Avalon At Prudential Center

Do not live here. Leasing office and mgmt treat tenants like dirt and they will take advantage of you at any turn they can. They make Comcast look like a customer friendly business.
I found out Avalon had my previous review removed from Unilocal because «it did not provide enough detail about your customer experience». Well here you go Avalon:
1. The first day I moved in it smelled of heavy cigarette smoke. When I asked mgmt what was going on, they told me my neighbor might be a smoker and it comes through the AC. First off, they failed to mention to me this was a smoking building when I took the tour and secondly, I later discovered that the previous tenant moved out of that unit because of this same issue, yet they didnt feel the need to tell me that either. When I asked them what my options were, they told me I could move out! So I had to spend the next 5 nights after work moving to another floor.
2. My wife has an emotional support dog, which was her mother’s dog when she passed away. Avalon has a no dog policy (but smoke all the butts you want!) so they (leasing and mgmt) started harassing me, my wife and anyone else they saw with our dog. They actually called my office and said they think they saw a woman who looked like my wife walking a dog on the street and wanted to question me about it. Finally I told them I was going to talk to an ADA lawyer and they got very quiet.
3. They have a bike room for tenants. This bike room comes with a lock that you get from the front desk on request. They are now doing construction on the building and asked for tenants to come by to identify their bikes so they could move them temporarily. When I showed up, they said my bike wasnt there. It had been stolen. Normally I wouldnt come down on Avalon here, but i noticed when I got to the building, the key had just been sitting in the lock, waiting for people to come in and cut bikes loose. I have also spoken to others who experienced this same thing.
4. When we moved out (2^nd happiest day of my life after my wedding day), we had to break our lease. Here were our options (actual email sent to me):
Dear Scott,
As you are terminating your lease early, there are two options to choose from:
1) Early Termination Fee
— Avalon requires a thirty day notice before vacating, and the resident can settle with a lease break fee equivalent of 2 months rent (in your case it would be $ 6,260)
2) Accelerated Rent
–Avalon requires a thirty day notice before vacating, and the resident is financially responsible for their rent until their lease end date or until the apartment is re-​rented. Additionally, if the apartment is rented less than your current rent, you will be responsible for the difference in rent until your lease end date of April 14, 2016.
So we chose the accelerated rent option since I would rather carve out my own heart than give these leeches a termination fee (plus we had to move out within 25 days, so they were going to charge us another full month — over $ 9,000!). Luckily we found tenants to take over our lease and when we informed Avalon, they told us they had decided to raise the rent of our unit and the new tenants would have to pay that rent. Knowing basic law (and human rights) I told them to call my attorney if they wanted to go down that route.
We only lived there one year and the entire time we felt either intimidated or ripped off by this place. While the location is great, there are so many other places in town that will give you a better experience.
P. S. The one nice thing I can say is that the concierge are mostly wonderful friendly people who have very similar view of mgmt and leasing.

After living there for 9 years! I place an inquiry with the Attorney General regarding the legality of the Avalon Community practice in this case, descrimination towards a current tenent.
No one from their office has answered to the Consumer Complaint Agency, sent on June 12, 2015, consequently Jun 27, 2015 Avalon has been censured by the CCA and a negative designation has been filed in permanent CCA records
Case #1 739 384 567 Successfully Archived. The party/​organization has been officially censured by the CCA and a negative designation has been filed in permanent CCA records. After this point, it is still possible that the organization may contact you to resolve this complaint. We regret that a more favorable outcome could not be reached, but be aware that your complaint will remain on record and will serve as a stern warning to others to avoid all dealings with the party in question. Please inform us if the business/​entity in question approaches you with an acceptable resolution from this point forward. A resolution can still very likely be achieved, but the organization will retain its negative designation due to the lack of a more timely response.

Have been living here for a few months now, and even though I felt wary reading the Unilocal reviews, I haven’t encountered any of the issues mentioned. The location cannot be beat and the amenities are excellent. I am not sure whether I have just been lucky, but my unit looked freshly renovated with everything clean and new. I have also really appreciated not needing to venture out for almost anything during the long winter as the building is connected to Shaw’s and the Prudential complex.
Any minor issues (chipped paint, clogged shower, AC calibration, replacing window blinds etc.) have been addressed almost immediately, usually within an hour or two. The concierge team is awesome and each of them got to know me personally pretty quickly.
The new gym and the newly renovated lobby are great as well. Just cancelled my BSC membership at Prudential.
On the issue of noise, I am indeed occasionally able to faintly hear a neighbor, but I haven’t ever felt disturbed.

To be fair and not generalize, there are 3 buildings in this complex and I live in the Boylston Building. I’ll start off with the only good thing about this building: the location.
That being said, everything about this building is not up to the standards of other buildings of the same cost level.
The ceilings and floors are ridiculously thin that you’ll literally wake up to your neighbor’s TV or music. You’ll hear your neighbor’s shower, toilet, laughs, everything. Most importantly, do NOT move into this building within the next year because the renovations they’re doing will have you up at all hours. Want to sleep in? Not a chance. Any construction work that takes place in a building with this many residents should be efficient and quick — they shouldn’t last more than a month at a time. The worst part is that I wasn’t told about any of this, let alone that it would last for the entire period of my lease. If you’re a light sleeper and sleep matters to you then find another building. I wish I trusted the reviews below.

don’t even think about renting an apartment here. They treat people horribly and there are so many problems.

