The Sterling Apartment Homes

Terrible at communicating and unethical when it comes to refunding you your money; $1000 security deposit non-refundable if you let them know 2 days after accepted application that you are no longer interested. Apparently to them, an apartment held/unlisted for 1 business day has incurred them $1000 in expenses. Many other tenants have complained about their scummy behavior in stealing your money, not to mention the complaints from other review sites regarding cockroaches. Disgusting. Rent anywhere but here. Awful website, sub-optimal representatives like Cindy who do not have your best interests. 0/10 experience.

Avoid the Sterling at all costs. They have numerous hidden fees and have charged dozens of students a $500+ painting fee as a final money grab without explanation or photos. The rent is overpriced and you can do much better in center city.

Apartment renewal included monthly charges for a pet which died 2 years ago. The Sterling staff was notified at that time.

10 yrs ago I thought this place was top notch but I wasn't able to live here. GOD showed me why Thank GOD

WORST experience I've ever had with an apartment building. I initially stayed in the apartment because of the location and awesome front desk staff. I had issues with apartment ventilation, smelly hallways, and roaches in common areas. Since COVID, building amenities have been closed for months and the elevators frequently do not work. Hoping to talk it out, I spent weeks chasing Community Manager, Jay Mattingly, only to have phone calls and emails ignored. Pretty deceptive and predatory considering we are in the middle of a pandemic. Best part of this building is the amenities, but you will have no access to any of them during the pandemic. Don't pay a premium for this space. Save your time and avoid the stress.

Stay away from this building! They have been charging an exorbitant amount ($500) in "painting fees." I know of over 20 units where this has happened. Absolutely ridiculous and unheard of.

Sterling apartment is the worst apartment that I have ever stayed. The property company which name is Amico is greedy, selfish with a terrible customer service. They make their facade look so called fancy but never care of their tenants or the apartment units. 1) Utility: They prorated and estimated your utility bill for water, gas, and electricity, based off your unit size, tenant headcounts etc but NOT your actual usage. When I questioned to them, the service team said it's costly to build meters for every units. Sterling - You made investments on your lobby, you front door, your new pool but do not have money to build meters for your tenants? There was an entire month that I traveled and did not stay in the studio but they charged me $70 for the utilities. 2) Unit air: Extremely poor. I can constantly smell odor from the neighbors next to my unit or from the higher floor, when they cook or even smoke! There was a tenant stayed next to my unit and smoked in the morning and night. The odor spread entirely to my studio. The vent in every unit is actually a decoration!!! Based off what the service team saying, they only have one single pipe let the air from each unit flowing up to the top of the building. It is hard to get rid of bad smell from the apartment units, especially in the winter or summer when you cannot just open the window. 3) Move-Out Cleaning: They require you to clean the apartment like no one ever stay in it before!!!! I rented a studio and cleaned it thoroughly for every part of the studio. The service manager called Jay charged me $150 and said my apartment is dirty because the move out condition is not ready for the next tenants to move in. The lease agreement stated that "resident shall comply with the terms of Owner's move-out instructions in the same condition as when leased, except for ordinary wear and tear. Resident shall clean thoroughly the apartment to the same level of cleanliness that existed at the time Resident first took occupancy." Don't ever think you can avoid paying the cleaning fee because of the exception for ordinary wear and tear at Sterling. They will keep emphasizing the second sentence which requires you to clean it like no one occupied before!!!!!!! This does not make any sense to me. You live in the apartment for a year and you need to keep it as no one ever live before? This is ridiculous and the service manager is rude and recklessly determined that your apartment is dirty so you need to pay them the fee. In general, Sterling Apartment Home never pays any attention to their customer service to their tenants but are LEECHES that drained out every penny of their tenants

Coming and going from this building has been nothing but huge inconvenience lately because of people with dogs, they are constantly in the way and loitering by the front door and the elevator area. Dog owners need to realize many people do not like their animals and they need to allow other people to come and go and walk thru the building. Management should advise dog owners to have consideration for others!

Very disrespectful management and lease office. We waited over an hour for our previously scheduled appointment with no show from the leasing office. They showed no interest when they had to show their best presentation to convince us to stay with them. When we left, no one asked us or even apologized for their behavior! Can't stay in a place where people's time being disregarded.

Do not rent at the Sterling.

I have lived at The Sterling for 7 months now and for the first few months, I loved it but it has been starting to go down hill and fast. The AC is currently shut off when the current weeks temps have been over 80 degrees. I had to stay in a hotel last night and will again tonight because it is unbearable in my apartment to relax or sleep in. Simple things as the TVs in the gym on the machines have not worked in weeks which is absurd. For the rent prices they charge, you would think getting cable on workout machines would be an easy task. There are water shut offs every month including today and tomorrow which is annoying. For the rent prices that are charged, I would not recommend living at the Sterling to anyone.

