The Lafayette at Valley Forge Apartments

DO NOT live here they are infested with mice and do absolutely nothing about it. We caught 3 in one day. Contacted maintenance several times since December. They brought ONE trap and did nothing else. Earlier in the year their solution was putting a sign up saying don’t leave bird feed out because it attracts mice. Would never recommend ANYONE to live here.

Today I discovered a leak under my kitchen sink. This was a big enough deal for me to call the office and ask for maintenance. Since I work in the afternoon I was concerned that they wouldn’t arrive until I was in the middle of getting ready for work, although I did not express my concern to the lady in the office. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a knock at my door less than an hour later. The gentleman that showed up was prepared with the needed parts and had my sink fixed in no time at all. Thank you Lafayette for your prompt service!
Karen S.

This is by far the worst apartment community I have ever lived in !! I moved in here because of its proximity to Valley Forge Park and the views from the balcony!!!
But guess it was the worst thing to do. The apartments are good. The walls are completely sound proof and that is a blessing. The grounds are good and quiet for an evening or late night walk. It is safe for the kids as it has some unused parking lots and that gives kids a place to play. Even with all these positive things I would still rate this community as bad. The main problem is the unresponsive management. There are several issues that they don’t deal with.
Air Conditioner — My air-​conditioner broke 10 days back. I raised a maintenance request and nobody ever checked it. The worst part is both the ac’s r broke and I can’t even sleep on the couch. I repeatedly called them and they said they have ordered parts and we would have to wait till the following week. I just sucked it up and waited for 8 days. The days came and passed and they did not even call and notify us if it would take any longer. I am still living without AC and stay out to avoid the heat.
Elevator — The elevator is frequently broken. And the last time it was broken they did not have it repaired for 4 – 5 days. It must have been a nightmare for the people living on the 4,5 and 6^th floor to get their groceries home.
Trash Chute — During 2014 winter the trash chute was broken. They said it would take 4 weeks for them to replace it. For 4 months we didn’t have the chute and had to walk down 6 floors to get rid of trash in the winters. And the chute has problems frequently.
Laundry — When I moved into the building I am currently living in I was so happy to see a laundry room at every floor. But soon realized it has only one machine. That is fine but the equipment is never serviced I guess. I clean the lint before loading a dryer and I still have to run the dryer twice to dry the clothes. God forbid if there is a pair of jeans in my load forget about my clothes getting dry. I got so sick of running the dryer so many times and blocking other people. These days I dry them on a rack at home after running it once.
They girls at the leasing office do not care and have a bad arrogant attitude. The appliances are not checked regularly. The units have too many roaches and no matter what we do they come back. I am fed up of raising maintenance requests anymore… I am leaving this place once my leave is over.

If you want your unit filled with cockroaches (of the European variety… check it), than feel free to move here. I moved in August 2013, and moved out December 2013. On 6 occasions, I had maintenance in to «treat» my unit, however every week, I was finding more crawling throughout my unit. I had finally had enough, and submitted a formal letter that I refused to pay the early termination fee to the Landlord (not only due to COCKROACHES, but other maintenance issues that were never resolved), however she shot back with a rebuttal to that letter, going so far as to state that I did not have cockroaches. I contacted the Pennsylvania Board of Health, and they, along with the property manager and their «Chief of Engineering» (who was a joke, by the way) in my unit. The Pennsylvania Board of Health confirmed that I indeed, had cockroaches, perhaps from an overflow elsewhere in the building. They confirmed cockroach droppings in my kitchen drawers, cockroaches stuck to the inside of bug traps, and the TWO I caught while they were in my unit. The landlord woman continued to have a look of disagreement, which is disturbing she is so calloused to these issues (I wonder if she would enjoy living with cockroaches throughout her home?) I still refuse to pay this company, as they not only run a very poor property, but they also do not understand the concept of cleanliness and health/​public safety. Which, I’d like to add — Pennsylvania State Law requires Landlords to rent units that are deemed habitable, without vermin/​pests. I got no such treatment. I also have my current boyfriend to VOUCH for the fact, that during his visits, he would see cockroaches, and I am a clean freak. Might I add — When I went for the showing — I was shown the exact unit I ended up renting, and the previous tenant was worse than Pig Pen from Charlie Brown. I asked the vapid girl during the tour, if they were going to deep clean the unit, and replace the carpets. Turns out, they only replaced the carpets.
I being a hotel manager know these people are full of it, and if I ever let my guests stay in a room like the unit I occupied for 5 months and NOT done anything to ease their mind, I’d likely be fired. Please do not live here, or give them any of your hard earned money.
To people saying they don’t understand «what is wrong», please… It’s great that you didn’t get the short end of the stick. I’m sure when you come across something that doesn’t meet the Pennsylvania standard of living requirements, you’ll be in the same boat as the rest of us. Good luck.
If you want to see pictures, I have them. Just email me on Unilocal

