High Oaks Apartments

Since I have to pick atleast a star, they got it, otherwise they dont deserve any thing.
The following review may not be true for all the staff but surely true for two employees namely Samantha Rodriguez and Lachelle.
Unprofessional, unethical, rude and racist are the words that are definitely meant for people like them.
They need to learn a lot of professional etiquetes and listening skills, Without listening to the question or the need of the customer, they have their answer and they are always right.
While going in the cart to check the model/​apartment, I made some comment to my wife and pat came Samantha’s response if I do want to see the apartment and if i am still interested.
They are not even willing to provide info on the available apts except for the two apartmentd with highest rent. Eventhough the info appears on their website
.
Stay away from this community but if you cant, my sincere suggestion is to stay away from these two ladies unless you want to be humiliated to the lowest level possible.
They are a liability to the northland management.

I have notified management several times of people breaking into laundry care center.
I was assaulted/​cornered in the laundry room by an angry/​horrible person; told management via a voice message and there was no response.
There has been a lot of car break-​ins, theft and the other day I even heard a gun shot.
Again as stated in other reviews; maintenance team is nice. They may be being forced to do band aide fixes or it just happens to be that way; things do take a while to be completed…
I have notified management about high electric bills; if not for my persistence to have them address the lack of a window and look at my a/​c I fear the bills would have been higher these past few hot months. I live in a place where my temp in my home is not cooler than 77… at one point much to my dismay my unit was 86 degrees (not my choice/​thermostat was set at 80).
I also had problems with mold growing out of my vents… I am happy to say that management came through for that… thanks!
My unit smells like a dirty ashtray as the smoke from other tenants come into my place and settles in the carpet… The other day it was so bad that when I went and got into my car with my dog it smelled like we were smoking. Smelled my dog and he smelled like he was the smoker.
I had taken on this apartment as a sublet… knew it wasn’t going to be perfect but was told with the renewal of the lease that they offered carpet cleaning=false/not true. Tenant before me had also taken it as a sublet and had it for 3 years. the person before her had it for 4 years so needless to say 7 years of the place not being in the hands of a turn over fresh up the place was in need of more help than I realized. They refused to freshen up the paint but told me I could freshen it up… so I have had to paint my apartment to help with the smell and appearance and I had to shampoo the carpet… not to exclude this was a 4 month sublet and with the renewal of the lease they increased my rent by $ 43/month…I only accepted to renew the lease because I really did not want to have to move AGAIN. I had already moved 4 times in the past 8 months prior to taking on this place.
update: before filling out this Unilocal review I sent management an email about dissatisfaction: couple hours later; I received a call from Josh and he was empathetic and I feel like I was heard. So, thank you Josh for that.

If there was a ‘0’ rating I would have selected that. People who are complaining that they have not experienced the negative reviews are probably new to this apartment or had never stayed. All I can say is, just stay for 6 months and you are going to have the real fun and face of HIGH OAKS management!
Elmer, Jennifer, Natalie — where are you? You know how to talk to people, you were nice to each and everyone, you were there whenever we had questions or in need of help! You guys were awesome. You guys come back and save HIGH OAKS. Save the people who are staying there and people who like to move in here. I wish whoever replace them have the basic knowledge of communication and the best practices.
I was forced to vacate the apartment just because the new people are just rude, don’t know how to behave to people, just over smart. They think they are here to solve everything. Don’t know what they are …$&$)! No wonder the six families I know moved out of high oaks. I am feeling relaxed now I don’t need to see this high oaks management again.
Friends and colleagues who are in other apartments under northland had never faced these problems. May be it’s just HIGH OAKS and the major reason being the people who is sitting inside the office behaving rude to the people.
I don’t know what they are trying to achieve, once they feel the same heat they will then understand how others feel with their rude behavior. Hope that will change them
1. ‘1’ rating is only for the awesome maintenance guys
2. Electricity bills you will never see below 220 $
3. When you are late for rent, penalty; but they will fund the deposit back that’s their choice. It can even take months.
4. Awesome water bills, nice cockroaches, mould, lots to say…
5. Interesting thing is you will get the cheaper rate for the first year, if you plan to renew you will repent; you will end up paying ¼th of your income. If you are moving in, do stay don’t renew.
6. If you feel these are fake reviews, try to talk to 4 – 5 residents and you will have the answer.
7. AC and heater — don’t have any words
8. Water leaks — not always but almost everyday:-) don’t know if there is a better way to say than this
9. I would have given 4 ratings if Elmer, Jennifer and Natalie were there that’s another positive I had seen apart from the maintenance.
10. Sometimes trash would stay dumped and dumped nobody picks it up. But high oaks will never forget to put the trash charges in your utility bill. If they are picked up or not, resident has to pay the trash charges without fail.
11. Management is simply rude… They don’t care or value others. I would say they should get treated the same way they treat others. If they were rude while touring and you have no plans to lease just treat them the same way they did to you.
12. You will not get water if your neighbor started using it or water pressure will be missing…
Lot more to say,…

