Residents dissatisfied with University Crossings

By: Aditi Dubey

Posted: 6/1/07

University Crossings, used by many Drexel students for off-campus housing, has been receiving a number of complaints from its residents.

The building is owned by College Park Communities, which currently owns 77 student housing properties and manages 17 student housing properties owned by their clients, according to its web site. University Crossings has residents from Drexel, University of Pennsylvania and other local colleges.

A standard lease for University Crossings apartments covers a period of a year. According to College Park's Web site, all leases are a fixed term payable in 12 equal installments. The first installment is due on move-in day, and all subsequent installments are due on the first of the month beginning on the first of the month.

The residents complain about the poor infrastructure of the building, inefficient and inadequate services by the maintenance staff and uncooperative management.

Brett Roney, a junior majoring in information sciences and technology who lives on the 14th floor of the building, is moving out soon due to the poor condition of his apartment.

"Our apartment has had a leaking roof for about a year and a half, and we have a hole about 2 feet in diameter in our one bedroom," Roney said in an e-mail. "There is leaking all in the corners of every room, including the closets. These issues have been going on for about 8 weeks, and we are still living with brown water dripping from [the] hole in our ceiling into an industrial size recycling bucket."

Roney further said that University Crossings management would sometimes send a maintenance worker to resolve the problems, but the leaking continues to persist. The hole in their bedroom wall was never taken care of either. Roney also said that the verbal agreements that the management makes with the residents are never kept because "there is someone new in the office."

"We are constantly told that it is being worked on and they are trying to resolve this," Roney said. "We were told that if we wanted, we could be relocated within the building, but Crossings would not help us move any of our stuff."

Some of the other complaints are about the poor security services of the building. The deadbolts in many of the apartment doors do not work. Many times, residents are able to get access to the building without swiping their ID cards.

"There have also been occasional problems associated with loss of heat or air conditioning," said Scott Kiry, a junior majoring in biology who has been living in the building for over three years now. "I can't even begin to explain the anger and contempt we have had over the past year for the lack of urgency management has showed us regarding this issue [leaking roof]."

"There was a period of three months where the four of us roommates put our month rent in an escrow account and didn't pay until we felt problems were adequately repaired," said Kiry.

Other residents have complained about having to pay more rent than they were supposed to as per their lease. According to Brandon Sprague, a junior majoring in biology and business administration who has been living in University Crossings for about three years, "nothing in the building is handled with professionalism or with the resident in mind."

Sprague told The Triangle that when College Park took over ownership of the building, the management told all re-signing residents that payments for the new lease would only begin when their College Park lease was signed. Thus, signing on September 25, 2006 meant the resident was responsible for payments from that date on. Sprague went on to say that payments before that were supposed to be the responsibility of Philadelphia Management, who were the previous owners.

"However, nearly 1 year later, College Park comes back to those residents stating that all residents who signed their lease in September now owe the full amount," Sprague said.

According to Sprague, agreements were made between Melissa Impagliazzo, who was the former property manager, and the residents that payments could be made at the residents' convenience, so long as the resident agreed to pay. These were binding verbal contracts with Impagliazzo.

"Melissa was then fired, and a new 'property manager,' Chad, stepped in," Sprague said. "Chad disregarded any former payment agreements and began charging late fees to any outstanding accounts. I personally could not afford to pay until April, which is the agreement I worked out with Melissa. Chad did not care and continued to charge late fees for each day the balance wasn't paid."

According to Sprague, the residents are still charged late fees for the dues, which according to them, they do not owe.

Chad Broadwell, the current building manager for University Crossings, refused to interview with The Triangle. Pete Flaherty, regional vice president for College Park Communities, could not be reached for comment. Calls to College Park communities' President John DeRiggi and National Director of Student Housing Operations Rhonda Smith, were not returned.