far, after being here for day, they have left a terrible first impression. To anyone that already lives here and are looking at reviews, do not be afraid to speak up about anything because this is also your home. If staff is being rude and lying about things that is affecting you then you have the right to speak
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August 2024 by Errence Wilson
I stayed here for half a year 2023 and I enjoyed my stay. Never too much going on and felt safe! I definitely recommend.
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August 2024 by Alyssa Preece
The gate is constantly broken. They have a courtesy officer but when a man was actively breaking into apartments, he wasn’t answering the phone so the Tuscaloosa PD had to respond, while the man continued to break into apartments for 20-30 minutes. You have to put in a maintenance request about 3 times before they finally do it, because the first couple times they just mark it done without actually coming to do anything. They charged me for mold on moving out even though I cleaned it several times and it just grows back in a couple of days. The pool is really disgusting and doesn’t get taken care of, and was drained for the first month of summer. Every inch of the grass is covered in dog poop. The management is very unhelpful. The water smells and tastes terrible, even after it goes through the Brita filter. The price continually goes up every year for continually worsening amenities. I really wouldn’t recommend living here.
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August 2024 by Alan de falchi
Lark in the woods is the best place to live in town if you talking about cost/benefits. Property Management works really quick to attend any of your needs. I would definitely consider here as your place to live if you’re moving into town.
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July 2024 by Brielle.Z
0/10. Unprofessional staff, multiple incidents happening within a year, gates never work, and overall the appliances in the apartments are cheaply made. Every month something new in the apartment messes up and it takes maintenance forever to fix anything! On top of that, they don’t have any cameras in their “gated” community. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to stay here. You will run into multiple problems.
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May 2024 by Brae Lee Morris
The apartment doesn’t follow through on quite a lot that it advertises. The gate barely works (has worked for about 2 weeks in 2024, it is mid April), so it is not a gated community. The pool has been closed due to “repairs” for the past few months with no estimation on when it will be working. The manager doesn’t seem to care when residents have problems. They advertise having cameras, but there are not any on the buildings (at least that work).
I have lived here less than a year and we have had several crimes. We had one shooting and one man unlawfully entering several apartments (photo from ring camera an individual owned).
They raised my rent over $125 per month to live her next year, so I am moving.
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May 2024 by Alex B
I'd give 0 stars if I could. There has been 3 major incidences in the last 2.5 years. From everyone that I heard of, all of the washers are moldy, and lark refuses to replace them. The pool and hot tub have not been working for a month (since before spring break). The mail room has been under maintenance for the entire school year. The movie room has been under maintenance for months. The study room has been under maintenance for 3 months. All of the staircases are dirty and smelly. The exterior of buildings are dirty. Work orders are done pretty slowly, but that is mainly due to Lark management only having one person fixing everything (when they used to have 2 workers). This place is rather unsafe. They increased my rent too, which really sucks.
They have a good gym.
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May 2024 by Emily Hultquist
I have lived at Lark in the woods for less than a year. Since I have moved in, I have been extremely disappointed with the conditions, the property, and the management. When I toured the property before signing my lease, I was promised many things by management that have not once been upheld. I was lied to about how I would move into an environment that would be cleaned and inspected upon arrival (I was told the carpets would be professionally cleaned, the bathroom cleaned, as well as the walls painted and damage fixed…I was also told that I would be given the opportunity to inspect and request more cleaning if needed), multiple working amenities, and a safe environment.
The staff and management is incredibly rude and they would rather focus on an Instagram post than fixing the mold situation in all the apartments. They have no idea what they are doing, leave work early and get there late, and laugh when you struggle to live in an unsafe environment.
When I moved in, there was not a single promise kept. I was not provided a room key for a week, a mail key for 2 months, mold was found in the washer and air vents (and to this day nothing has been done about it), the gates have not worked, we went without furniture for three months (and when provided with some was give old furniture that had broken pieces, brown stains, and dirt, bugs, and webs, as well as an outdated television compared to other residents), have had limited access to the pool and mailroom, and most importantly have had 3 major safety concerns. The rent increases even though the value of this property is declining at a fast rate.
