Commons At Timber Creek Apartments

It is no exaggeration to say that my 6 months at the Commons at Timber Creek were the worst apartment living I have experienced. As others have mentioned, the office staff turnover is high, the managers, particularly Chris, are unpleasant, there is insufficient lighting and the garbage/​recycling is ludicrously far away from many of the units.
My review is meant to warn potential residents about the «roommate addendum policy.» If you are moving in to a currently occupied apartment as a roommate they require that you be added to the lease. Fine, I understand that they want to know who is living in their units, do a credit check etc. However, they do not disclose any potential financial red flags about the person you are moving in with and do not allow for you to be removed from the lease without that person’s written consent.
After a bad breakup I was in desperate need of housing and after meeting with many potential roommates was swayed by a sweet older woman. I did a general background check on her and finding nothing criminal moved in. Tandem Property Management/​The Commons at Timber Creek charged me $ 50 to do a credit check then had me in to sign a «roommate addendum.»
I lived in our unit for approximately two weeks before coming home to an eviction notice. It turns out my roommate owed nearly $ 2000 in back rent and fees. When I asked the office staff why I hadn’t been told that I was signing up to live with someone who couldn’t pay her share of the bills I was told «you didn’t ask.» It took me six months and $ 2000 to free myself from the lease and the roommate. The management insisted that the situation was «a roommate dispute» and that it was my responsibility to pay my roommate’s back fees and future rent or we would both be evicted.
When I tried to get her to sign me off of the lease as it was not my responsibility to keep her from being evicted she of course refused and said that I had to pay my share of the rent until the lease expired whether I lived there or not. It was only when I got an attorney involved that she agreed to «let me» pay the lease break fee of $ 2000. It was my only choice to ensure that she wouldn’t be evicted with my name still on the lease. Throughout this ordeal the front office staff was very sweet but the management was terrible.
TLDR: In spite of requiring that my credit be acceptable and I have no negative history they knowingly allowed me to sign on to a lease with a tenant who was being evicted and refused to let me break my portion of the lease essentially shackling me to bankrupt stranger. IF YOU ARE SIGNING A LEASE AS A ROOMMATE ASK THEM IF THE PERSON HAS BEEN EVICTED/​OWES BACK RENT! I later found out that they had evicted my roommate via court order about six months before I moved in, I have no idea how she was still living there at the time she found me.
I take total responsibility for not doing a comprehensive background check on the roommate. However that does not change the fact that this is a low grade apartment complex with high turnover who knowingly allowed me to sign a lease on a unit that was in an eviction process without alerting me to that fact.

I loved my apartment! It was large, nice, new flooring and carpet, washer dryer, affordable garbage and water at $ 40/​month. The landscaping is great and the office staff are awesome and nice and helpful. If I were a woman or an elderly person I would be afraid to live here though given the tragedy that happened and where it seems they have done nothing to rectify that and make people feel safe. The lighting at night is so dark and no one can ever find your place at night because there’s 600 apartments there so it’s a maze and the map is small and awful and there is ZERO lighting on the building numbers on the apartments you’ll have to go meet everyone that comes over to guide them.
But if you want a pretty reasonably priced apartment for the neighborhood that is new and nice and close to everything and awesome neighbors then just come to the Commons at timber Creek. There’s even a real Creek with bridges going through it.
I wanted to give it four stars but that would only hurt the employees there on site so I would never do that. Four stars only because the turnover is so high that within three months of moving in the whole staff was new, if you live some where it’s comforting to feel like you know at least one person in the front office. All the staff though is friendly and helpful and nice. But the real reason for four stars would have been a management company that seems to only care about money and not about people. They are cold, inflexible, and make sure you know they don’t care about you. Tandem property management is awful.

***DO NOT MOVE HERE***
My wife and I had the worst experience living here. Where do we begin, let’s start with black mold in our bedroom and closet. We submitted 4 maintenance requests to get it taken care of and nothing was done.
Enjoy leaving voicemails because they never answer the phone or call you back. Not once.
Lastly,
This experience is what pushed me to write a review. My wife is out of town so I’m left with my 4 month old baby. I’m locked out of the apartment with my baby and I drove over to the leasing office DURING business hours and no one was there and the office doors were locked. I called the emergency maintenance line and they said this isn’t an emergency and we can’t help you unless it’s during business hours! I had to stand in the rain with my baby until a locksmith came out and helped me get in.
Unbelievable.

