University Commons Minneapolis, minneapolis-mn

After 2 years living at this apartment, I absolutely do not recommend coming here to the university commons. It’s so overpriced for what it is, and management will charge you for anything ($200 for blinds that were broken before i moved in). The apartments themselves are a decent size, I lived in both a 1 bedroom and also a 4 bedroom and both are good sizes. The problem is with the quality. Paint is peeling, mold, cheap furniture that is half broken when you even move in, and most annoying & importantly…. EVERYTHING BREAKS. Me and my roommates entered in over 50 maintenance requests, mainly for leaking windows, constantly breaking showers (valves are prone to break AND leak), and overall extremely dated appliances that will just never work right. I will say the maintenance turnaround was QUICK! It’s also in a bad location far from classes and right on the highway. My first year living here I was in building 3, and was facing the highway and often had homeless people looking in my windows and knocking on the windows, or trying to open my sliding door! The management team is also extremely rude and never helpful, constantly shifting blame to tenants and offering no help, especially when it comes to the ridiculous fees that come with no explanation! Overall, there are way better apartments in the area and this one is just not worth it for the high price due to its bad location, constantly breaking appliances, constant break ins, and poor management.

Lied about the process of re-letting the apartment when I originally signed the lease, was told that it would require paying half of a months rent to break the lease, asked to confirm I did not need to find someone to replace me, they told me I did not. Come to find out when I did need to re let it it is an application process where they only allow you to re let if they find someone to take over your space and they give zero confirmation that they have the application and zero help in the process of finding someone to re let. This place also failed to make any note that some of the buildings do not have elevators, so I have been stuck on the 4th floor having to climb 4 flights of stairs every single day, which is absolutely horrible for moving anything to or from your apartment, or simply getting groceries. The management also cares more about marketing than the actual people who live here, and struggles to accommodate their actual tenants on many fronts. Don’t live here, pay a little more to live anywhere else.

Just an update. Management seems to be keen and responsive when collecting keys/ money but gave no reply regarding the refund of fees. Basically I got unfairly charged over 400 USD by University Commons and they gave no response regarding that. No transparency, nothing. Just need to take note of the charges and for students of UMN, save yourself some sanity and stay in campus. The nearest bus stop/ metro is a 15 minutes walk, at this point you might as well walk to school (20 minutes). Walking 20 minutes to school in the snow is pretty tough I would say, just think twice before renting because it’s pretty inconvenient without a car. Public transport is far and there’s really nothing good staying here.

Luwam gave a very nice tour of a furnished 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit. Everything looks clean and new. It’s nice to have a washer and dryer in the unit. I was surprised there is a hot tub there. I appreciated the snacks offered! I like the location to the U of M-very convenient.

Pest spotting MULTIPLE occasions. Especially on the first floor. Other units have same issue. Emailed management multiple times and never uses real solutions and continue using the same mouse traps that DONT WORK! Landlord needs to take better action immediately. Apartments need update and installments ESPECIALLY for the first floor, knowing these apartments are older. If you want the residents to like it here, you have to treat the buildings with updates and renovations. Because it’s old is no excuse for it to be better maintained or renovated each year.