The Plaza

To those who are looking for a place for next year: please consider very, very, very carefully since there are many alternatives around Westwood that are much, much, much better.
This review tastes better when enjoying with previous reviews.
The so-​called «renovated» rooms that could charge you $ 3900/​month or something like that: it looked ok from the outside, but when you move in you’ll see why this isn’t the case.
1 The storage: wires coming out from no where, all kinds of wires that we don’t know what they are for — no matter these wires are still in use or not, they neither cleaned it out nor put them back in the wall. Just some ugly, dirty wires hanging there when you open the door.
2 The fire place: as a decoration, was not renovated and no one paid attention to that, so there’s a very dirty and ugly fireplace in the living room. The first thing when you move in might be cleaning out the spider nets and other trashes.
3 There were no plugs for the bathtubs when we moved in. «Fine», we thought. But the water flows down very, very, very slow. Feels like it’s 50% clogged before we moved in, and we can’t imagine how dirty it might be down there. (Overheard from previous reviews by former residents: they might charge you a huge amount for that from your deposit. Even though it’s not your bad.)
4 Very slow response upon repair requests for equipment that are easily broken.
5 Watch out for thieves. Burglaries are frequent, heard several cases which residents had cars and other things in their rooms stolen within 3 months. Well, legally, you know they don’t have any responsibility to protect your stuff… Just live at your own risk. This is a safe neighborhood and I don’t hear other apartments got stolen this often. Conclusion: thieves visited the plaza and it’s definitely not the management’s fault.
6 The management. The manager, called Gisela something, looks nice before you move in, but you’ll see as soon as you move in. Another detailed experience: usually when someone wants to go to the front desk to check if I have packages, there’s only a 50% chance that they have someone sitting in the front desk. They have an irregular «lunch time» schedule, sometimes at 3PM, and sometimes might be 10:30 or something like that. Be prepared once the water pipe exploded and you have no one to call for help.
Conclusion:
A. They don’t give a phở about your opinion.
B. You are just a college student and you won’t stay here for long. So they don’t have the incentive to keep a good service because you’ll move your ass just in several years.
C. Their price doesn’t match their services.
D. Manager cannot manage the apartment complex well, but she doesn’t seem to realize this at all — or maybe she just doesn’t care.

I know this place gets some tough reviews but here’s my two cents.
First of all, I saw a review regarding the internet. I too was frustrated with the amazingly slow and overpriced Verizon internet. But the apartment now gets Time Warner and I receive 100+mbps for only 50 $ a month.
Second, the management is very helpful. There are regulations to every business (apartments included) and they do their best to accommodate the residents. They have gone out of their way to make my life easier here and it’s much appreciated.
Third, maintenance and repair is great. I’ve had the food disposal break as well as my blinds/​shower door suffer some damages. In both cases, maintenance responded quite promptly (within a day to two days). The workers themselves were very respectful and nice.
Granted this apartment complex does not cover certain utility fees like other apartments; however, after comparing prices between the majority of the surrounding apartments, the sum cost is one of the more cost efficient places to live.
In terms of noise, I believe it is different for each floor you live on and that’s not something management can really control. I’ve encountered one party during the time I’ve lived here and the neighbors left a note on the door notifying us when the party would be. The ceilings are a little thin and I can hear my upstairs neighbors shower at night but it’s not a huge deal.

Alright so I lived here as a 2^nd year dental student at UCLA. Although there are some nice points about the point, my frustration with everything else NEGATES anything nice I have to say about the place. From the outside, the place looks relatively nice, has a lobby, a small gym and a pretty nice rooftop. The management is nice enough to receive your packages for you where you can pick it up at some later time. The gym exists… as for functionality… it has a TV that doesn’t work or allow hooking up a HDMI to it for maybe some p90x with some friends… which is quite a shame and a waste of having a tv there in the first place. The spa is relatively well maintained and the water is actually changed!
The rooms themselves are pretty decent. And then the nightmare begins. THE PLACE ONLY ALLOWS FOR DSL VERIZON. IT IS THE LARGEST PIECE OF **** I HAVE EVER USED. I once speedtested at .2 mpbs (supposed to be 4 mpbs… absoulte bull**** as it is) Dial up anyone? And for the record, we were paying 53 $ a month. I now use time warner (which surpirisngly hasnt given me much trouble) for 20 mpbs for 51 $ and that includes the rent on the modem. Although this isn’t directly Plaza’s fault, the lack of option leaves a very negative impression. Further, what they DO NOT tell you is that you have to pay for the communal costs to run the place. This means you pay for the water, electricity, and whatever else on top of your regular utility bill. The charge essentially DOUBLES your utility cost. I swear they pocketing a margin of that charge. I find this ridiculous. When something breaks down, they take forever to swing by and do something about it. Also, when you leave, DO NOT EVEN TRY to earn back your security deposit. Expect them to rob you of everything. Me and my roommate worked on it for an entire week and they still took 80% of the deposit.
If you can survive past that, I hope you sleep like a log. Expect many parties and noise throughout the night. There are many undergrads and many of the rooms open into the center of the building which serves as a noise trap that endlessly echos.
In conclusion, if you are NOT a gamer, can sleep through a nuclear strike, don’t mind being robbed of your money, and have amazing patience for like… everything, you just might be ok.

