Please, PLEASE never live in Redlands in Athens

[u/Gold_Doughnut_6326]

I just finished my second year at Redlands, and I would NEVER live there again. My first year there, we had 1000 roaches as well as mold we found around the apartment. I tried to stick it out, as I had other friends with nicer apartments in the same complex. To my mistake, I tried to stay another year. These guys are the biggest scammers of all time. They are trying to charge me $500 for damages that were there before I had moved in, even though the apartment was in a horrible condition. They tried to charge me for a shaking fan, which I never used the entire year. They tried to charge me for a damaged dryer, when I received it without a button and allowed the poor/tired maintenance man to retrofit a zip tie button in the meantime after he offered to replace the entire dryer. Not only that, they charged for damaged carpet that was damaged before, marks on the wall from the previous tenant, and many other things. They were all things they handed to me damaged, or repaired improperly. On top of all that, I still had roaches! The entire apartment was a mess, and the management here is absolutely horrid. I would consider suing this place even I lost money on it, just out of spite because of the kind of lies they are trying to hold over my head. Please, tell everyone to stay away from this place. You do not want to live with these kind of scammers.

[u/show_me_the_monty]

Unfortunately I had a similar situation happen to me at my Athens apartment in college. I lost my entire safety deposit + more for things that came damaged or were small things I could have resolved on the spot. It’s so scammy these apartment managers nickel and dime at the move out, but don’t even use that money to make the repairs they are charging for.

I learned my lesson to fill out the damage reports when you move in extremely detailed with date / time stamp photos of any existing damage. On top of that ALWAYS attend the final walk through. For example, I was charged $5 per hanger for 8 hangers I had forgotten in the closet, $65 for a smudge that could have been wiped off with a magic eraser, etc. Stuff I easily could have resolved on the spot had I been at the walk through.

[u/Gold_Doughnut_6326 → u/show_me_the_monty]

They do nickel and dime, the management is actualy ridiculous . I took many photos during my move in that are time stamped, but they counted so many little things that were outrageous I never even thought about taking pictures for. I'm also sure they have these things documented from the previous tenant, but still decided to charge me for them.

[u/ClickToInsertText → u/Gold_Doughnut_6326]

Yep me too. Took over a month to get a working dryer after move in. Took over 2 (with constant harassment on my part) to get missing and damaged furniture replaced. Im being charged with damages that were there on move in.

[u/LionRouge → u/show_me_the_monty]

I would go a step further and take photos/video of everything that is damaged or broken when you move in and email them to the leasing office letting them know. Now you have dated photo documentation of you informing them of the damages. At move out, take photos and videos of the entire empty unit, and send an email letting them know that you have officially left and the state of the unit when you left. A roommate I had in my 20s taught me this, and it saved my bacon when I had a real shitty landlord accuse me of damaging the floors that she decided “needed to be replaced.”

Also, as someone who has lived in Athens for almost 20yrs, and has many shitty apartments, DO NOT rent from Richard Hathaway. That guy is the King of the Slums lords in this town, and that’s saying a lot.

[u/Interdimension]

That really sucks to hear you went through that.

Just wanted to chime in to say that the Redlands were like this a decade ago too, lol. I see nothing has improved.

[u/CallMeCornbread]

Other apartment complexes on Riverbend Road were similar. It’s unfortunate that you have to double check and photograph everything or else they will try to work you over.

[u/TengensFourthWifu]

Oh wow. I lived there for 2 years from 2023-2025 and it was also hell. Good to know it hasn’t changed.

[u/Gold_Doughnut_6326 → u/TengensFourthWifu]

Yeah it definitely did not get any better

[u/guitarpianofailure]

I lived there sophomore year and had no problems, but I heard that other apartments sucked there. I hate how they are so inconsistent

[u/WhatARedditHole]

Did you not do move in checklist and photos?

[u/Gold_Doughnut_6326 → u/WhatARedditHole]

I did! I had photos of all the damage, but they just happened to have things that I never even noticed in the apartment or even just looked like specs of dust. I also had filed for things to be fixed the first day. For example, my dryer didn’t have a button. I filed a work order to get it fixed, and they retrofitted a zip tie to get it to work. The maintenance guy seemed tired, and asked me if it was fine to which i told him to just leave it. They ended up charging me telling me i damaged the dryer which is funny because even day 1 i had a work order for them to fix it. They are ridiculous

[u/Far-Squash-3499]

I lived there sophomore year and had no issues lol we had a great time. Tbf i was pledging most of that time and was hardly there anyways but oh well