Apartment Review for Camden South Congress - Austin, TX

This apartment complex is awful in almost every way except for location. Stay away or be ready to have an overabundance of sleepless nights, slow maintenance service, dog poop dodging in the walkways, drunk women peeing from the second floor walkways, miscommunication and mistreatment by front office staff, lost mail/packages, and ridiculous charges upon move out. I would not recommend this place to anyone. This complex is overpriced and every year their rent increases. They will offer to lock in your current rent on your 9th month, IF you agree to 12 more months, if you don't they'll get you financially somehow. They offer HBO with basic cable, but the HBO signal is so awful, it only worked 2 or 3 nights a week. Water bill is not based on personal usage and separate from rent. If you are a water conservator this place is not for you. You'll be paying $70/month or more even if you are gone for 6 weeks on vacation. Yes, it happened. I was livid, but the front office did nothing, not even offer a tiny consolation. The same goes for electricity. During the time I was gone my electric bill was still somehow near $100 for a one-bedroom apartment. I lost several packages while living here. Obviously, if the package does not fit in the mailbox, the postman will leave it at the office. You would think they would check ID for people claiming packages for each apartment. They don't. When enough residents complain, they put out a notice reminding everyone they cannot be held responsible for lost packages. Where else are you supposed to get your mail delivered'' I hated walking around/next to fresh dog poop in the walkways early in the mornings and coming home to them in the evenings. The grassy area is limited, accessible from the bottom level of the parking garage, I guess resident dog owners here are too lazy to walk down. People would let their dogs poop by the tiny grass area (no wider than 2 feet) along the walkways, and sometimes on the walkways. In any case, I asked the front office several times to at least maintain the walking areas because the odor was awful and it's not so great on the eyes either. This problem was rarely even met. The front gate was often out of service. There is also a gate at the back of the complex that is so easily opened, it couldn't possibly have provided any safety. There is over a dozen incidents where I would find the back gate open for several days in a row. Each time, I would report it to the front office to be closed and they would agree and reassure me on the phone. But when I'd check later in the evening, the gate would still be opened. The sliding door to my patio was crooked upon move in, it would not close completely at the top. They reassured me it would be repaired before the week was over. I moved out and it was still crooked. This is not to say that I didn't try to talk to the front office about it. Especially during the summer months, when bugs would come into the apartment from the opening. Or when heat would escape through the opening during winter months. They would reassure me each time I went to the front that they called it in or wrote it in or requested it. Then they would say tools and/or parts were in order. Eventually, they tired of me, and I was tired of them. Their last excuse was that the foundation had moved and there was no way for them to fix it. Yet this was not enough for them to let me break my lease without penalty. During my almost 13 month stay, I hired a cleaning service to professionally deep clean the carpet quarterly. The first cleaning happened when I acquired the keys and prior to moving my furniture in. The other cleanings happened every 3-4 months. I moved out, left my forwarding address with the front office, as well as all my contact numbers. 7 months later, yes seven, I receive a letter saying it was the final notice for me to pay $1550 to Camden for carpet damage in a one-bedroom apartment where only the living room and the bedroom had carpet!! They claimed the carpet was so damaged they had to replace it upon my move out. $1550'' It takes less than that to carpet a 2 bedroom condominium! Not once did I receive a call, an email, or a letter from the complex, and here I am having to deal with a third party collector. I should have taken pictures after I moved everything out, but it just didn't occur to me, especially since I hired a cleaning service to do a 'move out clean' and they were very thorough. Natalie, the lady that I met when I first visited then signed a lease with kept dodging my phone calls. Every time I called she was out sick or just left or some other excuse. My messages have not been returned. Needless to say, I do not recommend this place to anyone. I stand by this review. Feel free to contact me if you want me to elaborate on anything. There is so much more to tell, but I don't have the time.