Orchard Lakes Apartments Austin Highland Development Company Rude disrespecting staff, unfounded fines, unkept living quarters, horrible customer service, theft, drugs Wood Dale, Illinois

Robert- way ahead of you. We had put a chain lock on the door at one point and had gotten filthy letters threatening a hefty fine if not removed.

Zombies- I'm sorry if you feel youve been ignored. I've read my lease numerous times. Its does say repairs will be done by request. It does not mention them entering without someone being home though. in fact, three entire paragraph on repairs is mainly filler. I have not seen anything about the need to enter an apartment to deliver a letter, which is bull in my opinion anyways.

I love how you fail to respond to my sugguestion of going over your lease. It will be in your lease whether or not they can enter your appartment at any time or only with permision (emergencies are exempt) or advanced notice. However since you ignore the best advice you've been given (go over your lease, everything is in your lease) I'm thinking that your nothing more than a troll.

If your not then go over your lease... I dont know how many times I have to say it this is all you have to do, all the rules and conditions of living in these apartments will be in your lease. I should also point out that your lease is a legal document and can be used as proof in court. If you do go over your lease and see things that you dont agree with then you should have gone over it before moving into the place.

I will say it one last time, go over your lease. Problem solved.

You have had several inconsistencies that when pointed out you try and justify it, just to come up with more inconsistencies.  This puts doubt on your ENTIRE report.

But with that said I will tell you a few things about the Entries, if in fact they are doing this.

If they do not have permission in advance, in general a landlord/maintence people are not allowed to enter your apartment without proper notice.  This notice is generally between 24 and 48 hours.  Of course there are exceptions to this.  Emergencies where they need immediate access to your apartment is one.  This could be a case where you have a pipe burst and they need to get in to fix it to prevent further damage.

You need to find out the exact laws for your state and the procedure to handle violations in your State.  It may require a police report, it may require you to send the Landlord a Certified Letter.  You may also be able to sue them in Small Claims. 

But if you are truly that worried why not put a chain lock on your door?  This way it would keep them from just entering your apartment, but in emergencies they can break it if they needed to.

Today I walked out of the shower, draped myself in a towel and walked through the living room to check on my son sleeping in his crib in the other room. I was shocked to be greeted by some tall man claiming to be maintenance there to give me a letter. He did not feel nearly as uncomfortable as I did that I was naked in fact I told him I would take care of it later since I was still in a state of undress and had to dismiss him.

Upon reading the letter I had been charged an ungodly fine of $158 for "throwing cigarette butts over the balcony." My family doesn't even smoke. I can't wait to get out of here.

Does anyone know if there is a law against repetitive entry into the home? I don't feel safe now that this keeps happening. I mean, I was naked! If I'm paying rent there should be some sort of privacy I am allowed to have. Can someone please help me?!? I'm very uncomfortable living here and can't afford to break my lease. There must be a way to prevent them from entering my apartment without notice. I have no privacy. They refuse to come when anyone is home. I'm very worried about my and my child's safety and the safety of my belongings at this point. Please if anyone has any information please, please, comment!

Thanks for letting me know. I was wondering why i was being attacked. Theresa always those roots of people in need of attention. I will just ignore then so they get bored and go somewhere else.

I don't know why everyone is attacking the original poster. It seems like she's sharing an experience like the rest of the people on here. If the place was perfect why would she waste her time. I assume that they are affiliated with the compay in question and angry. I'm not here to attack. Just my 2 cents. I've personally lived at orchard lakes for a year. Although my experience wasn't as bad, I did notice long intervals between repairs and mowing. The buildings are cheap, but it's an apartment. What do you expect? The staff was very rude in a "we're better then you and know we have you by the balls" sort of way. The repair men DID enter my apartment when I was at work but always left a note about repairing something. As far as I know they never stole from me. Parking was horrible and they made up new rules often (not in the lease ect). I did have my car towed when I was at a family function after a snow. I didn't like that much but I digress. The area has gone down hill in terms of drugs and gang violence but I don't think the complex is at fault for that. No one stole from me and I'm sorry that happened to you. In my building my main complaint was just the shotty repairs and noisy neighbors and dogs. I actually got fined for having a windchime because it was "too loud" but the kids next door played loud music every day. So the staff is a little backwards and its run as a business. The renters are employees to them. Its an apartent though. Its not going to be perfect. The speed bumps suck. The staff sucks. The neighbors suck. But its an apartment. Would I recommend this place? No. But I'm pretty sure there is worse. In this economy if you can't buy, rent a house. That's what I did. The landlord is much more laid back and I couldn't be happier. Good luck!

"5 years I've been trapped here" "this place as wonderful for about the irst 3 years"

That implies you've "been trapped here" for two years not five.

"The grounds are never kept up."  Really? You wrote that the first three years were "wonderful".

You can request signature confirmation for the deliveries.

When we first moved in this place as wonderful for about the irst 3 years... then they changed staff. At first I had no problem with a long lease. As for your busy body comment, nope not one of those people. My neighbor is and tells me everything going on, whether I care or not. As for the packages, I'm not alone. The lady across the hall, my neighbor, the woman upstairs have all had packages stolen. We did contact the police and told them what had happened. The woman upstairs spent over $700 on a guitar that was taken. The police said they'd look into it but pretty much couldn't do anything about it. Thy went to he office themselves... I don't know what happened after that.

I suggest you guys realize I'm just posting my personal experience to let others know what's going on. I wish someone had done that for me. I am a family woman who works fulltime with a 2 year old son and husband. This site is to post the truth about businesses. Consider noticing this is my home, where I live, and I'm helping others know what they are getting into. Accept that before you attack the poster for absolutely no reason what so ever.

I'm done replying to these outrageous and unnessicary comments. If you don't agree with my comment, move in. Ill see ya on here soon enough. My lease is up this year andim moving far far away from here. Happy holidays eveyone!

The two roberts are both A*******.  They are always giving consumers s*** & always putting in their two cents.

You sound like the typical "busy body" who sticks their nose in everyone else's business and then complains about how the management is, how bad the OTHER people are, and how YOU are being picked on.  Yet you stay year after year.

As for your lease, why would you sign a 5+ year lease?  I mean you did sign one that long didn't you?  After all you are having to pay a penalty for breaking it.  Too bad you were not like most people who sign only a 1 year lease, where if they don't like the place they can move out after that year at the end of the lease without penalty.  If you did that you would have had several opportunities to move out without penalty

Then why are you "sad to say" you are moving out?  It would seem that you would be ecstatic to move out.

I would be curious are you the only one who has had stuff stolen from your apartment and missing packages?  Have you and the other victims contacted the police on these issues?   If they get more reports it not only will give them more reason to believe that something is up but more to investigate.  If you are the ONLY one then yes sorry to say your story looses quite a bit of credibility.

It's really simple, you should already have a copy of your lease, take it to a lawyer and have them go over it and if they have broken the lease you will be able to sue them. If they haven't then you probably should have read your lease very carefully.

Its sad to say that moving from here, $2000 to break your lease $1200 1st months rent somwhere else $250 pet deposit and $1200 for security deposit, is fairly expensive. If I had thousands of dollars I wouldn't be living in an apartment. However, if you have that kind of money laying around since its so seemingly easy to pick up and move as stated by you, I'd willingly take some of that to get me out of here. Thank you for your highly educated concern.

It's a shame that your wrists and ankles are shackled otherwise you could pack and move.