University Village — Local services in Philadelphia

This apartment is a predatory complex where students are constantly taken advantage of by a large money hungry business. Do not waste your time and hard-earned money here.

I would severely recommend against UV. Even before I moved in, I had explicitly made clear that there was an issue with my lease to the apartment staff. After innumerable calls and emails with the lease managers and staff, it was still nearly impossible to get a straight forward answer if any response at all. I should have known from this lack of professionalism was a red flag. The phone operators were aloof and seemed uninterested in aiding me.

It was incredibly frustrating to learn that the roommates I intended to live with would no longer be my roommates. UV does not notify you of your change in roommates. I specifically matched with 3 other people using UV’s matching website only to realize that UV places another RANDOM person in our room after one girl left without any notification.

My former “to-be roommate” notified me that she was no longer living with me because UV had canceled her lease for the upcoming academic year because she had returned her keys for living there the past summer. I would not have known she was no longer my roommate unless she told me personally, which thankfully she did.

Another component to my very poor experience with UV is that in order to pay for your monthly rent, you are given the choice to either setup recurring payments or manually pay at the beginning of each month. Beware there is a $20 transaction fee every time you pay even with recurring payments. And no cash is accepted. Even though UV may look like a financially conscious choice, I would think again. Not only does the mere act of paying your personal rent, UV also charges for gas, electricity, and water separately so make sure when you are making your choice to factor that into your budget.

The living area is very poorly maintained. When we moved in, the entire floor was covered with a black dust that stuck to your shoes and feet. The chair that came with the living room was worn and the leather was shedding off onto the floor and anyone who sat on it. The window blinds were broken and fell down many times. We all have sent in many service requests and have not heard back from maintenance and it is almost the 6th week of the semester. The hallways of the apartments are dirty and have trash overflowing the walkway from the trash room. Laundry card machine does not take cards because the machine is broken and awaiting service. The walls are unfinished and were clearly spackled over. Desk greeters are rude and unhelpful. Maintenance requests are cancelled because of the lack of maintenance guys, I was told approximately 2 for the entire building. My bedroom door lock has been jammed and my roommates door started locking her in her room. The office was notified multiple times and took no action.

Overall, if I had been able to give UV 0 stars, I would have. I regret thinking that University Village was a good choice and was saving me money.

UPDATE

Bringing in an emotional support animal will be a hassle solely because the security will feel compelled to ask if you have permission from UV to have your animal in the building. I brought my 5 month year old puppy after getting approval from Tristan Ritter (UV book keeper). The women who work behind the security desk have asked me multiple times if I have permission to have my dog here. They ask me out of the blue as I pass the desk. It is always confronting and time consuming for me as they bother me every time I’m taking my puppy out to potty.

SECURITY DESK IS RUDE After living here for 2 years because it is impossible to find reasonably priced housing near campus, I have been questioned WAY too many times about my residence here. All the while they let strangers in with no second glance as they are too busy chatting with their friends at the desk (friends don’t work there). The women at the front desk ask to see my key fob even-though they see me multiple times a day every day. It is...

