Tamarack Woods Townhouses

I'm writng this review to just tell you do not move here the positive reviews are from landlords

iT STINKS BROKEN-DOWN CARS EVERYWHERE DRUG AND CRACK DEALERS AND SWAT IN YOUR BACK YARD GOING AFTER YOR NEIBOURS GARBAGE ALL PILED UP AT BINS WHEN YOU MOVE IN THEY SAY FRESH UNIT NOTHINGS FRESH ABOUT THEM AND THEY GIVE YOU WHATEVER ONE THEY FEEL LIKE THAT DAY PLEASE DONT MOVE HERE KEEP YOUR FAMILY SAFE LOTS OF RUDE DRUNKEN TARDS BUT SOME OF THE PEOPLE ARE NICE BUT THE BAD OUTWAYS THE GOOD NUFF SAID

Since the new manager has come, her name is Leslie, what a change has happened. When you want something fixed it is done quickly. People are moving out that should be moving out. I see Leslie is trying to clean up a bad mess that was given to her. She is working hard for the people and her partner Ray along with Cassandra and Anthony are as well working hard to get this place cleaned up. I hope you never leave Leslie, Ray, Cassandra and Anthony...you make it a much better place to live.

The

The manager before her Donna, well nothing got done. Her kids ran around this place and are always telling people that they are going to get kicked out. Connor was the worst for sure. When something needed to be fixed it was oh yes I will get right on that...well weeks would go by and nothing. She did not care about this place. She was the manager when I moved in and I had good hope that this would be a nice place. But she was aweful.

So in conclusion, the New Managers are trying very hard and are doing a really good job. Things have been cleaned up and people are leaving....I for one am glad to see this place turn around. It needed to and it needed someone who really new what they were doing to manage this place the right way.

Thanks to Leslie and Ray, to Cassandra and Anthony for all of your hard work.


resident

I am writing this for future tenants thinking about moving to 177 Bayview Dr.

For the people who write that this has been a great place to live, first off they aren't even tenants but prior Supers and Managers trying to give this place a good name. When you first movie in, they always show you a different unit other than the one you will be renting so you don't see how bad your unit is until your move in date, or they show you your unit you will be moving into in it's state and tell you it will be ready and cleaned which from the amount of people I have seen in and out of here, it's all the same no one gets a clean ready to move in unit. they do not do a walk through inspection either.
They tell you there are credit checks (which is the farthest thing from the truth), Maintenance does NOT get done, they make promises they never keep, they tell residence things they shouldn't like, our Cameras don't work, our boss is lazy and isn't getting back to us about work orders ect.

In my opinion they are all lazy and can't own up to anything they had said previously to you. There is garbage all over the complex, peoples front yards, roads, no one shovels sidewalks Nothing gets done around here NOTHING. Cat's and Dogs are constantly outside unattended, the management knows and doesn't care, they also know which units these animals belong to and still don't do anything. There is a huge Flea problem here at Tamarack, which is known to management with no action taken to those units or make sure the tenants get rid of the flea problem so it doesn't affect neighbors. There are drug dealers, people smoking pot outside, the Police are in this complex on a regular basis, the old manager would just walk around and yell at people, their kids would run around being mean to other kids, the new management does absolutely nothing and does not follow rules stated in lease, I mean at least the old manager who yelled at people would follow the rules as stated on lease. This is not a safe place for my kids and am in midst of moving out following the first.

People drive around here with no insurance, have unregistered uninsured vehicles parked throughout the complex rotting away, little children unattended I mean the ages of 5 and below in the summer time at 2 am looking for their parents, people lose their 2 year olds all the time around here and some of the parents also come out yelling and swearing at their own children and sometimes others kids. It just goes to show what kind of place this is before you make a very bad decision and move here. Find a better place with up to date units for the same price, believe me there are better ones, which me and my 3children will be moving to.

Sincerely, a very unhappy tenant.

I have been a resident here for 3 years without a single problem at all. My unit was clean when I moved in, work orders never take more than a couple days to complete and I find the office staff pleasant and easy to talk to. I look forward to living here for many years to come

I am currently living here and I have to say that I have never experienced one single issue remotely like any of the things I have read here.

I've submitted work orders, had the work done in less than a week and have never experienced anything other than pleasant treatment from any of the staff.

Honey....not vinegar.....just sayin' folks!

