J Conti Interests review: Apartment 2

By far the worst place I have ever lived in my life. The two places I rented out in college were light-years better than this place.
I moved into 600 Heights Blvd. in May 2010. Seeing as this is Houston, Texas, the month of May is when things are really beginning to heat up. This is also the time when my A/C was not working. I had to make several phone calls to the office because each time one of the maintenance staff was sent they pretended to somehow fix the A/C, but it still was not working. There was even a time that maintenance came over to respond to my phone call about the A/C, stepped inside and immediately said "Brrr it's cold." I finally had to type up a formal letter citing the property code that states the wrong-doing in refusing to not fix the A/C in Texas and that gives the renter the right to hire his/her own repair service and send the bill to the landlord. Things immediately changed when that happened. In no time at all they were calling me to inform me they would have an outside repair service come fix things. So after almost 2 months of no A/C in Texas summer heat, I finally had cool air again.
Another consistent nuisance was the landlord not leaving notifications inside the apartment after they have entered while the renter is out. The lease they write up and require the renters to sign specifically states they must leave written notice of times they enter an apartment. They never ever do this. NEVER. The one time they did do this is when the aforementioned A/C incident was going on and I cited the lease in the letter that I wrote and articulated that I would be expecting the written notification. There is no proof that any maintenance work is done that is requested by the tenant when they are gone for this very reason. There is also no way to know how often or for what reason they may or may not have been inside your home which is extremely unsettling to me.
Roaches were also an outrageous problem in my apartment. The little roaches were an almost daily occurrence. But it didn't stop there. One evening I found a total of EIGHT two-inch long cockroaches in my bathroom and bedroom. I called the next day and requested an extermination and they assured me this would be done in the early afternoon - while I was at work. As usual, there was no written notice/proof whatsoever when I returned home that this was done. I called to assure it was done and was only met with a response along the lines of "there should have been a note left that it was completed." Nothing else.
For a 30-plus complex, there was only 2 washers and 2 dryers. That was a huge headache. Coupled with the fact that at least half of the time one or both machines (usually the washers) was broken was just a nightmare. The laundry experience leaves much to be desired.
The manual walk-in gate is to be unlocked with a key for an added safety measure. 90 - 95% of the time the gate was held open with a rock or some type of paper or stick was stuck in the hole to prevent the lock from closing. Due to this the door would frequently not open at all until maintenance came by to fix the problem.
The buildings also do not seem to be kept up well. Granted the complex was built in the 1970's, but simple repairs seem to not be made. Outlet covers are left broken, random holes are covered up in the cheapest way possible that will cause the hole to reappear within the year, etc.
The rent is next to impossible to find anywhere else inside the loop - but there IS a reason for that! Unkempt and unprofessional. Absolutely would not recommend this company to anyone.