I would like to share my experience while renting from Walnut Hills and Group Five Management. First let me caution you to suggest asking before renting an apartment to make sure they are NOT operated by this management company. Before signing a lease, make sure to not only walk through the apartment but also pull out all appliances to check behind and under them (Group Five/Walnut Hills did not repair the floors from the previous renters in my unit and tried to make me pay for existing damages... upon moving out). Here are the remaining issues I have experienced:
- Bugs and mice in my unit and the hallway areas
- Drafty windows that allow dirt and rain inside
- Unplowed parking lots, sidewalks, or pathways on weekends
- Furnace blower issues/failure
- There is not enough dumpsters for the residence, it is always over flowing
- Dog poop left on the sidewalks
I broke my lease and moved out. Group Five expected me (and all tenants) to pay rent until the unit was rented to someone else (regardless of the 30 days’ notice I gave prior to moving out). They also expected me to pay for damages that were out of my control and caused by cheap repairs done to the unit by management. Group Five/Walnut Hills replaces or repairs all issues with the cheapest option. For example, my windows leaked mud and rain (even when fully closed) on a regular basis. The Group Five/Walnut Hills solution was putting one row of bricks in front of my window. This didn’t really fix the issue and led to mold growing inside my walls – a further charge I was leveled with upon moving out.
Since I have moved out I have experienced:
- Held responsible for rent, in addition to paying an extra two-and-a half-months’ rent
- Held responsible for damages not caused by me (despite being told that this would not be the case)
- Sent to collection without ever receiving a final bill, despite leaving a mail-forwarding address upon moving out
- Sent to collection without ever receiving a written notice that I was being sent to collection
I have attempted to call Group Five Management via the collection agency to ensure that I was not being held responsible for damages (after being told that I would not be held responsible by Group Five). I am willing to pay my fair share but being held responsible for issues beyond my control is unfair. Read More

I have lived in apartments managed by the same company for going on 8 years. They changed the way to pay rent in December. They got rid of the drop box and are only open when I am at work. It took 4 months of saying I can’t pay online to finally be able to pay online. I received a confirmation that my payment was processed while sitting with the office manager. Then over a week later I get an email that my payment did not go through from the processing company. The office never let me know... my payment was late. Being a good and honest person, I called the office to let them know I would be in to make the payment the next day. I was informed that I now owe more money in fees! They are horrible people who don’t know how to treat a good resident! Read More

It's been almost a year since we moved out of Walnut Hills and we just found out from a collection agency that Walnut Hills is trying to bill us $218 to replace carpet in one of the bedrooms due to stains.

As a perk of signing a one-year renewal, tenants are supposed to receive a professional carpet cleaning. The property manager at the time told me information would be posted on my door about how to schedule the cleaning appointment but that never happened. Had I known they would try to bill... me for carpet stains later, I would have made sure it happened.

Regarding the part where we are finding out about this debt almost a year later, they claim they did not get our forwarding address and were unable to mail us our bill. This is an absolute lie as they had me come into the office and fill out a "move out" form where I provided all our new contact information. Additionally, I included my phone number (even though they already had it on record) in a brief "thank you" letter that I included when I turned in our key. If they lost that form I completed, that is on them but it is my credit score that is taking the hit.

Other than that--yes, the dumpsters were always overflowing. Keep your windows shut unless you live on the third floor. The building AC units are incredibly weak so we had to run the AC constantly just to get the unit temperature down to 85 degrees in the Summer. Our electric bills were twice as high (~$250/m) as the electric bills in our new house.

Are you familiar with the FOX Problem Solvers on the local news? We saw a FOX van outside our building once and we got scared that something bad had happened. My wife called the office to find out what was going on and they wouldn't tell her why it was there. Soon after, my wife's mother said our apartment complex was on the news and she had recorded the segment for us to watch. It turns out a woman had leased an apartment on the first floor which flooded badly soon after she moved in. Walnut Hills wouldn't let her out of her lease. In the news segment, they trudged through her apartment and you could hear their footsteps squishing in the carpet.

On the plus side, there are beautiful walking trails nearby which we walked many times as a family. We had only positive experiences with the maintenance staff. They were always prompt and took care of any issues we had. The one star I'm including in this rating was earned by our five-star experience with the maintenance staff. Read More

Unimpressed with these apartments, trash cans always overflowing, pot holes everywhere, and neighbors don't care about anyone (noise wise), very noisy community and constant fights outside. Maintenance is good at coming when needed but they do a poor job at fixing things.

The Size of the Apartment is extremely nice. However the Apartment is overpriced while the property is poorly maintained.

You can notice dumpsters overflowing and trash is being blown by the wind - left and right. You can also notice that many buildings the buttons on the door bells are missing. All these issues are nothing new, they have been on-going for years and i can only imagine how expensive replacement buttons for door bells are.

I do not see Walnut Hills investing your money in... improving the environment at all. Read More