I lived a year in Avalon at Prudential Center. Following are my comments:
Pros:
–Location is Great
–There’s a ²⁴⁄₇ Shaws supermarket right there.
–There’s Concierge at the door to receive your packages.
–Maintenance is prompt and respectful of tenants.
Cons:
–Rent is very high for the life quality and amenities they’re offering.
— There were numerous problems with A/​C system which was never fixed only check (!) my maintenance.
— One elevator out of 3 was most of the time broken. other one was shut down because of the noise it was making for the neighbors next to it. One elevator for that many residents of one building was not enough specially in the morning when everybody’s going to work!
–The building was old and we woke up several times mid night or early morning with fire alarm noise.
–There is no sense of community in there.
–Management is unfriendly and to some extend rude.
–The unit presented to us as model unit was not same as what they gave us. we asked for changing our unit and there was a 500 $ fee for changing our unit which was unfair.
–Management has not returned our security deposit yet, while in their last email it was indicated that its mailed to us.
–There is always construction in the building or parking. The noise and dust from constructions can become frustrating.
–The Real Estate agency does not inform you about all the fees and rules you will be getting into. you have to do your own research.
My Conclusion:
It is a great location and if you pay more you can live in higher floors with better view. but for that same price (or even less) you can rent better building quality and service in that neighborhood.

I’ve been living here for a year in a 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate. These buildings are so NOISY! If you are a light sleeper this is not the place for you. I hear my neighbors toilet flush, footsteps, doors slamming, I also hear conversations. The washer and dryer are not in the unit, the kitchen is old and tiny, barely fits one person in there. The interior finishing of the place is not the best, it definitely shows that this place is old.
As for the pros, the reception staff are amazing and very nice. The location is simply the best.
I might renew my lease for the location only.

Living in Boston is expensive, and Avalon maintains a great location. However, there are buildings of much higher quality for cheaper prices. I paid $ 3100 ($ 50 of which pays for my cat’s rent). During my two years living there i had countless maintenance problems.
I called maintenance about water damage in my floors and walls, problems with all my faucets, and humidity causing my doors to stick together.
Other problems my fellow residents complained about were the constant problem with the heating and air malfunctioning and leaving the apartments very uncomfortable. The elevators break on a weekly basis, and, living on the 20^th floor, this was an inconvenient problem.

I’ve lived here for 3 years. If I could do it over I probably would not have moved into this apartment, when I first moved to Boston. The pros are the location and the maintenance team. I love Back Bay… it’s really safe, grocery store right down the street, shops, close to MGH for doc appointments, close to public transportation. The maintenance team is also very fast and fixes things by the next day after you put in a request usually.
Now for the many negatives! I agree with Lance T, the actual apartments are VERY noisy. I always hear my neighbor’s bratty kid crying throughout the entire night. And my upstairs neighbors sounds like they have a herd of elephants up there! Complaining really doesn’t do anything. In fact, I only half blame the actual tenants for the noise… it’s the walls/​floors to blame. I am usually SUPER quiet and considerate. I put down large area carpets down on the floor, never walk around with shoes on and don’t turn up my music/​tv too loud. But my downstairs neighbor has complained about me at least a dozen times just for being/​walking around in my apartment! Every little noise echos like you wouldn’t believe. You can hear when your neighbors flush the toilet, walk around, open/​close doors, kids, etc. So unless you love noise and can sleep through anything, don’t live here!
Also the heating/​cooling in the apartments is a joke. The vent system is like 100 years old and your apt will constantly be freezing in the winter and unbearably hot in the summer. I’ve had maintenance come and «fix» this several times over the years, always to have the same problem again after a few months.
As far as the actual apartment… it’s kind of random if you find an «updated» apartment or not. When I moved in, luckily my apartment had been recently renovated with new appliance, granite countertops, etc. But one of my friends who also lives in my building has a much older looking apt… dated kitchen and bathroom. And there were no plans to renovate her apt or reduce her rent, so the leasing office said.
The leasing office is really incompetent. They lost several of my rent checks and never told me. Then they tried to charge me for a late fee, even though they tried to cash 2 checks for the same month (after they claimed I never paid).
At the end of the day you are paying (a lot) for the location. I loved being in Back Bay, with everything you need at your doorstep. But if I was looking for a place now, I would definitely look elsewhere. If you want to live in this area and have the money, do yourself a favor and find a place in one of the many other apts in Back Bay.

Do yourself a favor and don’t ever live here. I pay over $ 3,000 a month in rent and am woken up every morning by unruly children living above me, and screaming infants below me. I’ve called security numerous times and even the Boston Police Dept, and nothing is done. If you don’t believe me, message me and I’ll arrange for you to visit my apt in the early morning to see how horrible the noise is here. PLEASE do yourself a favor and NEVER live in this «luxury» apartment building where noisy children will wake you up every morning. I am truly paying a fortune to live in a nightmare here.