Meritage at Steiner Ranch

I’m a new tenant, and have had nothing but good experiences thus far.
— My leasing agent was Maria. Very helpful throughout the entire process.
— I’ve had a couple maintenance requests and they have been taken care of in a timely and professional manner.
— the apartment layout is great. I do hear a little noise upstairs but nothing compared to my previous apartment at Amber Oaks.
— upon move in the apartment was very clean.
— love the area.
— lots of amenities near by.

I’ve lived here for several years and cannot wait to leave at the end of the month! I have been in the office for 3 months stating that my living room floor was sinking. They finally come out to see it and pull the carpet up. The concrete floor is cracked and open and they had to drill and reseal the floor, complete with pouring new concrete. At the same time they double the price of my rent for month to month! The rent will be jumping to $ 2,960 for an un renovated apartment with a sinking floor! The gates never work, the office staff never helps, I’ve even seen them in shorts and flip flops with his head on the desk napping when I went to pick up a box. My water heater is leaking and that’s not fixed yet either. This used to be a perfect place to live, but now the place is crap. Over priced crap.

Ok, so I had to update from my original post. Last week (week of Dec 25^th), I got a voicemail from Meritage telling me I had a package waiting in their office for pickup. Being that I moved out back in May, I thought maybe whomever sent it must not have my new address. Turns out, this package was sent by my mother-​in-​law back in Feb, and RECEIVED BY THE OFFICE STAFF in February. It was a box of candy for Valentines! I understand being a week or two late on notifying me, but 10 months! C’mon people, it’s not that hard.
Downgrading my rating from 2.5 to a good solid 1. Buyer Beware before renting here.

Worst management EVER. So bad they were featured on the news as the «Apartments from Hell»:
I can honestly say that i have an issue with just about everything that the management has done while I have been here but I’ll keep it brief Yes this is brief. I could go on for days):
They don’t answer the phones and do not return calls from messages.
Work orders do not get done in a timely manner. I had a clogged sink for three weeks after I put in the initial work order an then after a few days went by I kept leaving increasingly angry messages. NO ONE returned my calls or came to fix it until I went down there in person.
The grounds are disgusting. There is dog poop everywhere. EVERYWHERE. There are sooo many dogs here, which would be fine if the management helped clean up after their messes or enforced the rules. One of my neighbors has 5 dogs in her 2 bedroom. FIVE. The bus stop where 20+ kids stand in the grass is always littered with dog poop I have called soooo many times about this and they do nothing.
They auto-​drafted money from my checking account without my approval. No one in the office knew what was going on since it happened at the corporate level. I guess they don’t communicate.
They moved me into an apartment that wasn’t clean. (There was someone else’s urine on my toilet! Yuck!)
There was once a lot of blood on the playground, like a kid had a bloody nose or something on the slide and calls to the office failed to bring someone down to clean it. I had to go find a maintenance worker and he helped clean it, but used only water and put the blood stained rag back in his pocket. Have they never had any OSHA training?! Yuck!
The gates don’t work. When they are closed, I have gotten stuck and had to back out of a blind corner into traffic at night.
The chemicals are off in the indoor pool. Like give you a rash and stain your swimsuit kind of off. They have failed to fix it despite numerous complaints, so I have put in a complaint to the health department.
There is NO available parking for guests. NONE. I have just stopped inviting guests over or have had them park on the street or near the office and have to drive up to pick them up.

Wow! This crew doesn’t even wait until after you move in before they turn their backs on you. I only got so far as putting a deposit down and then I never heard from them again. Based on other reviews stating that promised move in dates were missed I wanted written confirmation of the ready date of my apt before I arranged for people and trucks but they never answer their phones and they ignored all of my emails. Horrible, horrible customer service.