I am a Property Manager. It is with interest that I am reading all the complaints regarding Tamarack Woods. Having been in the management business for over 10 years now, I feel that I am qualified to speak.
If you experience maintenance issues in your residence and do not achieve satisfaction from management, contact THIER BOSS OR HEAD OFFICE!! Nothing will be done if you do not follow thru. With regards to smoking tobacco or any other substance in a rental unit. Even if the rental unit is advertised as a non-smoking environment, management cannot police what goes on inside of a unit. If someone wishes to smoke in their home, or garage, there is little anyone can do. Management can request that they not do it. A reasonable neighbor would have no problem smoking elsewhere, but to try to evict someone on this basis is like trying to freeze water in an oven. It just doesn't work. There is NO law governing smoking in your own home, NIEGHBOR99 is wrong about that. Although the government keeps making threats to ban smoking in the home, they have not yet accomplished it. If any of you renters have signed leases on your units, you should really read them, as they clearly state what is allowed and what is not allowed. by the same token, have your landlord do an written inspection of the unit with you before you move in and hold them to any repairs that were necessary at that time.
In defence of your landlord, did you consider the amount of work they have to accomplish in one day. Yours may not be the only unit that needs work and what may be an emergency to you, may not qualify as an emergency on the grand scale of things. Give them a break and ask don't demand. I find that if I treat my renters with respect they will return it to me.
Thank you - A Manager

this is so sad to hear about Tamarack Woods..... the property is owned by Realstar Management based out of Toronto and is a well known respected property management company...I cant believe they would allow all the issues to happen at one of their properties....I suggest all these complaint letters be directed to the company if results are not attained by the superintendent...obviously the supers should be dismissed... Tamarack used to be a nice place to live

I am currently living in one suite of 177 Bayview Drive, Barrie, managed by Tamarack Woods Townhouses. It is convenient to live here because a community resource center is nearby. But I concern the safety!

Quite often, I found the people in suite 107 smoke inside the house, having the fire spot move around. In Canada, it is not permitted to smoke inside a house. I don't know why these people continue to do so. Since we all live in townhouses, the smoke inside one house will make all houses unsafe. Could the management office STRICTLY and SERIOUSLY prohibit the tenant from smoking inside that house?

A Tenant and Neighbor

Hi all I am a former, yes former tenant of this complex where I lived for one and a half years before inheriting a home in early 2010. Before my husband and I even signed the original lease they began lying as the unit we looked at had a few "issues" we were told would be fixed prior to moving in such as needing wall repair in the bathroom and removal of garbage left behind by a prior tenant. Well moving day came along and low and behold when we got the keys not only was the unit which was supposed to be cleaned as promised not done as there was dirty floors and dead bugs on the carpets as well as garbage in closets and a large work desk in the basement that my husband had to dismantle and remove in pieces just to name a few of the "treasures" I found not to mention the house had an "off" smell and mould on the ceiling in the bathroom that despite scrubbing on a weekly basis never truly went away and resulted in a smell much like "rotting onions" in the bathroom. The light switches were missing the plates in a couple of spots and there were missing floor vents (furnace)in two of the bedrooms which were replaced out of my pocket. One of the lights in the basement did not work as well as the wall in the bathroom still had not been painted (eventually did this myself with paint and supplies bought and paid for out of pocket) nor the broken bathroom door replaced (this was eventually done by the company however, it was still unpainted when we left in 2010) and to top it all off in the time we lived there we had two major problems with the structure. The first one happened in February of 2009 when ice build up in the winter caused the roof to leak and caused water damage to the drywall in the master bedroom, something that despite writting up two work orders and submitting them to the office was still unfixed at the time we ended our tenancy, in fact we had to contact the property management company's head office before we even got the snow removed from the roof to prevent a leak that needed to have two large bathtowels used every 1/2 hour to clean up from continuing as the on-site manager told us that their roofing contractors "don't work in the winter". Even the e-mail response as follows regarding the roof leak seemed a bit of a brush off:
Names ommitted for privacy reasons,

We have recieved your letter stating your concern regarding your unit. You were correct in stating that there are many unit with the same problem ( author's note:this was evident just by a quick walk thru the complex looking at other units/roofs),in fact it is a big problem this time of year due to the weather,(it was actually talked about on Rock 95 this morning and how it is happening to homes all over the area). We have contacted our contractor and promise you the problem is being dealt with in priority of the severtity, you unit is at the top of our list to have the roof shovelled off which will fix the problem temporarily until spring when the roof can be fixed permanently. We at Realstar do care about each and every tenant and do value your trust in us and your business. However, it is important to note that the leak occurred starting on a Friday night and was not "fixed" with the roof being shovelled off until the Monday therefore, we were left to "deal with it" for more than 24 hrs all the while also having to go to work hoping we would not return home to a flood and all of our belongings destroyed.