Look, it’s simple. This apartment is cheaper than others PLUS they take care of their people. The main reason I’m giving it 4 stars? The maintenance people are super nice and will come out pretty quickly to fix issues. If you tell them that it’s important (and you ask nicely since that’s the right thing to do) they will make sure it get’s done as fast as possible.
So is this a 5 start apartment complex? No. But it is definitely higher than it’s current review.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
There is an issue with the trees at the apartment where they drip sap during certain times of the year. So although you can always find parking, it’s often hard to find parking that isn’t under a pine tree. So, keep that in mind if you have a nice car.

My husband and I were looking for a short-​term lease for our son and after seeing the «one bedroom junior», we decided to put in an application and rent at this complex. After we were approved, we asked them to email us a copy of the lease so that we could co-​sign. Well, they wouldn’t do it and were quite nasty about it. We live over 100 miles away and work during the day.
The day we returned with all the required documents, we had to deal with that lady who sits in the back. I have never met a nastier person in my life!!! Long story short, we took our money orders (yes, money orders!!! Who deals in those anymore???) and walked out.
If you pull into the parking lot of this complex, just drive around the property and exit the way you came in.

My boyfriend and I were looking to move to a place closer to work. Lafayette looked like a reasonable and affordable place for us to live. Once we walked in to the leasing center, the lady in the back desk just stared without saying a word. I guess she was the lady who was suppose to show us the apartments. The other lady took a while but greeted us. She told the lady in that was sitting in the desk that «she’ll show us the apartments if she wanted to.» Of course, the lady at the desk whisper something to the other lady, so professional. I would’ve given this place no stars if I could but the lady who offered to show us the apartments was super nice. We looked at other apartments that were so much more accommodating. No thanks to this place!

With over 7 yrs invested in this complex I can tell you things have changed for the worse. The leasing staff that was here from 07′-11′ was attentive, engaging and was always interested in making your time here pleasurable. Now that the staff has changed and the Westover companies corporate offices seem to have more of a say in the daily operations things have gone down hill.
Snow removal is a JOKE! They pay a service that just shoves the snow to the back of the parking spaces, all this does is force the cars to park farther out in the driving area, which means less street gets cleared. In years past they would hire a bobcat driver to remove large piles and clear spots as they became free. It worked beautifully! This doesn’t happen anymore because they care about money, and not your safety.
Lighting in the parking lot is meager. The lights they have are hit and miss, sometimes they work… Sometimes not so much. The lights were not working so well when my husbands truck was broken into, back glass shattered and his stereo system was stolen. This happened the same night that they stole another tenants entire vehicle. 8 months prior a tenants tire and rim was taken off her car. Gas siphoning is also a recent crime that a few of us have had to deal with. These are Just a few of the thefts I have been witness to in the last 3 yrs. I was looked at with blank stares when I tried to address the safety issues with the leasing office. I then reached out to the regional manager of Lafayette about more lighting. I was completely ignored. I called for a week straight. Here is their number if you would like to get their take on the issue! 610−337−3994
The apt itself is a good size living space. The thermostat is from 1976 so if you are trying to save on heating bills you are going to have a really tough time. The walls are pretty soundproof which make it nice not feeling like you are watching the neighbors tv. Laundry is available but only through a smart card system. This would be ok, but the only place to add money to your card is in the leasing office and they close at 6. If you work a late shift or have different hours it is a struggle to get money on the card. There have been reports about bedbugs and mice a lot more frequently lately but luckily we have yet to see either.
They seem to spend money and make improvements on small things to make it look nice for new potential tenants without ever addressing the major issues that need to be dealt with for those of us living here. Everything in the recent reviews is totally true about power outage problems so I won’t repeat what others have already clearly described.
I really used to enjoy living in this community. It’s a shame to see a nice complex turn into a money grab. All it would take to get this place to return to a worthwhile endeavor would be some caring and some listening. Sadly I think that won’t be the case until more people spread the word like this and help other tenant to avoid a poor investment.

