River's Edge

Better than I had expected

From: collegerenter23
Date posted: 8/7/2007
Years at this apartment: 2006-01-01 - 2008-01-01
2 responses

I lived in River's Edge during my last 2 years of college, but I decided to update this review with my experiences from my second year as a renter.

I was only looking for a cheap place withing walking distance to campus, but I got so much more. The only down side is I can hear the train fairly clearly from my bedroom.

When I moved in, the tenants in the apartment above me had cracked the seal around their toilet, causing a leak in my bathroom ceiling. Maintenance not only fixed the leak around their toilet without them calling, they fixed my pipe and repainted my ceiling while I was at class.

Later in my 1st year, a light had burned out in my kitchen. I never replaced it because I could use the overhead light on my stove. When a maintenance crew member came over to fix a blown circuit breaker in my dining area (connected to the kitchen), they took the additional time to fix the faulty lighting in the kitchen and they gave me a free box of light bulbs (usually $1 a pop).

When I went in to renew my lease, they offered me a bunch of promotional gifts for doing so, including a new ceiling fan for my bedroom or dining area, fresh caulking for my bathroom and kitchen. I think some other options were a broiler pan and something else, but they had choices.

Last night, my A/C unit completely shut off. I checked the circuit breaker and then called Emergency Maintenance. They came over in 20 minutes, examined my unit, and said it was a blown fuse, but since they were out of supplies, they couldn't fix it until morning. When I cam back from class today, they replaced my A/C unit with a brand-new one (remote controlled and energy efficient) at no extra charge to me.

When it came time to move out I had to clean my unit and I was under the impression that any mess left behind that they had to take care of would be taken out of my security deposit. I ended up leaving with a week left on my lease and when I went to turn in my key they told me they would return the equivalent of 1 week's rent to me in addition to my security deposit. The 1 week rent I got back right away, but it took several months of calls and letters to get my security back. I had moved out of state at that point for work and my mother had to drive down to the main office with a certified letter from me stating that I wanted them to give her my security deposit so she could mail it back to me, since they weren't doing it themselves. This must have been the first management overhaul after I left that made such a negative impression.

Before this apartment I had only lived in dorms and in a house that I shared with a bunch of other students, so having someone come in quick and preform maintenance work was pretty impressive. It seems pretty clear since I've left that management has gone downhill. The Townhouses had just been built around the time I was packing up to move, so I don't know how that impacted the rent. Even so, for a college student this place wasn't half bad. I had my own space and I could still get to class relatively easy. Now that I'm out of undergrad I probably wouldn't choose to live here again because it is isolated by the train tracks but my experience when I was a renter were still positive. Hopefully the management team can get back on track to doing things they way they did 3 years ago.

Last updated: 9/19/2011

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

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