Eventually the roof was "patched" (new shingles over the part where the leak occured) in the spring however, the original shingles which were the same age as the house which was built in the 1970's were never replaced. I still have a copy of that e-mail regarding the roof and a inspection form that they made my husband sign prior to giving him the keys stating the unit was "fine" (clean/maintained).

The second was the main transformer for the fuse box in the house going which was fixed immediately but, I fear that was only due to the fact this happened after Nov. 1st and there is a rule about heat and hydro in the Landlord and Tenants Act along with the fact I had a small infant were the factors here. Lastly they are not very timely with their paperwork when raising your rent as you MUST get 90 days notice before an increase when your lease it up for renewal in our experience the lease expired the end of October however, the paperwork we recieved was dated the end of June and it was not physically delivered to us at our unit until the end of August well under the guidelines and was only a N1 Notice of Rent increase form. There were many times you would recieve a "Memo" about work needing to be done in the complex or to the units on a certain date and time only to not have that work ever be done or not on the scheduled day. (They showed up at my door when I was over seven months pregnant and restricted to bedrest which they were aware of to fix/test the furnace for the season two days after the scheduled inspection day without 24 hours notice!)

Also important to note is that this is a rental complex is managed by Realstar Property Management who's motto is "We Care where you live" however, based on our experience I would say it's more like "We don't give a rat's @$$ where you live as long as we get our money and will lie, cheat and steal to get it!"The original lease was signed in September of 2008 and expired on October 31st, 2009 and was signed based on the "verbal agreement" that the issues would be fixed as stated and which was not done and due to the fact that the Landlord where we had been living prior to moving into Tamarack Woods Townhouses had placed the home up for sale and thus, being of limited funds and availablity of units at the time we entered the original contract as we were in somewhat of a "desperate" situation at the time of the viewing facing what could be an "any day you come home to find out your are homeless" and thus when our application was approved we believed that this company whom owned several complex/buildings across Canada could thus come to be trusted. We also learned upon moving in that there hadn't been a superintendant on-site for over six months just the rental office staff who's repair abilities where questionable at best.

When we annouced that we would be leaving at the end of March 2010 which unfortunately still fell under a lease for twelve months ( by agreeing to the rent increase we also based on the vague wording of the form had agreed to a lease renewal something that wasn't clearified at the time at all) which we had signed prior to the unforseen circumstances that resulted in a death in my family and the inheriting of our current house). Immediately the next day after we sent a letter to the property manager's office explaining the situation EXACTLY as it had occured at giving them over two months notice when requesting to be released from our lease on compassionate terms, which we thought wrongly that in doing so they might allow since we had been good tenants who always paid our rent on time (often the check would be submitted by the 25th of the month when it wasn't even due until the first!) who kept our unit spotlessly clean, didn't throw wild parties or disrupt the enjoyment of other tenants and didn't have any "eyesores" garbage etc. out front or back, got along well with our neighbours and weren't just abandoning the unit BOY WAS I WRONG! The reason being that dispite our reputation as tenants we still got dumped on for by noon that same day and without even coming down to our unit to discuss the situation and try and work out a solution we recieved a reather offensive letter that stated the following:

Jan 22, 2010

Dear (Names ommitted for privacy reasons)

While we acknowledge your letter indicating that you will be moving out of (unit number ommitted for privacy reasons), we wish to remind you that you have signed another full year lease term. You signed August 30, 2009. The term of your lease expires on October 31, 2010, which you will be held responsible until that date or until we rent your unit.

You are welcome to physically vacate anytime you wish, but you wil be held responsible for the rent until October 31,2010.

If you have any questions, please contact the rental office during office hours.

Yours Truly,
(Name omitted)

Management

Just to note to the date of September 1st, 2010 it has cost us an amount well over $5000 dollars as rent was $1130.00 a month and we could not use our last month's rent towards this although they promised that amount would be returned to us if the unit is rented in a month for which we have paid the rent and thus would be if the unit was re-rented our "last month" and if we must pay in full until the end of the lease it would have cost us $7910.00 (as we would be able to use the last month's rent to pay for October 2010 just not anything before that if the unit isn't re-rented). The Landlord and Tenant Board when contacted could do NOTHING to help us siding with the Landlord and suggested we contact a lawyer however, there are NONE in the City of Barrie that deal with this kind of thing the closest being Newmarket (over 45 minutes away) and then of course there would be the legal costs/lost work and wage time all the while you are paying for a unit you don't live in so it would cost more. And as a stay-at-home Mom it made life very difficult when you are recieving Mat. Benefits of less than a thousand dollars a month and over 95% of your husband's wage is going to a greedy underhanded company thus, leaving him with less take home pay than that of someone on social assistance. It also made you feel like such a bad parent when you had to ask yourself if you paid this rent and the bills for the house you were residing in could you buy the things your child needed like formula and diapers yes, but, often it meant that you yourself had nothing more to eat than a slice of bread with a very small amount of peanut butter on it.