I think Aimco is a very poor management company. I was only there for 8 months and was ready to leave by the 2nd month. The construction is very loud and annoying. The constant water shut offs were insane. Some once a week. You could hear people in the hallways all the time because of the space underneath the front door. The hallways smelled of marijuana. To top it all off my apartment was flooded and I had to sleep with dehumidifiers running all night. The people at restorecore overseeing the flooding were extremely rude and treated my belongings carelessly. Not to mention the huge bill I got a move out for the most minuscule things. I'm not surprised though. The electricity bills every month were unfair and since it's a community they charge for everyone else in the building even though I use very little electricity. The management of course did not care, especially Tanner. I will never stay at another aimco property and will try my best to tell everyone I know to NEVER rent at the sterling. Horrible apartments! Thanks for nothing.

I was VERY interested in renting an apartment here until I saw that for my two 7 pound dogs they are charging 300 MONTHLY RENT. Are there any private dog runs? Any grooming stations? Daycare? What in the world would possess them to charge that on top of their very expensive new rents? I bet the dogs cannot use the pool either! LOL. What a major rip-off. This is not a dog friendly building. And the MONTHLY rent is on top of a large damage deposit. Bah humbug.

This is by far the greediest, most inhumane management company we have ever dealt with. There is mold all over the inside of these apartments, cockroaches, and foul smells permeating the bathrooms because of their horrible HVAC system. They control the heat / air and don't turn the AC on until well into May with temperatures over 80 degrees. We had to vacate the apartment because it was so unbearable. We have lived here for 2 years and are begging to get out of our lease because of cigarette smoke coming through our shower air vent and management refuses to let us break the lease. With severe life threatening asthma, they don't even care. Also, be prepared for incredible amounts of dust and the dryer vent ventilating out into your apartment. I have no idea how these apartments are up to code - it is baffling. Do yourself a favor and RUN as far away from these nasty apartments as you can.

RUN, RUN, RUN as fast as you can from the Sterling Apartments Homes. I honestly do not know where to begin because it has been the most unpleasant and upsetting experience. My daughter, a college student, moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in August of 2022. When it was time to renew the lease for 2023, her father and I decided to go with a one-bedroom apartment. Management approached her and asked her what they could do for her to stay in the same apartment. The renewal process for a one-bedroom unit was less than ideal and an extremely upsetting and stressful experience. I still can not believe that the leasing manager Wayne brought my daughter to his own bedroom apartment because according to him there were no other "available" apartments for showing. During the tour, he made inappropriate misogynistic comments. In June, I donated a kidney to my son, and 10 days after the surgery I personally went to speak to Cindy because she had ghosted my daughter and was not returning any of her e-mails. She brought me to Wayne, and as I started my conversation with him, I was interrupted by him and started yelling at me to stop talking. At that point, I walked away and my decision was made. Any e-mails in regard to maintenance issues or to schedule a walk-through time and date were completely ignored. We moved out 2 days ago, and they did not make the moving out process any easier. We were told to just leave the keys in the apartment. I called Patrick, the building manager, and left a voice message to express my concerns about not doing a walk-through. I also shared that another tenant was moving in who had not booked the elevator which made our movers run two hours late and as a result, my scheduled cleaning crew could not wait because of the delay. I got a call from Wayne. I expressed my frustration with the move and the lack of professionalism within management. I told him that I would be back in the morning with a new cleaning crew. He offered to do a walk-through, but after what had transpired I was not comfortable. He completely dismissed my needs because when I got there the next morning, the code had already been changed. I realized later that someone had come to the apartment and had already taken photographs. I was able to talk to Patrick the following day and we came to a compromise. Patrick was very professional and helpful. Be aware, that there is a hidden painting fee of $500 and a cleaning fee of $150. Do not expect to get your security deposit back. Except for Patrick and the front desk staff, Cindy and Wayne are extremely unprofessional and simply do not care about the tenant's needs. I am appalled that after paying the Sterling 54,000 we were treated in such an inhumane manner. One star is too many!!! Do yourself a favor and don't step a foot in that building.

I lived there 3 years ago. Service And room is not worth for the price. And there are lots of noise everyday. The most important is the add a reminder in your own calendar because that they sent to u with the reminder will be very unclear and under bottom of email. Because of this. I am been fine for 3000 dollars and u don't have choice and it is appear on ur agreement. So pls be very careful for when sign ur lease. Better to check Other apartment first. I don't recommend this at all.

Poor maintenance, bad management, don't move here if you have the opportunity.

