I'm in my second year of tenancy here at Berwyn House, also called University House at College Park. It seemed like a better way to live at nearby UMD than the dorms on campus. It definitely is better than dorm living, since we never have to move in or out based on Academic semesters. It's great to get to eat what I want when I want, with no RA's to tell me what to do or otherwise guide my adult behavior. The place has its problems, but none really compare with CLOSING at the end of the current lease term, July 31, 2006.

I thought I was here for the entire four years of college! They failed to disclose to me when they gave me an expensive MP3 player as an inducement to renew my lease 10 months into it (peculiar, I thought, but what the hey) that they were going to begin refurbishing the building, requiring us to vacate. Now, a year later, I find out that I have to find a new place to live in August 2006. The building's owner, some Texas corporation called First Worthing, had to empty the building of residents since all utilities are provided to all apartments together, no separate metering. They also say they must empty the building because they will be tearing out drywall to install a sprinkler system. Since the water for the entire building can be turned on or off only, not just for a particular unit, to install the sprinklers involves turning off the water and installing new pipes in the walls and ceilings. NOW they tell me' I would have found a place I could count on living in the full four years.

So, if you want to live here until July 31, 2006, it is a barely tolerable place. It's nice to have a balcony, we'd never have that in a dorm. On the downside, two people were killed in March 2004 in the adjacent park, according to the school newspaper, and my stereo was stolen from my car (there is no safe parking). The drug-ridden public housing across the street from us has its residents coming over into our dimly-lit, unprotected parking lot at night, and there are lots of broken car windows: I'm glad I was hit just the one time (don't bring an expensive car here).

The management is slow to respond to fixing, cleaning, and repairing any problems in our unit or in the common spaces. There are commonly beer cans/bottles/cups in the halls on Sat/Sun/Monday mornings from parties, and they are slow to clean the property. They fired the daily cleaning person who had lived here and cleaned for a decade, and have not replaced him. There is a single maintenance employee who is quite good, but must do all the maintenance in the 132-unit building. It's great to have all utilities included, but do you really want to have to wait a week for a fix for a broken water pipe in the kitchen, like we did' The dorms on campus would be on the in a second, instead of no water for food prep for a week.

I found out about the building closure from doing a simple web search, in the City of College park City Council website, by chance! When I confronted the leasing agent here asking if it would truly close they said "yes", they could not promise that they could renew our lease because there would be renovations.

The place really does have many of the complaints others have written about, including the "5 Star" rave reviews that bear the hallmark of management planting positive words to market the apartments.

I just feel the most disappointed about being lied to. Every place has its problems, this is better than a room in the dorms. But now we have to go and find a new place and go through the extensive and expensive application and criminal background and credit checks all over again, when we were led to believe we could stay here the four years.

My stolen car stereo was covered by my car insurance company. Being lied to, resulting in having to move and find a new place to live, is not. Business is business, but I don't like being lied to. We get free pizza parties every few months, that is the only plus, but those stopped once the building was fully rented for this last year. Whatever.

User Responses
From: hotmanager	Date: 11/15/2005
There are statements in this posting that are NOT true. Management has not mislead or provided ANY information in regards to specific data in relation to renovations. If you have questions, please direct those specific questions to management. We will gladly provide the proper information. We appreciate everyone's opinion regarding our community and have made ajustments accordingly. Thank you.
From: ineedanapartmentquick	Date: 01/13/2006
That's life, get over it.
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/26/2009
I seconded that. There was no inform whatsoever from the management. Everyone stuck with the yearly lease and then had to find another place to live, I ended up paying for 2 months for 2 places. Bad management!

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