Avalon Run East

A special shout out to Steve and Tim in the management office and TK on the maintenance staff.
Steve and Tim recently helped make our move (regrettably a medical necessity) from a third-​floor apartment in Avalon Run to a first-​floor apartment in Avalon Run East smooth as silk.
The maintenance staff overall has been great, both quick and responsive, but I’d like to single out TK who has really done a great job, thoroughly fixing any problem we have, not just applying the equivalent of band-​aids to patch over problems.
Thank you all for all you have done.

My family and I moved to Avalon Run East in August 2015 what a great experience. Ayanna Adams made this move for us such a great experience, a very professional young lady who takes her job very seriously and gets the job done. Our hope is that management realizes what a great asset Ms Adams is to the Avalon Family. We don’t know what we would have done without her. I believe the gentleman Mark who gave use the tour didn’t do his job but again thank God for Ms Adams who stepped in and here we are.

I have been a resident in the Avalon Run East community in Lawrenceville, NJ for about 10 years now and am still here and love it. I have lived in 2 different units on both sides of the complex and they were both wonderful. The complex is in a perfect location it is close to the malls and grocery stores and easy access to the highways and train station but yet the complex itself is still quiet. I really enjoy the amenities here they have 3 pools and tennis courts and a 24 hour fitness center. Avalon will also be updating part of the inside fitness center I heard to have a full time Yoga studio, which I am really excited about. They have a nice area for fitness walks outside during the day and the rest of the tenants here are friendly. It is also a pet friendly location for dogs and cats. The office team is always super friendly and the maintenance team always comes to my requests quickly and the job is always done complete the first time. For the harsh winters of the cold snowy east Avalon also does a great job with the snow removal here I see the guys on the Sno-Cat’s are out with the shovels all night getting the complex clear. There is also a shopping center nearby which has a nice pizza place, sub shop, sushi spot, and Dunkin Donuts. They also have a dry-​cleaning too which I walk to, they do all my pants hemming and they do a nice job. There is a day care near by for people with small children and there is also a bus route for people who may need it.
So Avalon here is a perfect location for me I love apartment living. Home ownership is a ton of work and if you are on limited time and money a nice apartment home is perfect. Avalon is the place to be if you are in the market for an apartment home I would highly recommend taking a tour of Avalon Run East Apartments in Lawrenceville and see for yourself. I have enjoyed my stay for over a decade here and love it!

1^st Update: Taking down to one star. I had a credit from another Avalon community that was to be applied to my final months rent after numerous, numerous phone calls (a whole other drama there). Have just gotten a collection notice from a collection agency that I’m passed due for the exact amount that they were supposed to apply from the refund. The rest of the last month rent was paid correctly. Now they’re threatening my credit score for something that is fully their fault. I’ve advised my company relocation division to never use them again and advise you as well. Completely incompetent central staff.
2^nd update: Just finished talking to their «resident recovery» department again to try to resolve. Explained situation once more and after several minutes reading my file and seeing problem wasn’t mine their reply back was «we can’t do anything about it as it’s already been turned over to a collection agency.» Total washing of hands of any responsibility and complete lack of care for their customer. Now my only choice is to pay the collection agency since they have no history of what this is about and then take Avalon Communities to small claims court to recover what they have essentially stolen through their incompetence.
Stay far, far, far away.
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Comments from my earlier posting:
Make sure you know what you’re getting into before you sign on the dotted line. So here’s how it breaks down.
Maintenance Staff — 5 Stars. Helpful, quick, responsive, professional.
Apartments — 3 Stars. Kind of what you’d expect in the 1980s or 1990s with same beige walls, beige carpet, beige tile, beige appliances. Not overly worn but nothing to show your friends they haven’t seen 300 places before.
Office Staff — 4.5 Stars. Generally helpful. 5 stars for Florham Park but only 4 for Avalon East. They were helpful just grumpy some days.
Value for Your Money — 1.5 Stars. Decent place but their Corporate group will nickle and dime you for everything possible. Retired military and lived all over the world and never lost a dime of deposit money. Not so with Avalon. Count on not only losing some but most of your deposit. While most apartments build apartment refresh into their monthly fee, Avalon instead holds your monthly as pure operating cost and profit and will pass all refresh costs on to you when you move out. Even though lease says «normal wear and tear», they will make you pay for carpet cleaning ($ 214) and general painting ($ 195). We cleaned out apartment before leaving and were immaculate about it. Still got hit with above charges. Also, we paid $ 50 extra month to have a pet. Figured this covered move out costs based on having a pet. Nope. We had a clean dog with no issues and were told we’d still pay an extra cleaning fee and that wasn’t what the $ 50 per month was for… that was just «for the privilege of having a dog» (their words).
Also, contrary to other places, build into your finances that they’re going to charge you for water, trash pickup, etc. that you usually figure are the normal costs of operating an apartment complex and should be part of your monthly fees.
So, in the end, decent places to stay but keep every receipt and be sure to build an additional $ 50 – 100 a month cost in to cover what they’ll charge you later on. Also, given their financial model, I wouldn’t bother taking care of the place beyond picking up or cleaning as you’ll get hit for it any way. Not advocating trashing or misusing the place but next time I’d be less worried about the walls and floors knowing that I was going to get hit no matter how well I took care of things.
Forewarned is forearmed.

