Villas at Southern Ridge

"We had a terrible experience living here, and moved out within 2.5 months. Our landlord was Bernard Jeffries, and we never found out who the unit owner was (he refused to tell us). The employees in the front office were pleasant enough, but misguided us in both Bernard's character and that the lease he provided was "standard." Our apartment was 1508-C. When we moved in, we were met with numerous maintenance issues, as well as a terrible cockroach infestation that Bernard refused to properly address. He is by far and away the worst landlord/maintenance person that I've had. Specifically, as copy/pasted from an email to him early in our tenancy: "1 There are two doors with handles that are installed backwards. This is the smaller bathroom and the first room on the left. 2 Both bathrooms' towel racks are loose, and the smaller one's quickly fell apart. 3 The smaller bathroom's toilet is loose, and will move when you get up/down from the toilet. 4 The smaller bathroom's fan is not working. 5 The smaller bathroom's shower's temperature control is in reverse. That is, the red is cold and blue is hot. 6 The larger bathroom's tub's drain is closed and will not open. 7 The larger bathroom's toilet is dripping somewhere in the reservoir, we are concerned of the leaking increasing utilities cost. 8 The living room outlet in the TV corner is loose on the top, and made some sparks when I plugged things in. 9 There are no stoppers for bathroom sinks. The covers for the drains, which may be an entryway for the cockroaches. As such, please prioritize this if possible. 10 The dryer is not drying the clothes on the first round, and is not properly collecting lint. It isn't functioning well and we are concerned about the increased costs of utilities. 11 There are two nests on the balcony, one at the roof and the other at the bottom." A number of these problems remained unfixed for 10 days, and others were never fixed at all (for example, the malfunctioning dryer). At one point, he fixed one doorknob but the other was still left upside down. As a landlord, Bernard was argumentative, rude, and a bully. He would interrupt frequently, be dismissive of my concerns, have a condescending tone/language, and lied multiple times. I have evidence of this, as I began recording our interactions after I was bullied by him a couple times, including emails and videos. For example, he lied about what the exterminator had said regarding the cockroach infestation, scoffed when I SHOWED HIM the cockroach feces that the exterminator had confirmed as roach feces, saying "I don't see no roaches" and blocking my view while hastily trying to clean the feces up as I was recording for evidence. I was able to successfully record a different section behind the stove before he could clean it, and also captured the hole that the roaches were coming through. He had refused to search for openings previously, and was not present when the exterminator came despite assuring us he would be there. He did not patch the hole despite asking him to after he directly saw it. We found the living situation and Bernard's bullying unbearable, and elected to live in a hotel until a friend graciously took us in temporarily. During this time, we contacted a lawyer who sent a letter to him offering termination of the lease in exchange for retaining our security deposit, which Bernard agreed to. The total cost to us was $5325 to stay in the apartment for less than a total of 22 days, spread out between June and July (2021), not including lawyer/hotel fees. Overall, I could never recommend living in this complex to anyone. Others have reported numerous problems regarding insects and maintenance failures, I assume from other property managers. We were initially enamored with the view and the "family feel" of the complex, but the experience quickly turned into a nightmare. Please choose another place to live. To reiterate what a different reviewer said, if I could give it 0 stars, I would. I waited 2 years to post this due to concern of retaliation."

"Management is extremely unprofessional. There is black mold in the apartments, cabinets caving in and the plumbing is constantly leaking. Their maintenance man is also unprofessional, visiting residence in the middle of the night for issues that were brought to his attention during the business day. He doesn’t know how to fix anything either. Just shows up and tries to tell residents how to fix the issues themselves. The residents don’t work for you! You get what you pay for here, cheap and disgusting living conditions. Don’t move here. You will just have issues."

"Management is extremely unprofessional and ridiculous. I applied to take over a residents lease and was rejected due to "fraud" because they couldn't "prove" that I would be the only one living there. Regardless of making more than 4x the income and having excellent credit. Save yourself the hassle and look elsewhere!"

"My husband and I have just moved in, and in the past week we have seen maintenance more than any place we have rented. They have been very helpful in fixing all the items broken in our unit quickly. There are children running around, so it certainly is family friendly. Some facilities are run down and could use some tlc, but the rec room is clean and there even is a small library in the club house. The office seems a tad ambivalent, but the woman in charge of unit is friendly and helpful. Overall, my family is excited for our new living situation."

"We only lived here for one year. That was enough for us to want to move on. The basement apartment had a lot of insects and leaks: air conditioner, tub, and toilet. I got tired of living with a dehumidifier and fans in the summer to dry out the carpet. The management is not really into their job and not helpful. The day we moved out the leasing office was supposed to open at 1:00 and no one was there. If you need anything done right, Tina Adams is amazing. She was property manager when we lived at another place and we immediately recognized her and we're glad to she moved on to Real Properties. She is attentive and a problem solver. They were going to charge us for the carpets that were damaged during the numerous leaks, but we appealed to her and she took care of it. Nonetheless, Bernie is an awesome maintenance guy; he has a lot of work and does it well. He even helped my friend who was babysitting for me when I was away. She locked herself out and he recognized the baby and our dog and let them back in. He takes time to know the people in the complex and is always working on a project."