Lamplighter Village Apartments

Summary: I don’t recommend this place to anybody unless you chain smoke or really don’t have the money for anything better. Pros: *Cheapest place you’ll find that’s in downtown Hopkins. *Parking is great. Tons of street parking that never fills up. Cons: *Cig smoking is a big issue in these buildings. Tenants are allowed to smoke inside their units which gets into the walls and vents and comes out the outlets and vents of surrounding units. So despite my best efforts to tape up all the holes, 2nd hand smoke still filled my unit. You might not immediately notice when you tour but it becomes pretty obvious once it permeates your clothes and bedding. I smoked in college and even for me it was too much. Definitely stay away if you are pregnant or have children. *microwave/stove units weren’t installed to code so any time you used the gas ranges, the microwave would get burning hot. I’m surprised those circuit boards don’t short out more often. *No fire suppression system. Compliant to code since it’s a legacy building. You decide if that safety feature is important to you. *delivering packages here is a frustrating experience. Frequently delivered to the wrong sister building, or not at all since there’s no lobby area and ups or fedex might not have the appropriate key. *Carpet everywhere inside the units and outside which holds onto dirt and the smoke coming from peoples apartments. Not really sure why management continuously replaces carpet when everybody these days is going with fake wood laminate. Perhaps management is old and resistant to change? I’m surprised they didn’t put carpet in the bathroom while they’re at it. *1 washer/dryer for 9ish units. Can’t use it after 10pm due to noise bothering neighboring units. Furthermore, the dryer doesn’t actually vent to the outside of the building so all that hot moist laundry air comically gets dumped into the main stairwell which promotes mold growth. Never realized how wet laundry is until you have to breath it in. I just took my laundry elsewhere to do. *I noticed the wall insulation smelled pretty bad. This subjective and might not bother you. I’d assume that units on the bottom floors wouldn’t smell as much like rotting fiberglass due to the heat pulling airflow upward through the walls and into the upper units. *There is no nuisance clause in their contract which gives the renter very little protection or rights should a disturbance occur.

Please take your money elsewhere. I have never had such a more repulsive experience renting from anywhere else as I did from here. I had to listen to the person below me snore every single night (I had two fans going and that didn’t help). I also listened to them blast music and their TV daily. The apartments don’t have buzzers so my mail would go to the office. Which wouldn’t seem so bad if the people in the office bothered to tell you that your mail ended up there. I thought USPS lost my package, turns out it sat in the office for over six months before anyone bothered to tell me. I was sent birthday gifts and those also went to the office. This time I made sure to track them. However, it took days to get them because either no one was in the office, no one bothered to answer an email, or pick up the phone. They shut off the water without notice. Sure, they usually send out notices, but I had the water turned off without notice. Then had a very rude maintenance guy bang on my door demanding if I was using water when I didn’t have any access to it. Rent went up every year, as it usually does, however it got earlier and earlier every year. First it was November, then October and this year it went up in August. They have absolutely no respect for you as soon as you sign a lease. Emails aren’t answered. Phone calls aren’t answered. No one is in the office. Unless you owe them money and they’re on you like no other. One month, we dropped off a check and they misplaced it, so a bunch of fees were added on that month and they were about to evict us. We sent them a government document stating we would be moving and never heard anything until they wanted money because they misplaced it. My husband is overseas fighting for this country and we got an enormous bill from them stating they would be getting a lawyer involved if the bill wasn’t paid. It is a horrendous place to live. Take your hard earned money elsewhere.