Preserve at Cantera

I would not recommend renting here. The only pros of the place is the location, near the highway. We lived for 2 years here, including under the old and new management. Our time there had a few pitfalls as expected, although some were more drastic than others. The buildings are not well constructed in my opinion. During the past winter we had pipes freeze in our building twice, with water shut off during repairs. Luckily we lived on the second floor, otherwise our apartment would have been flooded after the pipes had burst. The Warrenville Fire Department had told us that this was common in the complex. Our heat was shut off for 2 days, where we had to move in with in-​laws or freeze (at least a hotel room for the night would have been considerate). Our drier (in no way can I think it is typical, but this was what we were told on multiple occasions) would take 90 minutes to dry a normal load of clothes.
These would have been things that maybe I would have given a 3 given the location and clubhouse amenities. The reason for the 1 star is our moving out process. We had kept our apartment clean, really clean. No pets either. We had 2 walkthroughs, one informal and one formal after our furniture etc. was removed. We were told things looked fine, then we get a charge stating the floor was stained and lost essentially all except $ 30 of our deposit. We had rented for 10 years, and each time our apartment was our home. This is not something that can be explained away with being to busy or the homes already constructed so oh well when the pipes freeze. This was pure and simple dishonesty. I suppose if you never plan on moving, it won’t make a difference. But if you do decide to move in, don’t expect your deposit back, especially when you do deserve it.

The property was bought out this year by Lincoln Property Company and changed names. Rent increases tend to be kind of obnoxious in general, and usually more so when a property gets bought out by a new company, so we were kind of bracing ourselves to get walloped at lease renewal. Surprisingly, the rent increase was the most reasonable one we’ve seen in a long time. We’ve been very happy here, and relieved we can stay without a massive rent hike.
The staff in the office have always been very responsive, professional and pleasant to deal with. The building isn’t brand new so we occasionally have maintenance issues with stuff like the heating and A/​C, and the guys on staff are great and always respond very quickly. Once we even had an issue in the middle of the night that was keeping us awake and reluctantly called the maintenance person on call, and he was really great about coming out to help us.
The property is very quiet, neighbors are considerate. At one point, we had a couple living below us who apologized for all their fighting with their teenage son — I never heard a thing. We live in a unit that’s in the middle of the building with a private entrance and that seems to be better insulated. My friend is in a corner unit with a hallway entrance and sound sometimes is an issue there.
I really don’t take advantage of the beautiful amenities as much as I should. The fitness area was one of the nicest we saw when we toured before moving in (wouldn’t mind seeing a squat rack, but that’s pretty wishful thinking). The pool is beautiful and usually quiet.
Parking can be tight at times but fluctuates through the year. We were told when picking a unit that having one by one of the small side parking lots tends to have less parking issues.
The property is really nicely located near a few forest preserves (including one of my favorites — Herrick Lake) and I-​88.

This place deserves 0 stars. DO NOT RENT HERE. They scammed us when we moved out resulting in a $ 1000 bill for us. They claimed that our cat who has never had any problems urinated all over the carpet. HUH?! My fiancé and I were shocked. We had this cat in a previous apartment for 1 year and they did not say anything. Not to mention, it would have been very obvious if there was urine on the carpet. When we brought up these points to the manager, she insisted that the ‘expert’ determined there was urine and had already replaced it. Problem is that there was no proof besides some doodles on our floor plan that the ‘expert’ drew. Where is evidence of ammonia on the carpet? Where is any test results indicating what was actually on the carpet? In the end, we had to pay. Our lawyer said there was no point in fighting it because the lease is completely in their favor to the point that I would never sign a lease like that ever again. Please do not rent here, especially if you have pets.