CP Development

Wish I could give negative stars. Currently a tenant that is unfortunately stuck with these slum lords until 2017 because THEY FORCE YOU TO SIGN YOUR RENEWAL LEASE 6 MONTHS BEFORE YOUR CURRENT LEASE ENDS!!! And rest assured, your rent WILL be increased each and every time — not even a discount for resigning so early. Don’t expect any of the amenities that you’ve been promised to actually work properly and if (and most likely when) those need to be replaced you can be sure you’ll get the absolute cheapest replacement possible — even if you ask to have something comparable to what you had when you signed the original lease. Promises made by the leasing agents are simply bait and switch lies to get you signed up — when they take these things away later (things like storage area, # of parking spaces, access to patio space, etc) — they’ll cling to the lease agreement and if that amenity wasn’t listed in the lease, too bad for you. Your rent will still go up anyway. That’s if you can even sign the lease after they make you jump through multiple hoops to prove your worthiness as a potential tenant. They really make you feel like they must be giving you a great product because they are so meticulous and rigid about all of the paperwork that you need to complete to be «approved». What a joke! The office staff is somewhat pleasant on occasion when I call to discuss yet another issue with the property and the ragtag group of maintenance people are truly the worst. There’s maybe 2 or 3 of them that seem to at least try but still screw up anyway and the rest will pretty much blatantly tell you to go screw yourself if you ask for corrections to errors in their work or for them to clean up after themselves. But we all know the real problem here is terrible management and cheap as can be owners. Of course, I knew CP Development aka Regent Square Rentals (btw you aren’t fooling anyone with that «re-​branding») had a reputation for not being great landlords, I considered that when looking for an apartment but asked myself how bad could it really be? I have my answer and am writing this review to make it clear to anyone asking themselves the same question — it could really be THAT bad! And I could somewhat give it all a pass if the prices were fair and the rates were somewhat constant but these people charge TOP DOLLAR in the neighborhood (calling themselves «Regent Square Rentals» is a bit of stretch considering most of their properties are in Wilkinsburg) for garbage rental properties and even worse service. Also, their 1980’s Miami Vice pastel paint aesthetic on the exteriors of all of the properties is so tacky and it ruins the charm of the neighborhood to be honest. I cannot wait until my lease ends (but not for like 16 more months!) and I will take each and every chance I get to publicly lambaste these frauds (I work in the media industry so believe that I will) and hopefully keep at least one person from wasting their money and feeling constantly frustrated.

Yeah, sorry but «Regent Square Rentals» is definitely not worth your time and money.
Especially if you have to stay here for a whole year. Be warned! I am not paying the price (literally) of not heeding everyone’s warning.
First off, they charge exorbitant prices for apartments that probably shouldn’t be rented out in the first place. I only chose Regent Square Rentals because I had limited time to find an apartment and this looked good on paper.
No safety deposit was definitely too good to be true. It’s great that they don’t have a safety deposit but what they fail to mention is that you actually get a giant list of things you have to do for the apartment before you leave and if you don’t do it to their standards, they will charge you… and you can bet it’s more than the price it takes to fix it. They also seem to not mention various other hidden payments. Be very careful!
Also, you can’t use their basement. Which means you only have the storage in your apartment, how little that may be. So when you put anything in their basement, they are allowed to take it, throw it out, sell it, or god knows what. After they dispose or take whatever belongings you have in «their» basement, then they give you a notice to move all your things out of the basement. I would not have fussed if they told me beforehand to get rid of my personal belongings, but retroactively notifying me is NOT okay.
Their one saving grace is that their maintenance crew is great! They are kind and try and fix whatever problem you have.

We moved into one of the townhouses in the Wilkinsburg area in January and it was the best move that we made. It is not a brand new and updated, but everything is clean and works properly. We also have a dog and the waived the dog fee for the year. When we moved in there were a few things that we needed taken care of and the maintenance guys were at our place within hours. When my son was home he thought he smelled gas coming from the stove. We called the office and they sent one of the maintenance guys right over. It was not gas it was just the stove was older and had not been used so it was putting off a kerosene smell. The smell did not go away so they switched our stove out with a brand new one. Also the personnel in the office are great. We have spoke with many of them and they helped us with anything that we may have needed.

