The Crest at Princeton Meadows Apartments — Local services in Plainsboro Township

TOTAL SCAM. STAY AWAY.

These landlords do not care about you—only your money—and it shows.

This was the worst place I’ve ever lived. And that includes a place with a layout so convoluted we had to store the couch under the kitchen counter and 3 sides of the bed touched walls with holes so big you could see the next house over. At least that place was cheap and had a decent landlord. I can't say the same for Raven's Crest.

DO NOT MOVE HERE.

We moved out June 8. We got back less than half of our deposit September 29. The rest was kept for: (1) Cleaning fees – which, to my knowledge, aren’t legal in NJ for deposits. Also, the place was cleaner when we left than when we moved in. (2) Utility non-payment – proven false, as our utility company refunded us for overpaying.

We looked into legal action, but it would cost more than our deposit. Clearly by design—they’re betting no one will fight them. We only got any money back because we kept nagging. They sent the check to the wrong zip code. Repeatedly. Despite being corrected. Repeatedly. They do not reply to emails. Ever. You have to call or come over in person.

The unit they show you during a tour is clean and updated. The one you actually get? Filthy and ancient. Ours smelled weird, was dingy, and we submitted 12 work orders on day one—busted hinges, faulty stove tops, etc. About a third of the issues were never fixed. Throughout our lease, we submitted at least one work order every month.

The only good thing: the service people came quickly. Their repairs didn’t last, and they were often gruff, but they showed up.

Appliances? All trash: Washer: Ancient, LOUD, and only one setting worked. Too small, so you had to run it constantly. It was by the bedroom, so good luck sleeping. Dryer: Often took two cycles. Also LOUD. Banged around and shook the whole place. This was apparently unfixable. Hot water heater: LOUD and frequently ran cold. Also apparently unfixable. Dishwasher: Tiny, LOUD, and next to the living room so you couldn't hear the TV or even hold a conversation while it was running.

Other fun "features": Closet rods made of splintery wood. Doors that fall off or jam constantly. No “magic jiggle” helps. Thick shag carpet that is ugly, impossible to clean, and rough on feet. Two utterly unusable balconies made entirely of splintery wood. Apparently they failed inspection and would be "repaired soon". We were there a full year and they never fixed them. Pool & gym: Never used them. No info provided on how to access them, and by then we'd learned that the front desk was a good way to get a migraine and nothing else, so we didn't ask. Landscaping: LOUD and all-day. Every week, like clockwork. Great if you work from home. Stairs: Slippery and unsafe when wet. Painted over multiple times to hide poor construction. We had to complain to get traction strips added. Front door: Giant gap at the bottom. You could literally see outside. Biweekly visits from the fire department to neighbors for unspecified reasons. Sidewalks that lead to nowhere, forcing you to walk in the street.

There was a mouse infestation. Raven's Crest did deal with it, at least. Pest control suspected they came from the neighboring unit, but the fact that there were RODENTS in the building at all should say enough. I was cleaning mouse droppings from the kitchen cabinets for weeks.

Shower? Painted ceramic. With the same paint they used to whitewash the walls. It was rough, slippery, impossible to clean, and molded quickly. Disgusting.

"Whitewash paint over everything and hope no one notices the toxic, dangerous, and/or obnoxious flaws, because we can't be arsed to fix it because we're too cheap" is actually a fair summary of my overall experience with Raven's Crest.

I was utterly miserable the entire year I was forced to live here. The constant barrage of broken, or barely working, or just plain shitty things was unbearable. For the sake of your own mental health, stay away. For the sake of your wallet, definitely stay away.

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE...

