Yugo Philadelphia Carriage House

This place is a joke. They have had 4 managers in less than 2 years. The last manager seemed nice but when pressed for issues it seemed that the corporate office above him was unresponsive. Still have not received a security deposit and its been over 4 months! When maintenance cleans out an apartment, they leave the door unlocked/open for weeks. What if a homeless person wandered in and set up a drug den? The head of maintenance yells at residents and totally unprofessional.

IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING MOVING HERE- READ THIS!

When I was looking for an apartment last summer I chose “The Courts” (Now, the Carriage House) because just like everyone else, I thought it was a good location with decent apartments and reasonable staff. I have never been more wrong in my life.

The BIGGEST issue at this apartment complex (despite the broken rooms, random fire alarms, and flaky security guards) is the random add-ons to your bill. My lease states that I receive a $50 stipend (per... tenant) for my apartment for utilities per month. I thought my roommates and I (who collectively have a $150 stipend!) where fine when September-January we were never charged for utilities. Wow! Amazing!

THEN, my lovely readers, my heating broke! I was stuck in a room that often hit 55 degrees this winter! And nobody cared at all! I called and emailed Tiffany, who said she would have someone look at it. Nobody looked at it.

My electric bill skyrocketed for a heater THAT WASN’T EVEN WORKING (about $60-80 on top of a $50 stipend). Once March rolled around, I had been so scared of overage fees that I completely turned off my heating/AC. Yet, I was now getting charged a consistent $150 overage fee ($200 in utilities total!) for ONE person in a room not using any AC, major lights, or dishwasher.

I have been calling, emailing, and going to the office since JANUARY and I am always hit with some excuse - “We are also confused” “We have new management and he will look into it” “We will look into this and call you back”.

It is now July. My lease ends next month. I have spend hundreds of dollars on “utilities” (Why is each bill exactly the same?) I don’t even use. Management does not care at all.

On top of this, mind you, you will never have privacy in this apartment. Tiffany has barged into my room with tours completely unannounced, with no notice. Only randomly will you receive a 24-hour notice. I have been completely indecent, scrambling for clothes, as Tiffany comes into my room with a hoard of people.

These people are desperate. I constantly hear them whining and venting in the lobby to the only decent person in this whole place- Josh. They will offer you wonderful deals and waive whatever fees you want only to completely take advantage of you. I never write reviews but this is a complete disaster and I don’t want anyone giving them their money. Now they have rebranded to the “Carriage House” and charge even more for apartments! Ha! Lee mas

I've lived here for almost a year and it's terrible. I had a huge water leak inside my closet. The windows cannot be opened or closed, cold air leaks in and electricity bills are crazy expensive because of that. One of my windows, which opens to the outside, is hanging from only one rusty hinge. I called maintenance 4 times. They came, looked at it, said they didn't have new hinges at the moment, left without fixing anything. The window is dangerous since it might fall from a 4th floor to the... building entrance and hit someone. I told them, they didn't care. My water heater broke down. My garbage disposal broke down. There is a really noisy generator right outside and sleeping at night is hard. The stair lights are always on at night and hit directly through the bedroom windows. Security is absent at night but they leave the emergency phone at the front desk, so nobody will pick up if you have an emergency. Everything feels unsafe. I will be happy to move out. Lee mas

Please please please listen to the negative reviews. They offered me rent specials, so I thought it wouldn't be THAT bad and signed a lease. I will give them one star because the maintenance crew is always so kind and some of the front desk crew are really great. Management, however, is awful. It changes every few weeks, so no one knows who anyone is or what problems are happening. There are bugs, rodents, loud and rude neighbors, building-wide fire alarms going off multiple times a night,... etc.

If you can deal with that, document every single problem your unit has to save yourself when your lease ends. They will keep your security deposit (see other review below). Even if you pay a pet fee, automatically having a pet will warrant your security deposit being held. They will conveniently "lose your files" (that cited damage that was there to begin with) and blame you for that and any new "damage" (we're talking old paint chipping, the ancient carpet being "worn") in the apartment. This includes any damage that occurred from their own maintenance crew. If you a) have a security deposit, you'll just never get it back or b) if you didn't have one, you'll get an email from a debt collector that you owe hundreds of dollars in repairs when you left the apartment pristine. I was charged for the bath tub being old and therefore in bad shape.

Save yourself, you can find a cheaper apartment that won't scam you. Lee mas

I've lived here for a year, and my advice to anyone interested in moving here is to make sure that you're ready for all the bureaucratic crap that comes with moving here. While the apartment rooms themselves were fairly nice, there are plenty of issues that should cause pause before coming here. Minor inconveniences like the fire alarm going off weekly and the Internet being down for days at a time are standard grievances, but the more concerning ones are when tenants move out.

You'll be... charged over three hundred dollars when you move out due to "cleaning fees." Make no mistake; you will not convince them that you cleaned your room good enough to waive these fees. If you're unaware that you owe this charge, they will not contact you to notify you of the situation. Instead, they'll send it to a collection agency and you'll be threatened with legal action that will eventually end up with you paying an increased price and a massive hit on your credit. This is assuming of course that you moved in on account of their special price, where they waive the security deposit. Don't do it; just leave the deposit and never expect to get it back. At least then you won't be screwed for the long term.

My advice: Stay the heck away from here and go somewhere cheaper. The numerous bad reviews from other sites are there for a reason; I should have never given this place a chance myself, so don't make the same mistake. Lee mas