Park Highland

An update on what the progress of this issue has become:
I received an email last night knocking off about $ 250 from the original $ 473 charge because the painter changed his estimated cost of the paint seal they were charging me for.
However, the issue of the carpet, still stands. The Carpet was not replaced before I moved in and the previous assistant community manager who sold me the lease, remembers it wasn’t in the best condition. Because they only had 5 days to turn the apartment around for me to move into it, they cleaned the carpets but it was not replaced.
This Community manager is now stating that the carpet was replaced 2÷3÷12 — one day prior to the date I moved in (which is a violation of the EPA guidelines for new carpeting as they suggest a 48−72hour time frame prior to moving people in to ventilate), this manager has still not provided me with the original invoice. She called the vendor and had the vendor draft up an invoice today, the date of the invoice is 2÷3÷12, but the date above the total costs and sales person is 2÷17÷16 at 7:26am. Which means this is not the original invoice. This was created today. She told me she would try to find the original invoice, however, this has not happened. Likely because it doesn’t exist. I’ve now asked for the original invoice multiple times and it still hasn’t been released to me.
I’m getting more than upset at this situation and will never do business with ESSEX or Park Highland again. Furthermore, as I am a technical recruiter by trade, I constantly talk to many engineers looking to move to the Bellevue area, I will now make a point to tell my clientele to avoid anything from Park highland and ESSEX.

Love it here! When I first checked this place out I already know this is where home is. It is such a nice, private and quiet apartment complex to live! Tons of trees, all covered by green. Great views in my building, I can see downtown Bellevue and downtown Seattle at night time!!! During holiday you can even see the garden lights next door at the botanical garden, very beautiful.
The stuff works in the leading office are super nice, they email you every time you have a package delivered, like on time!!! Maintenance systems is amazing as well, every time when I have an issue, they usually comes in and fix it super quick!!! Love, love, love.

This is my first-​hand account of my experience dealing with the staff at Park Highland.
Overall, I have had a less than satisfactory experience dealing with them. It just seems like they just don’t respect guests of the property.
I was visiting a friend who lived there over Thanksgiving weekend. I was confused by the makeshift parking signage, and I parked somewhere I shouldn’t have. None-​the-​less, they had my car towed. They could have been nice and given me a courtesy notice to move it before towing, but they didn’t. No 24 hour notice or anything. Just not nice. Overall interactions with the staff lead to believe that they just don’t care.

If you want to experience what is it like living in hell you should try Park Highland. Staff is really Stubborn. Apartment community is suppose to be a place where people stay and expect some courtesy and helpfulness by leasing staff. We have really bad experience living in this community.

This community is awesome! The apartments are very specious, very reasonable (for Bellevue), and very quite. The location is awesome as it is close enough to walk to Downtown Bellevue. The Community Manager and Front Desk Leasing Specialists are fantastic and always will to take time out of their busy days to listen to your concerns and answer any questions.
The Community is currently under remodel so there are are slight inconveniences (as with any remodel). The Staff at Park Highland have gone above and beyond the call to make sure that the Residents are fully aware of what is happening and when it is happening as well as do their best to «fight for» the residents when dealing with Corporate.
The area and units are already beautiful and once the remodel is finished I fully expect the community to stand out as one of the best in the area. But it really is the staff that make this community stand out. Maintenance and Leasing office staff are by far some of the best I’ve ever had the privilege to know.

This community is very quite and comfortable living. The trees and beautiful landscape add beauty to the surroundings. The property manager Margaret is very hard working and does a terrific job!!! She treats the residents like family. Essex should be very proud and lucky to have a Manager that is so dedicated to her job! The previous Manager was the worse. I almost moved out. I hated to live here because of him… he always made me feel unwelcomed and for the most part rude and cold. But under the new Management things started to change and it has got better and better. The new team definately adds a breathe of fresh air to the community. They are friendly, helpful and courteous.
cons — the garage parking. It is not a gated parking garage and there has been vandalism. Having lived here since 2005 they doubled the price of the garage to $ 40 but no improvements have been made to the garage parking. I think they should charge residents that have lived here over 10 years the original parking rate of $ 20. This would be considered fair. All properties I have lived before, have ONE assigned garage parking to a unit and any extra cars parked on the property are charged an extra fee. Yes, there are no parking space in the evening. It’s first come first served just coz some residents have 2 or 3 cars + overnight or visiting guest too.- that sometimes don’t seem to leave!!. Start with car stickers would be a good idea and monitor the parking stalls… just a friendly suggestion.

