University Oaks — Local services in Kent

I was asked to leave an honest review about my time here by the staff. Here we go:

I lived here in a one bedroom for two years while completing my master’s degree at Kent State. My experience was far from perfect, but in a world where everything costs an arm and a leg and renting can be shady, I recommend University Oaks to anyone attending Kent State. I had a laundry list of bad and somewhat outrageous experiences here. The first year, I had an upstairs neighbor who caused a massive bathroom ceiling leak twice because he didn’t know how to use a shower curtain. 2 months later, I came home to my unit flooding because he left his kitchen sink running for 7 hours. This person constantly blasted music loud enough to shake the whole building. The landscaping crew shattered my patio door by hitting it with a rock. I had mold in my closet. The dishwasher flooded. You get it. All of those things were terrible, but the one constant was that Brian the maintenance man was there to fix it with a smile and a supportive attitude every single time. This was the 2023-24 academic year so I don’t believe he works here anymore, and that was a serious downgrade.

The new maintenance guys are very aloof and rude, and have a constant “I’m better than you” attitude. One day, I came home from work to them inside my apartment when I received zero notice. It was scary, and all they did was yell at me that I just didn’t read my email. They were new too, so I had never seen them on the property. I confirmed with the desk staff that I was not sent that email. Not only are they rude, but they’ve been wrong in every interaction I’ve had with them. The day they were in my place, the locks were being replaced with new electronic ones. They assured me the manager would be by later that afternoon to program the locks. 5 days passed leaving my door unlocked, and I finally call the leasing office about it. The maintenance guys were wrong; I was informed I had to go to the leasing office to get my fob programmed.

In March, I came back to my parking garage not working. It would go up an inch, then go back down. I was instructed to seek the help of these men. They were very rude about me asking questions about what’s broken and how long I would lose the garage spot I pay $40 a month for. They said it would be a few days, so I started to complain about already having paid. Again, they were wrong. The company they claimed they had to wait days to get parts from got to it the same day.

I still give this place five stars. The rent is the cheapest in town. The complex is nice and right on the edge of campus. Walking distance. I personally loved having a patio. The parking garage was a big perk for me having an old car. The leasing office staff are pleasant and the property manager Greg Golden has kept a constantly professional and friendly relationship with me ever since I started to have crazy problems with the neighbor. The only thing I would change about the complex is the maintenance guys. I’ve never encountered such blatant disdain for professionalism...

My girlfriend lives here and cant wait to move out.

#1 issue: PARKING!!! You have to pay a parking fee and there's no guarantee you'll even get a spot. People drive around the complex for 10 minutes every night trying to park. We've had to park in the guest parking lot across the complex to walk in wind rain and storm 5 minutes to her building because there's not enough parking. For the rent and the extra $20 fee for parking there should be enough parking!!

The internet: Bad. Cuts out a lot and it's an overall dorm wifi type thing. It's incredibly slow and you have to hook up everything to their website through a mac address and some devices straight up don't connect. It has cut out during exams before. You can't get your own router because no one here knows how to allow spectrum to service your apartment.

Noise: The main issue is the dogs. You walk into the complex and all these dogs start barking. No one ever has their dogs on leashes, so they jump all over you, and their awful owners just stand there and stare at you as their mutt crawls up your skin and barks at you hysterically. You can also hear your neighbors screaming at their dogs to shut up constantly.

The one thing that is nicer than most apartments is that the office is open for longer so your packages get delivered more efficiently and you have longer to pick them up.

Location is great. I can walk to her apartment from campus very quickly and she can walk to all of her classes within 20 minutes. There has been no crime or anything. overall she feels very safe there.

Electronic door locks are incredibly flawed with no backup. There's no way to get back into your building if the lock isn't working or shut off. Last year during that big tornado storm it blew the transformer and the entire back half of the complex including the office was dead with no power for 5 days. She lost hundreds of dollars of groceries and couldn't leave the apartment without putting a log in the door or else you'd get locked out. Some people were locked outside and calling for help during the night while there was green lightning and tornado sirens.

The buildings are maintained and the lawns are kept. The apartment itself is pretty decent but there's only a singular drawer and doesn't even fit a silverware tray. Would not recommend these apartments to anyone who likes to cook more than Ramen and grilled cheese. I helped her move in on the first day she got the keys and it wasn't even cleaned all the way since the last tenants. The shower had human hair all over the walls and a bunch of gross stains. And a bunch of ants everywhere.

The AC was leaking buckets of water over the bed during the summer last year and maitenance called my girlfriend back 5 months later to fix it. In the middle of December. When no one was using their AC anymore.

Appliances are updated and the furniture they provide you is okay.

Overall these apartments are extremely pricey and I would recommend them for people who want to live directly...

I am giving a real, honest review. I lived here for a year, during my grad school. the staff is 4/5 (would be 5/5 but one time they didn’t give me my package when it said it arrived and it was in the office mailbox- must’ve missed it & i grabbed it myself but lady up front gave me some attitude about it and i needed it for school). 4/5 clubhouse and they have nice activities at the clubhouse for tenants. the price however, is 2/5. for what i got (my apartment was not renovated but I was paying the same price as a renovated apartment) it was overpriced. mold in my bathroom, my dishwasher, and my roommates air conditioner (which are obnoxiously loud). even had to get the tub repainted bc it was chipping. old appliances, countertops practically falling off, food drain doesn’t work, and musty smell in cabinets. you have to pay for washer and dryer by using a money card (you can only upload money at the clubhouse as far as i know). the pool was hardly opened when i was there- and someone drove their car into it last summer so it closed early and they also had to get a new fence. apparently there were break-ins so they changed the exterior patio doors into key fob locks. the parking situation doesn’t accommodate for all residents, so if you get back past 9 or 10 pm just go ahead and park in overflow (this happened to me a lot bc i was an architecture student) sometimes i’d get lucky at 1 or 2 am and get a spot in the actual parking lot — why am i paying for parking each month when im not even guaranteed a spot near my apartment which was next to the clubhouse?? i pay more for a non-updated apartment in kent than a nice modern apartment in columbus- make it make sense (it doesn’t). but let’s be honest, everywhere in kent is terrible to accommodate a student budget. shower head water pressure was also terrible (i have thick hair) and the sound insulation between the upper and lower apartments were bad. or the upstairs neighbors just stomped a lot… i don’t think that was the case all of the time (although they did stomp a lot). my apartment also flooded over summer when it rained a lot bc the parking lot slopped down towards my patio and the water drain wasn’t working fast enough and water got into mine and our neighbors apartment. the office accommodated and gave us some washer/dryer money and fixed the drain the following week. work out area was pretty nice too. location was convenient, but i’m sick of the pothole at the entrance. oh yeah, the wifi isn’t reliable - it was down during finals week. plowing during winter could’ve been better as well. still thankful i had a place to stay and call home for a bit, i was in a 2 bed 1...