These people r HORRIBLE to rent from. I lived in one of they’re overpriced apartments for 2 yrs and it was the worst experience I have ever had renting. They try to make you resign ur lease more than half a year early and pressure you into doing so. Then if you decide not to renew, they will come into your apt unannounced, whenever they want to do whatever they want. It’s ridiculous. I have animals and I requested to be home and have 24 hr notice b4 they just came into my home. They told me they didn’t have to give me any notice but they would «try» which of course didn’t happen. Every time they came into my home they left my door wide open not caring at all that my dog or cat could escape and possibly get out of the building all together. One time I had one of the men that show the apartments come over with no notice just opened my front door and forced his way into my apt to show it pushing me out of the way when I came to the door startled because someone was just opening my door. I wish I had checked out Unilocal b4 I rented from them I NEVER would have rented from them. They are the worst. Run in the opposite direction from this horrible company!

Review this map before moving into this neighborhood for those of you that are thinking about renting from these people. Also never work for them. They are fire happy and fight everyone on unemployment for the wrong reasons. Same goes for how they treat renters, they don’t care about you. They will ignore all safety issues and requests from tenants. A tenant once was worried about mold in their apartment and the company ignored the tenants concerns by telling them it was mildew. Also apartment 423 Biddle ave Pittsburgh has a rat infestation and dangerous amounts of rat feces that they refuse to hire exterminators and cleaning specialists even though it is a health hazard. In the end my suggestion is to avoid these people (Charlie and Peter Patterson) like the plague! It’s not worth it! I only give them one star because I couldn’t leave it blank and post the review. They don’t deserve any stars!

Just a heads up, a few years ago, I looked at an apartment, and decided I would rent. I signed a ‘rental agreement’, and made an appointment to come by in a few days to sign the lease.
Upon reading the lease later at the meeting, I knew I should not rent from these people. Among the items in the lease were that they could come in pretty much any time they wanted, I would have had to give advance notice of having guests, and the late fee gets tacked on if your rent is not received on the first of the month. Totally jive.
I said, ‘I’m not signing this’, and was told that I had already agreed to rent. This is their game. The ‘rental agreement’ counts as a lease. I had to hire an attorney to get me out of it, and they still pro-​rated me for the week that they could not rent the apartment.
Regarding the lease, my attorney’s words about it were that it was ‘unconscionable.’ Meaning, approximately, that no one in their right mind should agree to such terms.
It’s too bad. They’re snapping up all the properties in Regent Square, which is a great neighborhood. If you want to live there, it’s a real challenge to find a place not owned by this company. Please note, they are one and the same as ‘Regent Square rentals.’

As a small business looking for a space to grow in, these guys were incredibly accommodating! They were happy to do all sorts of improvements to the space to meet our needs, and very responsive to all of our concerns. They are quick to resolve any issues and seem genuinely concerned with our satisfaction. Not to mention they are a team of friendly and helpful locals who always answer the phone on the first ring!

I don’t understand how all of these reviews are so bad for this place! The people in the office are always so nice to me and today I went in to see some apartments and they gave me a pack of cookies for no reason (302 calories that I don’t need, but it’s the gesture that counts!). I lived with them last year and moved into a townhouse from out of town without ever seeing it. Scary enough, but they waived my cat fee (I have two little nuggets, which would have been an extra $ 20/​month).
When I moved in the place was «broom cleaned» which is what they said it would be. Yes, I had to go through and clean a little, but some girl called me two days later and asked if I got in okay. The only issue I had was with the basement being pretty dang dusty. It was an unfinished basement, obviously. This apartment/​townhouse is my 2^nd favorite apartment I’ve ever had. It was big for the price, had great hardwood floors that were obviously recently restored, and I made my family come up for Thanksgiving so I could show off my new place. My boyfriend/​roommate and I broke up and I couldn’t afford the thing by myself. The only weird thing that ever happened in my neighborhood was I had a neighbor who had hundreds… and I mean hundreeddsss of empty pop/​water bottles in his car. It was insane!
I currently live in Lawrenceville, but the rent is going up exponentially. I had just as much fun in Regent Square last year and am trying to go back. The parking is MUCH better and I’ve recently started running, so that should be good with the parks. I like this place!

DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE. PERIOD.
Had I known that this company was on Unilocal,I would have saved myself a lot of aggrevation.
Two stories, one about my own personal experience, and another involving a friend of mine.
My friend Eric suffered an un-​expected stroke at the age of 34. He was working as a bartender at the time, and did not have health insurance. Understandably, in the lease they have the legal coverage to protect themselves in this case. You would think, that given the circumstances, they would have made an arrangement. Nope, they threatened to charge him the full amount of the rent if he vacated the premises. Those of a legal mindset may be thinking, «Well that’s unfortunate, but they have legal rights». True. But that is absurd.
My own experience is not quite as bad, but it should discourage any sane people out there to stay away from them. First, I would like to point out that I never paid rent late. I don’t cause disturbances, I keep the apartment neat and am in all respects a good tennant.
I am on the back end of a 2 year stay with this company. First of all, they make you decide 7 MONTHS (that’s right) 7 MONTHS in advance if you want to renew your lease. First year I was paying around 800 dollars/​month (a little extra for my dog… more on that later). They raised my rent the first year to 870 (ok that sucks… but no big deal, not worth moving over). The next year they raised my rent to 970. for no reason. When I moved in, all of the handles immediately fell off the cabinets. Two of the drawers pulled right off (they had been hastily hammered on with cheap nails/​wood). They have yet to respond to either of these requests.
When you let them know that you aren’t renewing… for 7 months they have the right to come into your apartment at any time. They «make every effort to notify you» but don’t. Worst of all, if you have a dog (like I do), they feel that it’s your responsibility as an owner to constantly be prepared for them to visit. Meaning if they don’t notify you and then your dog barks her head off because she thinks an intruder is entering they can fine you up to 150.00 per time. When I called them, and asked them to work with me (mostly so I can protect my dog from getting flagged as a menace for only doing her job), they told me I would just «have to figure it out» and hung up on me.
Stay away. stay away. stay away. These people are horrid. The maintenance guys (When you can get them to show up) are in general pretty friendly and good. But they never seem to be able to get back to you when you need them. Fortunately I wasn’t in need of anything serious in the apartment… but for the few times I did I was less than impressed.
The agents that show the apartments are great, they are nice, friendly. But they are completely unable to help you out. There are probably better apartments in the city. You may pay a little more, but believe me it’s worth it, ESPECIALLY if you have a pet. Just plain stay away from these people. They may be a little cheaper than others, but they will get their money back from you in the form of unreasonable demands/​practices.
I hope one person reads this so they are spared the horrible experience of dealing with these people.

I never rented with this company, but I did see an apartment once and already knew they were a crappy company. The apartment they showed me was FILTHY, not updated, and smelled awful. It was literally a closet they were trying to rent for 600/​month. No thanks.

I searched for landlords to rent from and read tons of reviews before deciding to take a two bedroom from CP Development (or Regent Square Rentals, as they are sometimes called). I just assumed that, like most landlords, they had such bad reviews because the 99% of satisfied customers don’t take the time to leave reviews– only the disgruntled ones do that. So, believe me, I was in your shoes. But please, please trust me on this: these people are awful to rent from. Don’t do it.
I lived in a CP apartment for one year. The winter was a cold one and our thermometer typically read in the low 50s, once it read 44. We called CP about once a week just to get our point across. Each time they would send a guy out to look at the furnace, say that it was working, and leave. We told them that the windows were from the Great Depression and leaked like cheesecloth. After about a month of shivering all night and being able to see our breath in the living room, they agreed to loan us space heaters. Mind you, our place still couldn’t hold any heat because it all leaked out the windows (I kid you not, you could feel a breeze when the wind blew outside), so my roommate and I would huddle around the space heaters like hobos around a trashcan fire just to stay warm. The real fun part was seeing our electric bill for those three months. We asked for help on the utilities from CP (since their terrible windows were the problem), and we basically got laughed out the door.
Secondly, our building constantly had piles of garbage right beside the front door. I understand that CP didn’t PUT the garbage there, but once some inconsiderate person dropped it in the wrong place, CP should have been more willing to remove it after multiple requests. One time somebody dumped (no pun intended) a toilet TWO FEET from the front door and it was 4 phone calls over the course of a week and a half to get them to remove the old, disgusting thing.
Long story short, we paid $ 1200 a month for a two bedroom, one bath, living room, and kitchen that couldn’t hold an ounce of heat in the winter. The carpet was probably original and just looked and felt greasy, the kitchen cabinets were particle board, everything looked like a rat or cockroach could jump out of it at any second, and the landlords were 100% unwilling to fix anything or help in any way.
Please don’t live here.

