Atrium on James

I’ve lived here for almost three months now, and I have to say, I don’t know what everyone is griping about. I was a bit shocked by the prices, but after shopping around, I realized Kent is just pricier then living further South. My apartment was fixed up recently, so at least I have new rugs and counters and cabinets. The office people had a party for Christmas and my son got his picture taken with Santa, and Olaf from Frozen! He made me a cute ornament, and even got to sing karaōke. They have guys that come and take your trash 5 days a week, which I’ve never had before, but with kids, it’s pretty nice not to have to take my own garbage out. Parking is tight, so I paid a bit more for a carport, which has made coming home late easier. I love the location! I can walk my son to school, and grab a starbucks on the way back! Traffic is a bit congested on Meeker in the morning, but I figure traffic is to be expected as I near closer to Seattle. The only bummer I’ve found is I tried to refer my cousin to live here to get the reference $$, but they don’t take her section 8. But there’s a lot of apartments in the area, so she moved close by, and our kids still get to go to the same school.

I had applied at this complex and was denied due to credit requirements. I had a co signer and they require that a co signer doesn’t have more then $ 100 in collections. Really, who has $ 100 in collections and lives in an apartment voluntarily. I had placed a $ 100 deposit to hold the unit until I could try to get some things resolved but was unable to make he requirements for this property. I came by I guess during lunch hours because the office was closed and there was no sign on the office door stating it was closed for any reason. I came during business hours and thought I would be able to see someone about my deposit. Nope, they locked the office and left no notification as to why it was closed. During the entire time I was trying to get things taken care of to move in I didn’t hear anything from the apartment complex. They aren’t very professional at all. When I came to finally pick up my deposit there was two exterminator vehicle out side and they were going to be entering a unit for something. Umm, I’m glad I didn’t end up loving into this complex they don’t seem to be very thoughtful to there current tenants or the new ones coming in to rent.

I like the location of my apartment within the complex and the complex is conveniently located to downtown Kent, shopping, and places I need to go via bus.
NOISE: People complain about the apartment complex residents and there’s only so much management can do especially when DHS is around the corner and you know AOJ accepts Section 8. That’s a big clue! So, if you don’t want to live around S8 recipients do not live here or the neighboring apartments. The people in the complex and living in the surrounding buildings don’t bother me to the point where I can’t sleep or keep my windows open. College dorms are rowdier than this complex. Oh, save yourself the agony and try to always live on the top floor. I swear my neighbor is going to fall through the ceiling with how hard he walks and I can hear everything he does besides phone conversations.
PRICE: All apartment prices change daily and the reason, if there is one, is most likely illogical. Apartment prices in Seattle and the surrounding cities are unjustifiably high (not from here) and I wasn’t moving to Olympia so I settled for this location. Utilities are high! I was gone for 2 weeks and my bill (w/​s/​t) was still $ 100+. You’re easily looking about spending $ 1030+/month (including utilities) for a 1br.
MANAGEMENT: They are friendly, but very unprofessional when it comes to responding to phone calls and emails. It takes FOREVER to get process a maintenance request.
AMENITIES: What amenities? The gym closes at 6pm… enough said. They are there, but who can enjoy them!?! The sauna is currently out of order, but it’s not like I can use it during the week!

