TLDR: Great apartment layout, excellent maintenance crew, great location. Noisy, bad neighbors. Only move in if you can get a third-floor apartment.

When we first moved into Woodbury Lane, it was great. We love our apartment and the location, and maintenance was always quick to fix issues.

The issues started once we got new upstairs neighbors. They’re a small family with two young kids, and the family has never lived in an apartment before. On day one, as soon as they opened the front door,... the kids started running around the apartment. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and let them settle before going to the office about the noise. It never stopped. We sent videos of the noise we heard downstairs from the kids running to the office. The office told us that was unacceptable noise and that they would talk to them. The office would call the neighbors and be on their side, kindly asking them to keep it down. (We learned this after having a conversation with the neighbor).

After much back and forth between the office and us, they replied, “After investigating, we have determined that the noise levels, while noticeable, appear to fall within the range of typical household sounds and are not considered excessive. We understand that noise disturbances can be frustrating, and we appreciate your patience in this matter.” We can either move to another apartment within the complex for a fee of a month’s rent, plus the new unit needs to be at least 10% more than what you pay now, or break the lease for two months’ rent. It’s frustrating to want peace, but the only way to get it is to pay a lot. All we can do now is count down the 100+ days until our lease ends. Read More

My roommate and I have lived in Woodbury Square for a little over a year (we have a 14-month lease), and it has been great. Yes, our downstairs neighbor sometimes likes to start the violin playing at 10:30 p.m., which actually happened on the first night I moved in. I called the guard service, and it did stop. We are lucky to live in a location that does not face into a courtyard. When I take my dog for a walk at night, I can hear TVs blaring, babies crying, etc., and it makes me glad my... apartment doesn't share those courtyards. We were also lucky enough to get a garage with an extended driveway, so we both ALWAYS have a place to park. Otherwise I could see it being an issue if someone comes home later in the evening and having to park farther away. The apartment itself is nice. Nothing special, but central air and a stacked washer/dryer is really a good deal for basically a little over $1,000 a piece. There does seem to be a lot of spiders, which makes sense since we're on an end unit near a lot of nice old trees. I've walked in to my fair share of spiderwebs when I've gotten up to go to the bathroom at night — just, ew. But, the bug guy can come spray any Wednesday (we each have a dog, so it's too hard for us since there's a 2-hour window of no one being allowed in the apartment after a spray). NOW! To the amazing part!!! (Talk about burying the lead!) With your keys you also get a fob to the whole Woodbury Commons — including private tennis courts, three pools (a kid-friendly one, an "adult" one and a competition one with lanes for swimming laps), a volleyball court (sand), and basketball courts. And then you can go to any Woodbury apartment community to use their amenities (gym, pools, etc.). All my friends have kids, so the kid-friendly pool — with a water garden (with cool fountains kids can run through, etc.), a walk-in pool and a paddle pool — has been a huge bonus. So, yeah, I love living here. I want to stay in the community to keep using the lap pool alone, and to be able to walk my dog around all the cool townhouses. My roommate and I are both moving out of the area, so we won't be renewing our lease, but we just got notice, and our rent would increase by $100/month, which is pretty much standard Irvine Co. practice. Read More

A horde of horrible parents who can't conto their kids who scream and cry at all hours of the day. Thin walls do not help the cause. Residents are completely unaware of how to live in a neighborly community and will actively avoid your attempts to be friendly. Staff is competent. Residents don't know how to cook and fire alarms have gone off every single day for the past 5 months. Again, thin walls rear their ugly head. Parents give up on keeping their kids quiet and leave them in the hallway to... finish their tantrums in front of your door. Or even worse, they lock them in the car until they'really done as one of my neighbors can attest to. Lastly, no effort is made to have residents park in their garage, leaving residents with a vehicle too large for the minimal space provided by the garage to fend for one, maybe two, open parking spaces. Returning home after 10 pm relegates you to parking across the street.

In summary, loud, inconsiderate neighbors, thin walls, no parking. Prepare yourself by finding excuses to get out of the house. Read More