I actually really enjoy living at this apartment complex.
Though some people in the office aren’t the warmest, there are a few that are definitely a delight… not that I ever really need to bother with them since my apartment is just fine!
The AC works great, I do believe a new system was installed before I began renting, I do not have any electricity problems, the appliances in the kitchen work just fine, no mold, no bugs, nothing terrible at all! I could go on about how much this place is a heaven sent compared to what I was living before in another city, but I’ll go ahead and end my review with saying that I plan on settling here for a little while. :)

Not a high quality place. Nearby, though, are lots of nice shops and neighborhoods. That’s the only reason to live at these apts.
Basic four walls. Basic everything, even if upgraded (which means new but still basic).
Personally I’ve had no issues with bugs or theft. My unit is exposed to a public corner, though.
Maintenance is nice. Probably overbooked and underfunded, but nice guys.
Lots of weird fees and odd financial things in the lease. Read about water, electric, and late fees before signing. Signing was rushed, of course.
$ 900+water for 650sqft isn’t fun… oh, accepts credit cards with a $ 43 fee

High Oaks staff made my move from Houston to Austin a breeze. I was sent pics of my apartment prior to moving! We love the quiet, friendly community and would recommend to anyone moving on the northwest. I’m close to many strip malls and entertainment.

Horrible, horrible management. I completely, 100% agree with every review here. Do not move here! It has been my biggest mistake. I’ve heard some pretty scary rumors from other tenants but will tell what I’ve experienced so far…
When I toured and signed my lease, the leasing agent SWORE to me that my apartment would be fully upgraded, including hard wood floors everywhere. I stopped by multiple times before my move in to ensure it would be upgraded (I never got to see the actual unit before my move in date). I came in to pick up my keys with my full uhual and was told «oh good news, they just finished cleaning your CARPETS.» Surprise, my apartment was not upgraded at all. The manager did not care. At all. Red flag #1.
Yes, you can clearly see that the apartments are old when you come to look at them, but you don’t see how bad it really is until you move in and everything is broken. The «hard wood» floors peel up, there is mold, the stairs and patio look as though they will break any minute.
Management is rude and literally does not care at all about their tenants. Weights have been stolen from the gym, which is always dirty. The dumpster is constantly full. The doggy poop pickup trash can is always overflowing and makes the surrounding areas reek of poop. The pools are rarely cleaned.
See other’s comments about the air conditioner issues. I could go on…

A month after I moved in I started having issues with bed bugs. Turns out they were from a neighbor from before I moved it. This meant that most of their 5 treatments weren’t addressing the problem. I am continuing to have bites but they are now refusing to treat the apartment further because they can’t find evidence that there are bugs there. It has been 3 months of them saying they were going to do something and not doing it. In this time I have had to pack and unpack my apartment 4 times for the various treatments. Now they are trying to evict me because they don’t want to deal with the problem. Despite the great area, moving here was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. DO NOT move in here. Management was rude and unsympathetic to your problems. I was once told by the property manager that my situation wasn’t that bad because he had another tenant that had a terrible brown recluse problem and at least I wasn’t dealing with that.