Worst apartment ever. Tried to change my contract to require me to stream clean my 10 year old carpet when I moved out a few years ago, then sent collections people after me and kept my security deposit plus charged me $200 more when I left the place immaculate. The place has a serious roach problem also that they try to pin on tenants and the pool on the roof was almost always closed when I was there.

One star is generous. I worked with Cindy and unfortunately was not able to finalize the unit due to personal issues. However, we agreed that if I was able to find another person to take it over / the unit is rented back out, I would be able to get the deposit back. I also informed the building as early as possible so they would be able to rent it back out ASAP. I could've waited until the very end which would have cost them time and money to find someone to fill it. I referred many friends to the building over the course of the summer. The building rented my unit back out and no one told me and I continued to refer more people to the building and the sterling is refusing to refund me the deposit even as they have incurred no loss or cost and we had discussed this previously. I'm extremely disappointed with this treatment. Be careful with this building - go elsewhere if you can.

Unreasonable management, hidden painting fee and damage fee when moving out. Management won't provide proof or invoices for the charge and are not responsive to emails. You really feel powerless as a resident, don't expect to get your deposit back if you live here.

July 3 update: I received a call from the building today stating that the charge is fair and will not be removed. It's hard to believe how condescending and arrogant the management team is. This has been a terrible experience. Avoid this building! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- My first Google review ever. Recently had a negative experience when moving out. Despite spending many hours cleaning the room, the move-out team charged me a $160+ cleaning fee. After I sent over 30 pictures I took as evidence of the cleaned room, someone from the team replied, "You were charged a cleaning fee because the apartment was not cleaned to our standards. We require the apartment to be professionally cleaned and sanitized upon move-out." This is unjustified, as their standards may exceed what normal people can reasonably achieve. I'm attaching some of the pictures for others here to judge.

MORE DUST THAN A 9/11 AFTERMATH. Where does it all come from and why doesn't it stop?!!! Lived here for too long due to great location and "luxury building" marketing, great rooftop, and closet space. Those are the only 3 perks. No studs, just cheap layers of thin dry wall packed together between the walls. Vents don't work in bathrooms, smell your neighbors cooking throughout the day. Unsanitary breathing environment for anyone with allergies. 50% of the elevators work. False Fire Alarms wake you when you fall asleep. A Homeless man set fire to a teddy bear at 4am on a weekday in the loading dock. Get this, maybe one of my favorites.. The dryer lint from dryer shoots debris all over the kitchen and living room and not outside the building like every other normal home or apartment. AC (which isn't powerful) is only available for 3 months regardless of how hot it gets in May and Sept/Oct. NO AIR FOR A "LUXURY" BUILDING?? Other than 4 inches of cracked window... should I keep going for a Part 2??

A rat was found in my apartment. To make the situation worse, the lady at the concierge desk behaved extremely rudely with me when I asked her to expedite the situation and ask the maintenance person to come immediately/asap. When I said that you have only raised a normal complaint in your system but not mentioned to the maintenance person that it's an emergency she said "you didn't hear what I said". And then she proceeded to say "you're giving me attitude". This kind of behaviour is very unexpected. Why would I not raise concern about something like this? And how can she talk to a tenant like this? Of course management would take no action against this lady. This was not the first time she was rude to me. I dunno the reason- maybe because I'm quiet, maybe because I'm a South Asian, maybe because I was nervous walking around for the first few months as an international student in a new place? Who knows.

Update: downgraded to one star. The management team is in over their head. The poor communication highlighted below is due to the fact that the property manager (William Lanni) is absentee so much that the regional manager (Patrick McGarry) has to respond to emails for him. FUN FACT: I learned more from the response to this review than I ever got from the management team here. It's still inadequate but thank you nameless comms staffer for doing what your property manager (William Lanni), community manager (Corey Tatarka), or regional manager (Patrick McGarry) could not. As an aside, it's not promising when your building's regional manager is asking you for advice on what to do. For what we pay to live here, I really expect someone on staff to know better than me, the tenant. I have seven AIR employees an email thread and we still can't figure out how to process packages. Simply put, we expect better for the price of this place. While I will continue to hold them accountable and fight for better management, prospective tenants should really consider options other than the Sterling. -- I've been here three months and management refuses to get a grasp on how packages are received. It takes days to find your delivery and yet they have the gall to charge you for the service. You will spend more time than you could ever imagine sorting their mail for them. This building is sketchy. They keep losing my power in the middle of the night and the AC is faulty at best. I recognize it's an older building but it's still shocking how much time you'll spend waiting for an elevator. For what we pay, I would not recommend this place in terms of quality. The location is convenient and the management company knows this. They know they'll get their money from you despite their bare bones efforts to run this place. Just know what you're getting into so you won't be surprised. Edit: With regards to Janet's response, I would like to point out that you are now the fifth employee of Air Communities to claim they are looking into these matters. Neither William Lanni, Corey Tatarka, Patrick McGarry, Bryan Nicholas, nor Kevin Mosher (essentially the entire management team between our building and the Philadelphia region) have bothered to get back to me. They ignore us and treat us like petulant children for expecting more from your overpriced property. So Janet, if you care, I suggest you start with reaching out to the people stated above to bring you up to speed. I sincerely hope your involvement lights a fire under their asses to clean up this mess. I won't be holding my breath but I hope you prove me wrong.

