The Retreat at Illinois, urbana

If you’ve ever wanted to experience a sauna without paying for a spa membership, this apartment might be a great choice. The air conditioning has been broken for over a week, with the indoor temperature reaching above 30°C (86°F). Maintenance was supposedly scheduled, but no one showed up, and the AC remains broken. Apparently, keeping an apartment at a livable temperature is not considered particularly urgent here.

This property, formerly known as The Retreat at Illinois, has serious and ongoing issues involving maintenance, safety, billing, and management. I strongly recommend checking reviews under both its current and former names before signing anything. My experience has been extremely negative. (To future residents: If you experience similar maintenance, heating, billing, or safety problems—and you are a U f I student, consider contacting the City of Urbana and seeking help from U of I Student Legal Services or a local attorney. ) 1. Serious parking lot safety concerns and hit-and-run damage Recently, my friend’s car and my roommate’s car were struck in the apartment parking lot in what appears to have been a hit-and-run incident. The estimated repair costs are expected to exceed $40,000. One of the vehicles has since been declared a total loss. The parking lot has a gate, but it has been broken most of the time, allowing almost any vehicle to enter the property. When I arrived at the scene, I observed apartment staff attempting to remove the police case number, phone number, and card that had been left on the vehicles. The manager later stated that staff were trying to contact the police and file an incident report. This was extremely disturbing and made an already serious situation even worse. 2. HVAC failure during winter The HVAC system failed during winter, and the indoor temperature dropped below 40°F (5°C). Despite repeated emails, calls, maintenance requests, and in-person visits, the system remained broken for nearly three months and was repaired only after I contacted the City of Urbana. The City later issued a Notice of Violation requiring the heating system to be repaired or replaced. I have also heard from other residents who experienced similar heating problems. Despite this violation notice, management refused to allow me to terminate my lease early. 3. Extremely slow and unreliable maintenance Most maintenance issues took an unreasonably long time to resolve. Although this was advertised as a furnished apartment, there was no dining table or chairs when I moved in. The dishwasher was already broken in August and was not repaired until October. A roof leak also remained unresolved for weeks. 4. Abnormal utility bills Water usage and billing have been highly abnormal. For example, a utility bill issued in October 2025 claimed that one unit had used more than 50,000 gallons of water in a single month. This resulted in a total water bill of more than $700, which was split among four roommates.This amount is clearly inconsistent with normal residential water use and appears to be part of a recurring issue affecting multiple units. Overall, I strongly advise prospective tenants against living here.

As an international student from Spain, renting an apartment from across the world can be incredibly stressful, but the team at The Cottages made the entire process so easy and transparent! They are incredibly fast at replying to emails, answered all my questions in detail, and are super accommodating with international students. They were very understanding and flexible regarding the visa process. Special thanks to Ruphine for the outstanding customer service. I highly recommend them to anyone.

The maintenance guy at this apartment complex has an extremely poor attitude. Whenever you need him to come into your unit to repair something, he becomes impatient, raises his voice, loses his temper, and blames you for supposedly damaging it. He is highly unprofessional, unethical, unfriendly, arrogant, and condescending. He insisted that the damage was caused by the tenant, yet he provided no evidence to support that conclusion. Can he really determine the exact cause solely based on his personal experience? Come on, you do not have supernatural powers. You are just a maintenance worker. How can you definitively claim that the damage occurred exactly the way you say it did without providing any evidence? It feels as though his only goal is to help the manager to make tenants as much money as possible, even though he is simply just an employee. Don't stay here forever.

This is an amazing apartment! Reasonable prices and the staff are the nicest on campus. They always hold nice events here and seem to really care about their residents