Last year was my first year being able to live off of campus and I regretfully chose University Village. I was so excited when I signed the lease with one of my best friends. It was going to be awesome living there, everyone who worked there seemed like the nicest people and I really liked them. From the first moments moving into that place I was already experiencing problems.
First off, in order to live in UV you MUST have a Co-Signer with your lease and all of mine and my roommate's stuff was in and set, I even reconfirmed it with UV before the summer started. About three weeks before school my roommate sends me a text saying that he UV dropped his parents as Co-Signers, mind you, this was AFTER they were already approved. He had no one else to co-sign for him, and for other reasons he was not returning to EIU, but he was still planning on living there and UV stopped answering his phone calls. UV started hounding him for money...even though he was not responsible, because it was up to the co-signers to pay rent and UV dropped his AFTER they were approved...therefore he owes them nothing, they screwed themselves with that move.
I move in pretty pissed of about not having a roommate and stuck living by myself, because they could not fill the duplex because no one lives there and all of my other friends lived on campus still so I was stranded. I tried getting out of the lease but they wouldn't budge and I couldn't blame UV for not wanting too.
After about a week or two I come home to my back door being unlocked and stuff moved around. I lived alone so I knew I locked it...my parents call and complain and then a couple weeks later it happens AGAIN. Okay I know I live in Charleston, but its still pissed me off that they would just randomly come in and then leave and leave the door unlocked and the lights on. I finally get pissed off and vent about them coming in my house and going through my things. (I had heard from other people that they actually caught maintenance in their house doing this). Biggest thing is that I forgot I was friends with them on Facebook and then when I went to pay the rent the property questioned me about it and acting like she was "concerned" and how "we would have no reason to go through your stuff". I then apologized.
A few months go by and now it's winter time and when you live in UV each of the three bedrooms gets a $50 electric allowance...meaning if I surpassed $150 on the electric bill then I had to pay it. For some reason it was $243 and they were saying that I only got $50 off because I was the only person living there, when all along this was not so. On average my bill was around $130 to $140. My dad called and the lady send they were "consistently telling ME I had been over the bill and they never charged me but this time it was just too much" My dad then asked "do you have any written documentation proving this?" The lady says "no, but you can ask him." My dad says "I think I will" suddenly the lady's tone of voice changes and she becomes very hesitant...so my dad knew she was lying before he asked me about it. They never once mentioned the bill to me. So my Dad started stating exact quotes from the lease agreement saying that it was per bedroom per lease and not person person living there, and that they would pay anything above $150, but that was it. It ended with my dad saying "have a nice day Jennifer" and her just hanging up. We knew we were over the allowance and we understood that, we were not trying to get out of it, we just wanted them to pay they're legal abiding portion.
In the end we won that battle and everything was fine until I moved out and they are saying that I owed over $700 in "damages" to the place, $241 for minor scuffs on the walls, $351 for a bleach stain in the carpet that was already there when I moved in, $100 to steam clean the bed....what the fuck is that? there were no stains, we should not have to pay for routine maintenance, that is why we pay rent in the first place. There was also an additional $67 in "additional cleaning." we are still fighting them on this problem now...and I don't even live there. My parents and I tried stopping in there to talk to them about it but the front desk lady said we had to write or fax a letter and they would not handle things face to face because they are cowards.
My old roommate is now being sued because UV is saying he moved in for a month and then moved out without paying any money...I lived there the whole 12 months and he was never even given keys to the apartment...explain that.
Those are the many reasons not to be at UV... no one lives there more than one year in a row because the property manager and the assistant property manager are the most fake two faced people I have ever met and will do anything they can to get money out of you. They currently cannot even fill their buildings and you could blame it on the distance or economy, but Campus Pointe right next door has a waiting list because they know how to treat their residents. The ONLY positive thing I can say is that the buildings are really nice, but not worth the hassle.
-EX UV Resident
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