University Village

worst apartment i have ever lived in. Don’t email me when my package has arrived. I lost at least 5 packages here. They worth 1000 bucks. This office must have the responsibility to find out where they were, but they don’t.

I have a feeling most of the people who bash this place either have agendas («I’m gonna show you cause you didn’t give me the free toaster you talked about in your ad») or people who just don’t understand what living in a college apartment on an urban campus is like.
Things every student living at Temple should expect:
1. Walk more than three blocks off campus and you won’t survive the night.
2. Think about how much food, rent, utilities and services cost in your particular suburb and double it for when you’re here.
3. You’re surrounded by kids your own age who typically aren’t prepared to handle freedom. Expect bathroom art and loud music in the libraries.
4. You won’t find parking on campus. Anywhere. Leave the car at home and use the Lord’s gift of pedal transportation.
5. Much to your chagrin, these restaurants and housing complexes would do just fine without you. Be prepared to be flexible with your expectations.
I lived at UV for two years and the difference between their complex and all Non-​Morgan related dorms at Temple is night and day. I was woken up by fire alarms 4 – 5 times a week in Peabody and 1940, so seeing people complain on here of occasional intrusions like that is downright comical.
The rooms aren’t hotel rooms nor are they mansions. And, while you may think your $ 650 or so a month entitles you to the Taj Mahal, it, unfortunately, does not. Their rent is fair for the area, the size of the rooms and the level of interaction you should expect with the service staff.
The trash room is cleaned out twice a week, the landscaping is well kept during the warmer seasons and the walkways are always shoveled when it snows. If and when (things happen in life, better to accept them than blow out your clavicle fighting it) you need maintenance, they’re usually available same day with an approximate time appointment for you.
You, as a renter and a young person looking to take the next step in life, should know what to expect when it comes to renting a college apartment. You’re not living in a skyscraper, but you also have half the cost of the kids who are. Enjoy that choice and invest your money in more productive things than champagne fountains and golden showerheads.
Out of all the friends I had during my time on campus, people chose to hang out in my apartment far more than places like Kardon, the Edge or the dorms. You get what you pay for and, honestly, I paid for a 4 star apartment. Thus, they get a well-​earned 4 star review!

I usually only review when my experience is absolutely outstanding or when it’s completely unacceptably horrible. Of course, this is not a good review.
First of all, your rent is NOT your rent. There are fees + the electric bill + the water bill. That is your rent. What angered me about this is that before I moved in, I asked several of the staff if utilities were included and they said yes. Obviously, that’s false.
Secondly, which had nothing to do with the building itself, the noise is unbelievable. My upstairs neighbors were involved often in. uh. «extra curricular activities». Now, I get that we’re in college but we should have some respect for other people. The noise on a daily basis for 9 months straight drove me up a wall.
Lastly, when you move out, their charges are ridiculously unfair. I spent 3 days cleaning my room and STILL was charged. Then, one of my roommates was charged for the common room carpet and was the only one. Why was ONE person charged for a carpet we all share instead of it being split 4 ways. On top of that, we had a leak in our ceiling by the front door that no one ever came to fix.
I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. I even had to take out credit cards to pay my rent some months because it was too expensive. Almost 900 a month is ludicrous. They are unreasonably priced. Please, do not move here. Save yourself the stress.

