Villa Siena

 

Several of the issues that have been the cause of low scores were later corrected by management (after the neighborhood watch meeting where every attendant had a laundry list of complaints)
Throughout 2006 there was almost a complete turn over in management here and with the new personnel in place many of the concerns were in fact addressed.

The rules were changed for leasing and in the summer of 2006 no tenants were permitted to have a parent/guardian co-sign.

That meant very few of the apartments housing 6 teenage boys with nightly drinking competitions between themselves and their 32 closest friends, stayed...

I would say 85% of the problem was solved.

I have heard that some residents on upper floors occasionally flick cigarette butts down on balconies below however if it can be ascertained WHO, the management will address them about it.
The same can be said of the occasional ball of lint as many of the units have washers and driers on the patio.

The ONLY place I have seen the drier lint is while walking on Carlson.

The grounds keeping INSIDE the property is immaculate and I have not even seen a cigarette butt on the ground.

Although I did have to step over a flat snail once and a few of the trees tend to drop annoying little berries which dont flatten as easily as snails.

The security company was changed more than once before things improved in 2006.
Now they have two officers who do nothing but walk throughs all night long.

That is in addition to the guard stationed at the front gate.

Their response time is great and we havent had any trouble at all with noise.

There were several false fire alarms in 2006 (sometimes every night) and the single individual responsible was caught and there have not been any more problems with that.

I can have no knowledge of the parking problem if there is one.

We have as many reserved parking slots as we have cars and have never had to search for parking on Palatine.

I personally have only seen vandalism one here and it was removed within 48 hours.
The units residents from which the guests originated that were responsible were evicted two months later.
The ONLY cosmetic problems I have seen are as a result of the moving process:
scratched paint on railings, lines on walls and the occasional scuffs on the cement.
Most are repaired within the week without your having to call and report issue.

There are few issues with non functional amenities such as gates that are locked that should not be, or lights being burnt out.
When brought to the attention of the maintenance office the problems are always IMMEDIATELY fixed (by the end of the same business day or if you wait at the gate someone will let you through within about 5-7 minutes).

Living across the street from the shopping center is ideal in that there is never any parking there anyhow! Especially not with the Starbucks that went in June 2007.

Its a beautiful walk through the complex (providing the gates you need to pass through to get to the other side are unlocked) over to the shopping center.

There are quite a few children here in every age range here now, school children as well as ''The Pampers Parade" a myriad of mothers with strollers walking the grounds (aka the stroller brigade).
Unfortunately with a rise in a particular demographic of resident there has been a noticeable increase in unattended school aged kids around the property making noise.

If confronted the kids will disperse and/or relocate.
As far as other noise goes there is very little.

Shocking little considering the size of the site (avg.

5,000 - 6,000 residents).

On occasion we can hear someone coming or going between the hours of 10 pm and 8 am - less than once a week and the commotion only lasts a few moments.

Living on the 4th floor, having a large window facing the inner courtyard and having fantastic hearing, I hear every single noise made.

Every person coming, every person going, every door, every step and every conversation on the cellphone that takes place on any level of the common area...

And its almost always dead silent except for the bubbling water from the fountain on the 1st floor (it shuts off at 10 pm).

In 2005 some of the problem UCI students lived 4 doors down and I ended up calling the police about twice a week to break up the party.

I kept the management here apprised of each incident via email and was able to see first hand the effort that was made to correct the problem.

Files were kept, leases were canceled, and eventually (do to my repeated phoning of the police) they were evicted two weeks before their finals that year.

Between those residents and the residents evicted that were responsible for the graffiti there have not been problems in my area of the building (or any that I can hear onsite).


We almost NEVER see other residents unless at the common areas such as the pool or on Palatine.

With 40 other units sharing the same elevator the fact that we can go two weeks without ever seeing anyone is shocking.

Leaving at 8:30 am and returning home between 7 pm and 10 pm - its just rare to see anyone once we drive into the subterranean parking!

The ONLY noise we here on a regular basis now are structural.

We can hear the front door open and close in unit to each side of us.

We can also hear cupboards slamming (rare), water running, and the toilet flushing, and the garbage disposal from the unit below us and only if we are in the room directly above there they are making noise.

IE If we are in the kitchen we might hear their pantry, if we are in the bathroom we can hear their shower, etc.)
This MIGHT be bothersome if it werent for the fact that we are just as annoying in that they can hear OUR water, slammed cupboards, water running.

etc.

etc.!
What we CAN NOT hear is anyone else television, stereo, computer, conversations or fornication.
In the 3 years we have lived here we have seen the neighbors half a dozen times (barring those repeatedly confronted and evicted) and we always ask if they can her us.

