Although I moved out of Conwyn nearly 6 months ago, I felt compelled to write a review. It was my worst experience as a tenant.

My fiance and I chose Conwyn Arms based on an aparmtent we saw on a Saturday in August 2007. We needed the apartment for September 1st because my fiance had accepted a job here (we relocated from NY). The apartment was on the front side of the building, facing the school. It was bright, spacious, and seemed extremely "liveable". We left a deposit and, pending a background check, the apartment was ours. We called the landlords of other prospective apartments and told them we'd found a place. A week later, someone from Conwyn called us to apologize and tell us that the Saturday employee must not have realized that the apartment we left a deposit for was already rented. They told us they did have another 2 bedroom available for September 15th. At that time, we were only 2 weeks away from needing to move to PA and our lease in NY was up. We had no choice but to agree to the other 2 bedroom, sight unseen. Since it was their mistake that our original apartment was rented, we asked if we could stay the first two weeks in an open one bedroom or in an apartment in one of their other buildings (Tedwyn or 429). They refused. My fiance was forced to stay in an extended stay hotel for nearly 2 weeks until our apartment was available. They refused to reimburse us for any of his hotel costs. We also had to pay to keep furniture in storage for 2 weeks (small but unforeseen expense). All because the part time Saturday employee showed us an apartment that she thought was available.

When we finally saw the new apartment, it was a disaster. We realized that it was on the back side of the building, right in front a very active commuter rail (the R-5). We hadn't noticed the tracks right behind the building when we were there briefly in August because the trees covered them well. Unfortunately for us, the trees did not mask the sound as well as they masked the actual tracks. I don't think I got more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night the entire year of living there.

Upon move-in the apartment was dirty, a number of things were in disrepair, and they didn't even have toilet seats on the toilets. The paint job was EXTREMELY shoddy. The walls looked as though they had been painted 30 times and each time the paint job got worse. The metal doors and cabinets barely closed, the metal closet doors did NOT open or close at all - we had to leave them all wide open at all times; the place had a TERRIBLE stench; right away we had an ant problem. I was embarrassed to bring anyone in!

The elevators were ridiculous. It could take 5 minutes to get up to the top floor, they stalled often, and they wreaked. Often times, dogs who couldn't "hold it" before getting outside ruined it for the rest of us.

We had to wait weeks at a time for necessary repairs. Building management changed FIVE times since we moved in so our service requests and maintenance calls slipped through the cracks each time a new manager came in. Management would always "yes" me to death and nothing would get done. I'd call a week later, and the person was no longer working there. We went FOUR nights in winter 2007/2008 without heat. Four very freezing nights. When the heat did work, the apartment never went above 64 degrees. Management and maintenance blamed it on the fact that we were on the 5th (top) floor, so the heat went right out from the ceiling. Management did allow us to deduct the cost of a space heater from our rent. But since the power went out if you had more than one thing going anywhere in the apartment at the same time, our power was constantly going out. Our neighbors smoked like fiends (not the building's fault, obviously, and bad neighbors are sometimes a price you pay in such a transient community).

Right outside of the back entrance of the building wreaked from dog urine. They NEVER washed it down out there. The building did have a policy about dogs not being over 50 pounds, but MANY tenants have HUGE dogs (not a problem for us, since we love animals but might be a problem if you don't, or if you live below someone with a large dog). There was even a tenant who had two dogs which were both way over 50 lbs.

In February 2008, maintenance came into the apartment and placed mousetraps in nearly every room. They mentioned that a number of tenants were infested. Luckily, we never saw a mouse in our apartment, although maintenance said we were one of the cleanest apartments in the building.

Management changed hands again before we left and Mary assured us that she was there to stay. I hope that was the truth because she seemed to be getting things done. There were some repairs being done right as we were leaving in August 2008. All the hallways and front doors were repainted, but many tenants complained of theft while the painters were in the building. They were re-paving the front driveway of the building, forcing tenants to use the exit driveway as both an exit and an entrance. This was supposed to take two days at most and wound up taking over a week. It was an extremely dangerous situation. The re-paving was necessary, though, and I'm glad for other tenants' sake that it got done.

Besides the EXCELLENT water pressure in the shower (we missed it when we left) the price is probably the only decent thing about the place, although it's still true that you get what you pay for. At the time, we paid $1400 a month including utilities. Considering you're in a safe area on the Main Line, I'd say that's fair. If you're looking to save money and you're not that picky of a tenant, this place might be for you. But there is a trade-off for the price.

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