Luxury apartment renters upset with leaks, fees
(posted on KVUE on 11÷13÷15)
(Sent from KVUE NEWS)

This place is obscene. I wish I would have done my research before moving there, but I was in such a hurry to move I fell into this trap with a good deal at the time. I lived there for one year and was happy to move out last February. So lets cut to the chase:
1) There is absolutely NO parking. It is the worst I’ve ever seen at any apartment complex. See other reviews.
2) Traffic is terrible. It is Steiner Ranch, so one accident on 620 you’re stuck. Same with rush hour. So if you work 9 – 5, your workplace better be very close. Otherwise, prepare for a traffic nightmare both commutes every single day.
3) My apartment was pretty much falling apart. There was a massive crack going up the building, everything was breaking, and it was tilted. There were also ant infestations. It took FOREVER to get rid of them!
4) Neighbors hate each other and are psychopaths. They pretend to be friends but as soon as their «friend» walks away, they talk crap. These are people who are twice my age but half my maturity level. Also had cops roll up a couple times for what reason? I probably don’t want to know. I was not the one to call. But they were less than cooperative with law enforcement and sounded like spoiled brats.
5) Management was ok for a bit, but I didn’t interact with them much until they dropped the ball on me. They didn’t send me my final bill and they have my forwarding address. They told me it wasn’t accurate. I went there and checked, there were no typos and it’s 100% accurate. My bill went to collections after only a few weeks. But that isn’t my beef.
Come September, I’m thinking «yay I no longer live at Meritage so they’ll never be a problem again!» That was until I had a package accidentally delivered there. I have the paperwork and tracking information saying it was successfully delivered there. I called, they don’t have it. I called around from the post office to the next door apartment complex. I called meritage again to double check. Nobody had it. Management at Meritage were the last people to have it, as it says on my tracking information and word from the post office. So they either gave it away, or SOMEONE STOLE IT. So someone has my package that I paid for. Now I have to pay to get it resent to my current address.
Moral of the story: DO NOT GET ANYTHING DELIVERED THERE. EVER.

Second time I have been woken up by contractors working on the unit next door. It’s 11:30pm and they are banging around over there. Office doesn’t care and no response from corporate. All they care about is collecting their rent here.
Parking is terrible. Response from management… take up more spaces with a construction dumpster, block off spaces for golf carts, and block spaces with water barricade.
Only way to get them on the phone is to pretend to want an apartment. That works until they recognize your number and decide to not answer. I have stood in the office, called and watched them look at the number and just sit there letting the phone ring.
Don’t rent here!!!
The single star is for them actually evicting the meth dealer. Well after a large number of tenants threatened to move out if they didn’t.
Please see typical bad management response below.

What a nightmare this place is! Parking is a non-​existent and if you park in a «red-​zone», they will tow you which costs about $ 360!!! I think they must get kickbacks on this because of the zealous nature of enforcement. Air conditioning didn’t work for weeks at a time. At one point it was pouring water out of the ceiling into my kid’s tub. The mounting screws came out and we’re lucky it didn’t fall on anyone! Dog crap EVERYWHERE! AND the final insult after moving out after a horrible 3 months, they are going on 2 months of not paying back my deposit!!! They don’t respond to emails on the subject and they act like they generally don’t care. I have to go stand in their office to get any kind of action on anything.

I have been here for 2 years. The office has lost, given away, or stole 3 of my packages. We have delivery confirmation saying that they made it to the office but when I went to get them they could not find them. I have not had a good experience with management here. Matosha is the most unprofessional of them all. She has no customer service. She will talk down to you and name call if you disagree with her. In January we had 5 tires get nails in them…2 of which could not be repaired. Management did not replace our tires even though we had proof that the nails came from the dumpster they put in front of our apartment. Yet they replaced our neighbors tires when they were doing the roof. We have had a view of a garbage bag in a tree directly a crossed from our balcony since November 2013! I have complain many times about this. There is garbage everywhere! If it storms the screens fall off the windows. They have an ant and termite problem and don’t do anything about it.
When the new management came in they took away wifi in the workout room