If I could give this place zero stars I would. I lived here my junior year at Temple from 2022-2023 and it was disgusting then. I took a year off of school due to a loss and once it was time for me to come back I was certain that I wouldn’t come back here. However, after 3 apartments feel through I had no choice but to sign another year lease here and I can confidently say this was the worst decision that I could have made this year. I should have taken another semester off and tried to find another apartment elsewhere. I moved in and there was this big and old heater in my bathroom. It smells like burning metal everytime you turn it on, now that wasn’t the big issue. One day I was using the bathroom and noticed there was a huge hole under the heater. This was very concerning because I know this building has a history or rodents, pests, roaches, etc. i immediately put in a maintenance request to get the hole filled. They came and patched the wall but did an absolutely terrible job. The caulk is cracking, there is still a small hole where the caulk didn’t reach and it feels like if you press on it too hard the caulk will crumble. Recently I’ve heard mice in my kitchen walls, and then it migrated to behind my fridge. I pulled my fridge out and two mice ran out at me. I saw that there are multiple holes in the walls behind my fridge. I have an extremely bad phobia of rodents and bugs and as soon as I saw that I left my apartment in tears and slept at my partners house. I put in a maintenance request for pest control and went to the leasing office an hour before they opened to next morning to speak with someone. They informed me that they got my request and that pest control would be on site today and “they will see what they can do” I asked if they could guarantee that pest control could come to my apartment immediately and they said they cannot guarantee anything. I informed them that if I saw the mice again there would be a bigger issue because I am extremely scared and disgusted by this. The same night I heard them in the walls again and I immediately left again. Every night since then I have heard them in the walls, I’ve resorted to sleeping in my car at some moments because I am that afraid. It’s to the point for me that I do not even want to live here anymore. I will never feel comfortable enough to stay in my apartment again and I wish to be released from my lease but I have a feeling the leasing office will fight me on that. I am not from Philadelphia, I live 9 hours away so I cannot simply go home. I have no where to go and am stuck in this h*ll hole. Maintenance is terrible, they don’t fix things properly, my blinds were broken when I moved in and TAPPED together, there is no baseboard under my kitchen sink cabinet which is concerning because it looks like rodents and bugs can come in through the area, the walls aren’t patched correctly, it stinks in the hallways, and the trash rooms are absolutely DISGUSTING that is probably a contributing factor to the bug and rodent issues. I WANT TO BE RELEASED FROM MY LEASE IMMEDIATELY! DO NOT SIGN A LEASE HERE! I personally was informed not to sign a lease here and unfortunately I thought I wouldn’t experience any of this and I now and stuck with constant anxiety and discomfort in the place I live and cannot fully focus on school. DO NOT SIGN A LEASE HERE PLEASE THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER OPTIONS! I would pull out loans to pay $600 more a month for a nicer place than to live here. I cannot sleep not without waking up in a panic because I am scared there are bugs or rodents crawling on me. Management...

If I could, I would give this place 0 reviews. PLEASE read all of this.

It all started when I was on the phone with them. I could not physically take a tour because I was living in Texas before I moved to UV. I asked them if the rate they gave me for my room covered ALL UTILITIES, and they LIED. We had to pay for PECO, and we had to pay additional utility bills from UV. (Because I had less than a month to find a place to live, I just pushed myself and signed the papers.)

I also paid for June and July rent to secure a room for me to live because I was out of the country before I moved from Texas to PA. I made sure everything was okay and they didn't need any documentations or money from me before I left the country. I received an email with my apartment and bedroom (it was apartment 3**). I reached out to my roommates to discuss any bills since I will NOT be in the state of Pennsylvania until August, this was around April/May of 2016. Everything was okay with my roommates and me paying for whatever needs to be paid.

Fast forward to when I drove to Philly and went to UV's main office (first week of August 2016). They SWITCHED my apartment withOUT telling me. I lived in apartment 4* for fall and spring semester. Not only that, but I had to PAY UTILITY AND ELECTRICITY BILLS FOR THAT APARTMENT FOR THE MONTHS OF JUNE AND JULY. Keep in mind, I WAS NOT EVEN IN THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA DURING BOTH MONTHS AND WAS OUT OF THE COUNTRY IN JULY. I was supposed to be living in apartment 3* during June and July. I had no indication of being assigned to a different apartment until I arrived in Philly. Yeah, was NOT happy about that. Their reason to why I STILL had to pay: I signed a contract.

When I moved into my apartment, there was food still from the previous renters...IN THE FRIDGE. Nothing but mold and opened up boxes. I asked them if they can clean the apartment, but since 1 of my roommates came in the summer, they 'cannot'. So, my roommate and I cleaned the fridge and whole kitchen (even though that was NOT our job). Also, there was nasty God-knows-what under my toilette seat, so they did NOT do a good job cleaning the rooms.

Also, trying to get them to fix anything that needs to be fixing (washers and dryers) was a living hell. The dryers haven't been working since before December. I had to go to a laundry mat because of how awful the washers and dryers were. I emailed them and even call the 1800 number for the dryers and washers. Nothing was done, and I don't even know if they have been fixed now.

Security during fall semester was a joke. They tried to get girls' numbers and asked for them to come to our apartments (had that happen once). It was awful. After winter break, security had a whole new and better staff.

The staff can be nice, if you're nice to them. But if you give them an attitude, they will be rude back. I did have an encounter with a blonde young female during spring semester. I desperately needed to use the washers and the door was locked. I went down and asked her about it and she said there's a sign saying they are remodeling the floors. I informed her that there were NO flyers about it in front of the laundry room door (there really was not). She carelessly said that I was wrong and that there's a flyer. I asked her if she can give me details about when the laundry room will be finished and she told me to check the flyer. Clearly, she either hated her job or hated...