I moved here when the rent was $ 500, about 3 property managers ago. Anyone could afford to live here. Moved from San Francisco and went from paying $ 1100 a month for a one bedroom off Market Street to paying $ 500 for a two bedroom about 15 minutes from the Pearl.
It took almost several years before our rent ever increased. Neither of the first two property managers touched our rent. Decent neighbors. For a short time we had a hispanic family below us who must have done daycare because I’d find a lineup of 9 pairs of kid’s shoes drying after a romp in the creek out back. This was only maybe for about 6 months of my several year stay. The place was generally cheap and quiet.
Sadly, the new property management took over and started increasing prices drastically. Eventually the only one’s who could afford to live there were college kids who sub-​let out the spare room. At times there’d be two couples (4 people) putting 4 full grown adults in a 900sq ft appartment. This also means stereos and entertainment systems in bedrooms going all odd hours of the night. I missed the hispanic families that went to bed at 8 and went dead silent for the evening! 4 adults per resident also means 4 cars taking up 4 parking spaces.
As the price continued to rise, eventually even the subletting minimized. Parking can still be really bad, At times having to park 200+ feet from my appartment. Think that’s crazy? Let’s talk trash. The trip meter on my car read ¼ mile from my parking spot in front of my appartment.
Some of the major downfalls of this complex have to do with it’s age and poor construction. In the fully remodeled places, they’ve replaced quite literally everything. This wasn’t volunteer work. Most of it required replacing. Literally, our cabinet faces were falling off of the cabinets and the drawers were falling inwards. Even after they fixed them, they’d break again shortly after. Oddly enough, these are things we didn’t deal with during the previous managers. Only after Tandem took over and we were moved to a partly remodeled unit and our rent nearly doubled.
We took a walk of our second residence in the complex before it was completed. They had the carpets up. As in, bare floor boards. When the place was «move-​in ready» I was flabergasted that they didn’t pay a minimum wage minor to fix the squeaks in the floor boards. They anoyed the crap out of me and I would plié through the house in the dark to avoid them so they neighbors could sleep without horrendous ruckus. The place is built and remodeled by the cheapest labor a negotiator could buy. Literally any unskilled laborer with an ounce of pride in their work could have fixed the squeeks in the floor in under 15 minutes when the carpet was already up.
Aside from the general quality of the construction, the complexes other major downfall is how the property views itself. It is not a well kept luxury suite. It was a low-​income haven for people trying to get by and persons living off of assisted income given a quick and cheap facelit. nearly a third of the property is covered in exposed mud that sees bark dust for 6 months every 3 years. Kids leave beer bottles and cans at the park and the only garbage can I can discard them in, you have to walk through a man-​made pond created by excessive sprinkler use in the grassy dog walking area.
I just went there to check to see if I accidentally shipped a package to my previous residence. Checked the door to see if by any off chance it was just sitting there. There’s finally new tennants there. Which I thought funny. Before leaving, I offered to sign a year lease if they didn’t increase our rent. They declined. So they lost $ 2000 of our money while trying to get new residents in to protect thier $ 1200 per year price increase. *slow clap*.
Shockingly, there’s also a bike chained up out in the entryway. I’m pretty sure if I tried that they would quite literally use the manager’s key to gain entry to my appartment and murder me while I slept without even posting a 24 hour entry notice on my door. Which they have typically been pretty good about. If I left the trash on the door step while we ate dinner, there’d be a note on the door threatening with a fine after a single hour. Trash must go directly to the dumpster. ¼ mile walk. The resources set aside by previous property managers were removed in favor of a single location.
One time I left a cooler on the deck for a weekend while out camping, instead of stowing it away back in the storage unit just to take it out again when I came back with the rest of the gear I was actually using. Note on the door. The deck is not a place for storage. Never mind the neighbors across the creek have had giant rubbermaid tubs stacked 2 high for, quite literally, years. Also across from the office. A. Goddamned. Kayak.
WAIT!!! Character limit? I’ve got years of dirt to get out here! Parking, garbage, power outages, abandoned repair work, constant tree removal, poor communication…

The constant turnover of employee (at least two a month) at this place tells you enough about the company and management team that runs this apartment company. The manager Chris is extremely rude and poor behaved and has no management skills, the maintenance worker slams the door in front of your face and tells you that the rusted lock on your door can’t be replaced for free and we have to pay for the replacement .Try to put work order in and wait for two months until things get fixed. So many people moved out of this place since we’ve been here the only people that stayed are college students and people who won’t get accepted anywhere else. I would suggest please go and rent somewhere where you will be appreciated more as resident because you would definitely not get that here.