I currently live here and I am planning to move out when my lease ends. Would have moved earlier if it was possible.
THE BAD:
1. This community is way over priced for the kind of apartments they give you. Apartments and appliances are old as compared to some of the new apartments in the area.
2. There has been a robbery at gun point in one of the apartments this month. Where a person was robbed inside his own house:
3. A tenant within our building left the Gas stove ON and there was a huge gas leak. This happened last week. Community office didn’t inform anyone and they haven’t even sent a flier updating residents of this issue.
4. Cars drive within the community way above the 15 Mile/​Hour speed limit, its scary to say the least. We reported this multiple times to the community office, they just listen and ignore.
5. Community Office doesn’t pick up the phone. We had to pretend to be a new customer to call the community office last week.
6. They increase the rent by at-​least $ 100 + when you renew your lease, more of your lease period is less than 12 months.
7. This is a smoking community. Tenants are allowed to smoke literally everywhere.
8. They will charge you $ 250 regardless of whether you clean your apartment or not. We moved within the community last year and were charged $ 250 Bucks after cleaning the apartment for 2 Days. All they found was some tooth picks.
9. The deposit is $ 750 and you have to call the corporate office many times to get your check. And to add salt to injury they post it without a tracking number which comes in like 3 – 4 weeks.
10. The Air conditioner is most of the houses are old and it smells of stale water in Summer months. We have to call Maintenance every 2 – 3 weeks where they come in to drain the water and clean the filter. Community is not willing to change the AC unit.
11. They just keep on spending $$ in a landscaping and ignore very basic safety things. Like installing speed limit signs, speed bumps and making this a gated community.
12. COSTCO is coming in Quakerbridge road right adjacent to this community. Traffic will get more around the community once they open up.
THE GOOD:
Maintenance is excellent, prompt and very professional. This is the only good thing about this community.

I’ve lived at Avalon Run East for 7 years. It is a very nice and quiet community but Rt.1 that’s nearby is pretty much clogged in the mornings and afternoon. The park is nice and well maintained as well as the pool in the summer. There are two tennis courts, the first one is fine, the other one is unusable for years. The office and maintenance crew are average. I had an issue with the draining in the kitchen and they have to call a real plumber who cut the sheet-​rock to fix the pipe. Instead of following up and closing the hole, I had to wait for almost a week or two, for someone to come by and fix it. One time, when I complained that there is a white dust coming from the main vent, they told me that it’s not their responsibility to clean the vent, so I have to call and pay that myself. Other than that, the crew is responsive and if it’s not an emergency, they will show up in a day or two.
As someone noted, they will nickel and dime you. At the end I was paying $ 25 for parking a month. I have two cars so I was paying $ 50 a month. Add another $ 300-​$ 400 a year for the park/​pool maintenance. You also have to pay for water (about $ 20-​$ 30/​mo) and garbage disposal ($ 20−30/mo). They also charge you for pets, I think.
Before I left in July 2015, I got a renewal offer to pay almost $ 1850 for two bedroom apartment. I am paying $ 2100 for mortgage now for three bedroom rancher in much better neighborhood, so yes, they are very expensive for the service they provide.
Finally, when I left the apartment, I talked to a maintenance guy when we did the final inspection. He assured me that I have to pay estimated $ 100 for the cleaning and $ 200-​$ 250 for painting the apartment. 3 weeks later, I got an invoice for $ 139 for the cleaning and $ 529 for the painting. When I called them to complain, that their price is much different than what the estimate said, they came with some generic explanation that the estimates differ from the real price and that they have to paint the apartment with two coats. From $ 200-​$ 250 to $ 529 is not an estimate, it’s a complete miss and rip off.
Avoid this community if you can, there are much nicer places around in Plainsboro.

I have been living here for 2 years, the rental is relatively high but it is nice community though, the best thing for me is they fix things for us, we love the technician TK, he is very nice and very efficiency to solve all the issues very fast.

My family has lived here for over 5 years. Honestly I never thought we would be here this long. Over the years we have had quite a few things go wrong in our apartment. The maintenance team here is wonderful. They always come right away. If they can’t fix the same day they give you a time frame in when it will be done and stick to it. I know the maintenance team at Avalon take pride in what they do. They are the backbone of this community.

I have lived at my apartment for almost two years and no matter what the issue may be, the complex’s team is always of assistance immediately! First, the maintenance team is amazing. I have had the pleasure of communicating with Amy, the maintenance coordinator and she is so kind and always follows through. The men I have had in my home are also very kind and always on time! I’ve had the best work done by Luke, Moses, Derek, Tom, Christopher, TK, Mirjan, and Marius. Thank you so very much for all the fantastic work and service you do to help me make this apartment our home. They care so much for our daughters health and extra needs! They go above and beyond to make sure she remains in good health by keeping our place clean and running well! We also are so grateful for the service the leasing office provides. They always listen and do their best to make everyone happy! Just today a very beautiful, very pregnant, Donocia, walked up three flights of steps just to personally give our daughter a birthday card and thank you for our patience along with a gift for our troubles. It takes special people to care so much! Wherever our lives take us in the future, we will always remember the great experience we had at Avalon Run! Thank you so much for all you do! We appreciate each and every one of you!

The Avalon Run complex is decently priced for the location and amenities. While Avalon Run has nice grounds and is in a nice location and the staff at the office are all friendly and courteous, dealing with customer support on the phone from the corporate headquarters is an arduous task.
They charged me an erroneous $ 111 charge one month for «user access» and so far have not addressed the issue, even though I’ve called and emailed over 6 times. They’re quick to charge you for things but slow to reconcile their errors.
Also, please note that as of April 12, 2012, Avalon Run is listed as an area with known contamination according to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.
Site ID: 36 108 PI Number: 548 039 PI Name: AVALON RUN Address: AVALON WAY
They did not disclose that before I signed a lease.