Lyon Apartments

I’ve lived in this apartment complex in Paw Paw, Michigan, for the past four years, and while it has given me a stable place to live, the experience has been filled with ongoing frustrations—particularly when it comes to maintenance and management. One of the biggest issues is how poorly maintenance is handled. The property management company owns too many locations and doesn’t have nearly enough qualified maintenance workers to keep up. Response times are incredibly slow—sometimes taking months to address even serious issues. Over the years, I’ve dealt with multiple leaks coming through my ceiling, and it’s taken countless visits from different maintenance people just to get the problem temporarily patched. One will say it’s leaking, another will tell me to just keep it dry, and then someone else will come back months later to finally patch the hole—only for it to happen all over again. The vetting process for maintenance workers also seems nonexistent. Many of them don’t appear qualified for the jobs they’re doing. One example that still frustrates me is when they installed new laminate flooring in my kitchen. Not only was I charged $200 extra for a small section, but they also damaged it during installation—ripping a hole in it underneath the oven as they left. That damage was never properly addressed. The complex is in the process of converting from Section 8 to market-rate housing, but nothing about these units justifies market-rate pricing. The quality, upkeep, and responsiveness just aren’t there. This apartment has been a place I’ve made work because I had to—but it’s far from what anyone should have to settle for.