We have a habit of turning on our surround sound loud enough to be heard in every room in the unit often around 2-3 am during the week.
We have been told repeatedly that it can not be heard!
I have personally tested this several times by turning on the TV which is located 7' from the courtyard window, turned the volume high enough to give anyone a headache in about 3 minutes flat and gone outside.

to listen.

Nothing.
Couldnt hear a thing until I opened the front door to go inside again...

I was standing outside the window of a deafly loud surround sound system and couldnt hear anything but the water on the 1st floor!
Now I am certain that the noise complaints other have made could very well be true, however I can not possibly conceive HOW!!!


It is true that rent here is costly however we do not mind paying two grand a month knowing that any/all concerns will be addressed immediately, lightbulbs are changed the same day, the common areas will always look perfectly manufactured, that there is 24 hour security as well as 24 hours maintenance (which was great when the toilet made an annoying whine noise at 3 am and they came to fix it).

I read the free news paper they provide everyday, enjoy the coffee they provide on a regular basis, and stop by the leasing office 5 days a week for green tea after working out in the gym.
I have met many friends through the onsite CPK dinners, wine tastings, weekend breakfasts (continental breakfasts each month and blueberry pancake breakfasts about once a quarter).

As well as in the complimentary kickboxing, pilates, and yoga classes.

I however have not participated in the softball team, weekday walkers (walks through the nature preserve), toastmasters, poker tournaments, monday movie night, weekly (seasonal) football game parties, kids activity time, the weekly (board) game night, or USPTA champ.

John Pricketts tennis clinic (also onsite).

I have not signed up for Scuba certification they offer, or used the notary public service, however I do take advantage of the $7 movie tickets they offer, as well as the onsite dry cleaning service.
They also have a personal trainer available for training in the gym - however I hired an outside company because I prefer to have a male trainer and not the platinum blond size 2 that is available here.

One resident said they believed their rent went to pay for watering the 10,000 palm trees.

That could be, although personally I think I have gotten my money out of the concierge service!
I cant tell you how many times I have called her in the middle of the day asking her to look up directions, make reservations, or find me the nearest Starbucks, all while out driving around.

The concierge is also a great person to call if you need someone to look up traffic information! ;)

Reading over this review I would like to add one more thing:
It has been brought to my attention on numerous occasions that the residents here are your stereotypical "Californian".
When the questionable foreigner asks the 20 year old 'Californian' girls for a cigarette light after having spent 20 minutes ogling them as they sit in the hot tub, he (and his speedo) are bound to get flipped off.

If you insist on sitting in one of the half a dozen hot tubs here that is already occupied you may not be greeted with a fruit basket for your neighborly gesture.
In fact if you insist on standing in someone elses personal space (roughly 5' radius) the friendly eye contact and smile that greeted you moments before may vanish and you probably will not be spoken to.
Villa Siena is not the ideal environment to 'pick up chicks'.

It is expected that if you live here you already picked up your chick and have brought her back with you.

If you are unaccustomed to 'Californian' behavior you will not be happy here.

Midwesterners will specifically not be happy as yelling at the Californians and calling them "Despicable" (5 times in the course of 2.5 minutes) for not having greet you with a basket of chocolates or other comparable gift upon your insisted use of the hot tub will often get the out of towner a less than kind yet completely politically correct note left on the unit door regarding the improper insistence of non native Californians berating absolute strangers while dragging their 5 year old daughter around from hot tub to hot tub at a quarter to ten PM.

I truly hope that this review is helpful...

It certainly has been accurate!
Mr.