When I moved into my apartment it had a major roach issue which took almost a full month before they were able to clear it up. I'm talking roaches in my cabinets and on my plates and cups every single morning. Lived there for a year and my lease recently ended so I moved out. The Sterling offered cleaning services for a whopping $150 which I declined and decided to have my own cleaner for the apartment at move out. Apartment was spotless and passed inspection and everything and I was told I was good to go and could leave and would get my security deposit back. Now I'm getting my security deposit back and The Sterling is charging me a $150 cleaning fee. Of course emails to both the concierge and management (Jay Mattingly) have gone unresponded to now after multiple attempts over the last 2 weeks. This is an absolutely outrageous racket. All the other reviews about the elevators always being down (sometimes 2 or 3 at a time out of the 4 for weeks on end) and the constant false fire alarms Pre Pandemic are all true. Now with the pandemic every amenity is shut down yet you pay for everything in your rent and of course they steal money from you as well on the back end with no recourse or acknowledgment of communications. Make the wise decision and choose a different building

I used to love it here, but cannot stand the excessive fire alarms. Now, on an almost weekly basis, the fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night or early morning - it's intolerable. I have never lived in a building where the alarm goes off this frequently, and in fact I've never had a fire alarm go off in any apartment building I've ever lived in before now.

There is one aspect that potential residents should be aware of--the full painting fee policy. Regardless of the condition of your apartment upon moving out, The Sterling charges a full painting fee. This means that even if you have taken great care of the walls and they don't require a full paint job, you will still be charged the fee. While I understand the need for standardization, it would be more fair if they assessed the actual condition of the walls before applying the fee. We have a group of people (>80) live here and over 20 got the full paining charge of $500 upon moving out, some of them is pending moving out and the building hasn't give a proper explanation so far. UPDATE: after many rounds of communication, the management office has returned my painting fee via check, and I got the check within two weeks. Other than the full paining fee, the overall experience is not bad. The location is convenient, with easy access to public transportation and nearby amenities such as restaurants and shops.

Worst rental experience my boyfriend and I have ever had or heard of! The building is very old, smelly and unsafe! The halls either smelled of marijuana or garbage! The management company that owns this building is also very unresponsive and doesn't care about the tenants!

If there was an option for no star I would definitely have chosen it. Worst building and worst Management ever! Very rude and disrespectful. Living there is just a waste of money and energy.

Aimco is the most nasty company I have ever seen. There was water outage all the time. Sometimes there was no hot water. During winter the AC stopped working several times. The only thing good is that the people actually work in the front desk are really nice.

