For Faults /// (meat and potatoes)/// Pros and Cons scroll to the end.

If you’ve wondered why there are no reviews for this place, this is exactly why. There is so much negative things to say that people cannot even fathom to produce a review in enough words to express their anger or aggravation of living here.

I would like to share my experience with you and I hope you can take in some of my story to ultimately help you decide if you would like to live here. I have lived at McCain Park Apartments for over 2 years and I currently still do because my lease has not ended yet-looking for a house now. In those two years it had changed management a year and half through it. Even with a different management the service and rules or contracts have not changed.  I am a military member from LRAFB, and have lived in much worse places than this apartment such as a garage or a shed, which is why I have tolerated with living here so long. What has ultimately made me finally write a review is that they are avoiding the fact that my water had been off for two days and that my hot water has not been working for 5 days now going on 6. If you think that is bad, this is nothing compared to my previous experiences since living here, I can just go to the gym to avoid 60 degree showers if I feel like it. To add to this they are not liable for any loss of utilities per contract, which supports the Arkansas rebellion towards Tenant Rights

                 "(Arkansas is the only state that does not have to abide to this rule-

This covers things such as keep basic structural elements of the building, including floors, stairs, walls, and roofs, safe and intact 
maintain all common areas, such as hallways and stairways, in a safe and clean condition
 keep electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems and elevators operating safely
 supply cold and hot water and heat in reasonable amounts at reasonable times provide trash receptacles and arrange for trash pick-up
 manage known environmental toxins such as lead paint dust and asbestos so that they don’t pose a significant danger
 in most states, provide rental property that is reasonably safe from the threat of foreseeable criminal intrusions, and
")

Let's start from the beginning, now bear with me I will try not to bore you out of your mind with this one.

Location was amazing, the pictures online looked awesome, and the floor plans were too good to pass up. My first real roommate and I decided to skip the housing market and opt for a decent place to live, or at least hoped for a decent place. We ended up here in McCain Park Apartments; the floor plan was awesome 1300 SQ ft. and an awesome walk in closet for the master bedroom. Fresh paint on the walls... window sills... door knobs... everything! Everything was painted! Doors were at first difficult to turn, cabinets crackled and stick, some still do! We got over that obviously, we got a good deal of about 620 a month or so for the both of us. They supplied the water/disposal, and we covered the rest. We were able to get Comcast internet, eliminating the old sudden link fiasco back in Jacksonville (I didn't capitalize their company name because they don't even deserve that sort of recognition). All this was too good to be true, the saying "you get what you paid for"   started to kick in to high gear. First off you can't work on your car in the parking lot, and that's understandable because most apartment complexes don't allow that. On the other hand why would they not allow it, obviously people live at these apartments because they don't make as much money to afford a nice one. That means that most of these people are cheap DIY (do it yourself-ers). I'm going to be honest here, I've somewhat disassembled a whole engine, transmission, and put it over 90 hours of work on this parking lot ( in a very discrete way to avoid excessive trouble). I got a car running from a dead shell, but did that push future customers away? In fact I think my group of friends and I working on our cars have actually attracted multiple people to live here, they try to work on their cars often too, but are quickly stopped by management.

        -- To add to this their parking rule is outrageous. If your car has no tags, expired tags, looks old, rusty, broken lights, doughnut on the wheel, been sitting for a month or so in the same spot, flat tire, leaking excessive fluids, on jacks, double parked, too long, or excessively dirty, they will put a note on your car that day and get it towed away by next morning usually around 9-10AM. --

I've seen many cars being towed away, sadly enough 80% of those cars that they towed are the owner's only car, or even a fully functional car with no real problem. I've had over 9 of these notes on my cars stating it would be towed the next day because I either left it sitting in one spot too long , claimed to be not running which they always were when they gave me warning notes, had a flat tire, and had a couple month expired tags(which is understandable). *I have two cars at this time by the way*

Getting back on track now, there is too much to write about to be chronically accurate. The first year I have lived here, I’ve had over 4 floods. Not just your regular floods, these are maybe 20-30 gallons of water. First one was from the hallway bathroom. The leaking had come from upstairs, their shower and toilet lines had created a pipe breakage due to excessive clogging. The ceiling of our bathroom had sunken, soaked in water. It leaked to both rooms and completely drenched the hallway. One thing I’ll give McCain Park Apartments, they act pretty quickly when it comes to floods. I believe this is their self interest in keeping the apartment from molding, rather than servicing to the customers who live there. While they got the water out and the carpet dried in a decent time, they did not however fix the ceiling. There are still obvious signs of water leakage, drooping, and mold. This also happened two more times within 3 months. They had simply deviated and quick fixed the problem rather than solve the problem completely. The third flood in the first year had been from breakage of the pipe for the washer. I will not talk about how bad that can get.

