High Tree Townhomes

Pros:
–Close to Allendale Campus so you can walk on nice days.
–Rapid bus stop located by the front office.
Cons:
–Some of the complexes have oddly shaped rooms. Somebody may be stuck with a room that is the size of a closet.
–The sidewalks are never shoveled and often icy or impassable.
–The parking lot is not plowed until 3 – 4 days after a snowfall. Many cars got stuck and people were forced to take sick days because the management was cutting corners. I regularly had to help people escape our parking lot and my friends would not come over during the winter for fear of being stuck in our lot.
–The trash service is not regular enough so the dumpsters frequently overflow and tenants are forced to leave trash in the parking lot next to the dumpsters. This inevitably leads to trash blowing around the parking lot.
–Our leases were changed after we signed them to shorten the grace period for late payments. If you think your lease is a legally binding contract with these landlords then you are sorely mistaken. They also tried to raise some peoples rent.
–They put in employee parking and guest parking, and left a trailer in resident parking reducing the number of spots available near the office to park if you live in the units by the office. They also tow people who park in those reserved spots even if it is over the weekend when the office is not in use. They also called a cop to prevent interference when towing because the management is so oppressive that they fear an uprising from the angry tenants.
–They do not enforce resident parking so anyone can park here. Since I lived near the office, this led to me being forced to park far away from my apartment because between the neighbors and their boyfriends, they took up 7 spots (1 unit took 7 spots when all were there). Combined with the guest parking and employee parking it was the perfect storm.
–If you file a maintenance request do not expect to get a reply so you will have no idea if they received your request. It will probably take over a week for your request to get fixed. If you try to enter another request, you will get an angry e-​mail from the landlords about spamming their website. They sent a college student with a flat billed hat to assess our dryer (and he gave a completely wrong assessment of the problem) and when we complained that he was a chump, they sent a professional who diagnosed the problem and fixed it immediately.
–If you go into their office and talk reasonably with them or send them a friendly e-​mail with issues you are having, they often kick you out of the office or tell you to stop sending e-​mails citing that you are using a rude tone. My roommate went in the office to tell them about the abuse of resident parking and they immediately threw him out telling him that they did not like his tone.
–The landlords will periodically send you threatening e-​mails about trivial matters such as posting a note on their door, putting furniture in the dumpster, spamming their maintenance website, late payments, snow plow service, etc. Their favorite tactic is to threaten you with legal ramifications if you do not comply.
Overall, I cannot wait until my lease is up and I will be moving elsewhere. The rent is going up next year so it is no longer competitive and the High Tree management including owner Andrew Studebaker and his staff are tyrannical. If you want to live in an authoritarian environment, by all means, live here and enjoy being pushed around.
******UPDATE…THE SAGA CONTINUES*******
–After moving out, the whole complex was blindsided by ridiculous and obscene charges as well as my specific unit to pillage our security deposits such as:
–I fixed a small hole in the wall with spackling and sanded it down, then got billed a sanding charge since they said it was not sanded flush with the wall.
–I thoroughly cleaned the metal pans that rest below the oven burners and was still charged for them to be replaced citing that they were unclean.
–All units were charged for a missing shelf even though that shelf never existed. When all units are applied the same charge, that should be a clear indication that the charge has no merit. Clearly there was no shelf in the first place! When we argued with them they responded by kicking people out of the office and blocking email addresses.
–They refused to honor any claims on move-​in damage assessment as they conveniently lost all of the units move-​in assessments!
–AVOID THIS COMPLEX LIKE THE PLAGUE! Seriously, I cannot stress this enough. If you want to lose money and get hosed, stick around, otherwise run for the hills and keep at least a 1 mile radius from this complex at all times!
####FINAL UPDATE#################
–After a whim to walk down memory lane by typing this apartment complex on Google it looks like recently there is an influx of good reviews. Do not be enticed! Several sources say that they pay tenants to boost their credentials!

I’m not sure why my reviews keep getting filtered… here it goes again.
I lived in High Tree for 2 years. Over all it was an OK experience. However the management left a lot to be desired. If I needed anything to get fixed beyond the odd light bulb being changed it took weeks and weeks. Treatment was never fair or impartial. If my rent was late one month all was forgiven, but if another of my friends in the complex did the same thing once, she would be charged late fees. If Marilyn likes you you’re set, and will live in luxury, if not you can count on a lot of grief.
Parking is usually a problem in F and G where the two buildings are across from one another. I suggested assigning spots for the tenants, when I told Marilyn this she basically spit on my face and told «my lazy ass to walk.»

I lived in High Tree for three years, and I wouldn’t want to live in any other off-​campus Housing in Allendale.
I never had to worry about having friends over (i.e. where they will park, will they get a ticket, etc). Parking is never an issue, there is plenty.
Also, they offer the summer (June and July) for free, which is really helpful for students, because most of us go home for the summer, do internships, study abroad, etc, and need a place to leave our stuff. Not having to move it when the school year is over saves so much hassle.
High Tree offers some of the cheaper rent you will find around GVSU, as well as offers free cable and Internet. All you have to pay for is gas and electric. The townhouses are big, and the location on the bus route is great.
The only drawback is that the rooms are really disproportionately sized (i.e. there are two huge bedrooms and one TINY one) in the three-​bedrooms, but its something my roommates and I have always been able to work out by rotating rooms.