The Darlington Apartments

You’d be better off staying in a homeless shelter
I would of given this place negative stars but that wasn’t an option
If you like infested roaches and black mold this is the place for you
This place isn’t some where I would send an enemy to live even if it is in the heart of buckhead

I’ve been living here since November 2014 and Lynn was my leasing agent (she unfortunately no longer works here) she made my move in very smooth and I was set up with a studio apartment and rent special. The rent is very cheap and all utilities except for water are included. However this place and the management need a lot of work. it seems like every month there’s new staff running the show and many of which are very rude or will ignore you. For instance I was told I couldn’t get my package because whoever checked the packages in and put them in the closet didn’t sort them according to apartment number and she simply did not feel like looking through them. so she told me to come back down in two hours and when I came back they still weren’t sorted but the security guard kindly gave me my package. They’ve «stepped up security» and put New lighting in the back areas ever since some woman got attacked outside and called the news. However there was a fight about to happen downstairs in front of the convenience store inside and security was nowhere to be found at the front desk until after all the hollering and yelling subsided. They need ²⁴⁄₇ security and more than one guard because these people can be very sketchy and out of control. the other day some woman left her child in the fitness room while she went off to do who knows what. Not all the residents are bad but there are a few that I have no idea how they were approved to get into this place. It’s really not a bad place to live for the price, the restaurants downstairs are great and convenient. The fitness center is okay although the treadmill monitors aren’t set up for you to watch anything on them. And the convenience store is great to have. the laundry room accepts debit cards which is a plus. I haven’t had any problems with being bothered or harrassed by residents really but always just be careful and mindful. The parking lot needs a few lights fixed as well. If you live on the side of the building where the parking lot is located be prepared to hear a lot of noise most nights. people will sit in their cars smoke weed and blast music or argue and fight and you’ll hear all of it. Lease says no dogs but people have them. Just keep to yourself and fix your apartment up to your liking. We had at least three pipes burst on my floor in a month luckily my apartment wasnt damaged. Make sure you buy a good roach spray also.

I’m in between 2 and 3 stars. simply because 3 stars beans «a-​ok» and its definitely not that but it’s not terrible. The darlington is for a certain person. Preferably a single man trying to get his life together. I am a single female and I am only living here for very specific reasons.
1. Grad school is right down the street (SCAD)
2. Rent is only $ 550/​month with all utilities (except for water) included
3.I live on a high up floor with less bugs and a room at the end of the hall so I barely have any neighbors that ever disturb me
4. My job is literally 10 minutes away.
This is a VERY temporary place for me right now. If it weren’t for grad school I wouldn’t be here, but it’s notSO awful to where I can’t survive. You have to make this place up before you move in. Everyone complains about the roaches but the thing is they just move all their stuff in and think management is going to provide them with everything they need. Just because they spray the place doesn’t mean you are good to go. Fix your space to YOUR liking.
Here is how to get RID of the roaches (at least in your living premises) BUY RIAD ROACH BOMBERS, 6 OF THEM (YOU ONLY NEED 3 BUT WITH 6 YOU WILL NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN FOR SURE TRUST ME), AND BEFORE YOU MOVE IN (or even after) BOMB THE PLACE AND SPRAY EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY WITH THE 6 MONTH ROACH KILLER INSECTICIDE (RAID BRAND) I promise, you will not see them. I spray very thoroughly and I covered my front door with it too. Don’t worry, it dries clear. You won’t see anything! Don’t forget to spray the vents! And when you eat, take the trash out as soon as you are done. They have trash chutes on every floor. You don’t even have to go outside. Like, really. You have to be really lazy if you can’t do that.
Make sure to get a renovated with wood flooring (not the ugly tile) apartment. All your appliances will be new too! :)
ARM YOURSELF. like any place on this earth, there are bad people. And don’t brag about what you have. Just have it next to you not visible. Use good judgment. Get to know security. Officer Kirk, he’s professional and he gave me his work number so that he can escort me in and if he isn’t there he will call backup and they come to escort me in from the parking lot. USE your resources. If you walk in alone, get out the car and walk quickly. People play around trying to look cute at midnight and wonder why they get caught up. Just get your butt in the place. The cops sit at the front and the back now so that’s nice!
Yes, there are «interesting» people in here. AGAIN, use good judgment. There are three elevators. If someone sketch gets on elevator 1, then wait for elevator 2. Or 3. there are options. If you want to play naïve and then act surprised when you get spoken to or what not, then thats you.
Don’t bring your kids here. (I don’t have any) but this is not the place for them. Too dangerous, too sketch. Come here for a reason, and then leave. Once I’m done with grand school and I have my career job, I’m shipping out. For now, I can save some money, be in the heart of atlanta/​buckhead, and I only need the little studio for $ 550/​month at this point in my life.

