We have lived in the Penn Place apartments for over a year. During that time, my husband and I got to know a few neighbors in the building,and we spoke and met outside frequently. All of us have stories of problems with our unit. Let me tell you a few.
Two units are occupied on the first floor. Both of them had bug problems and mold issues from day one. When maintenance was called to exterminate the bugs and clean the mold, the tenants were told "what do you expect, you live on the first floor". The mold was cleaned but the bugs are never going away.
My neighbor on the first floor also has her drywall seperating and the floor bulging under her carpet. Maintenance said its not a big enough issue to fix it yet. It seems their philosophy is -'lets push things off till they get really bad and then cover them up.'
A month ago the same neighbor on the first floor had the drain pipes back-up. For an hour she and I ran water in large pots from her kitchen to the patio and dumped it on the grass. She could not stop the gallons of water pouring onto her kitchen floor from her drain. She put her drain plug under both hands and applied full pressure to hold the water in the drain but it pushed back so hard she couldn't stop it. This water was full off disposal food that was not hers and no telling how old it was, it reeked. She called me down to help her shut off the water but there is no way of doing that. We learned later from maintenance that there is no back flow valve in the pipes. We soaked about 30 towels of the water we could not rush outside. The rest of the water/food ended up under her cabinets, stove and refrigerator. All of her drawers were soaked, anything that could be ruined with getting wet, was. Her countertop was so saturated it was wavy. Her dining room carpet was soaked and you could see the soaked carpet was wet thru a fourth of her dining room. Maintenance would not replace the carpet even though so much water went under it, they just took a shopvac and then steamed it later,(thanks!). Her kitchen still reeks because they did not clean her entire kitchen. They didn't move a single kitchen appliance, including the stove and fridge. There is water/food under the fridge still today. (she's working on that with maintenance.) The cabinet area under her kitchen sink was sinking and soft because of a previous drain overflow and because of this recent overflow it completely opened up a hole to God only knows where! They put a peice of wood over it and called it good. ah no! She called them back and told them to gut that hole out and fix the problem not cover it up. I think she is still waiting on that. If thats not bad enough, (it took us 3 hours of cleaning to be able to get in the kitchen without food on your feet), maintenance told her it will probably happen again because she is on the first floor. Just before this drain issue she renewed her annual contract.
Here's another story to add to the many we have. It was January and pretty cold here in CT. My husband was leaving to come to Church with our two toddlers, (2 3 yrs old). When he got to the car he unlocked it, put the hot air on and thought he unlocked the car, well he must have hit the lock feature cuz he locked his keys in the car (this key ring includes all apt keys). No one was in the car yet, thankfully. He had no way of getting into the car or the apt. It was Sunday around noon so he called the Apt complex office. My husband told them what happened and that he needed someone with a key to come let him in. They said 'they were too busy with new customers to come there, he would have to walk to the club house'. The club house was about quarter mile away, he has two toddlers and its January. He called maintenance to ask for help, they said 'the maintenance guy lives in Manchester and its Sunday, and he has a family he doesn't need to be called if its not an emergency.' My husband finally got in the building hallway thru a neighbor. He called me, I was already at Church 20 miles away, and told me I had to come home and let them in the house. I got there 30 minutes later. At this point the car had been running with the hot air on for an hour and the kids were tired, and hungry from being in the hallway of the apartment. I don't know what would have happenened if I was not available to come with an extra key, or if he was not able to get in the building.
This is just a few of the problems. We have had issues with the staff closing early, without warning on our move-in date. We had 5 trucks with our stuff at the new apt and we could not get a key. I made maintenance come down and let us in, what else was I going to do, take everything back...to where!
We are moving out in a few weeks, and thankfully I don't have to pay the high price for those not so great apts.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates