Rental Review: the Residences at Sawmill Crossing Columbus, OH

Are you looking for an apartment complex with incompetent rental associates, not enough parking for tenants, poor lighting, a kitchen stove where the surface gets scolding hot when using the oven, cheap refrigerators, an overflowing dumpster, a sewage drain that they like to refer to as a pond, and walls as thin as paper so you hear everything around you and vice versa? Well look no further than the Residences at Sawmill Crossing. This property is owned by Ardent Property Management, and even the employees at Ardent are not very friendly or caring.

My husband and I rented a 3 bedroom apartment from them not too soon after they were built and open for business. We liked the idea of having an "indoor" apartment with a supposed security keypad for entry, as well as the large rooms and how close it was to his place of employment. The price was pretty normal for the area, but when we signed our lease they were having a small special on the monthly rent and deposit amount. Our deposit was only $99 and our rent was only $798 per month. We were in charge of paying the water and electric, and there was no gas. They had several options for floor plans and add-ons, such as renting a one car garage instead of fighting for a parking spot.

Some of the benefits that lured us into the community, besides the location, were the swimming pool, small fitness facility, a free membership to the Sawmill Athletic Club for both of us, and not having a gas bill since the apartments are entirely electric. However, the pool was fairly small and very crowded in the summer. Also, it was not heated and there were numerous times when people with dogs allowed their pets to take a quick "dip" in the water as well. The fitness facility was extremely small and only housed a handful of exercise equipment. As for the free fitness club memberships, we could have taken part in this amenity if they could have gotten our information correct. We went to Sawmill Athletic Club twice and were told that the office at the complex never sent over our rental information for our free memberships. We then confronted the office management at the apartment complex and were told too many times that the information had been faxed numerous times. Needless to say, we never received our free memberships because they swore on the Bible that it all had to be done by fax and no other way would suffice.

Another bad point about the apartments was the lack of privacy and how it felt more like a dorm at a college. There were a lot of younger people living in the apartments, as well as people with large barking dogs, or running children. There is nothing wrong with living near these people unless the walls, floor, and ceiling are almost paper thin. We could hear the people across the hall and beside us having normal conversations. As for the family with the 2 year old little boy above us, well we could hear every little footstep as if it were an elephant overhead. I actually went upstairs to speak to the woman one night and saw for myself that the little boy was not jumping or doing anything out of the ordinary, but in our apartment it sounded as if World War III were taking place directly above us. When we got together and spoke to the office manager about being lied about the privacy of the apartments, they denied what we had both been told and basically told us to deal with it.

Another downfall was the way they handled the electric and water bills. For the water bill, they would take the number of units in the building and split the bill among the units. The bigger your apartment, the more you had to pay. So if you were on vacation for 2-3 weeks, you would still have a water bill for that month because they "split" the cost among everyone. As for the electric, they didn't use a mainstream electric company such as AEP and when you moved out of the complex you had to pay the office directly instead of the actual electric company. The one positive thing about the electric bill (at first) was the fact that the apartments were enclosed so you didn't have to worry about a draft entering through the front door. However, once the apartments in the building filled up, the electric bill seemed to go up as well, as if they were "splitting" the electric bill as well.

The final downfall of this apartment community was the move-in and move-out sheet. When we moved into the apartment it was brand new, so when we moved out we assumed they would allow "reasonable" wear and tear to be apparent. Once we moved out, they actually sent in a "team" to analyze the "damage" and we were not allowed to be present during the inspection. The paint behind the stove in the kitchen had "grease spots" because you couldn't clean it since it didn't have any sealant over the paint or a backsplash. Actually, all of the paint in the apartment was unsealed. So if there were any mark what-so-ever you could not clean it unless you wanted the paint to wash away, since the paint was water-based. We even requested spare paint or the paint color, in the least, and were denied both; we later found out why on the move-out inspection. Needless to say, even after I cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen and then my mother cleaned them once again, they still charged us for "supposed" cleaning of both. We were also charge for the paint since it couldn't be cleaned, as well as carpet cleaning even though it was not worn, stained, or torn; only normal wear for a year. They basically seemed to rate the apartment less than good and expected it to be the exact way (brand new) as when we moved in. In the end we had to pay an additional $250 and forfeit our $99 security deposit because of the items they supposedly needed to clean and not even replace.

So if you are in need of an apartment around the Dublin/Sawmill road area of Columbus, Ohio then definitely overlook the Residences at Sawmill Crossing. The unfriendly and constantly changing rental associates in the front office are enough reason not to rent from this property. And if that doesn't deter you then take into consideration the amount of money you will have to shell out to Ardent Property management once you vacate the apartment, unless you don't actually plan on "living" in the unit.