State College Collective, state-college-pa

This is one of the worst experiences of my life. About two weeks before move-in, I called to say I needed to move in early, about five days before the official move-in day. They said okay and that they would get back to me. They never replied to any of my emails. Calling the office was its own ordeal: as an international student calling from another country, it cost me about a dollar an minute, and first you have to get through "Hunter," their automated assistant, which drives you crazy. You have to explicitly ask for a real person, and if Hunter feels like it, you might get transferred to a human after five minutes. When I arrived in New York, I called the leasing office again. I told them I hadn't received a reply and that I would be arriving in State College the next day, and I asked whether I should book a hotel or come and move in. They said, "No problem, come in. You only need to sign one document." I asked if my house was ready. They said, "Partially." I asked, "So I'll be able to live there normally, right?" They said, "Well, yes, you will." So I signed the document, for a three-person house. Keep in mind that my roommate never signed "as is." It took me five buses to get to State College. When I arrived and saw the house, it was horrible: dog poop under the sofa, paint peeling off the walls and doors, a dishwasher that doesn't wash anything, a fridge covered in spiderwebs, sticky floors, sofas covered in pet vomit and hair, mold all over the bathroom, and a leaking ceiling in the living room. And guess what? Maintenance does nothing about my requests, saying that I signed "as is." I was fooled. Before moving in, I toured the model unit above the leasing office, and it was incredible. Everything was perfect, and all summer I dreamed about moving into that beautiful house. I have attached pictures. Nothing has changed since August 15, and it's now October 23. Again, my roommate hasn't signed anything. At the office, they told me the rent would be $780. Now I'm paying $980 for this house. There are a lot of hidden fees. On top of that, a month ago they told me they would start charging for electricity separately, when before it was a fixed fee. I have requested a lease termination multiple times, and they keep rejecting it. All I have wanted this whole time is fairness. If you live on the ground floor, I promise you will freeze unless you buy your own space heater. It's only October, and the heating doesn't reach the bottom floor at all, even with the heat turned on. A few days ago, after three months of requests, maintenance finally came and replaced the dryer. The first time I used it, the alarm went off. They hadn't replaced the vent pipe, and something started burning. I had to call 911 because of the fire hazard. This is absolutely unacceptable.

The Northbrook apartments are horrible. I could not move into my apartment on the scheduled move in date because there was an illegal male subletter in my apartment (which was supposed to be female only), and the management did not notice for an entire month. Northbrook did not let me know my housemate would be renewing their lease, leaving a loop hole for management so they did not have to clean the apartment space before a new tenant moved in. I moved into a very dirty and disorganized shared common area, and into an upstairs where the carpet smelled like old animal feces and pee. My parents and I spent all of Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd cleaning the apartment because it was not suitable for move-in. We had asked the management if they would hire someone to clean, and they said they would but they never did call someone. Because of the illegal subletter, the half bath was never fixed even though it was broken, so dirty toilet water sat in the bowl for who knows how long. Even though I signed a lease for a furnished unit, my bedroom has been left without a mattress for days, even after going to the leasing office to request a mattress every day. After paying the first installment of rent, I expected my place to be completely ready to be moved into. They also do not check the safety of their properties because I had to verbally ask for a front door lock change or else my apartment was still accessible to a stranger. They also have taken no action with an illegally parked vehicle (no license plates) that has been sitting in a designated parking space for days, even though in their lease they are very strict with any violations. They do not care if tenants violate their lease agreement because no action has been taken with the illegal subletter or the illegally parked car. Do not waste your money or time with State College Collective.

I’ve only included some of the photos of the damages that I have had to live with for the past few weeks. There is much more damage throughout the apartment and much of it is apparently not even going to be fixed. The AC was broken upon move in and was not fixed for weeks. The bathroom cabinet has still not been fixed. The place was disgusting upon move in (professional cleaners skipped my place and when they did come they did an unsatisfactory surface level clean). Also note that for half of the apartments, the kitchen window is partially underground with a whole to the surface level to let light in.

The worst experience I have ever had with student rentals and I have gone through this process many times before. Since the moment we got our keys, we have been dealing with rotten cabinets with potential mold due to significant water damage, broken AC units, worms coming out of the drain in our shower, and a missing bedroom door that was later installed incorrectly so it doesn’t close/shut. The cleanliness of the apartment was also very poor and the apartment carpet had to be professionally cleaned.

Stay away from SCC unless you want to spend your time trying to get maintenance to fix even basic issues. We have been in and out of the leasing office multiple times trying to get our washer fixed. Only to be stonewalled saying it's not an emergency and they don't have a time estimate when it will be fixed. Terrible experience from the management. Week after week, we are faced with the need to take our laundry to laundromat, even though they could easily fix the washer. No response to emails. Will update the review with actual time taken to fix a washer knob whenever they get around to it. Update: Maintenance came in and closed the request, without doing the job. The washer knob was on the floor, hinges broken and machine unusable. Basically, they closed the request without working. Updating with photos so that people can understand.