Awful. If you own a dog, do not rent from Riverwood.
Neighbors are great. Location is great. Management is THE WORST I've ever dealt with, and I used to live in Philadelphia.
Some of the other posts are right. Managers are lazy, aggressive and mean.
Despite doing everything we could to work with these people, including paying a great deal for a private trainer, keeping constant video on our animals to be sure they were quiet and respectful, and consistently listening to and working with management, the constant threats of eviction were not worth it.
We were told that because our dogs barked (no evidence of how long, when, etc) we should put them in shock collars, because the manager "used a shock collar on her Daschund because he had separation anxiety". Our trainer was appalled and offered to assist us in fighting the complex if they tried to evict us. They came and did a walkthrough at our request to listen to the "noise" that they said the neighbors complained of (but would not provide us with the dates, times, etc the neighbors complained so we could work on the problem). They refused to work with us on the time of the walkthrough and because they wanted the dogs loose in the dwelling, my husband had to stay home from work.
After the walkthrough, they told us the "sound of our dogs running and playing could be considered a nuisance to your neighbors" and if it didn't cease, they'd give us a 14-day eviction notice. Obviously, we were not interested in shocking our dogs or keeping them crated 24 hours a day. We offered to move to a lower floor unit AT OUR PERSONAL COST if the sound of the running was a problem. They refused, again threatened us with eviction, and told us "they weren't going to work with nuisance tenants."
Keep in mind, for 8 months prior to all this, we hadn't gotten a SINGLE complaint. All of a sudden we had 3 complaints in 2 weeks, and the management kept claiming there were MORE complaints, but that they "weren't going to share their evidence with us."
Finally, we were so stressed and miserable we broke our lease. During our moveout we learned they have harassed families with children in a similar way, and even told the children they couldn't stand inside during -20+ degree days to wait for the bus because "they were a nuisance."
After we broke our lease, we happily paid for the rent of the month they didn't have a tenant. However, they continued to come after us for a number of illegitimate other charges, including several things that they legally can't collect for. When we asked for invoices regarding the alleged repair they did for all the "damages" to the unit (we have photos and video of everything, there were no damages) they sent invoices dated several MONTHS before we moved out. We made several offers to pay some portion of the legitimate charges. They refused.
Basically: management in this place is a nightmare. If you have a child or a dog, DO NOT move in. During our move-out, we took video in which you can clearly hear our next door neighbor talking through the wall. Entire sentences. This place is NOT good for anyone who makes noise of any kind. They say that "some dog noise is allowed and expected", but the lease actually says "no noise" whatsoever from pets -- and that's the provision they enforce.
They lied to us to get us to move in, never worked with us when we were physically threatened by a neighbor, and once we posted this review and began filing complaints, harassed us until we left. This posting was anonymous, and yet they still wrote us a responsive letter in private e-mail telling us what we said here "wasn't fair."
I've lived in really crummy places, but never have I been so appalled by the bad behavior of a landlord. Unless you have no choice, don't move here. ESPECIALLY not if you have a dog. Since we've been in our new place, our dogs are much calmer, we're much calmer. It's not worth the suffering of being constantly threatened with eviction. Of the 12 tenants on our floor, at least 6 of them told me they felt the same before we moved out -- that they'd been harassed or treated badly.
No good. Shame on Riverwood for treating decent people this way. Even our current landlord has laughed when he's seen some of the things they did and said. Stay away. read more