My memory of the first year is very cloudy, but I remember those problems very well, along with outbreak of roaches coming from the ceiling. We keep our apartment very clean, so it does not attract living quarters for bugs.

(Updated)The second year is probably the worst year imaginable. There was another two major floods, two break-ins (one right in front of us), car vandalizing, attempt of theft of my motorcycle, no warm water for about 5-6 days(mentioned at the beginning), no water period for 3-4 days, increase in expenses even though I have a contract, and the kicker are their contract rules that suck the living money out of you.

My next flood was a line of never ending flow from washer water spewing out. This flood covered over 600 sq. Foot of the apartment; from the kitchen to the master bedroom. That is about 25 feet of distance the water has to travel after it floods the living room and kitchen. The next flood after that was a rusted water heater that had cracked. This was probably the worst of the floods, about 3-4 inches of standing water in the kitchen and also extending to the master bedroom. The worst part is that I had to let it stay flooding for 2 and half days. I shop vacuumed the water numerous times waiting for savior accumulating to about 90+gallons of water. Thank goodness McCain Park pays for water bills. The kicker that they never told me why they couldn’t shut off the water until the day they fixed it, which was that it would shut off the whole building complex water if they did that. So they let me sit in my own pool of water, this also meant not having water whatsoever. After the water heater was changed and the 6 days of grueling loud industrial fans. The water heater still managed to be inoperative two more times within 3 months. The carpets destroyed because they are too expensive to change out, so they just dry it and put some padding underneath with the existing carpet. Mold was unbelievable at this point for about a month or two.

First break in was at my friends place down the street. They had stolen everything valuable, it made us more cautious. The most recent and terrifying break-in was the one right in front of our place, directly across from our apartment. Happened in January 28-29^{th 2015}(can’t remember the exact date) , they had stolen everything valuable as well. I cannot help but feel like I would have to have gun by myside for protection while in my own apartment. I’m sure there have been at least 4-6 break-ins within the last two years if not more.

In my area, not to mention race or anything, but there are numerous unsupervised kids running around. They are doing anything from throwing rocks-to scratching cars with sticks or rocks. I am a victim of this vandalizing. I value my car at a very high degree as it is in a pristine condition. Also there have been other victims who live close by, they had it worse since they had brand new 2014-2015 vehicles( a truck and jeep). Those vehicles were scratched all the way around (equivalent to a keying), while mine was just scratching off the hood. How can you live in a place where you not only have to fear for your life, but fear for your car’s condition?

Also, to add to car vandalizing, my motorcycle was covered locked and secured in the parking lot, covering it for the rainy days. Not even a day of having it covered, someone had attempted in stealing it, cut my cover and, my lock. They also discounted the starter plug to jump the bike but I had my motorcycle wheel locked because I was informed by nearby police officers that motorcycle rate is very high in this area. 

There are maybe a handful of other things that I did not like, but I will not cover those topics because you may not care for nitpicking details such as fines for having a couch to sit in on your patio or unclean patio.

After half way of my contract, they decided to increase my rent, and not only that but add fees accumulating to 60-80$ in garbage utilities, water services, or gas servicing.

