I've been reading through tons of threads on West Village Suites from the past 5 years. A lot of people have had good experiences and a lot have had horrible experiences so its hard to tell if West Village Suites is really this horrible place, with management who spends all day running their nails across chalkboards as they plot ways to screw students over or are a lot of people just hurt by their experience there and embellish on how horrible it is?

If anyone has lived/currently lives there, can you tell me how much of these rumors are true?

The Bad:
-Cockroach infestation
-Management enters your room without notice
-Rude and condescending management
-You have to clean up after old tenants before you move in
-They lie about having cleaning services though it was canceled years prior
-Management doesn't return calls, emails, or do repairs
-No security, people off the street enter without an access card
-Gym equipment is usually out of service


Also, do you think if students knew their legal rights and how to make use of the rental tribunal system they would have a much better experience at WVS? A lot of the stories I'm hearing just sound like kids who don't know their rights and management who takes advantage of that.

Just moved out last term from there so here is my two cents:

- the cleaning service was removed this year, after leases were resigned giving no warning to people living there
- management did give notice when they came in
- some of the front desk was rude, but for the most part nice (though they were not there a lot)
- you do clean up whatever is left from the old people
- repairs take time, but that is expected
- security is meh, easy to tailgate people but that was not an issue
- gym was always damaged in some way

and as for the knowing legal rights, a lot of the issue were not legal but just shitty service/management.

oh and the internet going from 60Mb/s down to less than 10Mb/s down was one of the main reasons for me leaving.

its an ok place to live, dont think it is worth the money personally anymore.

The Bad:
-Cockroach infestation never hear of this. they would fix u it for u anyways i assume.
-Management enters your room without notice no.
-Rude and condescending management didnt experience this.
-You have to clean up after old tenants before you move in sort of. lets say u got 4 ppl living there and 1 guy leaves. he has to clean his room fully but not the kitchen/living room. so the new guy who enters along with the 4 old are stuck with that mess. then lets say the 3 old guys move out and they wont need to clean the mess. if everyone moves out at the same time then i think the suite needs to be cleaned.
-They lie about having cleaning services though it was canceled years prior cant say.
-Management doesn't return calls, emails, or do repairs not true
-No security, people off the street enter without an access card not really
-Gym equipment is usually out of service cant say

imo. if you got no one to live with west village is better than moving in with a house of strangers, but west village is 600+ dollars minimum. you can find a house for 400 easily.

Hey I lived at West village suites 3 years ago, and I can tell you that if you actually care about the quality/attractiveness/maintenance of the place you live in, then its definitely better than a lot of the other shitholes in Hamilton, thats for sure. Another benefit is that you won't have any young crying babies/families living in apartments next to you (although you certainly could have obnoxious drunk university students next to your unit). Management is 6/10 quality, not too receptive to complaints, but not horrible either.
One crazy thing that happened when I lived there was at 2AM one night there was a huge fight on my floor and it was pretty loud and the police were called. The next morning I walked out of my apartment and there was blood all over the floors in the hallways. Apparently it was students fighting about something. And then in other apartments I lived in that had more shady characters than WVS, you would think that events like that would happen more often, but nothing crazy ever happened in the other apartments i lived in.

Originally Posted by vampin19xx

I've been reading through tons of threads on West Village Suites from the past 5 years. A lot of people have had good experiences and a lot have had horrible experiences so its hard to tell if West Village Suites is really this horrible place, with management who spends all day running their nails across chalkboards as they plot ways to screw students over or are a lot of people just hurt by their experience there and embellish on how horrible it is?

If anyone has lived/currently lives there, can you tell me how much of these rumors are true?

The Bad:
-Cockroach infestation
-Management enters your room without notice
-Rude and condescending management
-You have to clean up after old tenants before you move in
-They lie about having cleaning services though it was canceled years prior
-Management doesn't return calls, emails, or do repairs
-No security, people off the street enter without an access card
-Gym equipment is usually out of service


Also, do you think if students knew their legal rights and how to make use of the rental tribunal system they would have a much better experience at WVS? A lot of the stories I'm hearing just sound like kids who don't know their rights and management who takes advantage of that.