In regards to the safety concerns, the property and management has done a terrible job of keeping us safe. They claim that they increased our rent due to increased security and amenity value. However, they fail to give us access to the officer on site, have no surveillance cameras, gates that do not work at both the entrance and pool/amenities, as well as lack of truthful communications of the incidents that occur. There have been break-ins, shots, and stabbings all of which were lied about. There is absolutely no reason that the residents should have a ring camera video as proof of their lies.
Residents have come together, multiple reported having mold in their washer, in their vents, on their walls and or ceilinsg. Management and maintenance are unwilling to do anything besides wipe it with a wash cloth. The mold smells disgusting, we are constantly sick, and grows back worse each time.
I strongly urge you to not stay here because this complex is unsafe, management sucks, and the apartments are full of mold, saftey hazards, and fire hazards.
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May 2024 by Erica Manfredo
It is very unfortunate that I have to leave this review. Before the new management, it would've been a solid 5 starts. The new management has brought nothing to the table. They don't really know what they're doing, and do not take responsibility for anything. They would rather post on instagram to get people to sign leases than fix actual issues of existing residents. The community is described as "gated" but I'd use that term loosely considering at least one of the gates is always broken and left wide open for anyone to drive in, and that is exactly what happens.
In this past year alone there have been 2 guns discharged in the parking lot, and a string of break-ins as recent as 4/14/24, all by people who do NOT live here. After these incidents is when the gates get fixed, but usually break within a week. According to them the gates get "struck by lightning", but are never in any rush to fix them until something violent happens. It is also extremely hard to reach our on site officer because they change the phones to an AI person, and there just is no way to get in contact with anyone.
Ever since I have lived here we have had mold in our washing machine, and they keep gaslighting us telling us that its a stain....it is in fact NOT a stain, it stinks, and we do everything we possibly can to clean it ourselves but it always comes back since it has completely infiltrated our machine. They just keep sending the poor maintenance guy to bleach it, but it needs to just be replaced and they will not do it. The property manager claims she oversees all maintenance requests but still was 'unaware' of these issues of mold that a majority of the unites have in their washers, a little contradictory. Rent is just way too high to be dealing with these issues
The pool has been drained an completely useless for over a month now, as well as other amenities within the clubhouse that are under construction and current serve us no purpose, reminder we pay for all of this and it is not in working order. Since many residents banned together and complained we are now finally seeing some progress made on the pool being cleaned and fixed.
I am not living here next year (thank god), but im sorry to whoever is. If they can get their act together and listen/act on residents complaints and issues, then maybe ill change my review, but as it stands. Do not live here.
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August 2023 by Teresa Oliver
Antonio Andrews is a manager at Lark, he is wonderful, very, very hard working and goes above and beyond for the residents (and to ease the mind of the parents of the resident) there. Thank you Antonio!! :)
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August 2023 by tim vick
Don’t live there. In the first 10 days my daughter has lived there the air has been out for 5 during this heat wave. The wifi was out for the first 5 days. Worst run place ever.
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July 2023 by Heavenlygirl
I am currently on the hunt for an apartment and Lark in the Woods was a place of interest. Unfortunately, they did not have what I needed however Antonio was very sweet and guided us well. He had great energy, he was very informative, and was just a fabulous person to speak with overall. Antonio you are the best! ?
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July 2023 by Roland Matthews
Antonio at the front desk is very helpful. Antonio was very knowledgeable and was able to assist my father and I with the countless questions we had.
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December 2022 by Lisa Clyce
Just wanted to let everyone at Lark know that Antonio is the best. He went above and beyond to help my daughter out and he is very nice and has a great sense of humor. Thanks Antonio. Merry Christmas.
