Submitted by zacko9zt t3_1217bmn in RhodeIsland
Anyone have experience with The Residences at Brentwood apartments or that area in general? Planning a move and I have lives around Providence / Riverside, but have been looking in the North Prov area.
Thanks in advanced.
I lived there for several years and this reply is very accurate. While most of the gripes are true, they are minor inconveniences imo. For the price, I found Brentwood to be a very nice place to live.
Thank you for the info! How are things with Maintenance? Say if the AC breaks, are they quick to respond or are you expected to try to fix it first? I am used to fixing my own shit first, but never sure about places like complexes..
Quick turnaround on most maintenance stuff. Most of the time they will show up the day you submit a request. They do 24hr emergency fixes too, like if your heat goes out in the winter. I think the only time I waited a day for them to come was for a screen door replacement, and that wasn't a live or die situation. They will even do stuff for you like ceiling light bulb replacements, like I would have done it myself, but I didn't have/want to mess with a ladder.
Gotcha, cool. For the parking, (I haven’t got a clear answer on this from the leasing office..) if I had two cars, Is there only one spot for the apartment and you have to fend for yourself for the other car?
Parking is a free-for-all unfortunately. You can have as many cars as you want (I've confirmed this with the previous management, might be different now), but you will need to find spots for them, there are no designated spaces, even if you just need one.
Gotcha, thank you! I believe we are touring later today, so I might come back with some more questions!
No problem, let me know
I lived there for about 6 years, left 2 years ago when I bought a house. Overall it was a nice place to live. There was always plenty of room at the gym and pool. The maintenance crew was awesome and always making improvements. For some reason my electric bill was always high there tho.. the highest bill I've gotten at my house was on par with the lower bills at the apartment
Thanks for the info! If you don't mine me asking, what was the electrical bill? My current 1 bed, while working from home atm, is about 80-100 a month. If the heat is electric, then I might understand the high bill (with poor insulation, etc)...
I'd say the average was around $150
Gotcha, thank you!
I would not recommend it. Lived there 5 years and here's why:
Parking is tight because the parking lot is striped improperly. This causes your neighbors to occasionally park over the lines and you may be out of a spot because of this. Guest parking spots are rarely adhered to.
I get that staff might be different now, but at the time I lived there if something broke in your apartment Maintenance would at first imply it was something you did. They installed the incorrect HVAC units in most apartments and they're loud, your heater will sound like the gates of hell opening when it kicks on in the winter, hope you have a loud TV. Had a black mold problem because they didn't clean the gutters...ever...
Mineral Spring Ave is the worst, I hope you don't need to get anywhere that way. You'll spend a lot of time ducking onto side routes just to avoid it.
Hope you don't like food delivery, 9/10 I had to guide the Grub Hub/Door Dash drivers to my building because at the time nothing was labeled or a sign posted as to where each building sat on the long property. I even had 2 drivers give up because I wouldn't drive from the back of the complex to meet them at building 1. That's not delivery, that's pickup.
The Gym and pool are ok as long as the other residents aren't bringing in over the amount of allowed guests, which seems to be the regular.
To the few positives: The gym is decent and has more equipment than most other complexes I've been too, the appliances are a lot more modern than other places I've been too.
Thank you for the info!
no prob, not trying to be a negative nelly, and I get that experiences may vary, but there are a lot more issues I had I didn't list because it wasn't worth going into.
But I really should've mentioned those drafty broken windows
Yea, it’s easier to remember /bring up the bad things. But also “the bad things” are what I need to know lol.
I feel like drafty windows are a staple to Rhode Island/ New England in general. I can’t get away from them
I was always hoping they'd replace them but gave up on it when I saw where it sat on the people who owned the property's priorities considering what other developments they owned throughout New England, especially those newer ones by the mall.
I lived there 10 years ago. Mineral spring Avenue took 5 years off my life.
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I would recommend against North Providence due to PFAS.
I know 2 people who grew up there. Both of them had babies with birth defects. One baby did not survive.
Doubt they were from PFAS.
Looks like you are right. I was wrong.
This supports your point of view (From NIH 2006):
> We observed an association between estimated maternal prenatal PFOA concentration and defects of the brain among live births, but the number of reported defects was small and within the range of what would be expected. In contrast to the weak indications for increased risk at the highest exposure in previous studies, we observed little evidence of an association with congenital heart defects [28, 29]. In addition, essentially no association with oral clefts was observed despite prior toxicological support from animal studies. Findings were largely null for the remaining defects.
TIL
Honestly, you never know. They’re still prescribing Zofran to pregnant women. I personally know 3 women 2 of which whose children had a cleft lip/pallet and one of which’s children had a heart defect. If you read the studies on that up on until a few years ago, they were not yet linking Zofran to the birth defects.
WWWATroCon t1_jdm37w7 wrote
Current resident here.
The gripes the other posters had were valid to a point.
The parking sucks and people suck at parking here, but you learn where to go to avoid spots where it looks like people drunkenly back in, take up two spots, and ding anyone who dares to get close. I've complained about this before. The management, who have taken over last year, told me they are going to repaint lines, but that's a big project, so it's not going to happen soon and I'm not holding my breath. They are also fining people for parking over the lines these days, i think people are finally learning how to park from this.
Yes delivery services like GrubHub and door dash can never find their way in, I don't know why people pay the insane prices for these services anyway, just go pick the food up yourself. Local restaurants with their own delivery services know their way around the complex if you absolutely need to order delivery.
Yes, it's off of miserable spring, but it's far enough away where it feels secluded from the street, also there are easy ways to avoid going down it.
Electric bills can get high, but I've had months where I don't use much heat/air and have something under $80.
If you're worried about PFAS, just get a lifestraw pitcher, it's a good investment anyway.
Now my take on the positives: for this price range it's very hard to find apartments with amenities like this in this state. Central air and heat (yes they are loud like the other poster said), vaulted ceilings, really well tended greenery around the complex, ceiling fans, the buildings are strategically placed so from your porch you aren't looking into other people's places and they can't see into yours(for most of the spots), and in unit washers and dryers. I could go on, and of course the above doesn't apply to all units, some of the spots here even have fireplaces. It almost feels luxurious in a way, but maybe I just have low standards, haha.
My biggest complaints are the 'landlord-special' ways of hiding blemishes, i.e. popcorn walls/ceilings and white paint over hardware. The new management seems to be remodeling units when people move out, so maybe they are addressing things like that. (This may have them justify higher rents though)
I have considered moving from here to get closer to work, but I cannot find anything else in this price range with these features in almost the entire state.
Feel free to ask me questions if you want to hear about how things currently are.