Is River City Real Estate the Worst Ever?

Yes, they really are that horrible. I rented an apartment from them in a slum on Grove in 2001. First things first, the place was infested with cockroaches. You could do everything in your power to get rid of them (including keeping ALL food either in the fridge or in airtight containers), but because your neighbors had them, they’d just come right back. That place needed to be smoke-bombed. Also, when we first looked at the apartment, the rental agent told us there was laundry in the basement. Imagine our surprise after having lived there a week to see that the basement was just a hollow, abandoned shell with no laundry anywhere in it. A plumber who came to help us out with a sink problem noted that the pipes in the bathroom were very old and well outside of current regulations. Whenever there was a maintenance problem, our phone calls would be avoided, ignored, and forgottne. But the kicker came when the ceiling of our top-floor apartment began to crumble. Every time it rained, I would have about 20 pots and pans laid out all over the floor to catch the drips. Stuff in our closets got ruined from gross water leaking in through age-old plasters and then onto our clothes. Most of our complaints about the problem were ignored, but once or twice they sent someone out who merely patched the roof and didn’t fix the actual problem. Finally one day the ceiling in front of my cloest caved in and a huge piece of plaster about 30″ x 20″ broke off and came a few inches from falling on me before crashing to the floor. My roommate, who had watched the whole thing, looked at me and said “That’s it, we’re out of here. We’re breaking the lease.” River City Real Estate can’t fulfill their simple contractual obligations to keep up their buildings, so tenants shouldn’t be obliged to stick around.

End rant.

Yes, they ARE awful. I lived in the lofts in Shockoe Bottom and hated it. Not only do they ignore business hour phone calls, but also emergency phone calls (like when four inches of water came leaking through the un-sealed windows). The lofts were pretty, but the walls were paper thin. The staff is constantly rude and condescending. The building smells like piss and stale beer. The elevator inspection was almost eight months over-due. The roof has puddles of water on it AT ALL TIMES creating a flurry of bugs during the summer. River City is the worst.

People should be protesting in front of the guy’s house who owns the company. He lives right there at the corner of Boulevard and Monument in that big gray house. Knock on his door and tell him your beef or maybe toss some cockroaches over his fence. Not smart to live within rock throwing distance of your tenants that you treat badly.

You know, I really don’t understand what the big problem is. I have lived with RCRE for going on 3 years and in 2 different buildings(First on Grace St. and now in the Parachute Factory) and it hasn’t been that bad. Maybe my experience is different from other people because I try to be nice and positive when I have a problem. I have gone in to pay my rent before and seen people yelling in the little front desk girls face. I am over 30 and have lived in Richmond for 14 years. There are MUCH worse places that you could rent from(i.e. Metro, Waybright, Dickson & Son) River City gets a worse rap because they have the most places in the fan(and they’re cheap). I had a few issues my first year on Grace Street because nothing was really gone over with me and I racked up two months worth of late fees. Since then, all has been well. I suggest if you want to live happy with RCRE, you just follow the contract that you sign(because they certainly will) and if you are questioning something, don’t just assume the way to go about handling it, ask the people that work there what needs to be done.