Apartment Review for Chateau Apartments - Albuquerque, NM

These apartments are better than others I have lived in. However, for the amount of rent paid per month, you are not getting your money's worth. The reviews below are accurate. There is only one maintenance person employed with this complex. Therefor, it takes too long for any issues to be resolved. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth the hassle to fix things myself or contract out, saving my receipts to turn in as a part of my rent. Though I have not had any issues with the property manager directly, I have heard from other tenants that she is rude. This, in my opinion, is hear-say or person to person based. However, I have met a couple higher up managers in my time living here, and they are rude and do not seem to care about the living conditions of the tenants. As far as the building is concerned, it is an older building. I have had friends who lived here out of high school. When I informed them I was living here, every single one of them asked why. I now understand. The way this place is run reminds me of the Warren complexes; over priced and ghetto. Apparently, it has been the same for the past ten years, at least. As far as noise is concerned. My advice, if you are picky about that, is to get a house in a retirement neighborhood. In every apartment complex you are going to have noisy neighbors. Whether they mean to or not. The noise here is the same as every other complex. Now, the neighbors themselves are a different story. The longer I've lived here, the more and more criminal activities I have noticed going on. Which includes one of my guests being harassed and threatened in the parking lot by another guest of a tenant who was on the FBI watch list. Gang signs are thrown and fights start, almost, on a weekly basis. A few weeks ago, a car pulls up in the middle of the parking lot (blocking traffic), yelling at another tenant. They both were wielding weapons. About a month ago, cops came and kicked down one of the tenant's door. There were no arrests made, but they remained in the parking lot for at least a week after that. Before the summer, an intoxicated neighbor came banging on my door in the middle of the night, threatening to shoot us if we kept being noisy... while we were asleep? In the beginning of this year one of our cars was vandalized. And finally, even though I know security cannot do much in these matters, they do act as a deterrent. I have not seen a security officer patrol this complex for almost a year now. Though there is a number on the office door for a security company, I find it a bit unprofessional that they are not as noticed as they used to be. My biggest issue with this place is the lack of privacy. I do not know what the local laws are about smoke detectors. But I have lived in six different apartments, including the Warrens (a ghetto apartment company). Every single one of them only check the smoke detectors twice a year. The first eight months of living here, we had our smoke detectors checked once. Which is in reason. After that, they check our smoke detectors once to twice a month. And when they are not checking them, there are notices on our door that they will be entering for several unimportant reasons. We keep the noise to a minimal. One of us sleeps all night and goes to work as the sun rises. I get off work when he goes to work. The other is hardly home. There has never been a mention about any complaints. We pay rent on time every month. Our immediate neighbors like us, and have said they do not get these notices. My advice is to find another apartment complex, not owned by this company, and live there. Even if you have to pay more rent. You will more than likely get your money worth.