I moved into Nittany Gardens in December of 2004. I was somewhat new in the area as a Grad student and was moving from an isolated community in the Patton township. At first glance the apartments seemed perfect: the rooms were large and spacious, the windows were huge, the kitchen was well laid out, and although the rent didn't include ultilities, cable, tons of parking and basement storage was. I figured as long as we kept things on a budget, we'd save money. I was very wrong.

From the start I ignored several warning signs as I hadn't yet been experienced in dealing with such matters. The same day I moved in, I opened the closet door and found several spiders. I figured it was no big deal.. but in reality, they had just pulled all the carpets and installed new rugs in the dead of winter: why on earth would there be spiders' As the months passed my roomates and I began to notice more and more problems. In Jan our heater broke: I immediatly insisted for something to be done at the office. Between that moment and March, NOTHING was done. We had no heat, at all. The maintenance workers would come in, briefly take a look and remark a part was missing. Weeks passed, months passed and finally by the time spring weather was comming around, it was fixed. The vents were extremely poor- they were located in the ceilings in each room.. and as we all know, heat rises. The A/C barely worked: the living room would cool down a little but the bedrooms were ovens. I spoke with the office (yet again) about this and they claimed it was working fine.. regardless that there was no air comming out from the bedroom vents. The window areas were constructly very poorly: even in chilly weather you could feel the air streaming inside at an alarming rate. When I spoke to them about that, they told me my only option was to cover the windows entirely with a thick insulating material. In other words, block off all sunlight or deal with the air flows. Combined with the poor heating (or lack there of) and the cracks, at the coldest point during the winter we actually saw ice form inside around the panels. But the worst was yet to come.

By spring we began to notice an alarming amount of bugs. Now, comming from New England I know sometimes bugs just can't be helped. But I also know an infestation when I see one. One afternoon I went to grab a pair of pants and when I did, to my horror, they were covered in spider eggs. At that point on we'd see a RIDICULOUS number of everything from large centipedes, to wolf spiders, house spiders.. just about anything and everything you can imagine. Carpet beetles put holes in my clothes. Centipedes and spiders would fall into the hall light fixtures- it got to the point we would literally count anywhere between 5-10 "sightings" a day on the walls, on the carpets, in the bathroom. By summer we had a huge mite problem in the kitchen- they were turning up everywhere- under our microwave, inside our crock pot. It was so diguisting I resigned to microwave cooking for the rest of the season. And keep in mind my roomates and I keep a very well cleaned house. The situation grew so out of control that despite having the office spray several times a month, they were still turning up.

The apartment itself was shabby. Despite how well we treated the rooms, the carpet began to pull up, we discovered holes in the corners, the toilet broke and had to be replaced, the closet doors would frequently break: even the shower rod cracked off not even several months after we moved in. The outside grounds are well kept during the summer and early fall to keep up appearences for possible tenants- the rest of the year it looks like a tornado hit. Several occasions we found everything from children's toys, dirty clothes, bikes, a broken stereo to even used condoms thrown around our building's grounds. Despite our efforts to report the mess, nothing was ever taken care of. One spring there was a bike thrown on the path with some trash.. I left for spring vacation. Almost two weeks later when I returned the items were STILL there! The pool was a mess. There was an assortment of trash all around the sides- my boyfriend broke his toe on a screw poking up from the cement last summer. The (shared) halls were a mess- if we were lucky they'd be vacumed once a week.

The biggest problem, however were the maintenance men. At any moment, at any time, they would just walk right in with no warning. Sometimes a notice would be posted in the hall with an approximate week for work but for the most part, we would be given no warning. Beyond that, nine times out of ten they wouldn't even bother knocking or waiting for anyone to answer the door before walking right in. Several times they forced themselves in while I was changing or just getting out the shower. And despite my very frequent complaints, NOTHING put a stop to this. They would casually barge in anytime between 8 am to as late as 5 pm. My boyfriend and I went on vacation for Christmas when a friend stopped by the apartment just to check up on things for us.. and what he found was apalling. There was a bag full of trash sitting at our front door and the door was left UNLOCKED. Meanwhile everyone was 800 miles away for the week. Needless to say it ruined our vacation. We ended up calling the emergency maintenance numbers only to find out that yes, they forgot to lock it after doing "work." This went on to happen several more times withen the couple years we lived there. The thought of having no privacy at all, made my life a living hell.

Finally a few months ago around April they did some major work on the heating systems. (We found out by watching them that the systems we had been using were absolutely horrific- not only were they practically prehistoric from the 70s, but the unit looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the day it was installed!) We left that morning to go to work and when we arrived back later that evening, I walked in to something just short of a hurricane. There were black, thick marks all along the carpets. The furniture was shoved againest the wall. The coffee table, carpet and couch were covered in white particle dust: my personal belongings that were on the table were also covered in it, as well as a CD that was scratched as a result of such neglect. The vent cover was missing, the screws were shoved in wrong and no note was left. I was beyond mad and went as far to write up a formal complaint complete with photographs of the mess. Later I found out they weren't "done" and had to order a new vent cover as they barged in the following week. Of course it would have been nice if they didn't leave the place a mess and left a note. They never fixed anything on time if at all and when they did, the job would be less than decent.

Another problem were the neighbors from the building across from us and from upstairs. I have never had the acquintance of such foul, disrespectful people in my life, nevermind I lived in New York city for several years! All night, all day they'd leave their children outside, screaming, playing loud music, being distructive. I witnessed the children scratching up people's cars, stealing mail.. the mailbox we had for the apartment even had to be removed because the kids would shove inappropriate things inside. The adults weren't any better- at any given time of night or day, they would blast music outside. A few of the other tenants from our building would also frequently complain: at one point a fight broke out over the noise and the police was called. Despite this, the apartment absolutely refused to do anything about them. Whether it was 2 am or 2 pm the children would be outside and their parents would blast the radio. Meanwhile our upstairs neighbors were equally as noisy: they would literally stomp up and down the staircase at all times of the night that several times, items from our walls and shelves would topple over as our living room and bedroom(s) were located under and to the side of the staircase. Despite complaints about that, the office still did nothing. At all.

The office itself was also a mess. Papers were lost several times, rent payments were mixed up: I can't even begin to list how many incidents took place because they gave me the wrong information, used my rent payments were other things, etc. On more than one occasion I was hung up on and given a rude attitude. It was just a terrible experience from every which way.

Overall NG was the WORST living experience I have ever had in my entire life. From outside appearences, our apartment was gorgeous.. but as I've learnt from this, looks are certainly very decieving. I can't even begin to express how horrible it was in that apartment. We ended up cutting our lease short.. as did our nextdoor neighbors who moved a week before we did. Stay as far away as humanly possible no matter how cheap the rent looks or how "pretty" the garden style is.

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