The Crest at Princeton Meadows will seem very clean and inviting upon first glance but don't be fooled. They charge such high rent to "keep a certain type of person out." That's a direct quote from the leasing agent that showed us the place. When you come to see the apartment you will be renting, they tell you it's not ready yet and show you the better upgraded model with nice cabinets and pretty lights. The model we were shown, we were excited about. When we moved in, we were welcomed by ugly 1980s cabinets in the kitchen and some cheap white vanity in the bathroom that I had to clean the previous tenant's hair out of before putting my things away. Be ready to pay for your dogs to live here like they are people because they charge dogs rent and you will be required to pay $350 per dog just to walk through the front door. Then $35/month per dog afterwards. First day here: shower curtain rod was busted and hanging, there was a hole in the bathroom wall all of a sudden, the shower made a high pitched whistling noise, the door to the circuit breaker in the bathroom kept opening on its own since the latch was broken. Also, the closet doors were off the tracks but those will never get fixed. If it does, it will fall off next time you open it. That was just day one. The building we lived in seems to be the only building that gets blackouts during any type of weather and takes hours to come back on. The repairmen will not know how to fix everything. In addition: Door knob fell off from outside and trapped me inside for a day until someone came home. Apartment was infested with ants and they didn't send an exterminator until a week later. Dog poop and garbage littered everywhere. Halls between apartments get very messy with dirt and debris. Staff is horrible. You will feel uncomfortable every time you walk into the office and your concerns will go unaddressed. Walls are paper thin, you can hear other tenants using the bathroom, no privacy. I'm on the third floor and my floor shakes when the people underneath me walk. You have to pay for trash pick up, but it sits out for days sometimes and you wind up getting disgusted and walking it to the dumpster that's right in the parking lot. As if I couldn't do that myself and need to pay for it. For the first few months of living here, our building was being stalked by a strange vehicle and shortly after the apartment downstairs was robbed. They only have electric, so your heating/cooling bill will be astronomical if you plan on being any sort of comfortable, which you still won't be. You can feel the winter wind blowing through your doorknob. Will have to supply your own weather stripping to cover the large gaps in your front door. They say the floors are hard wood but it's just laminate with a cheap wood look. The appliances are old and cheap, the counter tops aren't granite either. The cops are always in the area, so who knows what's going on. They charged us $100 late fee on the rent during a bad snowstorm in which our paychecks were delayed. They showed no empathy or understanding, even though they themselves took off for 2 days. After the late fee, they charged us a $50 bounced check fee since the funds hadn't had enough time to clear after the delay. They say they will call you in to sign a new lease and they don't tell you anything. The only way you find out is when they raise your rent by $500 and now your overpriced apartment costs you $2000 a month. Then they will tell you if you don't pay the extra money they're demanding, they will be taking you to court. This complex is a scam. Every bit of information they give you here is a lie....

Apartments good, management is by far the worst I've experienced, and I'm pretty easy-going.

Greystar managed it so much better and was actually responsive. Issues since Harbour Group bough the property:

2 x maintenance came unannounced after I explicitly put into the notes that we have a dog and they need to give me 24 hours notice before coming, as well as the fact that they do NOT have permission to enter. I even called the office to stress this. Once of the times I was in the shower, the other time I was working from home on a conference call and so the dog was barking, maintenance at first refused to go away and come back, and meanwhile I am attempting to participate in a conference call. * It is so bad we don't even report maintenance issues anymore because they come 5 days after we report and with no warning, regardless of how many times I call and complain to management * Smoke alarm goes off 80% of the time we use the stove or oven because there is no actual vent. Trust me, we're not that bad at heating up a pizza or cooking some eggs that it should be going off multiple times per week. Maintenance acknowledged the problem and said there was nothing they could do. Tried to transfer into a different apartment for over a month and could not get hold of Joy, or she didn't have the info she needed (that we provided on multiple occasions), or she had to ask someone else something, or she simply didn't return calls or emails. So we ended up deciding to move and are very excited to have only one more month here! The office gives insufficient notice for things like paving and tree clearing, so if you're out of town, you might need to move your car and simply be unable to (didn't happen to us, but giving less than 24 hours notice for paving a parking lot? Come on..). They put improved sliding doors and windows on all the apartments and did give good notice there, however, they then came back 2+ weeks later to do cosmetic touchups on everything without any warning. Being that we have a dog they were 10 feet away from while she was in our place and we were at work, this really annoyed us. We easily can figure out another solution if there is going to be work done--but we need to know! I'm positive we're not the only ones who would like to know when someone is going to be around our apartment for several hours. Complaints about all of this always fall on deaf ears with management.

What is really frustrating is that we like the location and the apartments in general. We want to like it here. We did not want to move, but we kept having to make too many excuses and ultimately we'd just prefer a place where we can have privacy and not worry someone is going to come in when we're not expecting it. If maintenance responded within 24 hours, perhaps we could overlook the intrusion. However, when they don't respond at all and just show up 5-7 days later (after I call the office to follow up on the issue)...we simply can't be expecting them and waiting with bated breath for them to come and resolve the issue (i.e. tell us there's nothing they can do about the leaking door, the lack of a vent in the apartment, or the window that doesn't have a screen)

I hate being this mad about it, so seriously save yourselves the trouble and look elsewhere.

Oh yeah, to top it all off, we gave 60 days notice at the office and then a few days later got a generic email saying we hadn't yet told them if we were planning on renewing the lease. We had to go back into the office to make sure all was set. Can't wait to see how they try to screw us with...