Veranda Estates

Safety is a huge concern here. There are a lot of kids that vandalize cars and break into apartments. In addition, several times a month fire alarms are being pulled at after midnight and wakes the whole complex. This has never been remedied or addressed. There are geese that roam the property and poop on top of cars and all over the place. The noise level of bass from cars that pull in is just ridiculous and makes your apartment shake — this goes on at all hours. You can walk out of your apartment and smell marijuana and there are drug dealers prevalent in the complex — you can see lots of car traffic at all times of the day to particular apartments. There are people having LOUD domestic disputes where swat teams come in to try and address the issues.
Rent is not the only charges. They will force you to pay per room for water not what you use. You are forced to pay for cable. You are forced to pay for pest control but there are still bugs everywhere. There are several other charges including making you use their renters insurance company or get lots of nasty letters. You will be charged upwards of an additional 250.00 on top of rent.
I have lived here several years and seen several management changes in the office. It has not been a positive change. New manager is a real nasty lady and doesn’t do anything to improve the complex. Communication in this residential community is non-​existent. There are no notifications when water is turned off to be fixed — this happens several times a month and not sure why. There are no notifications when people are coming into the apartment. Last straw was 3 inspectors let themselves into my apartment and walked in on my son using the bathroom. Absolutely unacceptable. Noise level is loud if you have anyone above you and management will not address any complaints.
So, if you want to be unsafe, be charged extra fees, not have peace and quiet, and have your privacy violated this is the place for you!

My SO and I lived here from March ’12-​July ’13. This place was a huge upgrade from our old complex, but this place has its flaws, too.
The good:
–It’s a very small community, only seven buildings. From the gate to the farthest point on property, it was less than a minute drive.
–No speed bumps in complex! The community is so small, there’s no need to speed, which is perfect because me and my car despite speed bumps.
–Property upkeep. This place gets landscaping, pressure-​washing a fresh coats of paint regularly. The buildings and doors are all different colors, but not in a mismatched kind of way. The place looks totally put together.
–Free car wash center. A nice little covered area to wash your car when needed. It was perfect to rinse off pollen or give personally detailing your car.
–Pool. The pool isn’t very large, and it’s odd shaped — so no lap swimming. But the pool deck and surrounding area was well kept. No broken or out-​dated pool furniture and the pool is routinely cleaned.
–Gate. Instead of those annoying gate cards that you have to swipe, this place gives you a code. This is great because you can give your friends and family the gate code instead of them having you scroll through the names at the call box, call you and then wait for you to beep them in. There’s hardly any lines for the gate.
–Maintenance. Because it’s such a small community, your maintenance requests are completed fairly quickly. The longest we ever had to wait was a day. Our water heater broke and they fixed it the same day. And one day our apartment flooded. Apparently the woman living above us decided to do laundry overnight, but forgot to switch it off. She woke up in about 2 inches or so water all over her apartment, which results in ours getting flooded from above. My SO got a call from the front office around 9AM, telling him what happened. Then they went into our apartment and moved our furniture so it wouldn’t get wet! They put in an industrial dryer and quickly brought in a carpet crew to replace the carpet and padding. Needless to say, we were very happy that they rescued our stuff and took care of things.
–Location. I would honestly move back here solely for the location. This place is on the very, very edge of Gwinnett County. You’re basically on the corner of Gwinnett, DeKalb and Fulton county. There is a mini Publix across the street (walking distance) and it has a Sandy Springs address. If you take a left out of the complex and take a left at the first light (less than a mile away), you’re in Dunwoody in DeKalb county, or you can keep going straight on Spalding, turn left on Mt. Vernon and get to Dunwoody Village in 15 minutes. If you turn left on Holcomb Bridge and drive for a mile, you’re in Roswell, in Fulton County. 285, 85 and 400 are all a 10 minute drive away. The Forum in Norcross/​Peachtree Corners is 5 minutes away. There is also a bar, Confetti’s and The Derby, and sushi place, Sushi Mito, within walking distance.
–Laundry rooms/​garden tubs. Actual laundry rooms! And garden tubs speak for themselves. :)
The bad.
–The community bill. This seems to be coming more popular among apartments, but this was our first time encountering this. It’s a community bill that is tacked on to your monthly rent. It covers trash, the gate, landscaping, property upkeep, the lights in the breeze way and… Comcast? Comcast has a deal with them, where you pay a flat rate each month in your community bill, but it doesn’t cover everything, and you still get billed separately from Comcast for the difference. You can opt for dish, but you’ll still have pay the Comcast portion of your community bill. I can’t kinda understand the reasoning behind this, but a part of me thinks it’s kinda pointless as well.
–Office parking. When you pull into this place, the leasing office is immediately to your right. And there’s less than 10 parking spots because the golf carts are parked there, too. It can be a hassle when trying to get to the leasing office/​pool because parking is sparse.
–Mailboxes. The mail center is outside the gate and the very front of the property. It feels weird knowing the whole world can see where our mail goes. Not only that, but our mail box broke, the front plate where the key goes in came loose and came off. The complex said the Post Office would have to fix it because it’s a federal property type of thing, but they eventually got tired of personally holding our mail in the office, so they fixed it.
–Fake sense of urgency. They create a fake sense of urgency by saying only a few units are left. Don’t believe it. They have normal resident turn-​over rate here.
–Price increase. I would have loved to stay here, but the rental increase we were given if we renewed our lease was too much. It was over $ 200/​month increase, not including the community bill. :(
Overall, I really enjoyed living here. If I could snag a decent deal on rent, I’d move back.