The worst experience ever!!! Absolute worst. Couldn’t have been worse had I designed it myself. These lazy no-​count mf’ers saw is standing there and never came to see what we needed. They talked and carried on as though it isn’t a job. A hot damn mess!

When I first moved in, the place was nice and the rent is reasonable. Then the problems started with neighbors fighting, people hanging in the stairwells smoking doing drugs and squatting. Then they did big clean out of thug residents and the roaches got really bad!!! Took me months of cleaning spraying and treating to get rid of the problem! Then came a management change. Major cleanout spraying of the whole building and so far no more bugs, however it was not the spraying that the building management provided that fixed the problem. Its the months and money I personally spent to fix the problem.
So far the new management seems to be just as ineffective as the old management was and its all lip service. They new management always comes in with big talk and in 6 months it all seems to be forgotten. The promises of change, but it appears to have only gotten worst!!! There were two resident meetings with management and local police. Many excellent suggetions were made, but it appears no one is will to act upon those. I would guess the owners of the property do not want to spend money on truly solving the problem with the use of technology and a real security company to patrol the building.
Someone got shot in the parking lot in November and no word from management. There was a stabbing on the 15^th floor in December and to this date they have never cleaned up the blood splatter all over the wall and the puddle of blood on the floor no word from management. There was a shooting and 4 people shot on the 12^th floor on 1.4.14. It was in the police blotter report in the local newspaper. Management gave residents a pizza party a few days later. But so far no official word from management. 1.8.14 there where 5 shots fired and holes in the walls on the 15^th floor. Still no official word from management. They gave the resident treat bags of apple sauce, mints and rice crispy treats! In the past we got letters about crime! I guess they plan to sweep this under the rug.
I am beginning to think that management is apparently ok with the violence and drug activity by the lack of response as well as the pitiful attempts to placate residents with these sorry little parties and treats! Residents like me want simply to know «what are you really doing to resolve the problem!!»
All the decent people in the building are looking to move as quickly as possible. I will be breaking my lease and moving ASAP! This is not a safe place! The thugs and drug dealers want it, they can have it. I have learned the hard way this building really is the ghetto of Buckhead!!!

I’m so happy to be leaving the Darlington! The only reason I give it 2 stars instead of 1 is that I know management is trying to improve the building, and I do see some improvement. Still, it is not a place I would recommend.
The location is good, and some of the tenants and employees are cool. There is a pool and gym and computer room. These are the pluses.
The bug issue is still a problem, even though they have sprayed the whole building. It may improve, since they seem to be keeping on top of it.
Also, the fire alarm used to go off so regularly that no one would leave their apartment except me and a small handful of people. That seems to have gotten better, although I was woken up by the alarm the other day, and scrambled around in a panic only to find out that it was a test. They emailed us right after the alarm stopped.
There has been extensive water damage to the building. They’ve fixed some of the leaks, but a few months ago there was a bucket under a leak outside my door for nearly 2 weeks before they fixed the leak.
I could go on and on about all of the ways in which it is gross, unsafe, cheap, seedy, falling apart, etc, etc… though, I have to pack. I’m moving. God bless whoever stays here. I hope it continues to get better.
If you’re considering moving in, make sure you explore the REAL hallways and look at a REAL unit, because if you only see the lobby and the show unit, you’ll have no clue what you’re getting into.

I went to visit a friend here. It’s an okay place if you’re young and social but it’s a little seedy. I mean, the parking lot is massive but not very roomy. You have to drive at a crawl to get through the aisles of cars to get to a parking spot. The lobby is as active as Wal-​Mart. People are constantly walking around or sitting around in the lobby. The lobby area does provide a lot of things like eateries, convenience store, and some other stuff. The security at the desk in the lobby is a joke. I mean, they do check IDs the majority of the time when you have a visitor but I think they just do that to make it seem like they are doing something. It seemed like they spent more time chatting it up and gossiping with each other.
The hallways are long… I mean, long as in I’m in a horror movie on some psychedelic sh*t and it keeps getting longer and longer. If you turn into another breezeway, the hallway is just as long. The apartments are very simple, average units. I didn’t hear anyone but I wasn’t there very long so I don’t really know how thick the walls are.
if you want to be on Peachtree but not pay middle of downtown Peachtree loft prices, are young, social, and LGBT and/​or LGBT friendly… this place will work.