outdated, no amenities, building staff is unpleasant

BEWARE OF FAKE 5 STAR REVIEWS RECENTLY POSTED Awful management, and thankful for it. We intended to renew our lease, but was offered rates FAR above where our unit was listing for new residents, which made no sense. When I inquired with management, they stated it was because how the prior lease was structured and they could not override it. I asked if I should simply submit a new lease application for the unit. Unfortunately for me, I asked this early on a Friday afternoon and management merely refused to respond until the following Tuesday. By that point, our apartment had been leased and no longer available to renew. This was a blessing, as our new apartment managed by Pearl Properties is so much nicer and the management actually cares about tenants. Issues faced while living in the Sterling: 1.Lack of transparency/honesty with management. I rarely receive responses. 2. Antiquated heating/cooling makes life here miserable during parts of the year 3.Deceitful cost marketing/transparency in fees. The $40 annual Luxor Fee was not disclosed when touring/prior to moving in. The $5/month "Energy Conservation Fee" is honestly a load of crap. Nothing about this building is energy efficient.The $5.25/month Service fee is ridiculous and provides no benefit to the resident. In all, there are $163 of annual fees that can easily be integrated with the rental cost to provide full transparency to the renter, but AIR chooses to instead pass these on after the fact. Nothing short of deceit. 4.The gym is (was) incredibly outdated; it may be one of the worst gyms I have seen in a Philadelphia luxury apartment complex. The treadmills have original iPod connection ports, which have not been used in nearly 10 years. Instead of putting money into the gym, we ended up with a pizza oven. Talk about poor capital allocation. 5. The printer had been removed from the tech lounge. This was a selling point when we moved in, and it was removed with no explanation. Corey noted in an email to the community that management was seeking a solution. When I followed up directly, Corey noted that there would be no replacement after all. This is called lying. 6. We were also told the front desk would no longer handle print jobs as it detracts from their duties. More often than not, they are on their personal phones. Honestly, I don't care about that in particular. I do however have a problem with being told they are "too busy" to deal with our one-off print requests and that is clearly not the reality. 7. The fire alarms go off too frequently and staff have not been able to quickly address them. 8. Outsiders (non-residents) have been able to make their way into the building on multiple occasions. I saw a homeless man tailgate into the building and rush into an elevator with a mother and her baby. 9. Lack of care/maintenance with the roof/pool. Umbrellas break constantly as staff do not take them down prior to storms 10. Pool usually lacks chlorine and is likely a hazard most of the time. 11. Grills did not have a timer anymore; gas can be left on and continue to leak into the area creating a significant risk 12. Cockroaches 13. A friend of ours toured the building after we recommended it. They asked Cindy about the concept of socialized utilities and Cindy responded "well, this may not be the place for you then". Needless to say, that was the last time we recommended someone to live here. 14. We were told not to leave any "large items" behind in our moveout as we would incur a fee. As instructed, we did not. However, management did not disclose that even small items would incur a $100 deduction from the security deposit. Another example of poor transparency. 15. When our final bill came, I pointed out to the manager at the time that we had been double billed for utilities. He could not follow the simple math I laid out, which was frustrating. Sure, the roof was cool and the $/sqft may be more favorable than other places in the city, but there are better apartments in Philly

You can get a lot more for your money in Philadelphia. We were told the building updates to roof and gym would be finalized in early January when we moved in, now mysteriously we have found out from work men this is February, but no communication about this from management. Two of the four lifts haven't worked for months, there is no water in the building today and no forewarning to residents. Cockroaches alive and dead most mornings. Fire alarm goes off every week. Total shambles.

DO NOT MOVE HERE! I've never taken the time to leave a Google review yet here we are. HORRIBLE management services. I live here and it's been a month and a half waiting for management to get back to me on my email inquiring about the living conditions I've been in - and I am coming from a NYC tenement building. I've never had more roaches, louder neighbors, dirtier trash/common areas in my life. Air conditioning was out for large chunks of the hottest parts of summer, electricity often gets shut off for hours at a time (say they're doing updates but seems to be a trend in reviews). Worst thing besides hearing everything my neighbor above me does (down to speaking/hearing him talk) is my apt is always damp - there is water damage in my ceiling and kitchen and I had to get a dehumidifier due to the smell, mold starting to grow and I was feeling very sick constantly. Have now bought 3+ boxes of dehumidifier bags to try and keep my clothes dry. It's miserable - don't move here unless you want to live in mold, roaches, and hear your upstairs neighbor doing anything in their apartment.

Lived here for 2 years and just moved out. First year management was reasonable so we decided to continue with a new lease for a different unit. However we got hit with unreasonable damage charges and painting fees this year after moving out. They dont provide solid proof via writing and almost trying to ignore our efforts to address the issues through written communication. I wonder if they deliberately charge us international students who are moving out of philadelphia because they think it is easier to do so. Whatever the reasons are we are hugely disappointed about Sterling Management team + the way they handle this and feel like we are being taken advantage of. Not cool Sterling - you guys can do better.

Words don't do justice to how horrendous this building and the management are. Cockroaches make it unliveable, yet management refuses to call an exterminator (even after admitting that this should have been done prior to a new tenant moving in). Want to take a shower at 10pm? Try again later, since they randomly turn off the water with no warning. And the smells? You're better off walking down Roosevelt. Save your money and go live somewhere else. And stay tuned for the ChatGPT reply from the management below lol, they just don't care about their tenants.

