Colony Park Apartments

While my father?s stay was pleasant, there were a number or issues prospective tenants should be aware of. Primary one is that even if you keep the apartment in good condition and deal in good faith with the management,you may need to get a lawyer to get your deposit back 1. There were a number of minor issues with things broken, towel racks, loose molding when my father moved into the apartment and despite numerous requests to have these things fixed, they were never fixed. 2. Upon moving out of the apartment, the management was very uncooperative regarding the return of deposit (one months rent, which was $1200). They claimed this was a difficult process because the apartment complex (according to manager) is owned by a company in California. He then described an extremely convoluted multistep financial process required (within the company) to get a tenants deposit back. It goes like something like this..but it?s hard to be certain: a. Tenant must send note by mail (within certain timeframe) to apartment manager requesting deposit. b. Manager then sends note to owners in California. c. California then requests deposit amount to be transferred from bank in NY to be sent to Owners account in California. d. Once California gets the money, they transfer the money to the apartment manager in Elmira NY. e. Once $ show up in Colony Apartment account the apartment manager cuts the tenant their deposit check. The essential translation is ?run around, run around, run around? After several months of calls to the apartment manager, with typical responses like, ?I?ll call California and check? or ?I can?t do anything about it?it?s California?. The tenant has no means of contacting the California owner. I was finally forced to contact a lawyer to get the deposit back. Keep in mind that because of his age, my father was a very low maintenance tenant, had daily help in to help manage the household, and in various ways actually made small improvements to the apartment during his stay there. On leaving, we had the rugs cleaned and left the apartment in better condition and cleaner than when we moved in. Never the less, when we finally received our deposit check, about 6 months after moving out, the apartment manager had made several deductions, one was for carpet cleaning, others were for the things that were broken when we moved into the apartment and that we had made numerous requests for repair. Buyer beware. I saw the Colony Park apartments management as acting in bad-faith and behaving unethically. Additionally, I've since learned that other tenants have experienced similar issues in regards to getting their deposits back from Colony Park.