Absolutely avoid them. Their rental rates may seem reasonable, but when you realize that practically none of that money gets reinvested in the property, it becomes clear that you’re just lining the pockets of slumlords.
Expect pests. Ants, roaches, mice, and the biggie: rats. Yes, rats. Inside. There was also an issue with some animal living in the walls. Couldn’t tell if it was a squirrel or a raccoon — both are frequently prancing about the roof and gutters.
Expect slow maintenance. My experience with CP maintenance has been they either ignore the request, or if there are multiple items requested, they’ll take care of one item, and ignore the rest.
Do not fall for any promises made at the time of signing. We were promised the installation of a new appliance upon arrival. It took literally 6 months of haggling the rental office to get them to actually do the work. (The process of which included bashing holes in the wall.)
The apartment looked «ok» upon viewing, but upon move in, problems quickly became apparent. Aside from the pests, you’re likely to find broken drawers, doors and cabinets that don’t work properly, strategic holes in the baseboards (again, pests), poor heat circulation (one of the registers doesn’t even work), light fixtures with no switches attached, drafty windows, closets that can’t accommodate standard sized hangers, plenty of ungrounded outlets, cheap finish on the wood floors that is forever flaking off.
The previous reviewer commented on his basement steps. The basement steps in my building are a frightening sight. I don’t work for the County, but there is no way that these are up to code.
As others have said, they do in fact force you to commit to a renewal in February, which is insane. It’s clearly a pressure tactic to get you to renew.
I can’t wait to move out of this dump, though I don’t look forward to dealing with them trying to screw me out of the deposit.
Do your homework. CP Development /​Regent Square Rentals is absolutely the worst rental experience I’ve ever had. It’s a shame. Regent Square itself is a great neighborhood, and many of their properties could be great apartments if they were properly maintained. But they have no interest in reinvesting and making their properties nice places to live.
I don’t know what other rental spaces are like in Regent Square, but they’ve got to be better than this.

CP Development advertises under the name «Regent Square Rentals», with most of their properties in Regent Square and Wilkinsburg. We lived with them for a year in one of their mid-​range properties. The worst aspects of renting from a management company (non-​responsiveness, excessive lease legalism) are compounded by their poor maintenance of their properties.
Under our contract utilities were provided, and it is a wonder to me why they would not take care to replace the ancient windows that poured heat out and allowed stinkbugs to infest the house. At one point we were promised that several windows would be replaced after a peeping tom incident, however they never materialized.
To be fair, possibly the quickest maintenance response came when the back stairs broke out from under me as I was ascending them. After leaping to safety and somewhat shakily calling it in they were fixed by the next Tuesday.
In the beginning of your lease you are asked to document repairs that should be made to the apartment. This list is apparently shredded upon receipt (we had mentioned the stairs).
Beyond shoddy maintenance three factors stand out.
First, their lease contract effectively absolves them of any an all responsibility for anything. Period.
Secondly, seven months before your yearly lease comes due (February for us) you will receive a surprise letter requiring you to decide to renew or terminate for the next year. This is never mentioned in the original contract. It must be an easy decision for most people.
Finally, once they start showing your apartment you can expect CP Development employees to appear at any moment, without notice. In the shower? Asleep? Sunday Evening? check, check, check. They don’t use the doorbell, and they don’t lock the door after they leave (I had to call about that problem six or seven times. Seriously.)