Update, I attached pictures of the recycling area at the Commons at Timber Creek. This place is so filthy and it’s impossible to safely access the recycling bins without tripping over all this hazardous garbage. There’s like a dozen health violations going on in those pictures. This has been an on going problem for atleast the last two weeks. Run away from this place like the plague. The managers don’t care for you or your safety.

Pros:
–nice landscaping
–large, updated apartments
–friendly neighbors
–large pool area
–full size washer dryer
Cons:
–don’t feel comfortable walking around outside at night after lady was murdered here
–poor communications management. Didn’t acknowledge the murder of their employee and didn’t give residents peace of mind. When coming to enter your home they will give you a weeks window of time for when they come.
–rent is raised 17% when your lease is up (if you sign a 12 month lease). If going month to month then rent is increased by 31%.
–no dogs over 25lbs
–staff isn’t friendly.
–operated by large company that doesn’t seem to care about individuals and only out to get your money.

This place is the worst. I would give it a 0 star if I could. Nothing but issues at this apartment. The staff is a bunch of catty bitches who are super stuck up. you leave a review. They say come down and talk about the issue. They solve nothing and make your living experience the worst.
The place is not with the price.
RUN

We came to the Commons at Timber Creek after a week long apartment search, they worked hard to find us an apartment that would suit our needs, then when we found one that worked for us they approved our application (which was VERY easy and convenient to fill out online) quickly! (Within 20 minutes of submission). The apartments are all comparable in price to those in SE Portland, and come at a good value. All the office staffers were friendly and helpful (we worked with C.J., who was lovely). We are extremely excited to move in and we look forward to living at such a lovely community!

I wish I could rate Timber Creek 0 stars. It is without a doubt the worst place I have ever lived. I could write pages of what is wrong, instead I will just warn you to stay away and hope you don’t make the same bad decision to live here as I did.

Where do I even start? This place is easily the most horrible apartment I have ever lived in, and that speaks volumes considering I’ve lived in about 20 apartments.
The walls are insanely thin, the neighbors are all younger kids who party all night, do drugs in the open, play loud music all night long, etc. As if that isn’t enough there’s always, always, always cops in there. It seems like every other day the cops are there on drug raids or banging on people’s door (this isn’t an exaggeration at all).
The people with dogs never clean up after them so there’s regularly dog crap ALL OVER the premises. On top of that they remodeled the exteriors of these places but the insides are still crappy appliances, poor insulation, horrible plumbing, the list goes on.
The icing on the cake is that these guys charge premium prices. I mean their prices are the same as much, much nicer apartments you would find on 185^th or other areas. I’m not sure how they can get away with this, or who is stupid enough to pay their prices, but some people must not shop around.
Avoid this place like the plague. I don’t know one single person who has lived here that was happy with it.

My boyfriend and I were out Apartment hunting looking for a 3 bedroom so we decided to check this place out. When we walked in there were three leasing agents there and it was as if we were an inconvenience. We should have walked out then and there but we regrettably stayed. The lady that was helping us was showing us floor plans and pictures which we could have done from our own home without the attitude or being treated like we were disrupting her day. It’s your job lady! They didnt have a three bedroom to show us which is fine but we came to see something! Anyway you could tell she felt obligated to show us something so she showed us one of the models. The apartments were really nice! I mean if I didn’t have two cats and feel the lady was a pompous ass I would seriously consider the place.

Timber Creek actively goes through their Google reviews flagging the poor ones. Mine never stays visible for more than a day. So I created this account purely for the purposes of putting my review somewhere they CANNOT take it down.
Our application sat at their office for over 2 weeks and when I went in to demand a refund of our holding fee and application fee they tried to tell me that things weren’t right on my application and that they had called me.
They had not. In fact I had called multiple times over the span of those two weeks and no one person could give me any reason why the applications hadn’t processed.
They lied to my face and the second they had a moment of time alone they came back saying, «something was just faxed, you didn’t get approved.» There is absolutely no reason we would have been denied. And I was dealing directly with the manager of the properties, Kim, who was snide, condescending, and snippy with me. Not at all professional in her attitude or behavior. She even made a snooty comment at me as I was on my way out the door. Avoid this place. It has earned its terrible reputation, truly.

