The Aven at Newton Highlands

"DO NOT lease here. Please know that all of the past positive reviews were from when Avalon owned the property. A few months ago new ownership took over and the property went down hill fast. Our electricity bill increased significantly (we believe the building was tapping into our bill) to $700 a month. The trash was constantly over flowing. Our ac broke multiple times. The Wi-Fi never worked due to a broken socket, among many more issues. Our apartment flooded due to a burst in the ac pipe and months went by and the project still wasn’t finished. The worst part about it was that we could not get into contact with ANYONE in the management or leasing offices or maintenance team. Even when the offices were supposedly open, no one would be there. The phone numbers they tell us to contact are out of service and the resident portal isn’t checked, which weren’t told until we were moving out. Despite all of these ongoing issues they still chose to raise our rent by $300 a month. It is sad how much this terrible property company has ruined this property as the apartments are nice. The only nice and helpful people there are the cleaning women and men and the concierge. There are many other properties in the area with better amenities and guaranteed much better staff. Do not live here unless you want to waste your money, never be able to contact management, and constantly deal with things breaking in your apartment."

"I wish I could give this place negative stars. If you value your security, peace, and hard-earned money, look elsewhere. Here's a brief summary of my nightmarish experience at Avalon at Newton Highlands: 1. Blatant Security Issues: An Uber driver literally walked into my home. The security here is practically non-existent. 2. Poor Building Quality: The roof couldn't withstand a snowfall. It broke, leading to THREE MONTHS of incessant renovations. Imagine having strangers enter your apartment at all hours, causing constant disturbances while you're trying to study. 3. Unprofessional Staff:The staff is not just unhelpful; they've shown signs of prejudice. As for Dylan, who many claim is helpful, he was absolutely no help throughout my 10-month lease. 4. Theft with No Accountability: My last straw was when 3 boxes were stolen from my apartment. Don't expect any assistance or sympathy from Avalon's team. 5. Ineffective Communication: I called the leasing office more than 100 times about my security deposit. Avalon's response? Absolute silence. 6. Misleading Reviews: Don't be deceived by the 5-star reviews. Maintenance staff pressures you to rate them positively on Google to overshadow Avalon's abysmal ratings. 7. Random Rent Hikes:As if the aforementioned issues weren't enough, be prepared for unexpected hikes in your rent. 8. Unexplained Odors: Frequently, there's this strange smell permeating the premises. Good luck getting used to that."

"Horrible and unacceptable transition plan to new management. Literally, overnight there was a management and staffing change. This was a completely unprofessional transition from the tenants perspective. One day I was communicating with one set of staff. The next day there was 0 sign of Avalon staff and maintenance. The only communication that was provided was two letters placed on our doors. One letter saying Avalon was leaving and thanks for the memories basically. The other letter that was left on our doors was one from the new management, the Aven/Lincoln properties basically saying that they were the new management. The main information that was clear was who to make a rent check to. If people had been making automatic payments to Avalon, they were on their own to figure that out how to stop those payments.. Whatever the intention was…..this was not a good look from the tenants perspective. The most messy transition ever. Please do better. New Management needs to step up and have a formal meeting with tenants. Maybe the staff and maintenance are stressed but that stress snd dismissive attitude should not be taken out on the tenants. Idk if the new staff and maintenance were thrown into these rules without proper training, but somebody needs to provide some support because it is affecting the tenants. The staff seem stressed and not responsive to concerns related to maintenance, billing, and other concerns. Some customer service training is very necessary. Please don’t leave a message here to say that the burden to initiate communication is on the tenants in this case.The upper level management on an executive level need to hold a professional meeting to answer questions and concerns of the tenants. And it’s not just fair to just put this on the Newton Aven staff who probably were not properly prepared either. Do better because this is not excellence."

"Was great under Avalon, then suddenly management changed to Aven with no prior notice and everything went drastically downhill. Trash is always full, messes everywhere, rude staff, and no contact on maintenance issues. Hopefully this will change but the ownership change has made living here significantly worse"

"We have lived here before and this used to be a nice place before when it was under Avalon. We moved back this year and raised two maintenance requests for two issues we discovered immediately after moving in and Avalon was supposed to come and fix them the following Tuesday when suddenly we are notified that the management has changed without any advance notice. It is now 3 weeks after moving in and the new management has not followed up and fixed promptly like the way Avalon used to do. Avalon has a one-month satisfaction guarantee so I signed the lease even without looking at the apartment since I have lived here before but now the new management is no longer honoring that promise and doesn’t care about fixing the maintenance issues that was discovered during moving time even after raising our concerns several times with them. One issue is the towel rack was lose and came off on the very first day and other was a loose wall plate on kitchen countertop which Avalon did take look but informed us there is LIVE WIRES being exposed and were supposed to fix it the following week; I don’t believe the Avalon maintenance person knew the apartment won’t be under Avalon the following week because I even met him on the elevator and he let me know that he would be coming to fix it next week. When followed up with the new management, they just keep saying that they are NO LONGER AVALON and therefore hinting not to expect the same level of service. It is pathetic and I also blame Avalon for not notifying us that it was about to be sold which the leasing office staff probably knew at the time of lease execution."