Michelle R.
Yelp
There is an old saying by Maya Angelou that goes along the lines of "if someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time" or in this instance, if there is a review regarding shady security fee practices, believe them and do not fall victim like I and countless others (as noted in other reviews) have.
I, like many others have noted, have learned first-hand that this corporation will hide behind their bureaucratic layers to cheat you out of your hard-earned money and use every excuse in the book to keep your security deposit (and charge some more on top).
This was not my first Avalon-owned and operated apartment and I was quite shocked to receive a bill after moving out. The bill was vague stating that I owed money for "miscellaneous" with a $590.62 fee attached to it. First of all, it is absolutely ridiculous that there was no detailed itemized invoice with a clear cut explanation.
I immediately called Resident Recovery asking for clarification and to understand what I am being charged for. To spare you all the details, after multiple holds, different rhetorics and even a "I have no idea", I was ultimately told it was because I had a TV hanging on the wall. I have called back to seek further clarification and was given the runaround multiple times.
Prior to hanging my TV on the wall, I asked Denise Torres (sp?) from the Leasing Office who said of course you can hang up a TV, everyone does it and it is a non-issue. Irrespective of that fact, hanging up a TV for those unfamiliar requires drilling 4 holes, putting up some square brackets and whala you've got yourself a TV on the wall. In order to patch the holes up, the labor and effort required is not any more labor intensive than patching up those holes one would add to their apartment hanging up some paintings. All you do, is take some plaster and patch up the holes. The whole process does not cost more than $50 and yet here I am an almost $600 bill, a whooping 12x the cost - truly goes to show you that Avalon runs their business more like a slum lord than the reputable property manager they try to portray themselves at.
The real kicker is prior to living in my unit in Avalon Fort Greene, I lived in Ava DoBro and had the same TV with the same brackets hanging on the wall and was not charged at all (which the representative I spoke to at Resident Recovery confirmed as well). The only difference is I was moving from community to community so they had an incentive not to screw me over but now that I had left Avalon, all bets were apparently off.
Aside from the whole truly disgusting security deposit fiasco, do move in to Avalon Fort Greene if you enjoy having at least 2 elevators down on a daily basis, multiple days wait for every single maintenance request and the stench of marijuana on your floor.