I don’t feel safe here. The office played it down, they never sent out a letter to us to let us know what happen in our complex. When lease is up, we are out of here!

It’s a great community under new management. Any maintenance request were done with in 24 hours. The staff is friendly and get you in and out on your way fast. Which I enjoyed :) the location is great… close to everything. Chris really does take great care of all tenants and cares about them. Couple examples: He immediately took care of inappropriate music being played at the pool where a ton of kids hangout. He did a tenant BBQ over the summer and had it catered. When he and I did the move out walkthrough he noticed some things that I missed in cleaning. He said I still legally had the apartment till 12am and had the choice to clean what was left or he would have to charge me. I totally appreciate Chris for that and he gave me a full refund. I really did enjoy living there for almost 3 years.

My wife and I have lived here for just over a year and a half now. I do not have one negative thing to say about this place. Any service request submitted was finished with in 24 hours. The office staff is incredible. I had one issue with a neighbor and it was taken care if next day. Perfect location to any direction and major free ways. Awesome !!!

Oh boy, where to begin with this place. Ill start with the nice. It has a nice serene parklike feel with a creek (hence the name) running through the middle. It has a nice pool and hot tub with plenty of room to lay out. The inside of the apartments are upgraded with nice, newer appliances. Upgraded lite cabinets, white moldings around the door frames and newer fixtures. The smaller living area is made up by the larger bedrooms and large one whole side of the room closets.
The downside is unfortunately alot longer. The staff… ughhhhh the staff. These 4 bundles of joy :-| Every request from them is like youre asking them to move mountains. From everything from checking packages that get delivered to asking questions about rent. They act incredibly disinterested and annoyed. I cringed whenever I had to call them for anything and most the time just let it go. Most of the time talking to them I was stunned at how inept they were. I could rant on about each one of them but I will say the portly one of them is the most mentally capable but is the most unpleasant.
The walls are not insulated well at all. Any walking, cabinet closing, toilet flushing, mattress squeeking can and will be heard by all 4 – 6 of your neigbors. I have a tv with no upgraded speakers and volume at 20 and have had 3 noise complaints. 2 of the complaints were the neighbors thought my girlfriend and I were yelling when we were watching a movie at normal levels. This is a huge problem with this apartment and doesnt make the heating of this place cheap either.
There is one garbage bank in a huge complex and it usually looks like a scene out of Road Warrior. Garbage and recycling thrown about and plastic bags blowing in the wind.
The maintenance guys leave snarky, sarcastic comments on your counter after he is done. Apparently a plum pit fell into the garbage disposal (on accident) and the maintenance guy had to come and fix it. I came home to a note saying «Do not throw pits into the garbage disposal. Place in trash, like everyone else.»
Rent increase of 200 hundred at time of lease ending.
Atmosphere is nice but no real substance to this place. No heart, no customer service, and no way Im staying. Neither should you.

Great value, big, clean apartment with washer/​dryer in the unit, walk in closet and brand new cupboards. All for below a $ 1000/​month. Have had no issues with the staff and maintenance issues are handled quickly. One of the head ladies in the office needs some work on her personality but now that i’m moved in, it hasn’t been an issue.
Other pros: lots of parking, allow dogs (up to 20#), clean grounds, pool, tennis courts
Cons: only one garbage area (have to drive garbage), no gym

