Colebrook Management

When I moved into Royal Garden Apartments in Feb of 2015, I worked with someone in management named Jackie. She was wonderful to deal with and was very helpful and professional.
It is now August and I am getting ready to end my lease and it’s been nothing but hell. Jackie’s replacement Sue Stojakovich is the most unprofessional and rude individual I’ve ever come across.
I had my first few unpleasant interactions with Sue outside of the office. I was not fortunate enough to get a parking spot, so I park on the road, often far away. When I come back to my apartment with groceries or a weekends worth of laundry, I have quite a few thins to bring into my room. I can’t possibly be expected to make multiple trips to my car when it’s parked so far away on the road. So, just like others in the complex do, I pull up outside of the garage doors, turn my flashers on, quickly unload, and then move my car to park it on the road where it belongs. Three times in total now, Sue has been trying to leave her garage spot that I’ve been blocking with my car. Instead of politely getting out of her car and asking me to move, she lays on the horn and yells out the window. At first I thought she was just some rude person who was in a rush, but it’s happened three times now and I recently found out who she was. Colebrook, is that really someone you want working for you?
The second unpleasant situation that occurred with Sue and I is the reason I was driven to write this review. I usually take to Unilocal to write positive reviews but I was so infuriated by the situation that I had to warn others and hopefully Colebrook of how their employee is behaving.
The contracted lease that I signed with Colebrook ran through August 1, 2015. The lease for my new apartment didn’t begin until August 15, 2015. So that I was not homeless for 15 days, I made arrangements with the tenant taking over my room to leave on August 15^th. The new tenant was completely fine with the situation and in fact didn’t even want to move in until after that. I didn’t know how to leave a contract or a lease as I’ve never had an apartment before, so I contacted Sue for help (I needed to know how to get my deposit back and where to drop off my keys)
I received an email back from Sue saying, «The answer to your question is that you’ll need to work everything out with the new tenant. You can leave the keys in the apartment. Alex can give her security deposit portion to you directly. Good luck to you.» This email exchange occurred on July 30, 2015.
On August 10, 2015 I received this email from Sue, «Today I found out that you are still living in 202A. I was never informed that you were still there. These decisions need to be approved by my office before they are executed. My understanding is that you are staying until ⁸⁄₁₅ and the new tenant is arriving on ⁸⁄₂₃. Your name is not on the lease and legally should not be there. There are liability issues involved.»
A. I don’t appreciate that I was made to look like the one who didn’t follow through on things
B. I don’t appreciate that the email tone was so condensending and attacking
C. I reached out for help and did exactly what I was told to do
God bless anyone who has to interact with her in the future. It’s such a shame Colebrook hired this person to work for them. I was fully ready to give Colebrook an outstanding review because Jacki had made my experience great. Royal Gardens Apartment is not a bad place to live at all. Great location and great neighbors. It’s a shame one employee can reflect so poorly on a business.

Let me start off by saying that I am not apart of management and no one asked me to write this review. I was a resident of Negley Gardens for 1.5 years and I would have continued to be a resident if I didn’t have to move. I am leaving a review because of my transition and relocation to DC.
Recent experience: I received a job offer in DC right before Thanksgiving and my start date was on Dec. 2^nd. I spoke with Jackie about breaking my lease and having to move asap. Jackie was great in expediting the process of finding someone to rent my apartment especially since in PA you are responsible for your rent until there is a new tenant. I was getting stressed out about having to pay for an empty apartment in Pittsburgh and a $ 1500 apartment in DC all within the same month. Thank God someone signed the lease for January because I honestly would have been crunching pennies to pay for both.
Review of apartment:
Pros — I absolutely loved my apartment!!! You can’t beat a 750ft apartment with a hallway and dining room… and you only have to pay for electric! Well cable if you decide to get it. My electric at max was about $ 40. My apartment was considered a steal because it was a corner apartment with a different floor plan. Apt 107 for anyone wondering. Very spacious. I turned the dining room into an office area and my friends would come over to study instead of fighting for study space on campus (Pitt). I never had problems with bugs or rodents. I think the only thing I seen was a moth or two. Nothing out of the ordinary. No mold or any crazy things falling apart. I loved the system for buzzing in guests (even though I was on the first floor; lazy). Colebrook does a great job at putting salt down. They are also really quick with repairs. Oh yeah and the bus stop is literally right across the street. Stores are not far at all and they are rebuilding and doing construction around the East Lib. area. Its about to be a prime location.
Cons — I don’t really have any major cons that no one could handle or that aren’t the norm. Above my apt there was a little elderly lady with a walker that would drop things and I could hear it above my bedroom. I hardly ever heard my other neighbors unless in the hallways. Speaking of hallways, because my apartment was by the front entrance I would hear the occasional guests walking in or children coming in from outside. I just put a blanket under my door to keep the noise low. No biggie. Also, you can’t control your heat. Its a few elderly people in the building so its understandable for it to be more than toasty, and its great for coming in from those Pgh blizzards. I would just raise my window sometimes when it got too hot. Another thing is my parking experience but it’s really my own fault. I had someone to side swipe my car and knock off my mirror. The police put up a camera on the light pole for stuff like that so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I would invest in one of the covered garages upon moving in though. I think its like $ 40. Not too bad. Great investment. One big con for me was not being able to pay my rent online… but it was a great way to interact with Jackie and let her know if I had any issues.
Overall, my experience with Colebrook Mgmt was great. I never had any major problems with them and they had none with me. If I ever had to move back to Pittsburgh I would def. stay at this apartment again, thanks to the service I received from Jackie. I think the apartment is a great steal, essssssspecially apt. 107. LOL! I really wish I could have relocated my apt to DC with me.
P. S. yes I did make an account just to post this review because I feel it was long overdue for a review on this company.