The G, austin-tx

While Melissa at the leasing office was generally professional and courteous, the maintenance and care for the living spaces was unacceptable. My roommate and I had a litany of issues from day one: - A supposedly brand-new A/C system failed and would not cool - Maintenance's "fix" resulted in the system being on 24/7, freezing the evaporator coil, and then also not cooling - Maintenance then identified that the mainboard had failed (brand new Trane system, as a reminder) and needed replacing - Replacement took WELL OVER A MONTH, during which our apartment was uninhabitably warm (80+ on warm days) - Management gave my roommate and I a portable A/C unit each, which served to only grossly increase our power bill while not actually cooling the environment - By the time the AHU was fixed, cold months had arrived and it became clear that the furnace was improperly installed; again, frequently the habitability criteria would not be met and my bedroom would float around 52F - Numerous repair requests were made; each resulted in no fix, or staff bringing out portable heaters. Again I must stress that these "portable" systems in fact do not fix the furnace, AHU, or condenser unit and just raise our bill in the interim - As of today, our A/C system is able to pull down 7-8F to ambient; on an 87 degree day, our living room will sit at 80F with our bedrooms significantly warmer. This is astonishing. Despite all the non-functional systems, we have paid collectively $400/mo with duke energy during the cold months and more recent warm months. This $200/mo per person rate is incredibly high; at my roommates' and my previous residence over at the Cottages on Lindberg, we paid $50-80/mo per person during the same months, also through Duke. The problem lies not in Duke's billing or policies, but in the incredibly slow responding and uncapable maintenance staff's inability to fix a well-understood system over what is approaching a full calendar year. Throughout all this, maintenance has been friendly but focused only on finger-pointing at those who installed the system, or previous maintenance staff. I have no care or interest in who is to blame, I just want to not sweat while paying two hundred dollars a month for electricity. Expecting a response to this from The Fairways, I have actually been by the office a few times. My roommate and I have had the pleasure of an unproductive and bureaucratic email chain with Melissa, who seems to not take our issues seriously. Again I must state that despite her clearly being a nice person, my roommate and I have paid ostensibly more than we should have for power, received uninhabitable living conditions, and waited over half a year for an enduring fix to what simply cannot be that complicated. Every time we talk with management or maintenance, we seem to be shrugged off as silly people whose desire to fairly live comfortably will eventually be forgotten. I will happily update this review to reflect new correspondence, financial compensation for insane power bills, or proper, respectful, and thorough maintenance, should any of those happen prior to my lease end. Make your own decision about this place; you can really only walk to Walmart, valet trash service degrades the already poor hallways into smelly, dirty, unmaintained areas, the parking lots appear to have been hit by artillery and are not fixed, and maintenance seems to be focused on inconveniencing all of its residences by changing the type of locks on each buildings' exterior doors every other month. Given the headaches, I can't in good faith recommend this set of residences for my rent of $850/mo (plus a ton of fees and other charges, of course).

The fairways is a spacious apartment with lots of amenities and responsive management, that is where the positive ends. When I first moved into the fairways, I was told my unit was recently renovated. Despite this, the air conditioner did not work. After filing a maintenance request, management sent a portable air conditioning unit to resolve the issue while "fixing" the AC. Despite this, the maintenance team would continuously enter the unit, visually inspect the AC unit and vents for only a short period, and report broken parts, stating they would return to replace them, without conducting any repairs. After well over a month and multiple requests, management finally sent an HVAC company to the unit to fix the AC... By that point, it was October and there was no longer a need for air conditioning. As such, I was not able to test its functionality, we'll revisit this later. Then, as it started getting colder, I realized that the unit's heater did not work. It would be about 30 degrees outside, and I would set my thermostat to 68 degrees (As recommended by management) only to have the unit's internal temperature reach 50 degrees. After I filed a maintenance request,  team provided a portable heater, then put their hands in front of the vents within the unit and claimed that air was flowing and everything was working. They would then CLOSE the maintenance request ticket, labelling the problem solved... when the heater is still broken. This then led to a cycle of new maintenance requests being opened and closed. The team would briefly inspect the unit, making only simple repairs that anyone could do themselves (replacing the air handler air filter and thermostat battery). Recently, I realized my AC might NOT actually be fixed because the temperature discrepancy remains during this hot summer. A 6-to-8 degree discrepancy commonly existed between the thermostat temperature and the unit's internal temperature. Earlier today, when it was 84 degrees outside, I set my thermostat to 71 degrees. Despite this, the unit's internal temperature only cooled to 77 degrees, making me question whether the AC was truly fixed last fall. As one can imagine, a portable AC and heater requires significantly more energy to run than the unit's. Because West Lafayette experiences significantly hot and cold temperatures, these portable ACs and heaters were vital for livable conditions during times of extreme temperatures. As expected, using these significantly increased the monthly electricity cost. During months when the outside temperature wasn't extreme, I paid an average of $200 monthly, which is already very high. However, this past winter, I had to pay $370 monthly even though the heater still wasn't functioning. For context, I lived at the Cottages last year with 4 other people in a townhouse and my electricity bill that December was $400... FOR A TOWNHOUSE WITH 5 PEOPLE. When I asked for compensation, the management team simply informed me that higher electricity usage = higher electricity cost... All the other one star reviews are completely true and should HEAVILY be considered before signing a lease with the Fairways. Also, yes, I used present tense for all my HVAC concerns because my AC and heater are still broken to this day! This review is getting too long, please be sure to read my other reviews for non-HVAC problems I've had since moving in!

I met with Ashley who took me on a tour of the fairway apartments. The grounds are kept very neatly I like the pool area as well as the common space with the gym. The apartments were roomy and neat and clean. Common areas were tidy. Overall a very nice property. Ashley was very informative on the tour not only in regards to the property but into the area and access to the campus.

Ashley, Stephanie, and Mellissa were very professional, knowledgeable and willing to answer all my questions. When I first walked in I was greeted with all smiles and hellos from all 3. They seem very happy to be at work which is very rare these days. I was at these apartments a few years ago with my nephew and it was not great. But the beautiful happy ladies that are working there now have done an amazing job! Thank you ladies for a great experience and I’m sure I will be back!

I’ve had a generally positive experience with the on-site staff here. Melissa and the leasing office team have always been professional and kind, and the maintenance crew does a great job responding quickly. No complaints about the people who actually work at the property. However, the upper management is a different story. Management and the policies keep changing, and recent decisions have felt unfair to residents. I renewed my lease early to lock in my rate, only to find out later that management rolled out a newer, significantly lower promotion for renewals. When I asked if mine could be adjusted to match what other residents were being offered, I was told it couldn’t be applied retroactively, even though signing early was supposed to be the responsible choice. Examples like this make it feel like early renewals are penalized rather than appreciated. It’s frustrating, because the local staff truly tries to help, but upper management’s decisions make the living experience feel inconsistent and not resident-friendly. That’s the main reason for my 1-star rating after living here for almost 4 years.