Cons far out weigh Pros. The management of The Sterling would mess up a two car parade. Any positive rating on this building must have been orchestrated by the staff. Pros- Pool (however you are only allowed to bring 1 guest up there) and location. Cons- 1) Attitude of the management-They are terrible at communicating everything, both in content and timing. It is understandable that things break and need to be fixed. However, what makes this building different is that things break, and they will choose the cheapest option possible to fix it, which in turn breaks again and again. Then the management will have a response towards you that you just need to deal with it. 2) Constant Construction Noise-. There is constant hammering and drilling all day, 6 days a week (and yes Saturdays) sometimes from 8am-6pm from floors being renovated. They are doing two floors every 6 months. Also, there is a Comcast building being built on one side of the building. It will not be completed until 2017, and is a massive construction operation. There is no temporary rent compensation for this. 3) Water and Electric Out- About three times a month the water and electricity is shut off for an entire day for construction which is done in the building for next few years! A note is slipped under your door 1-2 days before hand telling you it will be done, and that you will not be compensated because it is in the 100 page lease that you signed. 4) Cockroaches- The building is filled with cockroaches, I kept finding them in my apt. Exterminator came up. He told me there must be billions, and yes billions, of cockroaches living in the ceiling between the 4th and 5th floor. And that the management isn't taking the steps to rid the building of them because its too expensive. 5) Group Utility Pricing- The only individually metered utility is electric, therefore the gas, water, heating, insect etc monthly utility bills are divided by total residents in the building. So if you don't use a lot of one utility expect to still pay $70 a month for water because you need to pay for everyone else. Not to mention all the common areas, hallways, lobby etc. And the $10.00 a month maintenance for all utilities, still don't know what that is. Just pile it all on. 6) Elevators-The elevators break extremely frequently, all four passenger elevators have not worked at the same time in over 2 years. And when you do get an elevator is usually filled with construction workers. 7) Renovated Apartments.- The renovated apartments which they are pushing are made up with the cheapest appliances and material possible. Literally, a former leasing agent told me they bought "defective" appliances from a GE warehouse because they were cheaper. That means all of the appliances in the new apartments were formerly owned then returned to manufacturer because they broke, then that crap was bought AIMCO for a cheap price! Literally, the perfect example of their cheapness. It does look nice from about 10 feet away. 8) Price- Even if you move in and are satisfied with your rent payment. It is not uncommon for them to up the rent payment the next term substantially without any changes to your apartment. 9) Fire alarms are faulty and they are too cheap to replace the system, false alarms go off once a week. So much that if there were ever a real fire no one would believe it. I could go on and on with more examples, but the management will deliver the cheapest and short-sided apartment living possible while charging "luxury" apartment pricing. They make solid attempts to seem pro-active and professional like responding to peoples complaints on here, and saying someone will reach out. But trust me they are anything but pro-active and professionals. I have always questioned reviews because you see some positive/negative and get confused. But all the other negative comments on here are spot on. I think the management must pay tenants $50 off rent to write reviews or does it themselves.

The worst building ever. No communication or customer service skills, they don't care about their tenants. I have a sewage smell in my bathroom and it is causing me bad allergies, they charged me a lot of money for early move-out and 60 days notice. Although now I don't stay there as much since the smell is horrible and it is affecting my health, I still have to pay for extra month and breaking the lease fees. Landlord must provide unit that is safe, sanitary, and fit for human habitation and my Studio is not.

If you like sleep, do not live here. The fire alarms are extremely obnoxious and go off at all times of the day, multiple times a week. It's impossible to get any rest. This has been going on the full year I've lived here and management has done nothing about it

Lack of communication between management, maintenance, and tenants - I've had to follow up with them several times for service items and still not resolved, and they don't acknowledge feedback. They are more concerned with upgrading lights in the hallways and downgrading the rooftop furniture.

The Sterling management decision to impose a ludicrous $600 painting fee AFTER move out is nothing short of a blatant money grab on in-debted Penn students. Nothing was stated in the original contract. Wharton MBAs - stay away! Not removing this post until they reply to our multiple emails and inquiries.

Three major issues here. Elevators always out of order, currently 1out of 4 working takes 30 mins to get out or into the building. Fire alarm goes off at least once a week, noisy and not convenient. Cleanliness / cockroaches not good there are dead guys laying around the floor and public areas such as gym etc are filthy. Management's solution is to buy everyone bagels. Great if you are hungry and agoraphobic otherwise not really a solution.

It is very noisy here.

Great place, love living there, beautiful units and facilities Cons: lease is very constraining, 0 flexibility and non-accodomating even to renew a lease (probably the reason I will not sign again). Very expensive utilities. Getting back the security deposit is a nightmare. WIFI: EXTREMELY POOR AND EXPENSIVE SERVICE FROM COMCAST THAT HAS THE MONOPOLE FOR THE BUILDING, YOU LITTERALY CAN'T HAVE ANOTHER INTERNET PROVIDER.

I have lived here for almost two years. Our water and electricity are shut off constantly by the building to do maintenance. It's getting to the point where it is ridiculous and impossible to plan around. And yet somehow our utilities are unbelievably expensive. There are also maintenance things that we don't request to be done that the building decides to do without consulting us if it is a good time. I had someone come into my apartment during a dinner party, and while I was sleeping! I tried to reach out several times to the management in advance to tell them that it wasn't a good time to come since I was coming off night shift. Someone just came into my apartment! I'm just so sick of the way this building treats their residents. There is literally no regard for our privacy and safety.

