Colonial Village at Harbour Club
Hello everyone, this is my personal review of Colonial Village at Harbour Club. In my opinion they are the worst Virginia Beach Apartments. If you are looking for apartments in Virginia Beach, it is my recommendation that you look else where. Do not be swayed by the vicinity to the beach or the free cable that they may offer you. They purposely with held information from my wife and I until we had signed and were responsible for the lease.
A little background about how we ended up at these apartments. We had to move quickly for a job. The couple of days we came to view the apartments and sign the lease it was storming like crazy. Raining really hard and a total mess. I know we should not have been looking at apartments in these conditions, but we had 2 weeks to relocate for my wifes new job and as bad as the economy is “you do what you have to” to get things done. We asked direct questions and were out right lied to. I understand maybe we should not have trusted people so easily, but I guess I still believe there are some honest people and businesses left in this country.
Take a look at my reasons below and I am sure that you will agree that Colonial Village at Harbour Club are some of the worst Virginia Beach Apartments available.
Why Colonial Village at Harbour Club are the Worst Virginia Beach Apartments!
Oceana Fly Zone- You are in the direct flight path of Oceana Naval Base. This means that you will have constant flyovers from Navy jets on most days. The flyovers can be minimal (2-3 times every couple of hours) or consistent (3-4 times per hour until 11, 12 or even 1 am). Now, the apartment complex evidently does not want you to know that you are in the flight path and if you happen to be in the office on a day that the jets are not flying they may not disclose this to you. They did not disclose this to my wife and I until AFTER we had signed and were responsible for the lease. They claim that you should be knowledgeable about the fly zone, because everyone in Virginia Beach knows about it. However, when you are new to the area and are not military you may not know about the fly zone. We were made aware of the fly zone after the lease was signed and the rental agent states “Oh, one more thing I forgot you to sign”.
You can download a pdf of the fly zone here to help you make a decision if you think the noise will bother you (trust me it is horrible). Click here to download the fly zone chart.
AUM Utility Bills – I have been told Colonial Village at Harbour Club uses what is called the “RUBS” system to bill you for the water/sewer bill and the bills are generated through AUM Utility Billing. Now, what this means is that your water bill is based upon the number of tenants that reside in the apartment complex and the total water bill for the complex. So your water bill is calculated by dividing the total water bill by the number of tenants residing in the complex. So if the apartment complex is full your water bill is one price. If tenants move out, your water bill will then increase.
How AUM plays in to this is they claim to rate your water usage based upon the hot water used and that is the amount you are billed for, but it does not coincide with what I have been told by others. What has happened is AUM and Colonial Village at Harbour Club have turned the water/sewer bill in to a profit center. So if your normal water/sewer bill is $30 – $40 per month, they have found a way to increase it to $125, $150 or even more. We have had a water/sewer bill that was over $170 for a family of 4 (2 adults and 1 8 year old and 1 toddler). To make matters worse, you are charged a $20 set up fee and a $4.50 management fee to get screwed by the worst apartments in Virginia Beach and AUM.
Oh yeah, when we asked about the 3rd party water bill, we were told our total AUM bill would be $35 – $45 per month. Our water bills have never been billed that low and in fact have been closer to $100 – $120 per month.
Electric Bill Fee – Your electric bill will come from Dominion Virginia Power and that is fine. What is not fine is that the worst Virginia Beach Apartments, Colonial Village at Harbour Club charges you a fee to transfer the electric power back in to their name when your lease expires. Oh yeah, they DID NOT DISCLOSE this information up front as they should have so we could make a decision about paying this fee. What they did was hide it in the lease so that when we got to it we had already signed and were financially responsible for the lease.
Now I understand that the fee is only $15, but this is extremely underhanded and dishonest. If they feel so strongly about the fee and think it is okay, they should tell you upfront when you talk to them about the apartments.
Apartment Condition – We were shown and agreed upon one apartment, but when it came time to get the keys the apartment we were shown was “conveniently” rented by mistake. So we were stuck in another apartment that is in horrible condition with a “promise” to have the issues repaired in 60 days max. Guess what? Nothing has been fixed as promised and the apartment is still in the same shape.
Vagrants – Something else they do not tell you. There is a homeless shelter nearby and the homeless people will hangout in the parking lot entrance while waiting for the homeless shelter to open. I am not trying to be cruel or cold, but this could be a dangerous situation for kids waiting for the bus or women walking through the parking lot.
Section 8 Housing - Something else they do not disclose is that the surrounding neighborhoods are Section 8 housing. They are noisy and I have twice heard fights from the closest section 8 unit. Also, you hear the police respond to crimes consistently as well as frequent gunshots. While these apartments may not be as bad as the section 8 neighborhoods, they are ghetto and being next door to these neighborhoods makes my family feel really unsafe.
Pets – They are one of the few Virginia Beach apartments that allow pets and the cost is reasonable, but they do not enforce that people clean up after their pets. So there is pet feces all over the playground equipment and all over the yard. Also, they claim to have a “dangerous breed clause” in place, but some people are conveniently “grandfathered”. This means that you can’t walk your kids or let them play without fear of one of the pit bulls or other dangerous breeds allowed to stay here.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. These apartments suck and in my opinion are the worst apartments in Virginia Beach VA!! And for those people who say I am just bashing and a disgruntled renter. I am bashing these apartments and I think that since I am a current disgruntled tenant I have the right to.They lied and with held information that would have definitely kept me from moving here. Had they just been honest, there would be no issues and these sites would not be up today.
For more information on these Virginia Beach apartments, check out the reviews here. For more sites concerning Colonial Village click here.