So, here i am again with the same complaints. tied into a lease. I AM HOPING THAT THE OWNERS OF MERITAGE PAY ATTENTION TO THESE REVIEWS AND ADDRESS THESE ISSUES. THEY ARE HEALTH RELATED IN MOST CASES… PLEASE PAY ATTENTION. I dont like doing this, but none of the reps in front listen. Dog poop everywhere outside, colecting bacteria… water running thru outdoor leaky faucets 24 hours a day and causing drenched muddy, very slippery areas… people keeping garbage out front even in this extreme heat. exposed sprinkler equipment that i have fallen in many times, gardners blow trash and debris on patio and in driveway areas and do not sweep it up. $ 40 A MONTH pet rent and i have to dodge poop as i walk my dogs. one good thing. The gym is great and my husband loves it. Secondly, The fantastic Sage and Sweetgrass Spa is located here. The Meritage maintenance will not clean my windows despite the fact that gardeners blow wet grass and trash on them all the time. This place is continuing to go downhill. All they care about is upgrading the vacant apartments so they can charge more money. Makes me so sad and disappounted. Oh yes, babies in the pools with diapers or stark naked. I no longer go in the pool for fear of high levels of bacteria in this heat.

Living here was ok — but the understaffed leasing office and maintenance makes living here pretty unpleasant
PROs
–Nice complex — renovated units are fairly good
–Garages for most units — big plus
–Family oriented — lots of families with kids around
–Onsite park, dog park
–Indoor and outdoor swimming pool — well maintained
CONs
–Apt not ready on moving day — wet paint everywhere, still preparing (but don’t worry — they did charge me rent even through I couldn’t move in and had to wait 8 hours for them to finish).
–Leak in roof — called emergency maintenance who told me to put a bucket and leave it. Filed written request for repair, never done. Verbally called to remind of needed repair — never done
–Repairs in general — never completed, you must call/​write/​hound to get anything in this 500+ unit place
–Lack of responsive leasing office staff (not their fault, they are grossly understaffed. Frequently 1 person in the office for 500 units — poor person!)
–Parking — don’t plan on having visitors, they can park a mile away as there are no spots.
–Dog poop EVERYWHERE. I pay $ 20/​month in pet rent AND I pick up the poop after my dog. However, I would expect that for my pet rent I get something — like a poop&scoop service so I don’t step on everyone else’s dog poop during my 2xdaily dog walks. Gross and a health issue.
–No phone number to reach a human at the leasing office. Call and see — you can leave a voice mail. I don’t understand why I can only leave voice mails for the office — aren’t people there to help the residents?

Lived here for almost 4 years. Only reason we stay is because its a convinient location for work.
Parking downright sucks!!! It’s probably the most frustrating thing here. Every parking spot is taken and we are forced to park up the hill when my apartment is at the way bottom of the hill. At times, we even have to park in front of the clubhouse. And walk all the way down on the other side of the entire complex to get home. People are parking in fire lanes and in front of their garage, which blocks off other people’s garage. Which causes the tenants to get mad at each other. Clearly, management cant see that parking is a major problem. Cant have guests over because they cant park anywhere. People even park in front if thr mailboxes. Seriously, my friends don’t like coming over anymore since one of them got their cars towed. Fix this issue! In this complex, there is illegal parking everywhere!!! Why? NO WHERE TO PARK!
Gym sucks. The gym bathrooms are always nasty. I am not joking when I say my sister and I caught 2 teens (a guy and a girl) in the girl’s bathroom, hiding in the same stall, waiting for us to leave to continue with whatever the hell they were doing.
Management/​Employees suck! Get better employees or find tenants who can tolerate with their snobby, disgusting attitude. They lie and they don’t care. I dont even think they bother checking on tenants unless we have a complaint.
Maintenance do indeed take forever to come fix something. I dont think I can count how many times we had to have someone fix our AC. At times, I had to fix it myself.
Dog park. The little equipment they have for dogs are filthy and in the way. The wind knocks them down. They are broken. Dogs poo and pee on them. Dogs dont even use them to play with. We can just get rid of it all.
The computers in the clubhouse. Only one computer works. Seriously, rich place but cant afford working computers. That has been a problem since I started living here. And each person who wants yo use the one working computer, have to wait their turn. And we have to go to the main office and use their computers just to print something out. Talk about privacy.
When I moved here, this place was beautiful. They painted every building gray and it looks like jail.
I wouldnt give this place a 10. Just sayinngg.