Today, I toured High Oaks Apartments with a male leasing agent and I left extremely unhappy and slightly disgusted.
Let me say this to begin, the actual apartment complex itself had great curb appeal and was well maintained. The one bedroom unit we looked at was very nice as well, and I honestly probably would have ended up leasing it if it wasn’t for the terrible experience that the leasing agent had provided.
When I walked into the office, I was accompanied by an apartment locator (big mistake) and a friend of mine. The leasing agent did not greet us, or shake our hands, instead he rudely said he was finishing something up and he’d get to us in a minute… Not a problem, I am in the property management industry and I totally understand how busy it can get, so we sat and waited a few minutes.
When the leasing agent did come over and greet us, him and the apartment locator started talking poorly about a previous prospect that had come in and how she couldn’t pass her background check… In my opinion a very tasteless thing to do while touring a new prospect.
While the leasing agent was telling me about the apartment, I asked him for a floor plan or property brochure so that I could make notes and he refused to give me one until the end of the tour. He said he wanted to go through his sales pitch before giving me that information.
While riding on the golf cart over to the apartment, I asked the how long a cab ride or Über to the downtown area would be and he responded with telling me that since he had been married he has slowed down his drinking and didn’t really know how long a cab ride would be… Again, as someone in the industry… This is not an appropriate way to answer this question. It made him sound very stupid, nor did he even try to overcome my objection.
In the apartment, I asked the leasing agent how many one bedrooms and two bedrooms were among the apartment complex in total. He said he didn’t know because he had only been there a month and then asked why that was important to me. I responded by saying as a single girl in my 20s I would prefer to live in a complex with a higher number of one bedrooms because that tells me there is a better chance of my neighbors being more like myself (single, young professionals). He then followed up by saying «why do you care about that, are you on the prowl?» Somewhat shocked by his rude inappropriate response I said no, that was my way of asking a question about the kinds of residents who live here without asking him a question that would be trying to get him to violate fair housing standards such as «are there a lot of families that live here?» Or «are there a lot of children that live here?» … Even though he continued to violate those standards when telling me there were a lot of children at the apartment complex and that the ratio was about ⁶⁰⁄₄₀ (what kind of ratio he was referring to with those numbers, I couldn’t tell you).
At this point, I was very agitated and asked him to take us back to the leasing office… I didn’t really care to see the second pool or fitness center because I had already made my decision about not leasing there.
It seemed to me that this leasing agent had not been trained in any sort of leasing techniques and was DEFINITELY not trained in any sort of Fair Housing… They lost my lease for sure.

DON’T DO IT!!! This place is ridiculous. We’ve been here for over four years, and believe me when I say I have regretted it just about every day. There are a ton of reasons, but I’ll just name a few. You can NEVER get a real person to answer the phone at the office. They just don’t give a s**t. They don’t even get back to you timely when you have something that needs serious attention (a partial power outage, etc.). Don’t expect any niceties or customer service — this is a business, not your home (at least that’s how they treat it).
Our apartment needs a major uplift, and instead of getting anything replaced, they just keep upping the rent EVERY YEAR (and not just a little — it’s substantial). We pay over $ 1,300 for a two-​bed, two-​bath that should go for about $ 1,100 all things considered. This is not a nice apartment, but we’re sure paying for one.
I’m moving to The Park at Monterey Oaks in several weeks, and the difference is amazing re: EVERYTHING. I am going to be paying less for a MUCH nicer place, and I have never gotten a machine when I call. Everyone is so nice and happy to help, and the reviews are wonderful (and for good reason). I CAN’T WAIT TO ESCAPE FROM HERE!
The grounds are horrible (I have to walk through dirt/​mud in high heels when getting to my car) and the ONE time I accidentally left my car unlocked it got broken into. I’ve had packages stolen, as the theft is so bad that the mailboxes get broken into and I have to have the post office leave them at my door since the office refuses to accept them (EVEN THOUGH there is no other recourse for delivery!!!). What is that about??? There is a serious pest problem, but don’t expect that to get any attention as nothing here ever does.
ONE redeeming quality — and I kid you not, there is ONLY ONE: the maintenance staff are incredibly nice. They are so kind and helpful (even if it takes forever for them to get to you — that’s not their fault, it’s the property’s fault for not having enough people).
Northland Properties have horrible reviews FOR A REASON. They are well known throughout Austin for being an awful property management company. I’ve spoken with several apartments who all kind of laugh when I tell them how dissatisfied I currently am. In other words, there is no surprise.
Again — DON’T DO IT!!! I’m quite simply amazed at how awful this place truly is.