For context, I endured living here for a year.
The long and the short –not having to worry about package deliveries is awesome! Everything else about University Village is pretty awful. Renters beware.
Pro tip: If you’re set on living here, wait to sign your lease until the last minute (June or so). They’re desperate for residents and don’t sell out nearly as early as they say, they’ll probably offer you a real sweet discount if you are a late comer.
First the pros: (this really shouldn’t be plural)
–The front-​office staff is really nice! They do as much as they can, but unfortunately they can’t do much by way of resolving issues.
–The front office will receive your packages for you (this is the only thing I’ll miss)
The cons:
–When I moved in I made initial maintenance requests for issues that I moved in to (broken closet mirrors, broken blinds, drippy sink, among other things). The maintenance staff visited my unit fairly promptly, acknowledged that things needed to be fixed, and said they would return a few days later after they ordered parts. This was the last I saw them, it’s all still broken.
–I moved in to a smoking unit apparently, the apartment wreaked! My clothes smelled like I was a pack-​a-​day smoker. It was awful! (The good news here: if you are a smoker, they welcome you to smoke inside!)
–The management office doesn’t care about much except getting your monthly rent payment. If you have an issue, they won’t help. I brought multiple issues to their attention but never received any resolution, the bottom line is that they don’t care about your comfort and safety nearly as much as your rent money.
–The other residents can be friendly, but in the chance that you have loud and disruptive neighbors (I count loud music and banging on the walls at 4am on a week night to be a bit excessive). You better get used to it, no one is going to stop them.
–There’s tagging in the elevators with vile messages. Imagine getting in an elevator with your mom and seeing a graphic illustration in your face with some very unfriendly text written underneath. This is not uncommon.
–The appliances are old and often don’t work.
–If you’re a sucker and decide to live there, hope you don’t live on the east side where your windows butts up to the train tracks.
–The book-​keeping is questionable at best. Utility bills are sporadic, I never could get a solid answer of when to expect them, the front office staff even said it is annoying. Unfortunately I didn’t catch on quick enough, but I would suggest keeping a close eye on how much you owe, and how much you’ve paid. I’m always on top of my rent, and nearly every month (right after I paid my rent) I received emails stating that I still had a ‘small balance’
–If you ever question the management on any issue, they’ll very quickly point out that whatever the issue is, is not their responsibility and there’s nothing they can do
–If ever you need to make a one-​time payment online, you’ll be charged $ 25. We’re in 2014: it doesn’t cost that much to process a credit card.

This is literally the worst place EVER. Do yourself a favor and never ever live here. I live in a 2 bedroom/​1 bathroom and its so small i hated living in it. They advertised that utilities would be included in the rent however after living there a month they said oh just kidding you need to sign up for a peco account and pay gas and water through the apartment. They over charge you, they are the worst management ever and clearly have no idea how to run this place. I pay far too much for the place i live in and they gave my roommate a discount and not me so i pay over $ 100 more to live in the same place. This place needs to be destroyed. It’s off campus housing although its right at the edge of campus. So Temple has no control over this place because its considered off campus housing. I could go on and on about this place. Not to mention i had to show my key every time i walked in. I thought this was an apartment complex, not a dorm. Never live here, never let your friends live here and i honestly wouldn’t let my worst enemy live here. I would give this negative 5 stars if i could.

We just moved our daughter into UV last month so we can’t speak to the issues expressed in some of the reviewers … what I can say is to hold off on making any decisions about leases until closer to the school year. They have had 2 special promotions — a $ 300 gift card or $ 25 reduced monthly rent and then offered both 5 and 9 mo leases … neither of which were offered to current lease holders. Given rent is extremely expensive having a 9 mo lease (which we were told we could never get) is a HUGE savings if you aren’t going to need the apt during the summer.
They grudgingly let us take advantage of the $ 300 deal — only because of their screw up in not getting us a lease out even though everything was supposedly settled in May.
The office staff seems nice enough when you come in or call … but they are (were, maybe — supposedly there was a well deserved change over) totally ineffective. Dozens of all calls and follow up all stating we were good — everything in order (we even mentioned the requested roommates everytime we called to ensure there were no problems) … yet we were in the 11 hr. getting a lease with a random roommate after being assured everything was fine. Roommate assignments and instructions were promised in mid July and came maybe a week or two before move in. According to the new mgt, the problems were attributable to the former management …
Given the trouble with getting the lease and still trying to abide by our contract, I went online to try to pay the rent on time only to learn that I’d be charged a $ 25 ‘convenience fee’ for an online payment — that’s a joke! They could have had the money immediately, but waited for me to send it via snail mail … what business sense does that make?
Adding insult to injury even on move in day, my daughter had to re-​sign ANOTHER lease since there was a typo on the one she had already signed. Go over all the details on this place with a fine tooth comb. As expressed by others, the reasons we selected this place: security and location. She is new to TU and didn’t know anyone when we booked it. Since then and before move in she did find her own roommates and time will tell if they decide to stay or move on.

