Let's see....

I live in one of the high-rise apartment buildings (55 Chumasero Dr.)

In short, the Villas suck. If you'd like to know some of the things that have helped shape this opinion of mine, read on.

- The basement and lobby smell like sewage from time to time.

- The elevators' permits have been expired for like 2 years and at least one of them is almost always broken.

- There's a sign in the lobby that says something like "this facility contains materials that are known to cause birth defects" ... awesome.

- They recently installed smoke detectors and extremely loud fire alarms in every apartment. They are ear-shateringly loud. And they go off for like 20 min at a time (sometimes in the middle of the night) if the system gets tripped for some reason. This happens frequently.

- We recently had some problems with our rent payments going through. We paid our rent and we weren't aware that it hadn't been accepted, so it was much to our surprise when a guy showed up at our door to give us a court summons informing us we're being sued by the Villas. He was really rude, angry, and actually said to my roommate "pay your rent or get the hell out". His exact words. Now we have to deal with some attorney and the Villas' office won't even talk to us about it. They've outsourced our case to somebody else.

- Oh their website has a "request maintenance" tool which I've used at least twice. Nobody has ever responded to a maintenance request submitted online.

- Oh Parking! It costs $100/mo to park in one of their garages. If you don't do that, you still have to buy a permit just to be able to park in the neighborhood for more than a couple hours. And even if you do have permit, it still sucks because they do street sweeping twice a week, and parking is hard to find in most areas. This makes it hard to avoid getting parking tickets.

- Once my roommate went to renew our lease and asked about the cost of a garage parking spot. The woman in the office told him "it costs $100/mo, but if you promise to love me forever, I'll give you the garage parking for free." We were stoked about that, it was like the only human thing we'd seen the Villas do. Today, almost a year later, we found an old piece of mail lying around which said that when you renew your lease, you are entitled to one of the following: a $100 gift card to the local food market, carpet cleaning, accent wall (not sure what that is), or 1 year free garage parking. So really, that lady didn't cut us a special deal at all.

- And then there's the soulessness of it all. This is a huge corporate neighborhood. Cookie-cutter layout, cookie-cutter units. Cookie-cutter colors. It's depressing. The Villas is an incredibly wealthy corporation, yet they seemingly spend little on improvements to things that count to us... like our elevators and our lobby.

Ok, that's enough for me.

In conclusion, you can find a better place to live, in a better location, for less money.

User Responses
From: calinative86	Date: 05/14/2008
I feel your pain. Good review and so true!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/15/2008
First of all, you are a less than college educated moron, as you obviously attend SFSU, not exactly the Harvard of the West (and if not, heaven help us). Second, you chose to live in this place, so maybe you should have checked out the options prior (or your parents should have). Third, parking for $100 bucks???? Are you seriously living in the Bay Area... it is $350 in the City (not Daly City, which is where you really live...foggy-brain). Appreciate it. Finally, if they show up at your door...you didn't pay your rent... for a long period of time... Stop buying the "goods" and get your priorities straight. I don't even live at this complex and you make me wonder. You deserve to be evicted. You appear to be the cause of the "mold" that the others on this site complain about.. ("and by mold I don't just mean the mold you can see and smell"...to speak in your crazy, dilusional words, moron)
From: slgentile	Date: 06/18/2008
One can't help but wonder if the needlessly angry responser from 5/15/2008 doesn't work for the Villas... it sounds overly insulting and defensive.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/26/2008
Wow!!!! Mr.(or Ms.)5/15 is taking the review way too personally!!! Sounds like someone who works for the Villas. This person needs a reality check!!! SF State has some exceptional departments. While it is not Harvard, many of its graduates have gone on to do well for themselves. As far as checking options before deciding to live in the Villas is concerned: That's what I;ve been doing this evening. MUCH to my chagrin I have found that the Villas have been sued repeatedly and seem to believe that San Francisco laws and ordinances do not apply to them. Perhaps much of this information was not available to the reviewer when he/she moved in. As to the far out comments made by 5/15 regarding mold: If you do not live at the Villas, how do you know that "others" on the site are complaining?" Again, this angry person sounds like an employee. Mold is a health hazzard you dolt...in many cases it can render a unit/building uninhabitable. Charging rent in this case is not legal. Finally, before I sign off...You are a dose 5/15...If the Villas were not guilty to some degree, you would have ignored the original posting. Instead, you became abnormally defensive. Oh...FYI Park Merced is not Daly City. Also,$350 a month to park? Are you kidding? You are full of s**t. Downtown if you work for a corp. It is hardly the going rate for apartment dwellers.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/29/2008
Lame-o from 5/15....SFSU is a fine school. What the heck do you know anyway. I am pretty much a straight A student, honor roll all throughout school and SFSU is my first and only choice for college. I have heard great things about it and like the other people said before me, you took this review a little too personally so you obviously work for the Villas or are just some weirdo. Get a life. I'm moving to the city soon and I sure as heck won't live at the Villas. I found this review to be helpful and you are incredibly rude. You are the moron.

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