The Helmsman Student Living Apartments

Management is nice at a surface level, but trust me this apartment does not care for you or your safety, and only wants to squeeze as much money as possible out of students.

I have lived here for two years now (and only stayed because moving seemed like a hassle), and have had a fair share of issues and going into my third year here, I can safely say that this place is a scam. Management wise, they pressure you to sign and resign leases so quickly, they constantly raise prices and sneak in fees... we never agreed to or expected to pay, and maintenance always seems annoyed and unhelpful when we encounter issues in our unit. There are also frequent issues with fire alarms going off frequently and elevators breaking down and being shut off. To top it all off, there has been a severe and recurring mold issue in our unit, and management and maintenance have not done much to deal with it (except raise our rent again). These issues are only surface level of what I have dealt with in my time here, and I would not wish living here on my worst enemy. Read More

There is not enough words to express the terrible experience at this building so I’ll keep it short. They sold for the next term my unit 2 months into me living there. I couldn’t move in the first month bc they lied abt construction and then continued to lie abt having a COO. Broken amenities, furniture, windows, and plumbing. Disrespectful staff that will constantly undermine your knowledge because you’re young. They changed the staff about half a year in so I considered renewing when I found... out my floor plan was available again and they increased my rent 15%. I tried negotiate and they threatened to raised it 25% if I didn’t reply within the hour. Do not come here Read More

Water leaking in bathroom from toilet and wall after 4 weeks of begging for maintenance. Fire alarm daily, people stuck in elevators, no maintenance, no management, no USPS service because they have no master key for the mail boxes, lease paperwork is STILL WRONG, literally sold a apt room to two people. A complete failure.

After a lengthy and chaotic delay in opening, I have tried to speak to someone, anyone, about the situation and have not received any response in over four weeks. No one answers the phone, no one returns emails, no one is in the office to talk to, and no one seems to care.
After my daughter finally was allowed to move in she had to clean her room of dust and dirt from construction, was without water for a short time, and has had very little assistance/response from anyone affiliated with this... property. No communication and a lot of fees. Very quick to charge late fees and when you call them to ask why - no response. Read More

The move in was originally supposed to be on September 1st, they let us know it wouldn’t be ready then, and that the new move in date would be September 9th. September 8th at 9:15 pm, when I and most students are in the city ready for move in, they tell us it’ll be another week. This was less than 12 hours before move in on the 9th started, and classes for SCAD students started on the 11th.

Move in finally comes on the 16th of September and the entire event was horribly unorganized. They had... two movers, and lines of cars that lasted 2+ hours for the movers to take the stuff out and just leave it in the garage. Both the elevators broke on move in day, and the movers had to carry stuff up five flights of stairs. People have ended up with stuff placed in the wrong rooms, and missing items due to this.

Besides the chaos and un organization of move in day, the apartment itself was very unfinished. The rooms were smaller than advertised, and theres drywall dust and dried paint splatters everywhere. Our dishwasher isn’t connected to water, and we found black mold under our kitchen sink (in a brand new building) directly upon move in. One of my roommates has a window thats half boarded up as well. The A/C doesn’t work in one of our rooms either. This is just a few of the issues we’ve found upon moving in. Besides our apartment issues, the sauna lit on fire two days after moving in, and the fitness center flooded due to the pool above. The parking garage was leaking everywhere and our water was shut off for several hours so they could fix it.

Overall I am incredibly disappointed with the lack of care shown by the apartment complex, and the refusal to publicly acknowledge it’s issues. Even if they somehow get everything together this is not somewhere I recommend living.

Read More