The Retreat at Illinois, urbana

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.

I am a parent of an unfortunate renter at The Cottages. Never in all of my life have I written a negative review about a business before, but this place is such a complete dump that I feel compelled to write my very first one. The apartment is cheaply constructed and not adequately maintained to ensure safety, proper sanitation, and comfort. Upon moving in, the apartment appeared as if it had not had a thorough cleaning in years. We were met with numerous clogged drains, windows/tracks encased in dirt and dead bugs, peeling paint, grimy walls and doors, filthy/stained carpeting well past its prime, and broken doors/fixtures. It took my family and I many hours of intense cleaning to bring the apartment to a somewhat sanitary state. I was feeling satisfied with our progress until I inspected the HVAC units and dishwasher only to find an absolute horror show inside. As you can see from attached photos, the dishwasher was in an unusable/hazardous condition with a thick/moldy film present, and the HVAC system contained stagnant water and dust coated filters from 2020. I interacted with one member of the office staff who seemed pleasant enough until I complained to him a second time about the filthy conditions of the apartment when the cleaning person he had promised on that morning didn't show up. As I was talking to him about the situation, he suddenly raised his voice and called me disrespectful for expressing my concerns. Once he escalated things, I had to end the conversation as it was clearly going nowhere due to his lack of professionalism and customer service skills. He even continued to yell at me as I was walking out the door. In regard to the front office itself, it's such a pleasant looking, clean, shiny place. Unfortunately, it is very deceiving as it gives you the impression that the same care will be extended to the residences. On the contrary, my review and photos show the management has no concern for their residents' safety and comfort at all. I strongly advise anyone considering leasing with The Cottages to look elsewhere.

EDIT: They were able to provide a refund, so I'm bumping it to 3 stars since the apartment itself is pretty good if distant for the price, though this does not take away from the poor communication. During the summer when no one was present, our utility bills somehow shot into 800-900 dollars for just 3 months. We called them regarding this discrepancy but refused to send anyone to check on it or tell us any details. We had to pay in the end. If you want illegitimate and exaggerated charges, then why not try this place out?

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.

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.