At Riviera Terrace, the security deposit is equal to one month's rent. The lease agreement states that in order to receive the full refund, everything should be in perfect condition so much so that the carpets have to be professionally steam cleaned and the receipt of that should be deposited. That is how strict the management is about refunding the security deposit.

My wife and I moved here from the midwest with a new job. Since we were far and did not have any friends/relatives here, we did not get a chance to take a look at the apartments before moving in. Our decision was mainly based on the reviews and recommendations on this and similar other websites. We had paid the application fee and security deposit by mail about two months before the move-in date. We were assured by the management a number of times that the apartment would be ready on the date of our move-in.

We drove about 1000 miles for 16 hours at a stretch in the hot weather of June directly to Riviera Terrace. Along the way, we called to let them know that we would be reaching between 3pm and 5pm and to confirm that the apartment is ready for move-in. When we finally reached, it was about 4:00pm on a Friday (they are supposed to remain open till 5:00pm on Fridays). Dave, who was the only one at the office, told us that he can see that our dues are paid but we cannot enter the apartment before Monday because the person who is in charge of handling the keys has left. Hope you can understand our plight! After a lot of requests, Dave somehow managed to get the keys for us.

Unfortunately, thats not the end of the story. We were so tired that we just wanted to take a bath and rest. To our dismay, we discovered the toilet was not working. When it was flushed, the water would not drain out. As we flushed twice, the dirty water filled the toilet and spilled all over the bathroom floor making the entire bathroom unusable. We felt like crying. It was around 9pm and the office has closed. We went to our neighbor upstairs and knocked her door to find out whether there is any emergency maintenance number. After knocking for a while a lady asked who we were and what we wanted without opening her door. My wife explained our situation and asked whether she knew any emergency number but she never responded back. We waited on the street hoping to find someone whom we could ask the same. After some time, a passing man kindly let us know a pager number that is supposed to be the emergency contact. We paged a number of times but never got any response. Fortunately, there is a Walmart within two minutes driving distance from Riviera Terrace that remains open 24 hours. We had to use one of their restrooms for that night. Eventually, we had to go to sleep without a bath after driving for more than 16 hours in this hot and humid weather.

One might think this is a discrete incident and we were unlucky. However, we do not believe so. That we called beforehand (a few days back as well as on the same day) to let them know about our move-in and that they confirmed but still did not have our keys ready is testimony to the fact that they are an extremely irresponsible management. Even after putting in paper so strict guidelines for the tenants to get their deposit back, they had such a major flaw in one of the most basic things in the apartment simply shows that the apartment owners care only about making money and care less about the tenants. That the lady above us refused to open her door even at the request of another lady even at 9pm shows how unsafe tenants feel about their environment.

After the first day, our stay here has not been very comfortable in many respects. As they say, morning shows the day. We are leaving Riviera Terrace at the end of our lease (i.e. one year) and will recommend to stay away from it to everyone.

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