I’m updating my review after living here since August 2014. The 4 stars are deserved, things have worked out well here. The place is well maintained and while I’ve had a couple minor issues they were taken care of quickly. I would recommend this place. The clubhouse is great, the pools are nice. Love having the indoor pool when the weather is bad.
The only thing I would be cautious of is make sure you see where your place would be physically located before moving in. I lucked out and got a good location, but I’ve noticed some of the locations I wouldn’t have liked. I was moving from out of state and when my place became available I just went off the info and didn’t know where it was located at within the complex.

Great place to live. Moved into this place in March of 2014 just before the remodeling started. So far they have done a good job with the updates. The staff is friendly and attentive to tenant’s needs.
Biggest complaint is parking but we have a two car garage and only two cars so it doesn’t really affect us unless we have guests. I would rather deal with the lack of parking than be forced to have a parking lot view like most apartments.

I have lived here for 6 months and it’s just been a fabulous experience staff is really responsive, friendly and the amenities are great! Patricia is awesome!
I would highly recommend it!

Top issues (and I am not exaggerating):
— staff has bad attitude
— dog crap everywhere
— no parking available to have friends and family over
— after high winds you have roof nails on the ground, my wife had two already in her tire
— the new paint scheme looks like a prison, no «Mediterranean» flair left
— on a good note: maintenance is friendly
— schools are very good

So, this being my first ever review on Unilocal,I must say how sad it is that it will be a one star rating. If you happen upon this review looking in the «not recommended» review section because I have no credibility as a Unilocal-​er yet, please know that whatever low ratings and reviews found for Meritage Steiner Ranch are spot on.
First of all, I really actually like the complex because it does have stunning views and I’m lucky to be living in an end-​of-​building unit where we only have neighbors on one side. For the most part it has been pleasant at Monterone… now Meritage.
Here’s where the one star comes in: Management.
Poor customer service. I’ve never firsthand experienced consistent complete and utter ill regard for clients/​customers who are presently residents until this past year when a new managing company, Steadfast, took over. From the general site manager to other office agents, I have observed an attitude of being bothered.
I’m not so much complaining about the number of times we have had to put in a repair request for the heating and AC, which is now, today, more than ten times in the three years we’ve lived here. Nor am I complaining that apparently, and as a maintenance personnel admitted on an emergency repair call, some of the buildings and units are not equipped with adequate HVAC units that can efficiently heat/​cool the areas in which they are installed, and therefore run constantly running up the electric bill to $ 300/​month. We’re dealing separately with that situation.
But what I am quite bothered about to the point of actually Unilocaling is that the management truly does not give a **** about their tenants. For the price of renting here, the residents should be treated with respect. Period. Yes, it’s a huge apartment complex, but surely a staff of this size can respectfully deal with larger numbers of clients. Today, I was shoo-​ed away as the office agent locked the door behind me. Yes, it’s closing time. But, yes, this is also the second time they have had the AC unit replaced and again it still does not work. A frustrating situation at the least.
There you go. My first Unilocal.I’m going to find something to give 5 stars to now.

I am trying to possibly rent an apartment here. I sent an online request email from
there web site last night and no one had responded by 2:00 this afternoon so I called and no one could talk to me. I was promised a quick call back but it is after 5:00. It’s not looking good.

Was recently taken over by new company and has gone completely down hill. The new property manager is too busy to speak to residents because she «has too much paper work» — there is no online portal to enter maintenance requests or to pay. The gate requires you to punch in a number, the roofs are covered w tarps and plastic in some places, there is dog crap everywhere and the new staff lacks basic customer service skills. Veronica sounds like she is half asleep and could care less about her job. This place is not worth the high rent it charges.
Electric bills 300 + to keep at 75 in summer and heat that barely reaches 62 degrees in winter. They refuse to fix problem.