Entering my final year in that building, what I can say about it:

- Cockroaches (and pests): Exaggerated. You will only ever see pests if your room mates are absolute pigs. Do all of the proper precautions and you won't have an infestation problem.
- Entry without notice: Exaggerated. There has to be a very legitimate reason for management to enter your room on no notice (usually its if you put in a work order). They have always given me notice before repairs, maintenance and inspections.
- General Management: No Comment
- Old Tennant Mess: True. I can't say about rooms being completely clear as I've lived in a revolving door (some stay, some leave), but I remember it being very bad when I moved in. I've also had other room mates complain about the state of the room as well when they moved in. Just to show how bad revolving doors get there, last year I found cereal boxes that were 5 years expired amongst other things.
- Cleaning Services: True. Having lived there for a while, they cut it in the summer of 2013 with no notice in attempt to bring other things into the building (some of which I would have rather kept the cleaning services over).
- Management replies: Very False. Every time I've asked management for something, they have always responded within a day or two. Issues and repair requests and are dealt with very quickly.
- No Security: True in that they do not pay attention, but the only way how you can open any door is if a tenant was involved. They stepped it up a notch after an altercation where the cops were called one weekend.
- Gym Equipment: True Although they just got new treadmills last fall, before that most of the cardio machines were in poor shape and in some cases out of order. Additionally, a few of the cable machines were also rendered unusable from overuse damage.
- Internet: Updated Before last fall, the internet was extremely bad. However, they made major upgrades to it (now wireless is 54 mps and wired is 100 mps)

Originally Posted by E Lab

Entering my final year in that building, what I can say about it:

- Cockroaches (and pests): Exaggerated. You will only ever see pests if your room mates are absolute pigs. Do all of the proper precautions and you won't have an infestation problem.
- Entry without notice: Exaggerated. There has to be a very legitimate reason for management to enter your room on no notice (usually its if you put in a work order). They have always given me notice before repairs, maintenance and inspections.
- General Management: No Comment
- Old Tennant Mess: True. I can't say about rooms being completely clear as I've lived in a revolving door (some stay, some leave), but I remember it being very bad when I moved in. I've also had other room mates complain about the state of the room as well when they moved in. Just to show how bad revolving doors get there, last year I found cereal boxes that were 5 years expired amongst other things.
- Cleaning Services: True. Having lived there for a while, they cut it in the summer of 2013 with no notice in attempt to bring other things into the building (some of which I would have rather kept the cleaning services over).
- Management replies: Very False. Every time I've asked management for something, they have always responded within a day or two. Issues and repair requests and are dealt with very quickly.
- No Security: True in that they do not pay attention, but the only way how you can open any door is if a tenant was involved. They stepped it up a notch after an altercation where the cops were called one weekend.
- Gym Equipment: True Although they just got new treadmills last fall, before that most of the cardio machines were in poor shape and in some cases out of order. Additionally, a few of the cable machines were also rendered unusable from overuse damage.
- Internet: Updated Before last fall, the internet was extremely bad. However, they made major upgrades to it (now wireless is 54 mps and wired is 100 mps)

This makes me feel a lot more confident in considering WVS. They sound just as competent as any other building would be, and there's a peace of mind in knowing most of their flaws are exaggerated.

The Bad:
-Cockroach infestation
I lived there this past year and we had cockroaches. They management never sprayed or did anything despite our multiple maintenance requests
-Management enters your room without notice
Usually, they give notices
-Rude and condescending management
Only the building manager
-You have to clean up after old tenants before you move in
Yup
-They lie about having cleaning services though it was canceled years prior
Yup
-Management doesn't return calls, emails, or do repairs
Yup
-No security, people off the street enter without an access card
True, but wasn't really a big deal
-Gym equipment is usually out of service
Only the cardio stuff

Originally Posted by SciGuy

The Bad:
-Cockroach infestation
I lived there this past year and we had cockroaches. They management never sprayed or did anything despite our multiple maintenance requests
-Management enters your room without notice
Usually, they give notices
-Rude and condescending management
Only the building manager
-You have to clean up after old tenants before you move in
Yup
-They lie about having cleaning services though it was canceled years prior
Yup
-Management doesn't return calls, emails, or do repairs
Yup
-No security, people off the street enter without an access card
True, but wasn't really a big deal
-Gym equipment is usually out of service
Only the cardio stuff

In your opinion are cockroaches common throughout the building? Or do you think its because you had messy roommates or neighbors?

I'm terrified of all kinds of bugs, its a huge factor in whether or not I rent.

Originally Posted by vampin19xx

In your opinion are cockroaches common throughout the building? Or do you think its because you had messy roommates or neighbors?

I'm terrified of all kinds of bugs, its a huge factor in whether or not I rent.

I don't think it was my roommates because we had the bugs from the very first night