I'm a current resident and although most things are OKAY (to clarify, really nothing amazing) here, the biggest issue we've had since we moved in are the recurring fire alarms that are fake/turn out to be a false alarm. We've received some context as to why they went off but the situation is so bad that people just ignore them now. It's become a "boy who cried wolf" situation and I really hope no one gets hurt in the future. In this week itself, we have had 3 alarms pulled - worker spray painted too close to the smoke head, detector in the recycling room, and one just now which went off for a few minutes and then we were told to disregard it. This happens at any time of day or night and is extremely disturbing. Despite many many complaints, management has done nothing to resolve this major nuisance. Another issue is the safety. This is supposed to be a luxury building with a doorman and there is someone at the door 24/7 but our friends have never been asked where they're going and are allowed in without them giving us a call also. What is the point of having someone at the front desk??

The administrative processes around my move was frustrating. I am still owed my deposit since my move out in May '22. They mismanaged my package that I dropped off with them to be picked up by carrier. The overall move-in and -out processes and communication was disorganized. Adding to the poor experience was their mismanagement of Obligo, otherwise a good service but poorly managed both by the apartment management and by the company itself. Essentially, the apartment claims that my deposit was applied to move in charges but all move in related charges were waived as result of a promotion. Later when I moved out, Obligo reached out and asked me to pay a separate deposit payment because Obligo claimed that the apartment charged them separately therefore I owed Obligo as well. In sum, I paid deposits twice.

This is the worst building I've ever lived at. I'm so glad that I'm moving out soon. The biggest problem is constant fire alarms going off during the middle of the night. I'm writing this review as I am waiting to get back into building as there is an another fire. The management are a bunch of greedy incompetent people who lie to you when you're in the process of signing the lease and don't care once you've signed. They will increase your rent to ridiculous amount after the first year. Stay away from this place if you can.

While the conceriege staff is nice and helpful, their bosses/admin are impersonal and next to impossible to get a hold of. If you have a problem that needs to fixed, expect the best case scenario to receive a very delayed response vs. refusal to acknowledge or help. I should've been tipped off when I attempted to get a hold of rep to ask questions before renting here. I could not get a live person on the phone or via email on multiple attempts, but my application was approved within 10 mins of submission because they wanted a good reliable tenant with a good credit score. When mistakes are made with deliveries the refuse to acknowledge fault and provide trite impersonal email answers defusing any responsibility and leave you to pick up after their poor service and lying. I could go on about the issues with a high turnover place that caters to the younger crowd (recurrent fire alarms, frequent disruption of water and other services), but honestly the complete lack of customer service outside of the low level employees for an apartment owned by an out of state entity that views its customers as nothing more than a monthly check with no accountability should dissuade anyone from signing a lease with this apartment. Sure, it has a nice rooftop pool and has livable apartments, but I can't recommend living here at all based on how they treat you. Avoid and find other places, even if the rent is a little higher. - A current tenant.

Overall, we are pretty happy with The Sterling. I would give 4 stars when the construction is complete so 3 stars for now. The construction on updating the whole place has been the biggest challenge. You do hear it if they are redoing a floor within 2 on either side of you. They start sometimes before 8am (they aren't suppose to do that but they do) and work till about 5ish. The place is updating the elevators so 1 out of 4 will be down till probably next year some time. The one thing that I don't like is all utilities are communal and then split among the renters. Therefore, if you are out of your place, you will still pay for your utilities. Also, in the winter months, the construction sometimes keeps the doors open, which causes the place to use more than normal. The building of the Comcast 2 can be noisy if you're on that side. All of this is manageable of course. Getting past those real items and on to the place in general. They've done a good job on the renovations and the place is coming together. The layouts of the apartments are great and so are the upgrades. This, of course, comes with a price. You get access to the gym, pool (best in the city), 2 Viking grills and a nice roof top outdoor space to hang in general. The staff is some of the best I have seen. They are always helping in any way possible beyond just selling you the apartments. All are very responsible if you call, email or text them. The building management continues to add nice stores on the ground level; and you can't beat the area. Just blocks from everything. Management makes sure they do events for the building too and cool ones too (private party - open bar) at Misconduct just to mention one of them. There are more items here but don't want it to get too long. I would put it on your "take a look at" if you are looking in this area.

I would rather deal with humans than automated systems. Increasing automation has become de rigeur.

