The Carriage House Apartment complex, one of the off-campus living options for UConn students. Carriage is not part of Lineage Properties, but students have recently filed complaints with various off-campus housing units, warning students to be careful when renting. (Tyler Benton/The Daily Campus)
University of Connecticut students who have lived in Lineage Properties off-campus housing this past year have expressed criticism of their experiences with the management and quality of housing.
Amber Dickey, who graduated with her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction in May 2017, created a post in the Facebook group Buy or Sell UConn Tickets on July 24 advising other students not to rent from Lineage Properties in Storrs, Mansfield and Ashford.
Lineage took over the properties from Gr8est Space in November. Lineage Properties management declined to comment.
“They (Maplewood, Oakwood, Knollwood, Clubhouse and Millbrook properties) went under new management in November, and are not fit to rent,” Dickey said in her post, “The apartments are falling apart, and the management is both incompetent and sneaky.”
Dickey said the floor beneath her bathtub was rotting and electrical outlets regularly sparked.
“I had to file a maintenance request three times to get the bathtub re-caulked to prevent more mold, and it took four separate maintenance visits over two weeks to get a new chain to flush the toilet,” Dickey said.
Ashley Leffingwell, a seventh-semester English major, has lived in Maplewood apartments with her partner for two years. After being shown an upstairs apartment when she toured the property, she was disappointed to discover she would be living in a basement apartment.
“It’s very dark and the living room has no overhead lighting,” Leffingwell said, “The heat is floor heating and does not do anything at all besides rack up your electricity bill like crazy, not to mention you’re still freezing.”
Leffingwell said she has also experienced problems with mold, asbestos and lead paint in her apartment.
“While we were signing the lease, they mentioned the asbestos in the ceilings and walls as well as lead paint in some buildings,” Leffingwell said, “In the summertime there is terrible mold, because the walls are wood, you get mold everywhere.”
Both Dickey and Leffingwell said that they had frequent issues with the apartment administration.
Dickey said that management regularly lost rent checks, including her December payment, even though she had paid the former management the rent through April.
“Each time I talk to management, that have been nothing but condescending and rude to me, I suppose because my community is half college students and they assume we don’t know our rights as tenants,” Dickey said, “I’m frustrated, it isn’t difficult to be a decent human being, and I feel like this new management isn’t concerned with the wellbeing of their residents because they assume other college kids will cycle in and out if the current ones are unhappy,” Dickey said.
Leffingwell said she thinks management treats all tenants with equal disregard, including the family who lived next door to her. She said the previous management was significantly better at addressing maintenance problems.
“I think everyone here, no matter what age, is treated the same,” Leffingwell said. “The previous maintenance was pretty good and quick about fixing things, but there were so many problems in the first place,” she said.
Dickey said she chose to move into Maplewood Apartments three years ago because it was the least expensive option and the management at the time was friendly.
Dickey paid $850 a month for her apartment, but rent will increase to $1,225 next year without any improvements to the buildings. She said they are increasing rent to match what other properties in the area are charging.
Leffingwell said Lineage needs to make significant improvements to their properties and management style.
“I hope I can help spread the word so people know not to rent from them,” Leffingwell said. “Lineage Properties needs to work a lot more on their properties and care more in order for anyone to even think about renting from them.”
Anna Zarra Aldrich is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at anna.aldrich@uconn.edu. She tweets @ZarraAnna.