Park town place: This is a living hell and residents nightmare

My horrific experiences with Park town place started on the day I moved in. The management company forgot to leave the key, as promised, with the main desk attendants. So I had to go back with all my belongings and return next day when the office was open. I have now left the apartment for 3 month, but the management is still bothering and harassing me. First lets talk about my stay and then I will cover in details how they make sure they suck all your hard earned cash.

Security: During my 1 year stay there were multiple burglaries in the apartment complex. One elderly couple was robed at knife point. Cars were broken down frequently in the secured basement garage (you pay about 200 pcm to have a spot here). Many women were molested in this car park, which also happen to be the underground conduit connecting various apartment buildings. In May, there was a dead body found in the complex and police started a Homicide investigation. Not sure what the final outcome was. So that s how secure your family is going to be.

Maintenance: All the apartment utensils are ancient, rusted and will need constant repair and fixing. The maintenance department sucks big time! Never on time and never repair fine ..is there working policy. I complained about a dripping showerhead in March and they came in May. It took 5 months and 3 visits to fix a leaky flush. The management owned floor washing machine and dryer are not working for most part of the weekends. There are new machines on the first floor now, but it is >$4/cycle for wash and dry. The fire alarms go off atleast 3-4 times/ week, frequently at night. The first few times I took stairs from 18th floor with my six week old baby in lap. Then some of the residents told me that it is never a true fire, its smokers who blow at the smoke alarm to have fun. It made sense, since the corridors are always noisy with drunk party goers and the stairs are full of cigarette stubs and smoke. Finally like most residents I stopped going down for fire alarms, taking the risk.

Greedy Management: During viewing, the management will be very professional and friendly. They took interest in my family and kids. Once you move in you see a totally different work ethics. They are only looking at ways to charge you. If they do a mistake Sorry for the inconvenience! And thanks for your patience . But if you do something Well you did it so you have to pay for it . It does not end here. There resident coordinator is extremely rude and unprofessional, all the residents hate her. But because she always finds ways to make the most of fines for management, she is a rising star in office.
The heating and cooling does not start as per the season but based on fixed management schedule. There is no individual control in units. These units are very old and constant source of daft in winters, driving up your bills. I ended up buying a personal A/c to cope.
The utility bill is an average of all people staying. It does not encourage green behavior and single people who are working all day end up sharing the burden of communal heating and cooling. My average monthly utility bill was $150, it hardly varies with season.
So gave the notice for vacating the apartment shortly after 2 months. I met the managers and they bluntly told me I have to pay 2 months of rent, and many extra charges. Since it was my fault and I accepted it. I was leaving 1 month ahead of contract so it meant paying 2 months of rent while not living there. I decided to sublet. But you are not allowed to sublet without prior permission from management. I included that in my ad. I got an enquiry for sublet but when I called the management to let them know of this, the accounts department told me that what managers told me was wrong and that If I pay some fees and rent I will not incur any more charges. As advised, I cancelled the sublet option, returned the keys, paid the dues upfront. Once again as soon as they go the key and money, same unprofessional attitude prevailed. I called them almost daily to see when I will receive my final utility bill, no response. No call back for my messages left on answer phone. One day I got lucky enough that the accounts department picked up the phone, she said they were still discussing my case and will contact me once a final decision has been made. 1 month later I receive a utility bill (for service charges till July 13th, I vacated the apartment on June15th!!) on August 30th with last date to pay September 1st. So I tried calling the accounting department again to clarify and make payment, no luck for 20 days. I receive another letter on September 19th (Saturday), this time I owe them >$800 for late fees for not paying august rent, late fees for not paying utility bill (due by Sept 25th). This was as per the initial advice from the management, so the accounting department misdirected me, took my money, took the keys 2 months in advance and charged me not only rent but also the utility for the period of June16th August 18th, 2009 when they had the key. And now they are threatening me to dent my credit history if I don t pay them all the charges by Sept 25th. And since they don t accept credit card payment, I have to fedex it from Midwest to Philadelphia if want to pay by check in time, considering the check will take a couple of days to process. So the overall cost of leaving early and failing to give notice > $ 3631.
I am taking them to the court for this and would like to urge all the Park town apartment renters to not suffer in silence and report them to renting agencies like RPA, apartment finder etc so that future residents are well informed. When I raised the concern about bad review on Apartment finder, the management said they are only few bad reviews and rest everyone is happy. Truth is we are all too busy in our schedule and fail to share our experience, since we are so happy we are out of that hell! That s why park town place has always got apartment available for rent, while some of the other good apartments in town don t.
Good luck with your search.

User Responses
From: horreur	Date: 09/20/2009
I totally agree with this review. I also broke my lease and paid a ridiculous 3000$ even if I was the one living in hell. Best decision I have ever made! This company is a joke. Do yourself a favor and do not live there!

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