Alexandra Palumbo

I've been living at Royal Crest for about 2 1/2 years now. There are a lot of pros and cons. I hope this review is helpful for anyone considering to move here. The pros: The grounds are beautiful and very well maintained. I would say they are one of the best looking apartment communities in the state! I also like how the buildings aren't on top of one another, so there is a lot of space for parking / ground to roam. This makes it a good place for children to play. If you go to any Picerne owned property you'll find this to not be the case. Aimco (The company that owns Royal Crest) does a way better job at this. The pool area is very nice and well maintained, very sunny too. The clubhouse is nice and comes equipped with a package room which is very convenient. Also comes with a decent gym. However, they could do a way better job at cleaning it, as I've found the gym to be dirty on a few occasions. I also read a review where someone voiced a concern about men staring at women in the gym. I've only witnessed this once, where a man in jeans came into the gym. But he was ultimately saying hi to a friend that was working out. There are multiple security cameras in gym, so I can assure you, everyone is safe there. There is no law stating you can't enter the gym wearing jeans and you can't stare at anyone, so please get over yourself! There's also a community garden where you can rent out a space for free! Very unique. Also a tennis court + a half basketball court. Plenty of bike racks for children (or adults) to store their bikes too. The location is pretty great being right next to rt 95 + rt 2. However, if you like to sleep w/ your window open + the sound of the highway will annoy you, you may want to put that into consideration. The cons: They charge extra for EVERY little utility. They also didn't tell me this up front! Before I signed my lease I was told that only gas was extra and you paid it when you pay your monthly rent + you pay electric directly through Nat Grid, okay fine. When I went to pay my rent for the first time I discovered I was being charged for water, sewer, trash, PEST CONTROL?!!, and a few others. I've heard from multiple people that in RI it's illegal for a landlord to charge a tenant for water and sewer. But I'm not a lawyer. Maybe this review can shed some light on that topic. I also read a review where someone was complaining about them charging $50 if you're late on your rent. This is pretty standard, so stop complaining and just pay your rent on time.? For the cost of rent, the apartments are somewhat outdated. I think for the cost of rent there should be at least stainless steal appliances (I'm not asking for granite, lol!) But maybe the higher rent comes with being right near the highway. Trying to get maintenance to do anything is a big to do. There was once incident when an old man had an accident in the hallway and there was human feces all over the stairway. When they told me they had cleaned it up, I discovered that they only wiped it and didn't shampoo the carpet or any form of disinfecting. There was still feces left on the stairs. I called them twice about it, nothing. Then I finally went to the leasing office and talked to the community manager at the time. While I was talking to him he had a smirk on his face as if he thought it was FUNNY. He also told me it wasn't made a priority because they don't classify human feces out in the open an emergency. WHAT??! I think the health department would disagree with that one. It basically took about a week and a half for them to properly clean it up. Pathetic. I got close w/ my neighbor who's lived here for 22 yrs. She said that RC used to be a true luxury community back when it was owned by Sheraton. Now the cost of rent has risen (naturally, but yet drastically), but the quality in everything has greatly decreased, which is sad. I remember my parents would frequently drive by RC when I was a child and I used to always think it looked like the Ritz, lol. It still does on the surface, but beneath it not so much.