Lehigh Flats

"I absolutely love living here! I have been living here almost 2 years and I love it. When I first moved in, everything single thing in my apartment was brand new from the floors to the appliances. I mean brand new with the plastic still on it. I had everything delivered to me here from new TV's to Christmas gifts and not only do I not worry about theft, but my neighbors will actually bring my packages inside for me. The grounds are pristine and they keep the grass cut and always looking well cared for. Every visitor that has ever come to my apartment has complimented me on how nice my place is. I have rarely had a maintenance issue but when I do, they are so friendly and accommodating. My microwave was brand new but started to malfunction. They didn't even fix it, they just gave me a brand new one. They really go above and beyond. I have a middle school aged son and I feel perfectly safe with him going to the park or riding his bike outside around the neighborhood. It's hard to find that these days, especially at a decent price. Renting is expensive in general but these apartments are worth every penny and still affordable for someone like me who is a single parent. I really have no complaints and I am very happy here. Update: I read other people's reviews and I wonder if we actually live in the same place. I know that we pay a water bill, but the leasing office has nothing to do with what we are charged. Each apartment has a water meter just like we have an electric meter. Check your bike storage room to see for yourself. We pay for usage and if your usage is high, your bill will be high also. Common sense. I still have no complaints and love living here. Everyone has to experience it for themselves and then make a judgement. My experience has obviously been different from others. Also, what apartment complex can you live in where the rent doesn't go up every year? It's normal and common practice. Yes, renting in DE is expensive, but you can't blame your management company for that. I truly believe that they do the best they can with what they have. Nothing will ever be perfect anywhere, but be reasonable about what you should expect. There are apartments in this area that are well over what we pay here so at the end of the day, you can go somewhere else and pay way more for a whole different set of issues, or be grateful that where we are has minimal issues for the price we pay. Just sayin."

"When we signed our lease two years ago, the rent was 1260. Now, upon moving out, I'm hearing that a one-bedroom here costs around 1700 a month. Now, I'll tell you right now, this place is not worth that, and that is simply thievery. Basically, this place is just another poorly operated corporate-run complex that does the bare minimum to make it livable. They boast renovated units, but (while aesthetically pleasing at first glance, don't let them fool you) all the "renovations" did was put shiny plastic over a decaying foundation. The showers are made of some cheap plastic material that feels less sturdy than Tupperware. We lived in a bottom unit and made a maintenance request because ants were eating through the caulk in our bathroom. This wasn't only annoying because it made our baseboards and shower look discolored and cracked, but we'd open the door to our bathroom floor covered with big winged ant things. Though the maintenance portal said the request was fulfilled, we never noticed any improvement and had to keep using home remedies to control the issue. One night we woke up with a bat in our room that came inside from a poorly installed wall unit. Not only was I terrified I got bit in my sleep and got rabies, I had to call a few times to have them fix the issue before it got addressed because, according to them, it wasn't an emergency. I didn't sleep in our room for two nights because I was terrified. When we walked outside to check our window unit, you could clearly see a sizable gap that led inside our bedroom. Though this obviously eventually got fixed, I didn't appreciate the lack of urgency here, considering bat bites are one of the leading causes of exposure to rabies. It's also false advertising that Lehigh Flats boasts the amenities of Thorn Flats while asking residents of Lehigh to pay an annual fee to actually use them. This is ridiculous, considering their astronomical increase in rent prices. You can find somewhere better. The front office is also hard to get a hold of, and it never seems as though anyone is on the same page. One morning, while walking my dog, I found anti-Semitic symbols spray painted on the tree trunks that line the inside of the property near the graveyard. Obviously upset, I called the front office, and they didn't even know what a swastika was??? I had to email the management with pictures attached, and they shoddily just spray painted over the symbols with white spray paint. What an odd and halfhearted "solution." Sure, they can send a few emails reminding residents that smoking cigarettes is prohibited on the property as it's in violation of the lease or improper trash disposal, but no one could be bothered to send out an email to residents denouncing hate symbols on their property.... make that make sense. Galman Group wants to attempt to kid you into thinking y'all are family, but they are just another corporate-run complex that will nickel and dime you."

"Lived in Lehigh Flats, Newark for two years with my partner in a 1BR - thank god I’ll be moving out of this place soon. Problem with a large property management company is that they do whatever they want and as cheaply as possible - seems to be the Galman Group motto. They employ a predatory, unprofessional, and dishonest leasing style in my opinion - we were a few days late in receiving the re-up letter for renewing our lease after deciding to move out, something out of our control and should’ve been handled more directly with us than a week before the expiration of 60 days notification letter to our mailbox, and we will end up paying a full months rent for an apartment we won’t be living in. On top of that, they are going to charge us a single month lease price, which is a few hundred dollars more than what we had been paying month to month - they know what they’re doing. Just one example among many of how this place operates. The property manager / leasing staff / higher ups are terrible (with high turnover rates). My favorite people employed here are the maintenance workers, who are sorely understaffed for fixing the varied issues on the apartments across the whole complex. I feel bad because we’ve had probably over a dozen maintenance issues for various things over two years - the workers were very friendly and many issues seemed largely outside of their control, though they were very kind to us. I have a bad feeling that we will be nickel and dimed out of our security deposit too even for things we made maintenance requests for over the two year time period. If you have more money than time in finding a place to live, good on you, and this place might work for you, but way overpriced for the quality of living in their Newark location. If you scan the other reviews, you will notice a not so great trend. Finally, not so great for university grad students on stipends or tight budget (speaking from personal experience to that end) - there are a few non-Galman affiliated places in town that are much more reasonable."

"Overall, this was a nice place to live. The apartments follow the standard old building new interiors design. They are not special but they are sturdy. Gas stoves and good windows. With two in unit Air conditioners. Very few problems and all were responded to quickly. My apartment, middle unit, was very warm. Very friendly staff. Got full deposit back with no issues. Cons: 1. Like most places in Newark, the apartment was overpriced by ~200-300. This is the unfortunate reality of the housing market. 2. Again, as with a lot of places in Newark, mail delivery was a problem. Packages could only be left outside and you depend on the neighbors in your building to bring them into the somewhat safe lobby. Never had anything stolen but would have been easy too."

"I lived here for 18 months and just recently moved out. Inside, the apartments are your standard quick flip renovations that I suppose are aesthetically pleasing. Walls and floors are extremely thin, you will hear your neighbor across the hall watching TV. You will hear every single thing your upstairs neighbor does, every time they walk, sneeze, talk, and every squeak their bed makes unfortunately. You have to pay to use the amenities, something around $180 annually. The landscaping is poor. Some areas there is no grass, which erodes every time it rains and leads to mud all over the sidewalk. Lots of areas with cicada killer wasps burrowing. A positive was that I never had any majors maintenance or pest issues. The worst part about Lehigh Flats is the management. They went through 3 different property managers in the 18 months I lived there and all have the absolute worst communication skills. You will never receive a call or email back from them, you have to march yourself down to the management office and show your face to get some BS excuse from them. $40 was withheld from my returned security deposit for “Rent” when I have paid every cent of every month’s rent. It’s not worth the headache to try getting in contact with someone at Lehigh Flats about. I’m just glad to not have to deal with this management group anymore. Overall an okay place as long as you don’t have an upstairs neighbor, but management needs to improve a great deal.Would give 2.5 stars if that were an option."