The property manager, Gisela Espinoza may seem nice at first, but she is the devil. You will NOT get your security deposit. I lived here from 2013 – 2014. Management is still corrupted. Walls are paper thin, I can hear my neighbor watching T.V./Netflix and the other neighbor plays opera from 10pm to the morning. Shannon is almost never there on weekends when he is supposed to. I swear he is not even doing his job on the weekends. I also want to point out that he harasses females at the apartment complex as well. I am not sure why is even still working there. My buddy still lives in the apartment complex.

Do not live here.
Literally one of the worst places to live at near UCLA. Do NOT live here. They have hidden fees with AUM which is essentially the lights/​water for the BUILDING, NOT your apartment which runs an extra $ 100 for the entire apartment per month.
On top of that, the internet is complete crap. You get Verizon at 6mbps for $ 50 a month and you can’t get anything else. Of course you’d think this would be something they tell you, but they don’t. The ceiling was leaking PEE, and they said that the pipes run along the walls.
Also, they go out of the office at RANDOM times for no particular reason so I can’t even talk to management. I tried to get a package a few times but since my friend ordered it for me, it was under his name, Shannon (male) would not release it to me even though I had the confirmation email and tracking number. He said it’s a postal issue, even though NOTHING would happen in light of this event. Thus, I have to eat a $ 30 pick up fee and reorder the item again. Nice way to ruin people’s days.
this literally ruined my day and my week.

i lived in this place for 1 year and OMG
the Manager seemed nice when i signed the contract then few months later we had a hot water pipe EXPLOSION we tried to reach but she didnt pick up so we called
911!!!
My whole room was affected and guess what???
she didnt even apologize or tried to offer some help or what so ever
she got mad!!!
seeeeeeeeeriously its ur maintenance fault
u should be mad at ur self women
one of my roommate got burned in the hand and they refused to pay for the treatment expences!!!
i remember at that day one of our neighbors came running to us in her PJs
because the hot water was leaking through the ceiling
i dont know what happened to her after that…
and to add to that just few days ago 911 came also the other building because there was problem their, i think it is a water explosion because all the residents were standing out on the street and the next morning their was people working and drilling in the building .
so people be aware honestly

It was a terrible decision to live here. Right now I’m moving. Their price is higher compared with neighborhood and the manager there is VERY RUDE. The dishwasher is easily broken and maintenance request was ignored for more than a week. Even when I came to the manager again to complain about their delayed service, the manager dared to tell me that dish washer is not emergency and he had been busy these days. No apologies, YELLING at me. The plaza SUCKS!

Be aware of this place. I lived here for 2 years and everything went great except frequent leaks and minor issues that they always repaired. While I lived there one of the maintenance guys told me he was quitting because the management is corrupt. I could not imagine what he was talking about as they always seemed very nice. The new maintenance guy came in to fix an issue with the water pipes and in the process caused cosmetic damage to the apartment. I reported this to management because I wanted to make sure I would not get charged for it and Gisela assured me I would not. When I moved out I left the apartment spotless and was told I would only be charged about $ 100 for carpet cleaning. After not receiving my security deposit for 6 months I kept calling and sending e-​mails. They avoided me and the rare times when I did get a response or someone answered the phone call they told me it’s on the way. It never came. One day I decided to make the trip out there and ask in person. They told me that I get nothing back due to cosmetic damage to the apartment (the damage the repair man caused and I reported to management). So in the end unless I want to go through the trouble of small claims court I will not get my security deposit back. They are completely corrupt and you will not get your security deposit back.
They are well aware that most occupants are UCLA students so they will keep you happy while you live there and when you leave they know you probably move away for grad school and won’t go through the trouble or have the time to go through the trouble of getting your security deposit back. Also the building always has issues and the walls are paper thin so get some ear plugs and be prepared to kiss your security deposit good bye if you still decided to risk moving in there.

Gisela is a terrible manager! I lived on the first floor and it flooded. They didn’t do clean up for over a day because they had to wait for the workers to come in. Mold started growing all along the wall next to my bed (health hazard!) and even got onto my comforter and desk. They started doing construction the week of my school finals so I was sleeping in the living room for 2 weeks! (try studying for your finals with drilling and whatnot going on) I was not compensated AT ALL even though I tried, they kept sending me in circles with who to contact about it. Don’t trust them. I’m warning you.

I lived at The Plaza for a year from 2004 – 2005 and the apartment unit itself was cozy and enough for one person. The most annoying thing about living here was the fact that I kept getting locked out of my apartment and had to sleep in the car b/​c there was no one to let me in into my apartment in the middle of the night. Also my unit faced the courtyard and I liked to leave my window open or sliding door to the balcony open to get a fresh breeze going on a cool Fall/​CA Winter/​Spring night but I had noisy neighbors upstairs that left their sub-​woofer sound system/​surround sound on ALL night long during the week that it was really difficult to get studying, sleeping, writing a paper, meditation, etc. Overall, I missed the fact that the laundry room was a couple doors down, the garbage disposal at the end of the hallway, and gated parking garage. Oh the things you take for granted until its taken away from you.

I lived in this apartment complex for 2 years. I had it completely repainted and spotless when I left.
They are attempting to charge me $ 3000 in addition to my $ 1000 security deposit. This place is a totally scam!
Steer clear definitely. The management is so corrupt, it’s unbelievable.