Apartment Review for Parke Place Apartments - Charlotte, NC

I lived at Parke Place for just over a year. Early on it was great. Friendly management, pretty courtyard, and a number of interesting neighbors. I think it was around the first of the year (2005) Druker and Falk took over and replaced the management and maintenance. Almost immediately we received a note on the door stating that rent had not been collected for one of the previous months. It was a hostile note, threatening legal action if not taken care of. Knowing that I had personally paid that rent myself, I went to the office and waited in line behind a couple other people there for the same reason. I heard them say they sent out around 30 of these notes. I had never bothered to get a receipt for rent, but luckily my bank had online pictures of the endorsed check that I could print out for proof. A number of other tenants could not show proof and eventually had to move out because of this. Some I had heard had lived there for a very long time. With this many "missing rent" tenants, I don't understand how the management could not see that the problem was due to their own poor bookkeeping skills. If you do choose to rent an apartment here, I very very VERY highly recommend you keep all receipts, notes they post on your door, etc. We were always left notes after the new management took over for very nitpicky stuff. My roommate had an exotic orchid collection that required lots of light. She always kept the blinds open in the 2nd bedroom and used flourescent lamps to care for the plants. She got a note stating that the blinds should not be left open all the way or something of that nature. The bad part is that over half the apartments in our building were vacant and had no blinds whatsoever. You could look in those windows and see all the mess as they had been under heavy construction, well abandoned construction for that matter. Some of those empty rooms looked as though noone touched the mess the whole time we were there. The previous management told my roommate when we first moved in that it was ok for her to keep them there and and she could do anything to beautify the apartment. Another example of the stupid notes we received was that we had a bird feeder and also left food for the many squirrels that frequented the flower filled courtyard. They eventually called in a professional pest control to remove the animals. They never did anything about all the stray cats though. Before we left, I knew of around 15 tenants that moved away (or had to) from Parke Place due to the new management. I've never heard of that many people moving out within that short of a time period. There were rumors circulating around that the place was up for sale and that it was going to be bulldozed. It is an old complex and in desperate need of some repairs. Overall I was unimpressed with the lack of professionalism with Druker and Falk. I would only consider moving back there if the management and ownership changes.