Please see my pictures they are the truth about High Oaks. If you read the reviews between Google and Unilocal it is ABSOLUTELY correct. The apartments are old and the management team does not care. In Jan 2015 I filed suit again Northland investment in court clerk precinct 2 and will gladly make it a class action suit if anyone else wants to join. (email
)
My suit is to recoup the moneys I paid in electric bill payments. My bill range between $ 350 up for 5 years. Dont believe me? Please see the attached bills. They are mine, meet me and ill let you touch them yourself.
There are cars that havent been moved ever, people leave cars here for months meanwhile people walking by can tell how unkept the apartments are. I have had 2 cars broken into, my neighbors car has been broken into etc. We cannot get mail to the big mail boxes with the keys because our mailboxes have been broken into more than once to the point the mail man will not deliver to the package mailboxes anymore.
You can believe you are the exception to High Oaks but you wont be. See the other people complaining about there electricity bills? Mine were worse. I live in a 1040 sq ft apartment electric bill $ 350 up.
When I moved in my rent was $ 799, the rent goes up every year the last check i wrote was over $ 1100+. The trash bill is higher than the water bill ($ 65+) a month but for 4 years we only had 1 trash we just got a second and its always full. Thank god I move soon but I will never still telling people about why High Oaks is an awful place to live.

If I could give it a negative star I would!!! It all starts out nice when your in the leasing office then it’s nightmare city!!! Mold in the units that they just cover up (my walls were wet for 2 weeks and they just painted over the mold after the walls and ceiling dried!!! I have moved to another location and was told 30 days to get my deposit back and surprise surprise it’s over thirty days and they now say it will take another 19 days!!! Wtf they will threaten you with massive late fees per day if your late for rent (I never was for fear) but if your getting a refund of any amount they take their sweet time… I think that’s just rude and insulting to renters out their!!! Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere as the units are so old and you don’t need the stress in your life. You have been warned. This is with the new management

New management in the office. Seems like they actually care, which is promising. I’ll give it another try.

The 11 months I lived at High Oaks were stressful, uncomfortable, and expensive — I moved out as soon as my lease was up. I will stick to the facts in this review. Hopefully, this information will be helpful to someone.
1. My electric bill was outrageous for a ~1,000 sqft apartment — I tried to attach a screenshot of my bill history, but Unilocal wouldn’t let me. The highest was $ 427 and the average was $ 247. Prior to living at High Oaks, my average electric bill was $ 90 in a similarly sized space in North Austin. My first bill at my current place was $ 56 (same size, Arboretum, full month’s usage). Austin Energy performed a meter audit and determined the problem wasn’t on their side. High Oaks had an electrician assess my unit and determined the problem wasn’t on their side. So, I was stuck paying the bill. The only solution was to move somewhere else, and that has solved the problem.
2. Neither my heater nor AC worked properly. Most notably, the AC couldn’t cool the apartment below 80 degrees in the summer and I spent most nights sweating on my couch. Numerous maintenance requests did not result in a fix.
3. The hot water went out twice and I had to go to my gym to shower.
4. The electrical breaker to my living room stopped functioning at one point, so the apartment would randomly go dark. It took three maintenance requests to get it fixed, and I was accused of being the problem after each of the first two (First, I had «too much stuff plugged in behind the TV», and second, «maybe I need to buy a new power strip».)
5. The nearest dumpster to my unit (in phase II) took several minutes to walk to. I saw many tenants driving their garbage over to it
There were other problems, but I don’t want to make this review tl;dr.
All that said, there were a few positives:
1. Really great location. The arboretum area is beautiful and close to everything.
2. Elmer and Candice in the office were both very nice. It’s certainly not their fault that they were powerless to resolve my issues.
3. I had friendly neighbors that I spoke to often.
4. Beautiful balcony view including wildlife. We had deer at the base of our stairs a few times.

