The Abbey at Stone Oak

The staff has all been very courteous to us and the community itself is nice. However, rent is high and then all of the charges if you break your lease are astronomical. It was at this point that my husband and I began to be treated poorly. We had received a concession when we signed our lease -- we knew we would have to pay this back per month that we had lived in the apartment when we decided to break our lease. Plus there was a re-letting fee. Then we still had to pay rent, at the non-concessioned rate for two more months (60 days notice of breaking the lease) plus all utilities. We moved out before our 60 days notice, but still had to keep the electric and water on and pay those utilities, plus we still had to pay the cable which was included as an extra charge in the rent every month. We also then had to pay part of the next month's rent before the new renter moved in. All of these charges, already totaled above $7000 for 2 1/3 months rent and utilities, concession fees, and re-letting fee. Then we were dealt another blow: the sure deposit we had done at the lease signing did not cover us in place of a security deposit like we had been told it did and then needed to pay back a bunch of cleaning totaling to about $150. The sure deposit was explained to us as in place of a regular security deposit and we were told that it would cover up to $500 in damages to the apartment; this is untrue. The sure deposit is a one-time fee saying that you will pay any and all cleaning charges when you move out with no security deposit backup. The $150 was just another blow on top of already outrageous charges. The final blow came a few weeks later when they finally sent us our correct final charges statement (when the final payment will be due within a week): they were charging us for a gift card they had given to us when we signed our lease and applied it to our first month's rent. They forwarded me a copy of the document my husband and I signed accepting the gift card which does state that if we broke our lease we would have to pay it back, but this document was never given to us and that part of the document was never gone over with us before we signed it (the woman who assisted us at our lease signing had said something along the lines of "This is a $500 gift card incentive and you probably should apply it to your first month's rent. You guys are signing at the right time because this is a great promotion!"). All in all, they have effectively charged us about $8000 to break our lease and move out of the apartment.



Basically, these people seem so nice and to have your best interests at heart, but they do not. They run the Abbey at Stone Oak like Pottersville in "It's a Wonderful Life". Lessons learned: read everything and have a detailed ledger of every fee, etc. you may incur if you need/want to break your lease, even if you don't think you will break your lease; know all the terms and conditions for breaking your lease; see if there are any cases where fees would not be incurred to break your lease (theft, assault, the building starts falling apart, whatever, etc.); don't do a sure deposit; if at all possible, do not accept any concessions or promotions unless you are rock solid 100% positive you will not break your lease; and take pictures of your apartment after you've cleaned it and set foot in it for the last time.



Do not live here. It looks pretty and they put on nice, polite faces, but that is the extent of the beauty.