Oh boy, Where to start. Well first off, get ready for Apex to be crawling all around your unit while you live there. Constantly looking for something that they think they can fee you for. They threatened to tow one of our cars because it "Didn't run". She magically made this deduction without even looking under the hood. MAGIC! Even though it had a parking pass displayed. Have a problem with something in your apartment you want fixed? FORGET ABOUT IT. We submitted multiple maintenance requests only for them to come back and tell us that it was fine the way it was or that they will get around to it. When they finally do get around to it, the maintenance is extremely rude/racist and will make fun of any personal decorations you display regarding your heritage. But I rented a "Remodeled" unit from Apex so I should be fine right? WRONG. That's what we thought until we pulled out a 3 foot black hair snake from the girls that lived in the apartment before us. The oven didn't work when we moved in, the washing machine and dishwasher stops halfway through the cycle but according to apex that is "Operating Properly". Same with the bathroom fan that vents so pitifully that the run of the mill fart is a formidable opponent which it cannot vanquish. This has lead to a buildup of mold (Which we must scrub regularly). But by apex standards as long as the switch turns on and there is a noise, its fine. We are moving out here in two weeks and I am already preparing for the legal battle I am going to have to go through with apex in order to get my security deposit back. That "Crazy guy" across the street with the boycott apex sign might not be so crazy after all.
I received a letter in my email today advising me that they found a plastic bag in the cardboard recycle with my "information in it." In this email they are threatening to give me a 10 day notice to vacate if it happens again which "has fees associated with it." This is just one of a long string of passive aggressive notices I've received in the year and a half living in one of their units. None of the previous notices were precisely directed at me - but rather, any time any of the tenants commits even the slightest perceived transgression, everyone in the complex gets a letter about it. So what you have here is a company that will GO THROUGH YOUR TRASH, find in the cardboard recycle a "plastic bag," probably which was attached to a cardboard box that contained a shipping receipt, and then THREATEN TO EVICT YOU OVER IT after a year and a half of paying rent on time every single month without fail and no other complaints against you. This is by far not the first time I've heard of them rifling through people's garbage. It's merely the first time I've experienced it first hand. Do not rent from these people. There is a REASON their business is across the street from a yard littered with signs that say "Boycott Apex."
Heard nothing but bad things about Apex from everyone I asked, but needed an apartment and Apex was the only option. I figured the negative reviews were only college kids who didn't understand apartments. I regret that assumption To start, they gave me the wrong apartment. I asked for a loft, and they gave me some paper work, it was in the right area and I had no way of finding out if it was correct at the time so I trusted that it was the correct paper work. Needless to say, when I moved in it was not a loft but instead was an overpriced, small studio. By then it was too late to fix it and all other apartments around Bellingham were taken (due to Western students). They admitted their mistake but only gave me a twenty dollar reduction to the rent. It was one long year in a tiny apartment, not fun. During the tenancy, one maintenance personnel said my malfunctioning washing machine was fine (it was not) and another told me to not call for maintenance again because I didn't need it (light bulbs on vaulted ceilings were broken when I moved in and doorbell didn't work). Last, but in no way least, when I moved out there were $90 of overcharges on the security deposit. I sent an email showing the move-in checklist to show that the apartment was a mess when I moved-in so they gave me $40 back for the wrongful cleaning charges, but would not refund me for the kitchen floor which they charged $50 dollars for a missing floorboard piece. After multiple emails referring to the lease and the move-in condition checklist, Apex still told me that I had no proof and that I would be charged. I kept pushing the subject until I got a call from the president of the company, Phil Maxwell, who bullied me, talked over me, accused me of slander and said if I kept pushing the issue that he would add more charges to my account. (I was only ever professional and polite). Eventually, after giving them proof from the lease agreement and the YouTube videos they provide, they got tired of me and called the maintenance personnel to ask about the missing piece he fixed after I moved out. He told them that there was no missing piece and corroborated everything I said so they finally gave me my money back. Tl;dr Gave me the wrong apartment, maintenance was rude, overcharged my security deposit and threatened me with more fees, even though in the end they admitted that they wrongfully overcharged my account.
if you are a college kid living in bellingham looking for a new apartment DONT rent through APEX property management,. they take advantage of you being young and send you a FAT bill at the end of your lease for WWAYYY more than your security deposit. save yourself the money trouble and rent from windermere.
The people working in the office are extremely rude and not very helpful. It's incredibly expensive to sublet (they have large fees for doing this) and maintenance is slow. I had to wait several WEEKS to have a sub-par exterminator arrive to address a carpenter ant problem, which turned out to be unsolvable because the ants were living in the support beams of the building. That's right: the wood of the building was infested with ants. Wish I had been told about this before I found an inch-long carpenter ant queen crawling across my floor, followed by about 50 winged drones.
