I have never been one to complain much about places I am renting as you can't control certain aspects. However this time I will make an exception. I lived at the Parliaments for exactly 25 months. Upon moving in I noticed the following: patches of drywall putty that weren't sanded nor painted over, layers upon layers of chipping paint, lines of where paint had dripped, a huge black stain on the carpet although they claim the carpet was new, gashes in the molding, the shelving in one of the closets was falling apart, there were different types of paint (e.g. flat, semi-gloss, latex, etc) on the same walls and doors, the molding around the balcony door was coming loose, there was visible mold in the grout of the bathroom tile, and the paint in the bathroom was chipping. I listed all of this on my apartment acceptance and move-in demonstration sheet hoping it would be fixed. A few days after my move-in two maintenance men showed up looked at everything I had put on the sheet then told me they would have to talk to the manager and have her send someone to repaint and fix the mold issue. All of which I might add never occurred. In the first week that I moved in we had a major problem with the kitchen sink. Every time I turned around other tenants leftovers were showing up, and every time we called maintenance only to be told we were throwing food down the disposal and it was just backing up. It didn't matter that we told them we didn't put food down the disposal because they said we did and their word is the Gospel. I dislocated my knee four months after moving in and had my doctor fill out their medical sheet so I could get a reserved spot close to my building considering I was on crutches. I will give them credit as far as putting up a handicap sign that was absolutely useless to me. Yes I had a handicap permit however everyone else parked in the spot and it took me a few months to actually get them to put up one of the reserved signs in place of the handicap sign. I complained numerous times in the two years I was there about noise. You here every sneeze, TV, radio, footstep, and phone call, etc in these apartments. Don't get me wrong I didn't complain to the office every time I heard a noise. Generally I was understanding knowing that the walls were paper thin. However I complained at least a dozen times about my inconsiderate neighbors below who blared their music all hours of the day and night. It was so bad twice that nearly everyone in the complex called and the police showed up and nearly knocked down the door trying to get someone to answer. Yet they were never kicked out and the loud music carried on. You can never keep any of your wall hangings straight and your light fixtures even shake when people above you walk around because the floors are paper thin as well. There were multiple issues with the electrical sockets sparking, and you can't even run a hair dryer without it tripping the circuit breaker. One evening as my husband and I were going to bed I noticed a big bubble in the ceiling in the hallway. When we turned on the hall light it was green. I look up and there is water in the light fixture. I freaked out. I looked back at the bubble and it was getting bigger. I was so scared that the ceiling would fall in during the night that I never went to sleep. We called maintenance but they said there was nothing they could do until the next day. Well late morning the next day a maintenance man showed up and said the people above me flooded their bathroom. So he took a big commercial fan to dry out the ceiling. He came back fifteen minutes later and put a layer of primer over the stain and placed the fan under it to blow it dry. He waited about another fifteen to twenty minutes then came back to put a layer of paint over the stain and primer then left. Needless to say the stain never went away nor the bubble in the ceiling. We called to have it fixed again, but no one came back to fix the problem. I must say I never had a problem with pests which is a big bonus living in an apartment where whether you like it or not your neighbor could be a slob and you could potentially get and infestation from their filth. Parking is a nightmare if you show up after about four or five in the evening you have to park all the way on the other side of the complex or parallel park on the main road. You can control the temperature of the ac/heat but only one is on at a time. Typically the ac gets turned on in mid May so your apartment is like a sauna from mid-April to mid-May. The heat gets turned on in October when there are still many warm days left before the cold arrives. So again for about another month or so your apartment is a sauna. You have a dozen screaming kids running up and down the steps in the general areas of the garden homes on most days. This is typically worse during the summer and spring and winter breaks. People sit on the steps in front of your building, and when you say excuse me they just lean to the side and expect you to squish your way through. I will say that most of the employees try to speak English but it is so broken you can't understand a word they are saying, and most of them can't understand you. This doesn't only apply to employees but also tenants who think that I should abide by there culture. In reference to what I just said above I was asked by another tenant not to walk my dogs around the building where her children could see them because in their country and in their religion people cannot see, touch or own a dog. How ridiculous...I live in AMERICA where owning, petting, and seeing a dog are all my rights. So I kindly informed her that I pay pet rent to have my dogs on the premises and would walk them where I was designated to do so. However what I thought was supposed to be over when I gave the office my notice to vacate only got a hundred times worse. The horror story continues when you go to the office to give your notice to vacate. They get all bent out of shape and proceed to tell you that you will never find a better complex for the price and amenities that they offer. However I feel you pay a large price for sub-standard housing. A 2 bedroom with den is $1525 a month with 2 pets its $1575 a month. Water, gas, and electric are included, but they are always shutting it off to do maintenance. This occurs at least a few times a month. There are constant problems with the apartment which is a big inconvenience if you are like me and don't trust people entering your home to do work without you there. I do have pictures of a few problems that were never corrected while I resided in the apartment home. I was told that the carpet was new carpet even though it had black stains on it when I moved in and it was reported on my apartment acceptance sheet yet this problem had never been fixed. Upon moving out I was told that I had to replace it no matter what because I had pets. I was flabbergasted as I was also told upon move in that the 25 dollar a month rent per pet was security for them if the pet did any damage. Well $50*25months=1250 so that should be more then ample for them to fix the carpet that they were going to charge me $400 for, and the mini blind for $80. Fast forward 25 months and now I am told that the $25 a month per pet is a convenience fee to have pets in the apartment, and I would have to pay out of pocket for the carpet and blind. Essentially Southern Management pocketed 1250 bucks of my money and rendered no service for it. You are just throwing money straight out the window if you have pets in these apartments. I could go on all day long about problems I have had with this complex, its management company and its staff, but I will just touch on one last thing. On the very last day of my lease I went to turn in the keys, my reserved parking pass, pet ID tags, and mail keys. I didn’t realize I had to pull the actual parking stickers off my car and turn them in as well so they weren’t in the envelope. When the envelope was opened and the parking stickers weren’t in it I was told I was going to have to pay $80 as well for each parking sticker that I hadn’t turned in. These are stickers that aren’t even reusable and they could buy nearly another lot of the stupid stickers with 80 bucks. I refused to pay it and told them that I would mail the stickers to them. Before I left they also wanted me to sign a blank promissory note saying that I would pay all balances due within 30 days of the day I signed the note. They hadn’t put a date on the form nor an amount due on it yet they wanted me to sign it. I hope not many people have actually done this. So just beware of what you are getting into or might be getting into when leasing an apartment here. Also for military personnel I wouldn’t recommend this even though it is on the set aside housing list. As soon as I am free and clear of all fees due and end communication with the Parliaments I do plan on turning this over to the base housing locator to find out what I have to do to lodge a complaint. I will also give Southern Management the courtesy of receiving the same letter and copies of information that I will turn over. I rented from winter '06 through winter '08. ...