& Mrs Despicable

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/14/2007
I lived there AFTER the turn over on management and still have friends that live there and many of these things you say are fixed HAVE NOT BEEN. About the new "leasing rule" that did not allow a parent/guardian co-signer. I was told the same thing BEFORE I moved in and it didn't matter. The place is still FLOODED with students. And YES, all of their "32 closest friends" still DO come over at all hours of the night. If the security company was changed in 2006, I can't even imagine how it was before I moved in. It must have been utter chaos. Yes, I've seen officers walking around aimlessly but they don't seem to be where you need them. Maybe they are just racing around on the golf carts all night. Cars are still being broken into and the "upgraded" security doesn't stop non-tenants from coming in the gates right behind other tenants. Why even have gates at all? You are correct about the parking. In general, parking was pretty good. Certainly a lot better than other IAC apartments I've lived in and visited. I didn't see any vandalism either and the place is "generally" maintained pretty well as you say (except for the gates that are nearly always broken). The maintenance crew does respond quickly but that isn't the point. We shouldn't have to call them every other day. I'm sure there is a manufacturer that makes a gate that doesn't slam shut and break every week. I was also originally "sold" on the proximity of the shopping center across the street but walked there maybe once, ever. And it isn't due to being lazy as I run 5-10 miles a day. It is TIME. You must realize that this complex is so damn massive that the shopping center isn't exactly as close as you say it is. You also grossly under represent the level of noise in this complex, and maybe it is because of the "size of the site" and you only live in one section of it. Let's just forget about the paper thin floors and walls for a second even though you can hear every step above you at all hours of the night EVEN if people are trying to be quiet. (wait you said you live on the 4th floor so you don't have that problem do you?) And let's not even count that virtually EVERY day of the week you are going to have moving vans out front (again due to the massive size and turn over of tenants). So any free time you have on the weekends (the biggest moving days) that you may want to actually spend enjoying the complex will be spoiled by the sound of constant movers banging things against walls, dollies in the hallways, and doors slamming... in addition to tying up the elevators for long periods of time. OK, even putting all of that aside, if a tenant is facing ANY of the streets (which you aren't), forget about opening your windows to let in fresh air (day or night). The balconies are virtually unusable being that isn't just small to begin with, but it ALSO has the entrance door, water heater door, and laundry door all opening INTO the balcony. And with the "sound barrier" blocking all views and virtually IMPOSSIBLE to clean on the outside, it makes the balcony nothing more than another bullet point they can put in the brochure. You don't see anyone at 8:30am or 7:00pm? That is a flat out lie unless someone is either blind or lives in a storage closet. Just do the math of the number of tenants and the average time that they go to and get off of work (or school) and anyone can calculate the probability of seeing other people EVERY day. I don't have a big problem with this and it isn't necessarily crowded (except the pool on weekends), but it is far from the isolated privacy you claim you have. Do not mislead people. Hearing the occasional door close, shower, or TV speakers are to be expected in an apartment complex. But when it happens at 3:00am. Wait, maybe that was you! You said you have that habit. The problem I have with your story about turning up the TV and walking outside and hearing nothing is that you make it sound as if these units are sound proof. They are most definitely not. You may have only proven that there is one apartment in the entire complex of thousands that is in the perfect location and circumstance. I and many others who have gone through the Villa Siena hell, envy you. You say you don't mind paying 2k per month to know that all concerns will be addressed immediately. I was paying much more than that and at that price (which is twice as much as my mother's mortgage on her multi-million dollar house) I shouldn't HAVE any concerns that would NEED to be addressed immediately. Some people would say... "if you hate it so much, why don't you leave". Good point. I DID, and many others have and will continue to do the same including several of my friends that live there who are just waiting for their lease to be up. But if you DO care about the common areas being perfectly manicured and that REALLY DOES matter to you above all else, then sure, you probably will be happy throwing away 2k every month. The gym you say you go to is a joke. There are 30 fitness centers in Irvine with fewer members than the tenants at Villa Siena that have locker rooms larger than the gym at Villa Siena. I've even lived in much lower quality IAC apartments in the past that had better gyms then this "crowning jewel" complex of the IAC. I've also been to the CPK dinners, wine tastings, and pilates. CPK dinners were not very good, but I was pleased with the wine tastings and I think Matt does a good job. The pilates was also excellent but the amazing instructor, Tara, who is the head pilates coordinator at the high end Equinox in Newport Beach, also lived in the Villa Siena but moved. I can't say I blame her. Maybe you somehow DO get value out of living in Villa Siena being that you DO use the concierge, dry cleaning, movie tickets, and other events. Maybe you DO get your money's worth. But understand that you would be one of the RARE people who do. And if the other 5000 tenants used those services, it would DRASTICALLY affect your quality of service in the complex. The people that comment on this website are looking for the most fundamental of services first. Privacy, Security, Relaxation, and have the facilities work WITHOUT having to call someone (no matter how fast they are). If these basic requirements are not met, no one cares how good it looks or whether the concierge will fax something for you. Is Villa Siena scrutinized more than other IAC complexes? YES. But their price DEMANDS it. If these apartments were $1600-$1800 for a two bedroom which is still much more than many other cities, people would be a lot more forgiving. But when you pay in some cases over $3k per month, these things are UNACCEPTABLE. Rightfully, the expectations are higher for this complex and for the vast majority of tenants they are never met. Your review was definitely helpful though NOT entirely accurate.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/05/2007
You are either extremley crazy or an employee of Villa Siena. This complex is terrible. The noise level is insane. I feel like every night we are in the midst of some "MTV Spring Break" party. It is beautiful but with all the negatives you cannot really stop to enjoy it. Security remains buddy buddy with certain young renters and have gone as far as to tell them who are complaining about them.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/08/2009
i love your review. its very honest n i agree with everything you stated above. i lived at villa siena from 3/2004 to 9/2008, 4.5 years! i can honestly say it's been by far the best place ive ever stayed at and there had never been any major problems. i would have stayed there if i didn't have to move to LA for a job!!

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