PROS: (make sure you will read the BAD side too)
beatiful complex, a lot of trees,
cheap parking
decent rent price
spacious rooms (lots of closet)
dedicated and friendly stuff
quite, but very close to downtown bellevue and highways
CONS:
sound proof! Especially with super sensitive neighbours living below you. My unfortunate exprience below:
(we have extra thick rug on top of the normal carpet)
1. We got security guys knocking on the door several times at 11PM, stating either we were stomping on the floor, or dragging furnitures. Even the security guys didnt hear anyting when they come.
2. We heard banging on our floor from downstairs ceiling using a broom/​bat/​etc a lot of times when we were just watching tv, not moving.
3. Everytime we were so worried when friends coming over that JUST walking on the floor will cause issues.
4. (maybe we are biased) But we met the original resident who lived in our apartment before us, she suffered the similar exprience with her family with 2 boys, which she had to move early to the unit below our sensitive neighbour. (didnt want her boys get scared by secruties knocking on the door so many times.)
SO this is a very good place, with a big BUT.
Make sure your below neighour is normal sensitive, maybe before you move in, meet them.
(i dont know other units, but i’d say STAY AWAY from the unit i rented, it already drove away 2 tenants at least)

Park Highland was quite a surprise. I have really enjoyed living here and if I were not moving out of state I’d stay. The complex is big and well kept up and with lots of trees. In the summer it usually stays cool and holds the heat in the winter. It’s quite a treat being so close to downtown. I think for your money you get PLENTY of space and storage. Rent in Bellevue is quite steep and this place is competitive so that would be my only bummer comment. The staff here have always been wonderful and quick to address whatever issue we came across. The surrounding area is quiet and has a safe feel to it. Lots of other pet owners in the community so pets are welcome and plenty of places to walk. Great community for families or couples, great location and quiet! A+

Lived here for 3 years. DO NOT RENT. Oppressive lease terms which are not reasonable and highly unethical management. I have an excellent credit score and a family income around $ 150K, so you can take it from me that I am not a sod. Arbitrary imposition of penalties and discriminatory terms. Despite being on time every time with rent and even having a credit to our name, they refused to renew after 3 years for arbitrary reasons. They did this even when we pointed out that my wife was pregnant and almost due for a baby and this would not be the right time to move. This is a place which asks you to pick up painting and carpet replacement fees (not carpet cleaning but carpet replacement fees) when exiting. Everyone knows normal wear and tear cannot be charged for but still they do it. Also, the place does not screen its residents and lets in pets without screening breeds making for an unsafe living environment, Our dog, a gentle retriever, was bit twice by dogs of other tenants and I got personally injured myself. We took them to Bellevue district court and the judge asked them to fire their billing accountants — that’s how bad their billing accounting is. They are now being taken over by Essex and during these last two months, they did not even have proper cleaning people at the site, Almost the entire cleaning crew quit and garbage and trash piled up all over and stank the whole place. People who live in this community are strange and given that they do not even do credit checks and background checks, possible criminals and unethical characters could be present. We even got a letter from the management in May and June of 2014 that there have been vandalisms of vehicles. Finally, the kitchen appliances are ages old and smoke a lot giving rise to smoke alarms going off every time we baked or grilled. In our 3 years there, the management team churned 4 times. Overall an unsafe, unethical, and beyond incompetence management. They are discriminatory as well. We have an outstanding complaint with the Washington State Human Rights violation office. AVOID at all costs despite convenient location and large storage — simply not worth the trouble.

I lived in Park Highland for about 3 years. I was very happy for most of the time I lived there. The maintenance staff are great. They are knowledgeable, skillful and courteous. The web portal can be used to pay the rent and also request for maintenance. Maintenance requests are acted upon within the SLA. I have lived in several apartment complexes before but this is the best one in terms of maintenance staff and service. The appearance of the community is nice and there is nothing to dislike about it. However, the officials are a different story. The officials I found in my first two years of living there were great, I have nothing to complaint against them. But the ones that are working since 2013 are not lowering the bar for BRE Properties (now part of Essex). Here are few incidents I faced:
1. During a renewal month, I was looking for a bigger place and was not sure if I would renew so I paid for the partial month and paid on time i.e. on the 1^st day of the month. While I was waiting to know the rent of a bigger apartment in the same complex from a leasing office official, I was served with 3 eviction notices with 3 different dates on them in an evening. The language on the notices were stern, basically asking me to vacate the apartment within 2 days. It was clear from the dates that two of the notices were generated earlier but they forgot to serve them. However, I was totally perplexed as you can imagine. In the following morning the manager did apologize to me after I explained the situation in an email and also verbally but the junior official who generated the notices even after seeing my rent paid in full till the end of lease kept totally silent and showed no apologetic attitude.
2. I had the worst parking spot in the underground garage and one day I found a better one to become available. I contacted the junior official about it and she said she is going to prepare an online doc for me and all I have to do is just sign it electronically. The communication was happening in an email. I was waiting for the email with the doc to come but two days later saw a new tenant parking in the spot. I politely asked him if he got the spot and he said that he got it from the leasing office. Totally surprised I emailed that junior official and this time she just chose to ignore my email. Feeling helpless I decided to not to pursue the matter any more.
3. I was away for five weeks which included a full calendar month. When I came back, to my surprise, I found that my water, sewerage and garbage bill went up while I was away. It increased only by a dollar but what a surprise! There was no water usage, subsequently no sewerage usage too. I contacted the junior official. From the very beginning it seemed like she was surprised to see me wanting to investigate such a petty matter. I asked her to advise me if I should contact the billing company or someone else myself or if it is them to investigate it. She told that they can handle it but she surprised me when she said I was supposed to inform them that I am going to be away. I don’t think the lease contract says that (I did not check the contract though). In the following days when she was supposed to contact the utility company and update me she never sent me any email or called me even though whenever I met her she told me to do so. After exchanging couple of emails and getting no traction on it I just directly called the utility company and found that they have their meter reading showing ZERO water usage but thought there is something wrong with the meter. Instead of investigating what went wrong they just charged me using an estimate (apparently the formula was the max bill in the last few months + $ 1). However, when I offered to show my immigration documents proving that I was away for that duration she said all that is needed to correct it was a verbal confirmation from the leasing office official that I was actually away and they were waiting on it! I was once again surprised by the lack of professionalism of that junior official.
I don’t want to drag it longer but in short I would advise people stay out of this community until at least Essex Properties replaces the junior official. Otherwise, you may not get the level of service you would pay for from this leasing office and I would say the rent in this community is certainly pretty high now.

