Athens Ridge, athens-ga

Terrible. Apartment was in bad condition when my son and friends moved in. We had to talk to Corporate and exchange several emails to get half fixed. At the end, at move out time, kitchen sink was not working and took so many days that it was never repaired. Plus all 4 students were charged insane charges that didn’t make sense. They didn’t do a walk through and later put a collections agent on us. BEWARE! Get everything in writing and photos! And maybe consider other places…

We just took a tour with my daughter and grandson, and we were so impressed! The property is absolutely beautiful, and the rooms are a great size—very comfortable and well laid out. Everyone we met was incredibly kind, welcoming, and helpful, which made the experience even better. It really felt like a place where people truly care. Highly recommend!

(Updated after moving out) I really liked the place for a while, but all the issues made it not worth staying. I subleased a place starting in the spring (moved in Jan 2nd) and immediately they overcharged me for rent. They charged me ~$60 more than what I signed for. After my first month there they also charged me for utilities for the month of December. I didn’t mind much at first because they credited me the difference after I emailed them about the mistake, but it would be very easy for someone who didn’t know exactly what they should owe to overpay. The community manager explained that the billing issues were a result of their system having problems, but regardless of the reason, it’s completely unacceptable for tenants to be overcharged. In February I went to the leasing office to ask about renewing my lease (after I sent in a request and didn’t hear anything back) and they told me I couldn’t renew because the deadline had passed (before I moved in) and I didn’t attempt to renew right when I first moved in (even though no one contacted me about it). They said they had already signed a new lease for my room and that even if I found someone to sublease from, I’d still have to move units. I later found out from Amber (community manager) that my room had be leased since November, so even if I had asked when I first moved in, I still would’ve needed to move. She offered to look for a place I could sublease in the complex, but I had chosen a specific unit and room to sublease for various reasons, and if I couldn’t be guaranteed the things I liked about my original room, I would’ve preferred to find another place that fits my preferences. The amount of stress I went through to find a new place to live in the fall with only 5 months notice due to their mistakes and miscommunications after just barely getting settled at AR took a huge toll on my mental well being that semester. I’m lucky to have found a place I love last minute that’s a block from campus and around the price I’d be paying at AR anyway. Some of the busses get unbearably hot on sunny days. The white bus has the best AC. Bus drivers are lovely, and the shuttles were pretty consistent, but there were a couple times when the first morning bus wasn’t running and we didn’t get any notice. The internet here is the worst I’ve ever experienced in my life. It went out constantly. As for maintenance, Will and Garland were always incredibly nice and helpful when they came to fix things. After leaving my initial review, maintenance requests started being answered really quickly. Whether that happened because of the review or because they were making changes to improve the place generally, my roommates and I were glad to have our issues addressed promptly. When I moved in, one of the corners of the sofa was propped up on books. My roommates informed me that it had been like that for years & they wouldn’t replace it. I put in a maintenance request for it to be fixed in January, and after leaving my review, Amber called me to address the issue with the couch (among other things). She said they would order a new couch and have it replaced in a couple weeks. She then called me the day after saying that my roommates would need to pay to replace the couch ($400 each) or to get a replacement leg because no one before me had documented the damage. I told her that I toured in October and the leg was already broken then. I think she might’ve misunderstood me because she told my roommate that the leg wasn’t broken when I toured (probably an honest mistake, but contributed to the frustration of the situation). She also said that she walked every unit the semester prior and didn’t notice any damage and insisted that my roommates must have broken the leg of the sofa after she went through it. After talking to my roommates about it, they were able to provide documentation that the leg had in fact been broken prior to that. Management apologized for the confusion and gave us each a $10 Jittery Joe’s gift card. Maintenance was able to fix the leg in 20 minutes.

Terrible management. Money towards community events seem to be prioritized over fixing the things wrong with the complex e.g, the buses, apartments falling apart, pool being constantly broken. Management also presents itself as incapable by never preparing for university changes to accommodate students and instead usually has a last minute solution which repeatedly has had issues and ends up being a pain for us all. Here’s some anecdotal evidence. UGA made it public that the class schedules would change in spring 2026 giving plenty of time for communities to adapt. Some communities changed their bus schedules to help align rides with those classes, some communities added another bus, but Athens Ridge decided to release a thoughtless insensible plan. Now students at Athens Ridge are having to arrive an hour early to class and wait for over an hour for a ride back. In my case I work between classes so I can pay my tuition. Due to the carelessness of the management here I’m having to sacrifice time I could be working to wait on a bus to leave! Of course my alternative would be driving but I don’t pay all this money for the “amazing amenities and community” so that I can pay MORE money to park on campus. Finally, for the cherry on top, calls to management regarding the bus situation have been responded to in a “sucks to suck” sort of way stating that they are limited on bus drivers, but they’re instead paying for a Waffle House truck to come to the community this week. Don’t move here unless you’re willing to deal with constant headaches for a hefty price. This place likes to make the tenants think they care but when it comes down to actionable change management does not represent that well.

Garage door hasn’t worked since February, don’t know when they are going to fix that. Rent a few months was $100 more than what they told us. Rooms are filled with paint and extremely dirty. Bus has left me stranded multiple times on campus which I’ve had to pay with uber and I’ve missed classes due to the buses lack of ability. They will say we have unforeseen events that causes the bus to not operate but never specify what the issue is. Don’t live here go live at abbey west which has the same price but better amenities.