Waterford Place Apartments 1700 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95112

"12 months review This has got to be the worst place we have ever lived at (By far). Once you’re in the apartment, their service is ridiculously bad. Here’s an objective list of things we found out after moving in: 1, The vents in the bathroom were clogged so the steam was never making it out. They never cleaned/replaced the filters. Health hazard. 2, The lock on my mountain bike (3200$) was sawed through and bike stolen from my second floor balcony and the cops basically said it happens all the time and that I should keep things inside. This happened at 3 AM while we slept and just 5 days after we moved into the apartment. 3, Almost every day you will see trash being thrown out and all around the trash chutes. It accumulates and stinks specially if your parking spot is within 60-70 feet from the chute. 4, On multiple occasions we saw people or animals having puked in the walkways. You will literally watch it dry away and become a stain as nobody cleans it. 5, The leaf blower and yard maintenance that happens on Mondays is very loud and you will hear it from every room in your apartment so much that if you’re on a work call, it will disturb you. 6, The windows in both the rooms leaked when it rained. We were using only one room and had a few boxes with some clothes in the other room that got completely wet and we found out only after the clothes started to smell. We had to throw most of the clothes out. 7, The window seal that is black and greasy will get on your hands every time you close it. 8, There are tenants who are either really bad musicians or gymnasts that practice up till 3-4 AM on most nights. We have bolted up in our beds on multiple occasions because we have heard a loud thud from upstairs. 9, You will find dog poop everywhere because a lot of tenants do not pick up. 10, The gym door is open a lot of times and you will see backpacks and tables and sleeping bags that homeless people leave there. 11, There have been multiple break ins into cars that have been parked inside the gated garage and outside on the street. All you have to do is drive by in the night and you will see so many cars with broken windows. You’ll see flyers and notices if this all the time. 12, The stoves don’t work. Calling service request would result in someone fixing it which will stop working again in a week or so. 13, There are homeless people all around, specially in the night. Always have change with you if you go out for a walk after dinner. 14, There is one neighbor who shouts and abuses his wife very badly, usually on weekends when he is drunk. He is extremely loud and you do not want your little ones hearing what he says. 15, The apartment management is never available to talk to. You literally have to wait 3-4 days to get in touch. They will return your call only after 2-3 days. 16, The resident app has changed multiple times in the 12 months we stayed there. 17, Very very bad communication and willingness to help. 18, Road and airport noise. Updating one more item: Their lease renewal process is pathetic. They send an automated email that even after you sign will not get updated on their end and they will automatically switch you over to month by month at a higher rate. They even send a generic email stating that your “lease term has changed” which you would assume means your lease was renewed because you signed the extension. Apparently that generic email was the lease switch to month to month which I NEVER signed. Also, when you want to give your 30 day notice, make sure you have an email. You cannot trust them. When they post your unit for rent responsibility, they will date it as available a month in the future even if you’ve moved out because you’ve paid for the 30 days and they have other units that they’d rent first. You need to check on their website and follow up with them. They will rip you off at every opportunity they get. Very unethical, unprofessional and lacking any sort of integrity. DO NOT STAY HERE."

"Its my 4th year here and I would like to take a moment to appreciate the Waterford place management. I highly recommend for: - Affordable pricing - Very close to 101,880, 87 freeways and SJC. - Maintenance team resolves issues with a quick turnaround. They are professional, courteous and friendly. Shout-out to Miguel Chavez and Jesus Padilla. - The community relations team (especially Scott, Taylor and Dylan) are helpful in answering any questions we have with patience and try to solve issues to make our living experience pleasant. - Timely responsiveness to queries via email. - Clear communication regarding updates about community - Floor plans are spacious even for 1b1b with good amount of storage space."

"I would think carefully before planning to make Waterford Place Apartment complex your home, since the quality of the management has gone down appallingly in just an year, with Taylor Robinson taking over. Integrity and transparency seems to be almost non-existent with them at this point, and they seem to be doing business by hoodwinking their tenants to pay a higher rent by act of their own mismanagement. I have been a tenant here for over 2 years now, and when my lease from last year was up for renewal towards the beginning of 2024, they chose to send me an online automated request in November asking me to approve the renewal. And After I approved the changes promptly, I never heard back from them until I saw that I was actually been charged a higher rate than what I approved online. This came as an utter shock, since such an incompetency had never happened before with the previous management especially when the Area Manager Victor Nguyen was overseeing things, given that back then they would directly communicate with me via email and efficiently send a new lease to sign before the previous lease expired which indeed is how professional management companies works. But this new management never sends me a lease, and then nicely informs me only when inquired later, that they are now charging me a higher rent on a monthly basis, even though it was through THEIR OWN error that they never sent me a lease to sign other than that automated system message which I had immediately followed through with approving! How ridiculous is this, and it's a violation of my basic tenant rights! And after taking great pains to rectify the situation, when I requested afterwards to refund me the difference for the higher rent amount they had charged me through their own negligence, they still chose to argue with me back and forth and waste my time and cause more stress than was necessary for this situation and would not even refund me that extra amount although I had never approved that higher amount at any given time!  Therefore I would give a wide berth of this specific Essex property, since that would save you a considerable hassel and peace of mind in the long run. And in regards to the Management's reply fabricating the facts to cover up their error....This is ridiculous! I already had clearly stated in my communications that I followed through what was requested via the email notification I received in November of last year, to approve the extension of the lease, which I had done so correctly! And You admitted that you had a new system process in place, didn't you? If you are claiming not to receive responses for your own notifications you sent out via your own system without even bothering to explaining to the tenants about it, then it's your own responsibility to resolve, not the tenant's! Therefore please do not waste my time with excuses due to incompetence and lack of following correct procedural follow up as you should have done as management."

"I lived here for nearly 2.5 years. It started great. The staff was attentive. Friendly. Easy to contact. Eager to help. Within a month, the staff went away and the service level dropped to what you would expect for low income housing, not a property full of people paying well over $2,000. The Essex Staff was unresponsive. Extremely unhelpful. Example: Your package was stolen? You should rush home from work to put it inside to avoid it being stolen. A car is broken in to in the "secure" garage? Lock your doors and hide your belongings! Someone tries to break into your apartment and you send them a video of it? "Sorry, we can't do anything unless we know the person's name and where they live." Because everyone knows you stop an intruder to get their contact info. They insist they have security, yet I never once saw them and nor did any neighbors I asked. Their amazing Essex staff acted as if you were disrupting their day when you contact them. They were almost never at the office unless they were sitting there chatting in a large group and they would never acknowledge you. Upon move out, their inspection team tells you everything is great and then they withhold your deposit because it doesn't meet their standards. The location is perfect. Near 101, 880 and 87. Near SJC. Near 2 VTA stops. Levi's and SAP are within minutes. But the service from Essex does not even meet a standard that of a run down motel in the worst part of town. Waterford Place and Essex should be embarrassed."

"I had the most wonderful experience with Vanessa Reyes who assisted us with a guided tour of Waterford Essex Apartments! The guided tour instructions were clear and easy to follow. We communicated with Vanessa via text message and she was very polite and super responsive! We enjoyed our tour so much that we ended up filling out an application which was super easy to fill out and very user friendly. We were approved and will be signing a lease there! We are so excited to move-in and I am very thankful to Vanessa for her assistance and stellar customer service!"