The climate is controlled by the building, and utility bills are divided evenly among residents. I'm not a fan of this type of billing.

Unfamiliar with the structural of the building or the atmosphere. Although a beautiful rooftop lounge area with a pool as a additional accommodation.

Ive lived here since August, and this is my honest review of the community: Pros: -Higher floors have great updated appliances and the kitchens are massive -Security and maintenance staff are awesome, just the most personable and helpful group of people -The amenities are unmatched! The pool and gym are awesome. -The location is really great you're near pretty much everything and can get to any part of the city very easily. There are also quite a few grocery stores that are walking distance. -The units are quite big and the layout is awesome with a ton of storage. Our unit has two walk in closets and two smaller closets. -The residents are a really varied group. There are young professionals, families, older people and everything in between. It makes for a really awesome living community feeling. Cons -The biggest problem is the temperature control. The building temperature is reliant on when the management wants to switch it over to heat or AC. This means that in October when they switched it over our apartment got to 80deg and there was literally nothing we could do about it. -The street noise is horrible. I live on one of the upper floors (above 20) and I can still have the motorbikes and cars as clear as if i were on the street -Others have said that this company is greedy, and I agree although most companies are. My problem isn't with the rent, its the other services that make me mad. We recently got an email that said that our utilities (which are already astronomical) are increasing by $15 more a month. We then got an email that our package service membership is also increasing by $15. While this doesn't seem like a lot its still very annoying that they were not up front with this. -We've had one mouse and plenty of bugs. They said they would put us on a "list" but it could be weeks. We ended up just dealing with it on our own. -There have been fire alarms at all hours of the day and night since we moved in. As someone who works both days and nights, its really hard to sleep with this issue ongoing. My biggest concern with this company and management is that since they're getting bad press recently (when i leased they were rated a 4.2) they are losing business. And like most companies like this, they are taking that out on the loyal customers who live here and don't necessarily want to leave. I really wanted to release at The Sterling but since all of this stuff has happened and seeing the way they handled it, it makes me not want to unfortunately. I really like everything but the management.

Not a true smoke free apartment. People smoke outside the apartment and bring back the residual into the elevator and hallway. Residents who habitually smoke weed in their apartment, it seeps out the door. People smoke vape and weed during daylight on the rooftop and staff doesn't do anything. There are 2 concierge who actually take care of responsibilities. The maintenance men are awesome. The rest are not good. Also, AC is blasting in the hallways even in the middle of winter and seeps under the gaps on the door. Don't choose the apt that is near the vents.

Roomy apartments with good closet space. wonderful location for walking access and public transport to much of the city.The best maintenance team always at the ready. Aside from rooftop area with a summertime swimming pool, there are no amenities for social activities. The promenade and sidewalk in front of the building are dirty with food and drink spills, dog feces and sometimes human feces that are not power washed, Trash is not regularly swept, broken tileson one of the ramps have been cracked and broken for months and never replaced, just tossed at the bottom of a tree bed. There are frequent serious leaks from broken pipes. Concierge turnover has decreased but still new people appear but their training for interacting with residents and noting the identity of who comes and goes is lacking consistency. The situation with package deliveries is not acceptable and is so voluminous in nature, it necessitates that concierges must leave their post and sort and search to put away boxes and to help residents find delivered boxes. This presents a security issue. The parking garage under the apartment building is not owned by the Sterling, and there is no elevator access to it. There are many very pleasant and responsible residents in the 500 units, but there is a great deal of turnover because of student semester schedules and therefore a lack of adherence to trash and non-smoking rules, and announcing visitors for security purposes that management repeatedly sends emails to remind residents about.

Amenities are great, but a couple frustrations - the frequent power shutdowns were challenging, when I work virtually with people across the globe, and often have to work late into the evening. Semi-frequent water shut downs have been frustrating as well. Hoping that these don't have to continue to be recurring (I don't believe they will be - but the timing was challenging for me) Other pain point is, my room being on the 25th floor, takes a lot of direct sunlight and is difficult to cool down when it is even a tiny bit warm outside, since the windows can only be cracked. The direct sunlight causes my room often be quite a bit warmer than the outside temperature. When seasons are changing and there's no A/C available, I often struggle to get my room below 80 F, which can be quite uncomfortable. I would MUCH prefer leaving AC on longer in the fall, as well as turning heating off earlier in the spring, so that I can cool my room down when seasons are changing - A few extra weeks of having AC would go a long way, since a slightly cold room is much easier to deal with than a too-hot room. I've heard others mention having the same issue so wanted to raise in case there's room for a slightly expanded AC timeframe. Other than that building is great, but the temperature has proven to be a challenge for ~2 months of the year for me, both years that I've lived here.