Review History for DIAF

I probably shouldn t have moved in here

I ve lived in Korman Village Square for about 3 weeks now, and he are my thoughts so far. I should preface this review by saying that I was not thrilled to be moving in to an apartment (any apartment), but life circumstances dictated so. One saving grace is that I signed an 8-month lease (for only $10/month more than a 1 year lease), so hopefully I ll be outta here then. My first disappointment occurred even before moving in, but I didn t realize it until after doing so. While working with the leasing staff to complete the preparatory paperwork, the thought occurred to me that my first-floor apartment could be subjected to constant ruckus from above if the neighbor upstairs has an active dog (which are allowed on property). So I asked the leasing agent if the upstairs neighbor had a dog. She responded that she was not able to divulge any information to me about other residents, but she pulled up the apartment unit s file on the computer, glanced through it, and said you should be fine. As it turns out, the upstairs neighbors don t have an overactive dog, they have an overactive 13 year old boy. And an overactive parakeet. As per the lease, any animal must be reported to and approved by Management, so the leasing agent surely knew the bird was present in the apartment. But she chose to tell me whatever she needed to so that I would sign the lease. So the result is surely not peaceful and quiet. Further, even normal footsteps from above invade my home because of squeaky wood separating my ceiling and their floor. The people above just living their life sounds like a heard of elephants dancing. The next issue occurred 30 seconds after I got my keys and went to see my apartment. After I walked in my front door, the lock on my front door broke. I called the Leasing office and reported it, and the leasing agent came right over to check it out. She apologized and told me that she d fill out a maintenance request immediately after returning to the office. Since this was a Friday afternoon, she asked if it was OK that it would wait until Monday to be fixed. That was not a problem with me because the door still had one functioning lock. When Tuesday came and it wasn t fixed, I called the Management office (different from the Leasing office) to inquire about the status of my request. The woman I spoke with said they d get to it as soon as they could. Jump forward to Thursday and it s still not fixed. I called the Management office again and asked the same question. As you might imagine, I was a little annoyed at this point because the lock on my front door didn t work and it had been almost a week since I reported it. The management agent didn t seem to share my concern because I receive the same type of boiler-plate response. Friday morning, I went in to the Leasing office. Even though the Leasing office is not technically involved anymore since I was already a resident, I figured the people that are responsible for the income of the property would care especially since the Korman Garauntee allows me to move out within 30 days without penalty. The leasing officer took ownership of my problem and the lock was fixed that day a full week after it broke. The next issue was concurrent to the broken lock. On Thursday of that same week, I went to wash the inaugural load of laundry in my in-unit washer and dryer. After the washer was halfway through its cycle, I wondered if the dryer was hooked up. So I look behind it, and it turns out that the exhaust vent was not. It seemed to me that all that was needed was a standard flexible dryer vent tube that connects the port on the dryer to the exhaust port sticking out of the wall. But I have a more immediate issue: my wet laundry in the washer. Because this was after business hours, I submitted a service ticket online in the Korman e-service system Thursday night. While I was talking with the leasing agent on that Friday (the day after I noticed the dryer wasn t hooked up), I mentioned this as well, making it clear that I had wet laundry in the washer because I wouldn t have imagined that the dryer wasn t hooked up. The leasing agent said that she d contact the maintenance staff and get back to me within the morning. When she called me back on schedule, she explained that she was told that they part would have to be ordered so it certainly wouldn t not be fixed until the next week. To address my wet laundry, she gave me the key to the communal laundry room at the end of my building so that I could use the dryer (and $10 in Wawa giftcards for the inconvenience and cost of paying $1.50 per load to dry my clothes). On Wednesday of the following week, I came home to find the part on the dryer had been installed. To my dismay, however, the part was not a hose connecting the dryer s port to the exhaust port in the wall. It was a tube connecting the dryer to an open-air bucket of water on a shelf next to the dryer in my laundry room. I was dumbfounded, not only because this was a seemingly bad solution, but also because I couldn t understand how this was intended to trap lint. I called the Management office to ask, and it was explained to me that the linty air being blown on the water will trap the lint in/on the water. But the air is being recirculated in my apartment, and not being blown outside, I explained. The response I received was that this is the way they do things, and I should make sure there s always water in the bucket so that it works . The final complaint I brought to the management s attention is in regards to the brand new kitchen and bathroom my unit has, as part of the Modernista upgrade package (for which I am paying over $100 a month more). The Modernista upgrade package is a new program Korman is doing to redo kitchens and bathrooms with modern furnishings, stainless appliances, nickel hardware, and new tile in the bathroom. It s really a beautiful package. But here s the problem: After construction completed in my apartment shortly before I moved in, it wasn t cleaned. The entire kitchen had a layer if construction dust covering every surface; the stainless appliances had a streaked film on them, and there was saw dust and construction trash left in both the bathroom and kitchen. I had no choice but to spend hours cleaning this up myself because Management wouldn t have had time between when I got my keys to when I was moving in to clean since it was the weekend. I took some example pictures of these filthy areas and emailed them to the Leasing agent who was working to solve the other issues mentioned above. I didn t really expect her to do anything about it since I had already resolved it, but she was very apologetic. The last thing I ll mention is that parking is horrible. HORRIBLE. If I come home after 6pm, I ll be lucky to find a parking spot within sight of my apartment. There are designated areas of No Parking in front of the dumpster areas, but it seems that some people park there out of necessity. One night, I came home after 10pm, and I knew I was leaving for work before 7am the next morning. So I figured there was no way that the trash company would come before then to empty the dumpsters. When I came out for work the next morning, I was correct my car was not in the way of the trash truck. But I still get a parking ticket from Bensalem PD. In fairness, the apartment itself is decently nice, the people in the community seem very nice, and the neighborhood is quiet with healthy trees and grass all around. Access to I95 is very convenient, but Street Road traffic is painful. Hopefully it s needless to say that I won t be staying here long.