River City Property Management and Sales

It’s not everyday that you go searching for a new place to live, but when you do, and it’s already a stressful experience, you just can’t deal with unorganized and unprofessional interactions. So, I set up many showings with different companies, and my needs weren’t addressed by this company. They act like they’re too good for their customers and their office and business practices are less than inviting. I am a previous tenant of theirs. I think Iowa City property managers are held to a lower standard, and here they are, par for the course. Their website was also difficult to use– on mobile the search was at the bottom of the listings page. They also had out of date advertisements.

I’m surprised to see these negative reviews, my roommate and I only had good experiences with Roseann. She was always very nice to us, and usually very prompt with fixes or requests that we had. Through the last year of our lease our entire apartment was basically renovated, and when resigning our lease our rent didn’t get bumped up like most other places.

As long as I am on God’s green Earth I will NEVER stop being angry at these Iowa City SLUMLORDS. Let me preface what I am about to write just by letting you know that every word of this review is backed up by the small claims record filed with the johnson co clerk of court.
First of all, the house was disgusting the day we moved in. Maintenance was a nightmare the entire 2 years we lived there. Theresa and Stephanie are the rudest, unhappiest people I have ever met in my life.
They nickel and dime you with fees at every chance they get. For example, at one point they scheduled a city inspection without giving us notice. When they showed up I turned them away because the house was not clean enough to be viewed for a city inspection and my roommates were at work. They charged us $ 50 for not allowing them to illegally enter our home. They claimed that this was the fee incurred by the city. When I actually called the city to ask about this I was told that they receive 2 appointments at no cost. This is seriously the tip of the iceberg.
Toward the end of our lease, my roomates uncle was over and checked our basement washing machine (because they refused to repair it themselves) and discovered black mold in the basement. I had been living here for over a year and a half at this point.
My roommate’s mother complained and demanded to be released from the lease 2 months early. They agreed but told her she needed to pay a bunch of miscellaneous fees first. She asked her attorney to draw up paperwork and requested that R.C.P.M. sign it stating that if we paid what they claimed was owed they would not come back and sue us for damages or any additional costs. They then refused to give us the signed form without getting the check. We handed over the check and guess what? They modified the contract to say that they could sue us. ILLEGAL DOCUMENT TAMPERING.
Fast forward a year and I am being sued for $ 5,000. Half of the repairs were things that were broken before we even moved in. Luckily for us, i was able to prove this as I had kept outstanding phone records, photos, and receipts for all their baloney. We actually ended up getting money back because the judge decided the actual valid damages were less than our original security deposit.
After 3 years of hell it felt pretty amazing doing the jitter bug in their parking lot with a check for $ 550 in my hand.
Do not rent from them. You will regret it.

I highly recommend not renting from these people. They’re very dishonest. They will try every possible avenue to rip-​you-​off.
If you do rent from them, save your paper work. They will conveniently lose those items that could be beneficial to the tenant.
They should be the next Iowa City area «landlord» to be sued.

It’s the classic Iowa City rental story. Move out, clean the place until it is spotless, but still get screwed by your rental company. However, after going through this process five times before this, I have to say Roseann at River City Property handled my security deposit the worst of any property manager I’ve encountered.
Roseann was very nice to me the full six months I sublet the apartment she leased. But when I moved out and got my security deposit back (well, I should say, almost none of my security deposit), there were deductions that made absolutely no sense. When I moved out, I spent several hours cleaning behind the stove, the fridge, windows, walls, doors, you name it. The place was spotless when I left; cleaner than when I moved in. In spite of my efforts, I was charged for FOUR HOURS worth of (additional) cleaning. I don’t know what a cleaning service was doing for 4 hours in that studio apartment; she didn’t send any receipt of their work, so I really have no idea.
She also charged me for a late rent payment, even though I paid my rent on time, every time. Worst is that she didn’t communicate either of these things to me, or the other deductions, and bear in mind this was not a year lease. I was only in this place for six months, yet she managed to find ways to deduct all but $ 10 of my deposit.
If I were you, I would not trust Roseann. She essentially made up a list of costs, provided me with no receipts verifying the list, and made no attempt to explain why this happened. Because, what am I going to do about it, sue them and spend way more than that on a lawyer? Ruthless property managers know you can’t fight back, so they take advantage of you. I expect some of that in a college town with poor renters’ rights like Iowa City. This however was way beyond anything I expected or encountered working with past companies.
If you encounter Roseann from RCP, stay away.