We never did recieve a copy of any paperwork for the new lease only the original one expiring in 2009. They also have done pretty much nothing to rent out our old unit until recently as the check for August went thru as well prior to in being re-rented for September 2010 and they would also keep making excuses when my husband called to see how the "progress" is going like "We couldn't arrange the contractors" or it is a "slow time of year" yet, when I look on Kijiji and other sites there are a ton of ppl. looking for housing in Barrie which has a low vacancy rate so what was the deal there I had also listed the unit available myself on Kijiji with all the Rental office's info shortly after we learned that they were gonna hold us to the lease in January of 2010 and at the time we learned the unit would be rented for September had 3000 hits and had several "interested" ppl contact me directly by e-mail wanting to view the unit so wtf eh?. However, much to our surprise they are now saying that if the rent is returned (as there was no mention that it would be returned for sure and I seriousily doubt that will EVER occur) there will be a $200.00 Admin. fee (mentioned in the original lease for the application and approval process only but, truthfully I am not sure if that was ever legal as the only information I could find on the matter was for the States and says $20.00 tops) and that they will be charging myself and my husband as well as fully expecting us to pay for all gas consumption from March 16, 2010-September 1, 2010 on a rental until where we no longer reside and have not resided since March 15, 2010. At the time of March 16, 2010 the account for that unit for the Embridge Gas in our name was paid in full and closed with the information transferred to our new address for a new account (as Embridge informed me that the account number is for the address NOT the occupant). The landlord had been informed on January 22, 2010 that due to a death in our family and the subsequent inheritance of our current address we would be moving out of the afore mentioned unit prior to the end of the current lease for the period of November 1, 2009-October 31, 2010 however, it was agreed that we would pay the rent for the unit until which time a new tenant was found but, no mention of utilities was ever made in any documentation after that date or conversation nor have we signed any amended agreement stating we would pay for this after we had returned the keys and vacated the rental unit.

The reason the Landlord has given for wanting to make us pay is that they claim their lawyer has advised them we are responsible for the utilities as the lease until the date of was still in the names of myself and my husband until September 2010 at which time the unit has been re-rented as per verbal confirmation August 30, 2010 and that it was still "ours" even tho we had surrendured the keys and removed all of our property months earlier. We have not recieved any notification in writing however, from the utilities company nor the property management company stating that we are owing nor as stated was that agreed upon at the time proceedings to assign the lease commenced. It is to my understanding that if there is no amount in arrears of rent owing then a landlord cannot charge you for utilities that are no longer list you as the registred account holder for that address and as stated the account with Embridge was paid and closed as of April 1 2010.

Just to note my husband was not shown any offical notice of payment owing documentation for the amount the On-Site Property Manager claims we have to pay from Embridge, any documentation from their lawyer or the Property Manager company's Head Office. I have also recieved a reply from the Landlord and Tenant Board from Ontario again doing nothing to help and only suggesting I contact a lawyer...not very helpful or efficient for a government agency who is supposed to help in these matters. On August 31st, 2010 my husband went back to the office to request documentation from a lawyer/Head office stating we would have to pay which was not provided just the same explaination that we would have to pay because our name was still on the lease and all he was given for documentation was the bill from Embridge which was for over three hundred dollars and addresses to owner/occupant which we have been neither since March 15, 2010 and as previously stated all monies owing to the gas company by us were paid in full on March 30, 2010 the last bill on the closed account was recieved and it was only for the period ending March 16th, 2010 at which time the meter had been read and the account in our name for that address closed with the bill issued.

Therefore as a result of my personal experience I would not recommend this complex to ANYONE UNLESS YOU LIKE TO BE LIED TO AND SCREWED OVER BUT HEY, IF YOU WANNA FLUSH ALL YOUR HARD EARNED CASH DOWN THE TOILET BE MY GUEST! Not to mention the picture's of the inside of the units on their corporate website are a fraud...they look NOTHING like that and I would love to see what magazine they were stolen from.

The attached pictures are of the resulting drywall and water damage due to the leaking roof, what I had to do to stop the water as you can see several towels were used, where the leak was entering the house at the top of the master bedroom window and two large towels hanging from my shower curtain rod that were soaking wet as a result of the leak.