So we picked this place because it was spacious, beautiful, clean, low price, and it had it’s own washer and dryer. It is not worth it!
With the amount of people working here you would think there would be good service. They act like it is such a big freaking deal to get a package. Packages go to the office and then you have to go in during business hours to retrieve it. They almost always act bothered when I ask to get a package. I had a package coming fedex and I was tracking it online. I had to leave my house for about two hours the day the package was due. I never got a slip on my door saying it had arrived so I checked online and it said delivered. The next day I went in and told them this. The lady said, «If you didn’t get a slip it didn’t come.» To which I responded, «My tracking says it was delivered can you check.» To which she said, «it wasn’t delivered if you don’t have a slip.» I know that if I don’t bring my slip they just check my id to make sure my address is the same as the package. So I said, «let me put it this way, I forgot my slip will you just get my package and I’ll show you my ID.» She actually rolled her eyes at me and then got off her ass to retrieve my package.
They act just as bothered when I ask for a receipt for my rent. I do this every time now because they lost my rent check when I put it in the drop box. When I came in because I got a note on my door saying I’d be evicted in 30 days if I didn’t pay rent, they acted like they were doing me a favor by not charging me a late fee. FOR A CHECK THEY LOST! Which they swore up and down was impossible but two months later the manager told me they found it behind a desk!
Also the outbox for the mail is inside the office so you have to come in during business hours to drop mail off. The trash is also inconvenient all the way on one side of the complex (and this place is huge.) You have to put your trash in your car to take it over there.
The walls here are super thin. My fiancé and I work opposite schedules so one of us is always sleeping during quiet hours. We started getting noise complaints even though we do everything with headphones on because one of us is sleeping. We can hear everyone doing everything in the apartments around us. Walking, searching through cupboards, shutting doors, running the water doing laundry, flushing the toilet, taking a shower, talking, we can hear it all. I can sing along to my neighbors music (seriously!)
The apartment is so poorly insulated that during the winter I can keep the thermostat at 68 and the heater runs almost constantly. No wonder my electricity bill is so high. I’ve taken to sitting under my electric blanket to conserve energy. There is a gap at the bottom side of my front door that you can literally see through.
The last thing I can think of right now is that they raised our rent $ 150 dollars a month after we’d lived here for year. When I was complaining at work I had two different people say, «Do you live in a Tandem Property Management complex?» They went on to say this was normal for them. Cheap for the first year and then raise your rent once your lease is up.
DON’T LIVE HERE!

On Saturday October 20^th, 2012 my partner and I went in to see about renting an apartment at The Commons at Timber Creek. The office was nice, the people that worked there were nice and the grounds were fine. A woman showed up the apartment we were interested in. It was spacious and clean.
Upon walking out I noted that there were cigarette butts on the patio. The woman said «Oh yes, they probably smoke upstairs». I thought it was a little weird that she didn’t seem bothered by the litter at all.
We went back to the office and filled out our paperwork. We were told we had to pay an $ 80 application fee for the apartment ($ 40 per person). We were also told that we had to leave a check for $ 150 to hold the apartment. We were told over and over again that the second check for $ 150 would not be cashed until 72 hours after our applications were approved and we agreed to take the apartment. We were told it would take 3 – 5 business days to approve our application.
The screener who I never met or talked to was having problems processing us. I said that my income is hard to verify because I’m self employed and don’t have tax returns yet but my partner qualifies on his own. They agreed that it would be just fine to qualify us based on his income alone. We ended up getting 2 phone calls a day for the next week from various people around the office who were still trying to verify my income. My partner was even told that he owes some past apartment money which was not true. He called his old apartment complex and made sure that was not the case.
I ended up Googling The Commons at Timber Creek because I needed their email address to forward them some information for my application. I noticed that there were TONS of bad reviews written about them. I ended up mentioning it to one of the ladies that works there and she said that they were all just written by «People who were upset that because they didn’t get what they wanted». I really didn’t want to be one of those people and it seemed like they were having a lot of trouble approving us.
By the following Saturday we found another apartment that we felt more comfortable in (and they were able to approve us in two days). We told The Commons at Timber Creek that we no longer wanted to rent from them.
On October 28^th I checked my bank account balance and noticed that on October 23^rd, 2012 the $ 80 application fee AND the $ 150 fee to hold the apartment had both been taken out of my account. This had overdrawn my account. The $ 150 was never supposed to have been cashed. I called the property in the morning and it took me two hours to get a hold of someone. I ended up talking to Ingrid at the corporate office. She said they made a mistake and would refund both checks and that it would «take a few days». I asked if I could come down to the office in person and pick the checks up and she said that was no problem. I was worried that because we’re moving we might not get them. Ingrid said she would call me when the check was available.
It’s been almost two weeks now and my partner and I have left multiple messages for Ingrid at Tandem Property management and we have no gotten a response. I put a call into the office manager, Mary, today who was somehow magically able to get a hold of Ingrid and was told that the check would be available on Monday (over two weeks since we reported the money missing from my account).
This apartment complex has been the biggest pain in the ass and we never even rented from them. If we had not hounded them every step of the way and left voice mail after voice mail, most of which had gone un returned I don’t think we’d ever see our money back. It’s really hard not to feel like they are running some kind of scam.