I’ve lived here a few years, and I agree with other people’s assessments. I generally like my apartment. If I had to do it all over again, I would choose to move here at the time that I did (though not now). It’s a good location, it’s a good price (though last time I renewed, they were trying to rent a place with the same layout I have for $ 70 less per month than I was paying…), it’s a nice layout, there are lots trees around, and I have had a generally ok experience dealing with the maintenance issues that have occurred. I have had a few maintenance issues due to the age of the building, so you’ll have to be prepared for that.
That being said, it’s about time to move. This place is way past its prime. Things have really started to go downhill. There used to be curbside trash service twice a week. but that stopped a year or so ago, and now the two trash compactors (and there are only 2 for the entire complex…) are constantly OVERFLOWING with garbage. It’s quite disgusting, and it’s sort of embarrassing to drive by when I have guests. They created some kind of «spirit team» to try to get people to interact with their neighbors more, but I’d rather they just found out a way to manage the damn garbage.
I would also agree with another reviewer who said the residents have gone from «young professional» to «trashy». I’ve seen the cops in the parking lot (NOT just driving by) several times in the last 6 months. I’ve never had any sort of security problems, nor has my car been broken into, but I never check my mail after dark since someone was attacked at the mail boxes a year ago. Generally, this used to be a quiet place, but it seems like the neighbors have gotten louder, are a lot less considerate about keeping the noise down after 10 pm, and generally seem to have the attitude that someone else should clean up their mess.
There hasn’t been much overall maintenance of the buildings. Nothing has really gotten «upgraded» or «improved» aside from the roof (which apparently still leaks). There are some «issues» my apartment had when I moved in that have sort of gotten worse (gaps between the wall and door so they don’t shut properly, leaks, unexplainable musty smells, crappy a/​c unit, etc).
I would never have lived here without my own washer and dryer, since the community areas suck. I will say that they installed some stations with plastic bags so dog owners can pick up the dog poop, and that seems to be working well. Also, they’re finally letting people renew their lease for something other than 12 or 14 months. In fact, you can go month-​to-​month, which seems miraculous considering how it used to be. I’m not sure that makes up for much, though.
There are apartments in the area that are much newer, nicer, and well-​maintained, so I would suggest looking elsewhere.

I wish I could give this place zero stars. The reviews really are true. This place tries to scam you out of your deposit, never fixes anything and the management really is RUDE. Elmer is the ONLY nice one in there, and it’s unfortunate has to work with all those other women in there who are SO disrespectful.
1. The trash is never taken out it would just pile up in the dumpster it was disgusting.
2. I had a wet spot on my ceiling that was starting to mold and was completely soft, their solution: paint it. But yea. it came back. I’m sure it’s completely molded.
3. Management is RUDE
4. They try to take your money for cleaning — so prepare yourself no matter how much time and effort you spend cleaning, they are going to charge you for carpet cleaning and full cleaning ~ $ 130
Point of the story: DON’T LIVE HERE.

I’ve been a resident at High Oaks since December, and Bob and his staff are very helpful! This is a great location and the lay out of the units are so cute with floor to ceiling brick fireplaces. Check it out!

I’m only here because of three simple facts:
1) location
2) price
3) short term lease option
If I had an option, I would not have selected High Oaks. I own a luxury car and apparently its a no no in this over-​exposed apartment complex. My window got broken (almost $ 800 to repair it), the previous month the car logo got removed by someone jealous, to say the least.

Place is crap I have never lived anywhere so trashy. Leasing agent lives there with a dog. And leaves it outside. As they never clean the patios people can leave whatever outside. They need to show this place saying they got a place that’s ghetto north Austin. And if changes made in the property mgmt every year. This is your place. Come feel like you live off Runberg.

Dude, I don’t know what kind of HARD times are going on over at your side of the wall, but one of your residents is constantly jumping the wall into our Utopia (Museo Apts) and lumberjacking our wood.
It’s HYSTERICAL. I will hear SNAP, CRACK, BREAK, BEAT, BEAT, BEAT. And it’s this fool (once wearing shorts and it was 38.3 degrees Fahrenheit out) who is in a total thicket of woods over here trying to break down wood. When he is done, he hops the fence back to you guys. So one can only assume he’s one of your own.
You’d think that a complex with a type of tree in their name would not have their residents pilfering other establishments’ wood. Get it together, HIGH Oaks!!!
Seriously. This guy is MFing ANNOYING!!!