Riverwalk Commons, south-bend-in

I enjoy living here, my floor is chill and we don't complain about noise ever. The landladies are easy to contact when needed and have helped tremendously. Rooms are spacious and rent is cheaper than most places.

I’ve lived here since 2021 and I cannot wait to move out of here ASAP. If you’re moving here, prepare for an environment where facilities are constantly broken for weeks or months at a time and where at least one room or hall reeks of rotting trash at all times. In the summer, every grass surface is covered in dog poop that bakes in the sun and remains there for days. The residents are extremely inconsiderate, and loud music, partying, LOUD door slamming, dog barking, wall hammering and even full on band practices are everyday occurrences from daytime well into the nighttime. If you have a 9-5 job, are sensitive to alarms, or just want some peace in your own home, be warned that this place has fire alarms that go off in the entire building multiple times a week, and remain on until the firefighters show up! Sometimes it goes off at noon, sometimes at 3am, you never know. Despite the fact they switch management every 6 months, the buildings and parking lots are constantly littered with trash and the old, rickety elevators are routinely vandalized. Instead, management focuses on gimmicky amenities like vending machines in laundry rooms that DONT contain anything useful in a laundry room instead of making sure everything is functional and sanitary! My pics are all from the same day - 1 of 2 washers are down, 1 of 2 dryers are down, and the trash is totally full and stinking. Thank God the useless vending machine runs great! If you have any other option, don’t live here.

Riverwalk Commons (formerly known as The Annex Of South Bend) was the worst place I ever lived in. I spent about 3 years as a tenant, opting to live at riverwalk because they don't kick you out during winter and summer break, and because they have no policy against alcohol. In fact, it's not absurd to suggest they don't have a policy against anything... Moving in was pretty decent, I was given a room that was fairly spacious with an en-suite bathroom, 500 a month. Not too shabby. It was covered in dead flies, and my bathroom was disgusting, but you get what you paid for. I had one roommate at first, who had been living in my unit alone for years. The entire unit was basically his, he had decided. Filling our entire living room with his stuff. This didn't change until he moved out. Also he smoked, cigarettes, ALL THE TIME. which is against the rules, but as I stated, there are no rules at this place. Everything I owned smelled like smoke. And he'd smoke across the apartment in his bedroom. I brought a blanket to my grandmother's house to wash it once and she was shocked at how badly it stunk like smoke. Living here, you will encounter all sorts of issues with plumbing, dishwasher, fridge, the elevator, you name it. You will submit a maintenance request through meld (or whatever service they've decided you're going to be using for 6 months before changing again), and you will pray to whatever powers you believe in someone actually comes and fixes it. If a worker does come, they likely will not knock, letting themselves in (even to my bedroom while I was sleeping). In my three years at this place I had 5 different roommates, and probably 5 different property mangers. There is just no stability at all when it comes to this place. And roommates can be anybody. Unlike the IUSB housing, anybody can live there. I had a roommate double my age for about 6 months. My roommate to my left had about 4000 cats. That may be a slight exaggeration, but I couldn't possibly exaggerate the constant stench of cat urine I experienced my first year or so sharing a thin bedroom wall with her. She eventually left, and eventually they tore up those pee carpets. But there's no reason this should've been allowed to happen in the first place. Laundry. You can do it on site, but it isn't free like the IUSB dorms. It's $1.75 to wash and $1.75 to dry. I had people open my laundry while it was running, and just leave it. Running out my clock and making me have to pay again. The machines are GROSS! There are constant parties that go on, (after management leaves for the day they don't care what goes on). Loud music blaring until the wee hours of the night. But, the hands down absolute worst part of living there is the fire alarms. I kid you not, you will hear a fire alarm go off every week. If not more often. At random times, for random durations. You're technically supposed to leave the building during these. I know almost nobody that did. One time, maybe a year before I left there was a real fire. I only heard rumors as to why, but it's believed it was an intentional act of arson. It was the floor below mine, and smoked up the entire building for days. I was luckily in class when this happened, because there's no way I would've thought this was a real fire and left. While I lived there we were bought out by another company. Changed our sign from the annex to riverwalk Commons, got about half the building painted red (and left the other half beige??) and our rent began climbing. It was 500 when I moved in, it was over 700 when I left. I can only imagine it's higher now. What I can say for sure is that it was never worth 500 a month. The other reviews for Riverwalk Commons are pretty good. Maybe they have cleaned up their act in the year since I left. Maybe I lived there at just the wrong time. I recommend while researching if you want to live here, look up "The Annex of South Bend" and read those reviews. They got to have a full reset of their reviews on Google after changing their name. Those older reviews read much closer to my experience.

I love the staff. They are so kind and helpful. The events are always fun and appreciate the effort put into it and keeping the complex safe and cared for!

I have been living here for the past 2 years, and let me tell you it has been a rollercoaster. I do not plan on renewing my lease. Although management has always been super friendly and helpful where they can be, the ongoing maintenance issues and lack of attention to detail really puts a strain on my relationship with this apartment complex. Something that has been an ongoing issue here are the fire alarms. From a safety standpoint, I wish this would’ve been resolved quickly and effectively. It really affects the residents and their quality of living here as well. There was a time where i was finishing up a shower and was greeted by a fire man standing right outside my bathroom door. To say the least, this was something very off-putting and made me feel a lack of safety in my own apartment. Time and money should have been put into this issue, rather than purchasing vending machines for all the buildings. Another point I would like to address is the company electricity is billed through. Simple Bill is something I wish would have been discontinued with the change of management this past year (2024-2025). Residents, along with myself, have mentioned to management the extreme prices of Simple Bills (I was charged 250 bucks for my HALF of a bill. Our unit is less than 1000 sq ft). As a tenant, it is frustrating that we were not being heard with this issue. I ended up going through the Indiana Utility Regulatory System, a government agency, to initiate an investigation on Simple Bills. I ultimately won and ended up getting a decent chunk of money back due to being overcharged for electricity by this company. Another point I would like to add on this was the managements request this past winter. Residents were informed to keep our heat running at 55°-60° to keep pipes from freezing. This felt like a massive slap to the face as, who is keeping their heat set at that during below freezing weather? Overall, for a starter or short term apartment you are in the right place, if you are okay with some hiccups. Thank you for your time.