Element Urbandale Apartments

"Me and my partner were having issues under old management with rent and lease not being followed but they finally put someone new in charge and she was very helpful and fixed our rent issues and even gave us a credit which is appreciated . The only issue is debris from construction or maintenance on the ground and dog poop on the ground I've stepped in it a couple times their is a area for people to take their dogs for that other than that no complaints."

"The apartments are very nice and well kept up with. Since day one Bridgette has been very helpful with all my questions and the help I needed to get my own place. Their maintenance workers see to it that the property looks great and you can tell they take pride in the work done. Highly recommend checking out the location if looking for a place to live. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"

"My brother is relocating to the DSM area so I have been helping him find an apartment. We stopped in here with no appointment and Bridget was very helpful and willing to show us apartments plus answer oud long list of questions. The property appears to be nicely maintained with 1 building only 2 years old. My brother ended up renting here. I've also provided information to a friend who is now going to be renting here too. Great value for the money !"

"I cannot in good faith recommend that anyone rent with this company, ever. When I first moved in, the complex was still Ashford Ridge. I never had a problem with them. The office staff was kind and responsive, maintenance was quick and there was always someone available if you had a problem. I had a pet pass away and the office staff immediately removed my pet fees. They were great. There was very little warning to us when it became "Element Urbandale," and there has been almost no communication to tenants since. They remodeled the parking lot, and didn't even tell our building it was happening until after construction had started and we had nowhere to park. The construction did not even follow the dates on the "guide" they had posted on the door of our building. I understand construction has delays and other issues, but they could have at least communicated ANYTHING to us while it was happening. Then, the Laundry Room in the second floor was COMPLETELY unusable for the entire summer due to a mystery substance a tenant had dumped into the draining sink, which does not have a faucet so no one was able to clean it. The smell was unbearable, and after a few weeks it started molding. The mold was only taken care of after my THIRD request, when I threatened to call the city if it wasn't taken care of. I still have the requests I sent bookmarked in my emails. If that wasn't bad enough; after a work trip I came home to find out the drain in my shower (in my ONE BATHROOM apartment) was not working. I called the line to submit a request early Friday afternoon. When I didn't hear anything back, I called again Saturday morning to find that the request had been submitted for the sink in my kitchen instead, and was told the error would be corrected. I called 3 more times, and maintenance still did not come until I approached them in person and asked if they could fix it so I could shower for the first time in 4 days. The only thing the maintenance line said was that they would "forward the request to the office" and that "I would hear back from them soon." I still haven't heard back from them! Now, the building has always had the front door unlocked, since the day I moved in. Evidentially, someone decided that needed to change, and didn't tell anyone about it. The lock on our front door is very tricky, and most tenants spend 3-5 minutes wiggling the key in the lock to get it open. Not to mention, when it's cold the lock jams! The door is a fire hazard. Either replace the lock and give everyone a new key or leave it unlocked. Just this weekend, I drove by to see the front door of another building had been shattered and was duct taped over. Very safe. Still no communication to anyone about what happened, though! The reason I'm writing this now, instead of when I move out, is because now that I am less than a month from my lease end, I am receiving lease renewal offers. These don't bother me, obviously every apartment sends them, but for some reason there's not a single option to deny the offer. There is, however, a warning on the renewal that if I don't accept an offer I will be charged a month-to-month rate after my lease ends. That rate? Is over $13,000 for a single month. These apartments are not even worth the current rate I am paying; hence why I am moving somewhere that won't increase rent $100 after changing literally nothing. Remodeling doesn't change the fact that the power goes out during every thunderstorm, there are days where the hot water just doesn't work (and days where there's no water at all!), and that packages are stolen from the front door every day. But having no one in the front office was definitely the best solution! Anyway, I've already tried emailing the address that they respond to each complaint with here during my maintenance issues, but you know, still haven't heard back. Hope they get the email that I'm not renewing, though, because I'm certainly not paying $13,000 for an apartment I'm not living in! Thanks!"

"DO NOT MOVE HERE!!!!! I have lived here for 13 months and I have to say we have had multiple issues since the first day we moved in. We moved in on the bottom floor last July the week right after the flood, they told me the carpets where wet because "they where just cleaned" (they where wet until September) a week after we moved in they came by to "check to make sure the wall by the patio wasn't wet " I told them I was told that there was no flooding( there ideal of standard flooding is 5 feet or more of water). Fast forward a couple weeks when they came in with a construction team to take out my wall to replace and at that time they found black mold and left a hole in the wall where my daughter could crawl into the apartment next door and I had to called management to have them fill the hole. It took them until September to put my carpet back and replace the walls. There has been issues with animals in the walls. They decided to cut out a piece of wall in my bedroom to get to the animal and put animal kill substance in and then closed it back up a week later THEY NEVER EVEN TOOK THE ANIMAL OUT, THERE RESPONSE "WAS IT WILL DECAY OVER TIME". There has been three deaths in the last 3 week a downing (they didn't drain he pool they just closed it for a day), suicide and a overdose. The hallway light fell 3 feet from my daughter one day and their response was "LIFE HAPPENS" (we have never touched it, it dropped from the movement the people upstairs make ). The police are here every week it’s to the point where I’m not surprised they are. My kitchen pipe broke a few months ago ( there where able to get it taken care of quickly) and in Ma water got into the apartment again (same place). There have been many other horrible situations. I put below pictures of everything. Management is horrible!!! DO NOT LIVE HERE!!!"