To finish my review I will talk very shortly about some things on their contract. For month to month it is 100$ extra(not something new but informative), the date which you must tell them that you are moving out has to be outside of the 60 days- 60days notice. The 60 days is just ridiculous. They do not need 60 days’ notice. Also if you plan to leave within those 60 days, you are liable to keep utilities running until that 60 day is over or else you will get fine the utilities cost, and a 50$ fee. You are also liable for paying rent until those 60days are up. So if you moved out within 30 days, you are still liable for paying the month you are not living there. That is just absurd; this place has been hurting for money and renters beyond reason. Their schemes and tricks outweigh any reason to live here. An example of the 60 days’ notice is… (My example)

                Let’s say I find a better place to live, my contract is up, and I am paying month to month. I tell them that I am leaving next month (32 days) because I have bought a house. They say okay, month to month will be an extra 100$ to your rent. You also have to sign this 60-day notice. 60 day notice will run even when you move out, so you will have to pay an extra month that you are not living here even though you are month to month. Month to month from what I got out of them means my contract is still in order, and I have to abide to 60day notice rule even though I am only paying month to month. Does this sound like a scam to you? It sure does. To top it off she said you have to initial where it says I will leave all utilities on until the end of that 60 day. (To prevent McCain Park from paying their own utilities, and so that they don’t have to pay for the next renter’s insurance as they are inspecting the apartment.) You would think that they would pay for their own services if they want to put their apartment on display.

There are heaps more I can talk about, but I will cut it short. I can write maybe 3000 more words of why this place is not a pleasurable place to live, but I think I have covered enough to give you a verdict.

***Update February 15, 2015, Hot water heater went out again. Time for fixing _______ , read through my contract again, it says that they are allowed up to 7 days to repair your unlivable condition before you can have compensation to move out and break the lease. (See picture included with review for word for word contract agreement on this subject.)  So, with my house being flooded for 5 days, drained, then kept under industrial fans constantly running for another 5 days does not count to break the lease in my understanding. It does not matter if you cannot sleep, miss work, pay extra electricity, and smell mold on a daily basis for a month.

**update unedited- Automatic renewal, didn't give me a copy of my contract. Broke things during maintenance and never fixed them. Never compensated me for any damages caused.

Black mold in the vents...

maintenance guy that did most of my maintenance is cool, he is actually really nice. It is probably the fact that he understands the problems that some of these apartments have. Maybe it helps that he lives here also, it's sad because they dont even really give him a discount to live on the property and work weekends. They probably pay him way less than he really deserves it's actually really sad to see.

Update:: found another friend who lived down the street and had been broken into aswell around mid feburary.

04-07-2015

We made some tracks in the grass before moving out, wish is fine and dandy, but the reason why the tracks were made was because they have a pool of water that doesn't route anywhere it just sits on top of the hill-in fact there is a water leakage there that constantly poor water out so it never dries. The manager comes out and inspects it, takes pictures, and what not, then asks us that we'd have to pay for the damages. I was okay with that, but then she said if you can repair it she wouldn't charge us. So my friend and I decide to buy some dirt, which was all that was there to begin with, since its been flooded for the last 2 years ( never had grass what so ever). So we packed dirt in all the ruts and pushed them down, only to find out that all our work and money spent was pointless as we are charged for 200$ repair of the lawn fee. This is just outrageous, why thought you may ask, and this is because... 200$ can do nothing to that lawn until they fix their leak, and their flat pool of a land at the top of the hill (similar to a swamp). The 200$ given to them is merely a way for them to gain some extra money back because they are in such undermanned apartment complexes they need to survive by up charging literally everything.

Pros:

-pets allowed

- walk in closet,

-a lot of SQ footage,

-somewhat cheaper than other better and newer apartments (100-200~ difference),

-quick service when flooded if you’re lucky

-It is close to food McCain strip of food, freeway, gas station , and etc.

-Tons of parking because people always leave this place in search of a better future

-floor plan

-Cable internet

-patio w/4x4 storage

-a little fence for your patio

-I’ve asked 3 of my roommates, they cannot support any more PROs – I have also ran out of Pros

-pool

-tennis court

-Free water expenses

Cons:

-Old construction, crappy construction, drywall, brick

-Thin walls

-chance of being robbed

-high chance of having your car vandalized

-high chance of having your motorcycle stolen

-high chance of flood

-giant windows so insulation is almost obsolete, expect to pay 95 in electric in the winter, 175 in the summer

-Gas expect to pay about 120 in the winter, 30-60 in the summer

-Slow response to disasters during weekends (usually none at all)

-Expect random charges or increased to contracted rent

-expect your car to be towed at all times, check your window daily for postage of car towing notice

-outdated everything

-60 day notice and payment until that notice is cleared including utilities.

-noise complaint is very easily obtained even at 4-8pm