I was late for an appointment about 5 mins, and they just refuse to show me. Being nice is an important feature that is missing in this place. I feel better to keep away from them.

Pricey with hidden costs. We took immaculate care of our place but they still managed to charge us $ 1,000 upon moving out for updates and replacement costs they should be responsible for the new tenant (ex. full cleaning).
This apartment is crazy quiet. You could go a week without seeing anyone. That being said, many people work nights, so if you vacuum or even walk during the day in your apartment, expect to get a noise complaint. The office guy is rude and acts annoyed whenever you need to talk to him.
TIP: Don’t get a place next to the ally. You will be plagued with dump trucks every morning at 3am, kids skateboarding, and loud arguments from the neighboring older condos.
The parking spots are expensive, too small for most cars, and your car will get scratched up. Most tenants don’t pay for parking and just park in the retail parking lot that never tows. While the apartment appears secure, many random people make there way into the building because some entrance doors remain unlocked for construction crews.
Be mindful of you water bill. The entire usage for the floor is divided by the number of units equally. So, regardless of if you have a studio or two bedroom you pay the same– about $ 140… Which is crazy.

I figured since the last review was from 2009 I would give an update. This place is okay. That’s the best word I can use to describe it. Here are the five reasons why I give it two stars:
1) The location is actually pretty good. It’s close to I-​405 but removed enough that you don’t hear the highway. The down part is that you can not walk to anything since it’s tucked away. No easy access to transportation (i.e bus line) to Seattle or downtown Bellevue.
2) The sound proofing is terrible. I lived in the middle of two apartments, one above and one below me, my fault yes. Even then, I could easily hear my neighbors below me snoring and my neighbors above me stomp their feet.
3) The facilities and amenities are a little out dated. If you value a nice gym, this place ain’t it. I will say the hot tub is surprisingly nice and hot. The clubhouse is connected to the leasing office so when they close at night so does the clubhouse section. So don’t even think about using their t.v. after 6pm or throwing a small get together party.
4) The dishwasher sucked. No other way to put it.
5) Finally, at the end of my lease they tried to increase the renewal rent price from $ 925 to $ 1050. Huh?! That doesn’t make much sense does it? It was surprising because customer loyalty did not appear that important.
Moral of the story: Their are better places to live in Bellevue

I just recently moved into the Park Highland apartments and so far I’m a fan. The apartment layout we moved into is perfect for what we were looking for, the deck space is ample and gets great sun, and the sound proofing is solid enough that I almost never hear any of our neighbors.
The apartments being right next to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens is a nice touch, as is having a gate that connects to it. The apple trees nearby make the air outside our apartment smell like apple cider on some nights, which is awesome.
The only bad I’ve run into so far is the parking and the management. The parking… there isn’t any unless you want to pay for a reserved slot. If you come home in the evening, be prepared to drive all over the complex looking for parking slots. There is a lot of reserved parking in covered garages under each apartment building and if BRE properties were to just assign one reserved slot to each apartment it would completely eliminate the parking hassle. But they want to make an extra buck :/​
As for the management, they’re actually really sweet and earnest folks who want to help you out. The problem is that from what I’ve run into the office is staffed 60% of the time by temps who don’t have access to anything beyond being able to show apartments to prospective renters. Repeatedly I’ve gone in there with something only to be told that no one there had access to whatever information i needed and I’d have to come back when the manager was actually in.
How they can manage a property with a staff that seems to be nearly entirely temps is beyond me. Granted, all of the temps are remarkable sweet and friendly, but still… when I have a problem, the office should have staff on hand to deal with it. Isn’t that part of the point of living in a managed apartment complex?
Overall, I’m enjoying living here and feel like I’ll be staying a while, but they certainly have some points where they can improve.