The Atrium on James Apartments, where I have lived for over a year, are an awesome community as far as location and appeal goes. Unfortunately their customer service is lacking horribly. The girls that work in the office display attitude any time you voice your frustrations about something going on in your unit.
Several months back my dryer broke and I submitted a work order to get it fixed. The employee gave me a day that they would come check it out, and failed to show up until several days and complaints from me later. I tried contacting cooperate and they never returned my calls and messages. Maintenance finally came and «fixed it,» so I used my dryer again where it ruined several of my things — leaving black marks that never came out. I experienced the same problem getting maitance to come check it out AGAIN. I then tried contacting the even bigger cooperate boss, who also never returned my calls and messages. When maintenance came this time, they decided we needed a new dryer. They took our dryer and told us a day we would have a new one, and again I got the run around when we did not get it that day. The dryer took several days (maybe even over a week) longer than they said it would to get put in. During the time we did not have one, I voiced my frustrations about having a 3 year old and needing a dryer and they refused to speed up the process or take a dryer from a vacant unit.
The second issue I had with Atrium was when I went to check my mail and stepped on the curb that was freshly painted with red oil based paint that got all over my brand new boots. I went straight to the office to notify them where I dealt with the manager, Hillary. When I told her what happened and suggested wet paint signs, she gave me a snotty sarcastic laugh, didn’t say anything about my suggestion. She asked if I wanted her to «clean off my shoes» in a very rude (obviously sarcastic) tone. Frustrated, I left and drove past the maintenance guys where I asked them if they had been painting, and suggested wet paint signs to them as well. They laughed in my face and told me they would paint the tires on my car red.
Since then I have refused to talk to the ladies in the office about any issue. We have had a few others, including them saying our rent was late when it wasn’t, and not fixing things that we notified them about when we first moved in. But I had given up trying to reason with them. Unfortunately, last week my oven broke. Trying to get them to come fix it was no different than the dryer. They told us days that they never ended up coming on, and it took us bugging them several times to finally have someone come out. He had to order a part that he said would be here Friday. This guy is cool, don’t get me wrong. He told us he we be going on vacation, but I figured they would send SOMEONE to take care of it. It’s Monday and we still do not have an oven. When I called (again) the girl would not give me a day or any offer to comp the fact that we have gone without an OVEN for this long. I have had to rearrange and purchase things to make for dinner to revolve around not having one. As someone who works in customer service, I find this absolutely unacceptable.
The Atrium on James Apartments should be ashamed at how they treat their tenants. My bosses would be disgusted if I disserviced people the way they have to us. Be warned.

After a two month epic saga trying to get some Maintenence done in my unit I finally went to the office and asked for all of my previous work orders, made a bit of an uproar and finally got some Maintenence done. Geez, now I know the only way to get anything done here is to be a pain. Too much work. Overall I would say the office staff doesn’t care about the tenets, only recruiting new ones. I’m assuming this has to do with the company pushing numbers not customer service. I’m ready to move. Ghetto fab for sure

This review had a lot more meat to it but the 5000 word limit killed it! We just recently left the Atrium after 2 and a half years. Our experience was bad and here’s why.
Maintenance:
Friendly and helpful most of the time when it came to small issues, like clogged shower, broken dishwasher, etc. Not so good with bigger ones.
Our bathroom fan constantly quit working. It took them almost 2 years to replace it after several work orders and failed attempts.
Our refrigerator leaked water all over our food. It took them six months to replace it. Maintenance didn’t seem like they knew what they were doing.
The mailbox situation:
We had our mailbox broken into and the box would no longer lock. They had us get a mail hold for 6 months before they finally replaced the box.
Noise levels:
Don’t live near the softball fields! During the summer they start practicing around 8am and don’t stop playing until about 11pm. Super loud and if you shut your window you’ll get hot. No A/​C.
Also, they cut the grass every Wednesday year-​round from about 8am to 1pm. They mow, weed whack and blow the grass. It’s super loud and annoying.
The move-​out process:
I cleaned, painted, vacuumed floors and scrubbed walls/​surfaces for 9 hours total. I rented a carpet shampooer and tried to get spots out. Some minor things got broken like some window blinds or a tile on the fireplace floor. The counters had minor stains from Kool-​Aid, and I had to leave for a deployment before I could finish cleaning under the washer and dryer. But most of the so-​called «damages», on the order of 75% or more, were contestable.
Here is what we got charged (rounded):
Painting…$ 28, Carpets…$ 602, Apartment cleaning…$ 130, Blinds…$ 40, Resurfacing kitchen counters and fireplace…$ 147, Replacing 2 door guides and 2 interior doors…$ 88, Replacing 4 drip pans and 1 towel bar…$ 32, Replacing 2 door stops…$ 10, Replacing range hood filter and 4 hours of maintenance…$ 100 (They said this was a «normal» charge, implying everyone gets charged whether it’s «damaged» or not. To my knowledge, however, this was not in our lease.)
We had to forfeit a $ 500 deposit and pay $ 852 extra (including final utilities). And did I mention this is the only time I have NOT gotten money back from a lease?
Management:
The management team was friendly. Kim was awesome and I hope she still works there.
When it came to moving out, the tune was different. They acted like a bunch of lawyers. They would not let us leave a M2M lease that was already «executed» 45 days before it started, costing us an extra $ 1600.
Tanya was apathetic about compromising on the ludicrous move out charges, but did agree to a 60 day extension, thankfully. She was rude to my wife, however, by ignoring her in the lobby and trying to get her to sign a 30 – 40 day extension instead of the agreed upon 60 day one.
So again, our experience here was bad, but if you don’t mind signing an ironclad lease and dealing with a greedy, corporation-​like entity, by all means live here. Otherwise good luck in your search and I wish you the best in your decision making process!