LONG but WELL worth the read if you're considering moving into this dump.

The buildings are old and decrepid, there is little to no sound insulation between your neighbors on the same floor or between floors, the heat doesn't work well at all (had to use two electric space heaters the last two winters to keep the apartment above 55 degrees farenheit), the wiring is shoddy and questionable on whether it is code-compliant (I have one breaker that handles half of the apartment, even though there are eight breakers in the breaker box), and your apartment may come with an added bonus surprise (my apartment was infested with bedbugs when I moved in, although to be fair the leasing office did take care of it quickly and free of charge once they were notified). When I moved into this apartment, the carpeting had not been replaced, and there were footprints in paint on the carpet, along with broken glass on the balcony and on the carpet near the sliding glass door.

Shortly afterwards, the billing wars ensued on the water bill. Home Properties of Devon does not include any utilities in their rent. They offer two options on the water bill... Either an estimated payment option ($110 a month regardless of usage, with any overpayments supposedly returned yearly in September), or you can be billed directly for your usage. What they forget to tell you is that the apartment units are NOT individually metered. The way they calculate your water bill is to take the bill for the entire building, then divide it up between the units based on the square footage. Since switching to individual billing (since my last apartment in NC was individually metered for water, and the biggest water bill I saw living there was $50 for water and sewer), I have not seen a bill under $120, and have seen some as high as $180. The water billing company (ISTA North America) is non-responsive to customer complaints on the billing, and CANNOT GIVE YOU AN EXACT AMOUNT OF WATER THAT YOU USED, OR THE BILLING RATE USED TO CALCULATE YOUR BILL.

It's a shame that these people are so shady, since the area is great. If you are looking to move to the Main Line area of the Philly suburbs, I would sincerely recommend checking out the other options, and ignore this complex alltogether.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/04/2008
If you want very detailed review read mine that is titled 'Mostly good..' I read many such reviews and still went ahead and took the apt. Apart from the problem of high heating bill all other problems are'nt that of Home properties. And there aren't just too many options. I just don't see any reason to get riled so much that everything is not in order on day of entry. I am not bothered if they get it done after my complaint. I am bothered where there is absolutely lack of solution as with heating bill. And know of any apartments with thick wall? Atleast they have some of thick layers in ceiling walls. And about old building - do you know of any apartment that has been recently constructed in the area? No one is making new apartments any more. Sometimes due to economic necessity condos gets converted to apartments.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/07/2009
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