University Village is incredibly expensive. I had the cheapest room, and that was still $ 580 a month plus utilities. The rooms were incredibly small. We had bunk beds, which still didn’t leave enough room to pull your chair out from your desk, so you had to awkwardly climb onto your chair. We also didn’t receive closet doors because «the room is too small», UV’s words exactly.
My roommates and I all moved out over a month before our lease was up. We continued paying rent for the last month, but we had all handed in our keys and moved out, and we were still received a high water utility bill. They will literally charge you for everything you can think of, and our security deposit is completely gone because to all the fixes UV had to do to our apartment due to how poorly it was built.
When we moved in there was paint EVERYWHERE. The countertops, carpet, furniture. We also had to clean the apartment thoroughly when we moved in. Half our plugs didn’t work and were upside down, and there was always a risk that they would actually come out of the walls when you unplugged something. The water pressure will go out in the middle of a shower, and the drains would constantly get clogged. Our dishwasher never worked properly, even after numerous maintenance requests.
The maintenance workers were nice enough, but they would just randomly come into the apartment. The walls were thin, so you could hear your neighbors and your upstairs neighbors pretty well.
They are pretty good about mail and packages, and I never felt unsafe at UV except for the unplowed sidewalks during the winter. And there’s free tanning! Overall, save yourself the hassle and live somewhere else.

I’ve lived here for a year and it’s one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made. First of all, it’s too expensive. Just be prepared to be charged left and right for everything. Also, everything is junk: the walls are too thin, the furniture is disgusting, and be prepared to give this place a good scrub-​down when you move in– I doubt they bother cleaning anything prior to people moving in. Also, expect things like your water pressure to go out in the middle of a shower (I stood in my shower for 10 minutes with shampooed hair, just waiting…), as well as 4 AM fire alarms (I’m currently sitting with my ears ringing after two consecutive «false alarms»).
There are a few nice people at the front desk. You’ll know who these people are after living here for a few weeks. The other remaining staff have some serious issues with losing people’s ID’s. If you stay here, give them a school ID, not a driver’s license nor a passport (god forbid).
Of course when you take a tour, they will tell you living here is amazing– the people who work for UV get to live there for free. I would say this place is awesome if I wasn’t required to pay for anything (well, maybe not…).
Lease signers, be warned…

Overall, Yeah there are idiot neighbors and an occasional moron pulls the fire alarm in the middle of the night (to whom I want to beat the shit out of). But, for convenience and security (I hear a lot of people who rent homes on campus get broken into and robbed, Which I have known these people personally). So, I would say it is good and safe and the location yea you really cant beat it. I have my own bathroom and bed but its like 815.
If you like a convenient location, security and moderate privacy this is the place to go if you are going «on campus».

University Village is absolutely terrible. On the website their slogan is «Roll out of bed & onto campus.» It should say «Roll out of bed & into Hell: Smelly and trash-​filled hallways, fecal matter in the elevators (on more than two occasions there was poop in the elevator and smeared on the walls), and unfriendly /​unhelpful staff. I have seen and stayed in frat houses and freshman dorms that were WAY more comfortable than University Village. Also it is very difficult dealing with entering guests in and out of the building due to the discourteous staff. They actually lost my friends drivers licence for three weeks, only to have it returned scratched up and dirty as if lost on the floor. Now lets discuss the actual rooms. Again, I have seen dorm buildings with bigger and cleaner rooms. You can hear people having intercourse and parties through the thin walls at all hours. Also stereos, computer speakers, tvs and louder conversations can be herd with great ease through the walls. This place stresses me out more than some of my classes! Please do not give your money and time to them and consider any other living option.

University Village is always booked but no one stays for more than one semester. Why? 1) The front desk staff is ignorant, unprofessional and rude. 2) Maintenance enters your apartment several times per month even when your not there. Do you really want strangers unlocking the door to your home and going through your stuff? One girl I knew even had maintenance key in whrn she was showering. 3) The halls and elevators are littered with trash such as beer cans and the stench of the trash room at the end of each hall is unbearable. Every other time you ride the elevator expect to find a used condom on the floor, or on an especially bad day perhaps a bloody tampon (not joking). 4) Rooms and space are very small/​cramped and way overpriced. I get bad vibes from this place. On the other hand, there’s free tanning!