I am so furious about how the management just treated me that I feel I have to write a review about it.
When I first moved into The Darlington I thought it was going to be okay. It’s cheap and close to my school (SCAD) and at the time I only saw one or two bugs. First thing to go wrong was I heard a shooting in the parking lot in the middle of the night. And then came the bugs. I literally could not walk into my kitchen without seeing at least 10 cockroaches crawling around. Then move some plates or a pot and I would see ten more. It got so bad that if I left one dish in the sink over-​night there would be dozens of them in my sink in the morning. I learned that they were coming from inside my oven. Now when I open my oven there are HUNDREDS of them swarming around inside. Still, not so bad since I don’t use my oven. Then one day I moved a portfolio that had been against the wall for quiete some time. The entire section of the wall was black. I started killing them as quickly as I could and they ran everywhere including into my bedroom. So I went downstairs to get maintenance. The security woman downstairs said, and I quote «Honey, they don’t come for bugs.» I was furious and emotionally unstable from seeing that many bugs so I had to spend the night at my friend’s house. After that I got MANY roach bites all over my back and knees which swelled up into giant red welts.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE BED BUGS READ THIS:
The Darlington does NOT take care in preventing bed bugs. True story: On the 7^th floor there was an apartment that got infected with bed bugs. The woman who lived in that apartment was evicted. She had left much of her bed bug infected things including furniture in the apartment which the darlington management decided to remove from the apartment and leave in the hallway. If you know anything about bed bugs you should know that they hop from one person to the next and thus is why they are so easily spreadable. In the week that her things were left in the hallway the entire floor was infected. Including my friend who is extremely allergic to bed bug bites and had to get medical attention. Then to get rid of these infected things, the management took them down the elevator, so anyone who rode in the elevator has a chance of having them too.
Now, the reason I am writing this is because I recently decided to end my lease and move out. When I talked to the management about this she did an inspection to see if the roaches were indeed my fault. She pointed at one speck of grease on my wall and said «you’re housekeeping is bad, thats why you have roaches.» I am very offended by what she said because I consider myself a very clean person and my apartment very well kept. I take the trash out every day and clean with bleach once a week.
Please whatever you do, don’t live here and if you do live her now, report them to department of health services. The more people who report maybe they will actually do something about it. The number is 404 612 1211. This place is unsanitary and uninhabitable.

Short version: I cannot wait to move out.
Long version: This place is nasty and not safe. Most of the apartments have cockroaches in them and the hallways are full of them too. All sizes can be spotted and if the babies are spotted, expect to see more since they like to run around aimlessly. When I go to the trash chute (by which the nasty residents leave the trash thrown around beside the chute), I see ten or so as soon as I open the door. There’s constantly trash in the hallways that the majority of the nasty residents believe the matinence should take care of their grossness. The one really nice security guy (i think he’s the head of them all) is probably the best part of the building because he truly seems to care about the residents and I actually see him walk the parking lot during the night and the hallways. The other security guys seem to have friends who are obnoxious and sit down there and chat the whole night ignoring many obvious issues. The building is not safe because there was a shooting in the parking lot in September and a few weeks ago a man was followed, robbed, and shot in his hallway. Another issue that they do not mention before moving in is the fact that residents are allowed to smoke inside their apartments and that the central air makes that smoke circulate into other people’s aparments. This makes the apartment stink regardless of how many air fresheners you buy. Between the constant roach issues, the high amount of nasty residents, and the lack of safety, I cannot wait to move out and will moat likely have to do so by getting put of the lease early. Management seems to be blind to the problems and its really sad because I truthfully thought I would enjoy living here.
They just finished renovating the first floor lobby, elevators, and built a fitness and business center. However, step foot on the higher floors up and you will see how the rest of it looks. The rent is somewhat low but be prepared to drop another $ 70 for the water bill.
I think with their renovation if they changed up who rents with them and hired a better pest control company that will really treat the entire building to get rid of the roaches, this place does have potential. Unfortunately, when nasty people and drug-​dealers and users come to live in a community… Bad things result.
On a better note, it is true that some of the residents here are very nice and friendly and I have heard that there are some apartments that do not see roaches as often. I personally see roaches pretty much everyday that I am at home for at least a few hours. People who smoke will most likely not have an issue with that aroma within the apartments. All in all, if this is the only place your income will allow (even though there’s others that are close to it), just make sure to see your room, observe everything carefully, and lease a shorter amount just in case.