Review for Villas At Tustin Apartments

The apartments look alright from the outset, but once you get in it is not all what it is crack-up to be. We moved in here in April 2005 and plan to move out when our lease is up. It is true, there is a 2-3 month notice required if you plan to break your lease and pay those months rent.

There are shopping carts left around, people don't always pick-up after there pets, my wife had to pick-up dog crap under the steps of our apartment. People often times just throw their trash on the ground; thankfully, they do have staff to pick-up after these residents.

Laundry is a real PAIN. I prefer to take the laundry off site as I have lost too much money to COINMACH and their lousy machines, they are always broken and it is a guessing game to determine which might work this week.

Safety is an issue too. The steps down to some of the parking areas are steep and some do not have good drainage so trash and mud builds up at the bottom of the stairs. They did recently paint some white lines on the edges of some steps so that is a step in the right direction.

While we did not have an infestation problem, we were aware that there were apartments near us that did. I think that had to do in part with the former tenants.

There are a lot of multi-family apartments, with 2-3 families living together, so that adds to the congestion of the place. The walkways in between the buildings are a bit narrow and it can be difficult to move items to and from your vehicle, especially if anyone else is walking by. It is really tough to move large items like a refrigerator in the place as there are stairs everywhere, in fact our frig did not completely fit in the kitchen space too.

You will have to pay a pet deposit AND $25 a month for EACH pet you have. Practically any animal is covered as a pet, even a snake or frog, but thankfully not fish.

The management is mix a friendly folks, but seemingly very clueless on how to professionally run an apartment complex. We often get these postings on our door announcing some new inspection, regulation, reminder with sometimes less than 24 hours notice that they will be entering our apartment.

The apartments themselves are for the most part fine, however they must love to repaint them as our bathtub has some unique form of paint on it (now flaking off) and there must be like 8 coats of paint on the staircase rails. They have responded pretty quickly to our maintenance requests as we have had several.

You cant have practically anything out on your balcony and in our case, we have two. It is frustrating when you want to be able to store a few things outside, like a bike or small BBQ.

You are required to pay for the water (about $23 a month), trash (about $10 a month), and sewer (about $18 a month) fees, dont forget the service fee of $4.00 a month as well. These all seem a bit high to me, and I was not required to pay them at the last place I live in Orange, so be prepared for the extra cost if you move here.

Bottom line is there has to be better places to live. The biggest plus is this place is freeway close. The Villas at Tustin just has too many negative things going against it, management being the biggest one of all.