Apartment Review for Riverloft - Philadelphia, PA

I recently moved out of the RiverLoft. My main complaints:

1. Overpriced. You can do better. Expect significant rental increases every year  the place is a chop shop and will do nothing to keep your business.

2. Full of annoying dogs and students. Expect lots of dog pee near the back entrance on 24th St. The poorly fitting doors do little to block the sound of barking. The students dont seem to care about the rental increases so this place continues to get away with it. The tenants are real morons too. Every few months, someone drives a U-Haul into the parking garage and breaks the sprinkler systems, garage doors, or cold water supply to the air conditioning chillers because the clearance is too low. I had fun last summer when the air conditioning was busted throughout the building.

3. Bad management. The lease is over 20 pages long and literally requires a lawyer to understand. I can assure you that none of the clauses in the lease are for the tenants protection either. My lawyer recommended that I not sign this lease  obviously I did not listen to him. This place even has the nerve to send renewal addendums to the lease when you renew which make the lease even more restrictive every year (in addition to the large rent increases). Some of the leasing agents are no better than used car saleswomen  watch out for them as they will tell you only what you want to hear.

4. Cheap fixtures. Although the kitchen appliances are, admittedly, quite nice, the rest of the place is an IKEA catalog. Everything may look nice, but it is all really cheap and flimsy. The blinds are junk, the doors are junk, the furnace barely gets warm, the garbage disposal sounds like a chainsaw (please test it if you visit the place!), the bathroom fixtures are cheap plastic, etc. Everything is a cut corner. Normally I would not mind, but for the price I was paying, I was irritated by fake luxury.

5. Maintenance & cleanliness. Yes, there are times when maintenance is slow to respond to things (not always, of course). The things they do respond to promptly tend to just break again (like leaky pipes from the upstairs bathroom). Also, should you actually move into this place I would highly recommend steam-cleaning the carpeted upstairs area of your loft. Youll be shocked at the dirt you pick up. Cleaning crew does a good job of maintaining the common areas, except for weekends when you can occasionally see litter in the elevators or dog poop. Another person mentioned frequent elevator maintenance too. This is true, there is often an elevator out of commission and many of the rude neighbors wont hold the remaining working elevator for you.

6. Security. True, there was a security issue in the building in 2006. Management was a bit vague as to exactly what happened so I can not elaborate. I did keep my place locked up tight as if my front door opened to the street.

7. Common areas are a joke. The fitness center is full of outdated equipment. The business center is useless. The conference room does not have internet capability. How can you justify paying extra for this junk. Go for an independently-owned place and save your money.