I’ve been living here for over 2 years now. And it’s been that long because my plans to move out fell through.
The service is bad, maintenance takes days (a week and a half the last time I requested it). There are so many other issues with this complex I don’t even know where to start.
But the biggest issue is power, which goes out almost every time there’s a storm. It went out previously 4 times this summer, and again last night. The last time it went out, we didn’t get it back until 3 days later. So if you live anywhere beyond the third floor, you better be fit because taking the stairs is no fun. And you won’t know where the problem will be resolved either because the office people refuse to provide any, and they’ll be extremely rude because since «it’s a Peco problem», they get very annoyed when asked for updates. I guess checking with Peco is too much to ask.
This company only wants your money. Once you sign a contract, you’re just a source of revenue and your well being means nothing to the company. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place.

DO NOT RENT HERE.
I have lived here for some time now and my best advice to you is not to rent here at all.
For the past 2 weeks, 04/​25/​2014 and 05/​02/​2014, the power went out and the management did not even offer apology. Some tenants asked for re-​imbursement as they wanted to go to the hotel for the night as there is no power and the people in the leasing were rude.
Heating is electric and the thermostat doesn’t work in any of the apartments. The heat just keeps coming and coming. So, middle of the night you have to get up to shut the heat off. If you complain, you get the response that it is working correctly and meanwhile you get severely dehydrated if you don’t shut off the heat.
Fitness room has 2 treadmills, 2 cycling and one full-​body workout machine and extremely small but they only charge you $ 50 for it. So, its not that bad. But that is the only fitness equipment for more than 400 aparments.
Pool is too small and not clean enough.
Parking is alright but there is no parking spot which is not below the tree branches and the tree sap that falls on the cars is horrible and takes a lot of effort to clean it up. The solution is available at Walmart and Wegmans and after you clean it, with in the next 1 – 2 days the car will have a lot of tree sap.
If you have an expensive car then you will have to go for detailing every summer because of tree sap and it will cost you a good $ 150.
The worst culprit of all is the Utility bill. Last winter every 2 bedroom apartment got a bill of $ 250 — $ 300 for November, December, January, February, March, April. Thats 6 months with utility bill of $ 1500 — $ 1800. The management advertises that heat is free, if heat is free and only electricity is used then why is the utility bill so high. Nowhere in the King of Prussia area, none of the other apartments the bill were more than $ 120-​$ 150. But here is Lafayette at Valley Forge and Gulph Mills aparments, the utility bills are sky high.
A lot of people chose Lafayette as their rent was about $ 100 less than the rest of the apartments like Henderson Square, Abrams Run, Valley Forge Towers, etc. But they charge you more than that in utility bill.
Henderson Square 2 bedroom apartment is $ 1400 and their utility bill last winter on average was $ 80-​$ 125, so total you pay is $ 1525 per month at Henderson Square.
Valley Forge Towers 2 bedroom rent was $ 1450 and their utility bill last winter on average was about $ 100, so you end up paying about $ 1550 per month. (You get your own washer dryer inside apartment and the apartments have lots of amenities)
At Lafayette, the 2 bedroom apartment rent is $ 1275-​$ 1325 and if you live here longer, the rent is increased every year. But the average utility bill was $ 300 this winter, so you end up paying $ 1625 on average. It is better to go to Henderson square and save money in the long run. Same was the case with Gulph Mills apartment, avoid that apartment too.
If the management thought paying $ 1625-​$ 1650 was not a big deal for the tenants then they should have realised that most people would rather move to Townhomes and pay that rent, atleast they would get double the space to live than a 1000 square feet apartment.
I would suggest, it is better to find some place else to live than here where the management is robbing the tenants in utility bills and can’t even hold electricity properly.

I’ve lived here for two years in a 1br junior apartment. Nancy at the front desk is great and I picked a great, well-​priced apartment in a day. Move-​in was in less than 3 weeks, and they were flexible on making an arrangement for paying security deposit that would work.
The maintenance crew is top notch and I always get my requests handled within 24 – 48 hours, including random stuff. The front desk people are amazing. Laundry is in the building between floors.
The Lafayette has a pool, tennis courts and a fitness room. The fitness room is $ 50 for a key, and is a little disappointing. Also a nice feature is that there’s a path that leads along the river to Valley Forge Park, which is great for a nice day.
There are only a few complaints about the building: The parking, though amble, is surrounded by trees, making it a little scary with snow or heavy storms as branches always go flying. A lot of international families live here, so expect strange odors in the hallways. Also, stink bugs are permanent residents no matter how many times you have the exterminator come through.
I can’t recommend Lafayette enough! Online rental payments are amazing.