Village Plaza Apartments

"I moved in last month from the west coast and the owner, as well as apartment manager were so incredibly helpful in answering any questions I had and taking the time to explain things that I didn’t understand. Even with the large amount of moving parts that comes with moving across states, the whole process never felt overwhelming our stressful and I really have them to thank for making it easier for me. I arrived to a clean and functional apartment that looked exactly what I had been shown. A few weeks after moving in I did have to put in a maintenance request for something, but it was addressed and ordered the same day. The apartment owner, manager and maintenance man have all been kind and welcoming and I genuinely feel they are invested in the quality of life for their tenants within the complex and I think that’s my favorite part of being here so far. That and the other tenants I’ve met so far have all been equally friendly and welcoming. I feel grateful to have stumbled onto this place and I am looking forward to being here in the future."

"We moved in last month and the entire process was so easy! From looking at listings online, booking an in person tour, filling out the application, to the actual move-in, the staff were friendly, available, and willing to answer any questions that we had. We had a couple of maintenance requests that were responded to immediately and addressed. The building is well-maintained and our neighbors are so nice. For me, these have been the most important aspects when considering renting . From what I have seen so far, Village Plaza is excellent in both criteria."

"This was by far my favorite place to live! I loved the property manager and the maintenance guy Julio were always so kind. Anything that needed to be fixed was usually fixed right away. The only thing id complain about and why i would give it a 4 stars is the heat and how much i was paying for a studio apartment was a little outrageous and my apartment would be cold when winter hit the 2 yrs ish i was there. They need to add another baseboard for the heat as the ceilings are quite high."

"Pros: -Never felt unsafe in the neighborhood or within the building community while I lived there (2018-2020). -Heated underground parking -Convenient location: grocery stores, restaurants, services, schools, walking/biking trails, & a beach all within 5 miles -Washer/dryer in unit -No roaches or bedbugs while I lived there Cons: -Property owners. They go through a new building manager about every 3 months. Do NOT take your frustration out on the building manager or maintenance. They are under strict guidelines by the property owners and will likely be fired or quitting in the near future due to stress/being asked to do illegal activities. I had about 6 building managers come and go in the 2 years I lived there.They ranged from extremely helpful to stealing money from tenants/property owners. One helpful manager suggested we get a lawyer to go over the lease we signed and issues we have been having, as many things it entailed was not legal. They accepted that they were going to be fired by the property owners for refusing to do illegal activities, and were trying to help the tenants before they left. Issues detailed below. To the actual extent of the illegality of the lease/situation- well, I'm not sure. I can't afford a lawyer. -Mold. Mold everywhere. You may get lucky and have a unit without mold, but- I had 2 separate apartments while living here. I moved from a studio to a 1 bedroom. The studio was great! But I wanted more room. After my first year, I moved into a 1 bedroom, two units down the hall. The ceiling had been leaking for ages. The walls were riddled with mold. The carpet wasn't cleaned or replaced (MN states every 5 years the carpets should be replaced, this carpet was never replaced), and no matter how much I vacuumed the mold smell would not leave the carpet. There has been multiple instances of other apartments getting flooded. So even if you get lucky with a mold free unit - there is going to be a neighboring unit that you share walls/ceiling with covered in mold. This is NOT safe for you, pets, and children. -Building maintenance. Don't get me wrong- the maintenance crew does their best with what they're allowed to do. They are forced to penny-pinch and repair appliances way past their life expectancy. I normally approve of repair instead of throw - however these appliances grow mold and flood apartments, and break down every other month. -High energy bill. This place has a water heater for every unit. An extremely inefficient, energy guzzling, water heater. This is the cheapest, most energy inefficient water heater on the market, and you eat the incredible costs. The bill from every other apartment near the metro I have had was $10-50. Your bill will consistently be above $90, up to $200 - with one person. -Dirty water. The water heater is NEVER maintained. These water heaters only have a 10 year lifespan. Which it may be fine to run them longer - if proper repair and cleaning is being done. Repair checks and cleaning are never done. Repair checks are supposed to be done yearly - the 1/2inch layer of dust indicated its never checked, and during the 2 years of living there, it never was. The bottom of the water heater is supposed to be cleaned out yearly as well. This is perhaps the most alarming, as the long-term maintenance guy (who recently left) told us he never cleaned this. The water was running orange. Not orange like hard water, orange like the sludge at the bottom of the water heater was being tossed up into the faucets. -Lying. Property owners, occasionally building managers & even maintenance will lie to you. Ie, there's a good chance your apartment wasn't cleaned at all before moving in. There's no pool in this building. The comments here left by staff on other reviewers posts try to discredit the reviewer. If they did this, believe that reviewer even more than the other reviewers. -Inconvenient parking for guests. There is no street parking allowed by the city in winter. Violators are towed in village plaza's parking lot. No idea where guests are supposed to park."

"The apartment building it's self was very nice. We appreciated that sound wouldn't travel, but we started running into walls when we decided to leave and move on to better things. We finally decided to ask about our security deposit after moving out and the reply we received was that we were being charged $535.00 for damages. Well the "damage" they were claiming was there when we moved in and had never been replaced or repaired. They tried to tell us that they were charging us $200 for replacing a toilet, that we had called to have fixed 7-8 months prior to moving out and the maintenance guy said that they had to replace the toilet because it was unfixable. There was a 1'×1' area on our bedroom wall that they claimed costed them $150.00 to get paint over. The claimed that part of the $150 for the painting was due to filling nail holes, but I personally filled all the nail holes myself. They also tried to claim that we owed them money for the security deposit, and that we had only given them $500 for it, when in fact we paid $975. They argued until I said the word "Lawyer", then all of a sudden we received a check in the mail for the remainder of the security deposit. Slum landlord's and really bad communication."