University Towers — Attraction in Orem

I have a private room and love it. That being said, there's a lot going on here that really bothers me and everyone I know that lives here. Management is nice, you may have to be persistent to get an answer, but every issue I've brought up has eventually gotten solved. However, I feel like this place does whatever it can to get money from you. Cleaning checks are pretty intense as far as the rules go. From late November to when school started in January we had THREE cleaning checks!? It made absolutely no sense because that was within like a month and a half. And on top of that they made it more intense by making it so you fail if you don't write your name on the front page, and if you failed and got a fee you'd have to pay it within 48 hours or something (and none of us are sure if the notification of failing would actually notify you). They came after the hours of the cleaning checks, and all of us are always on edge because the first time one of the bathrooms failed because there was a strand of hair in the shower, and another bathroom failed because there was a spot on the mirror or something. Also, none of us ever got those things at the beginning of the year where you write down the state of everything so you don't get fined for it, so hopefully that doesn't happen. They always tell you to put in a maintenance request whenever there is a check, but if your request is anything below high it is never ever getting done.

One of the most ridiculous things they do to get money from you is unlocking your door. If you need them to come unlock your apartment during office hours it's $30. After office hours its $50!!!!

Ya, the kitchen and main bathroom areas look nice, but as far as the kitchen goes it reminds me of Barbie's Nutcracker when they see the fabulous castle and it ends up being a cardboard cutout in front of a cage. The oven takes YEARS to warm up, like it's not even funny. And for some reason our dishwasher/under the sink always smells bad no matter what we do to it. And in the bathroom the faucets glow when you turn it on, which is cool but I wonder if they put money into it that could've gone somewhere else.

I almost forgot!!! THE WIFI SUCKS SO BAD IT'S HORRIBLE! There have been times where I'm watching something at like 3 am when everyone is asleep and nothing will load. It's a good thing I have unlimited data on my phone because I am constantly using it.

I would not trust their website. I live in the south tower, so I don't know how glorious the north tower is. But the south tower laundry room is nothing like the pictures. It is incredibly dirty. I always joke about how I want to give them a surprise cleaning check because they would totally fail. There are constant leaks in the garage, in the garage area by the elevator there are pipes with ductape or something around it? There's one light in the garage that is hanging by a thread above a parking space. And ya the driveway thing sucks there's only room for one car. And there's no visitor parking! You have to get a pass that expires after a few hours and you need special permission for anything other than that-- it's a process that doesn't need to be as complicated as it is. My other beef with the garage is that I'm pretty there are way more handicap spaces than legally required, and they aren't even near the elevator? And shockingly, they are never used except by the management to store furniture and stuff. It is so infuriating. On top of that, there was a petition 'someone' suggested that there should be reserved parking... which would only cost more. They kept pushing the petition in emails and stuff but nothing happened so I don't think anyone fell for it.

About the hot tub-- a friend of mine put in a maintenance request saying they need to clean the hot tub (because it's empty and full of garbage) and they emailed saying that if we want to use one we need to go to The Gateway or some place that isn't close by (15 minutes away or something?). Don't include it in the price and not deliver on it? I have more, but it won't let me...

I lived at University Towers for 8 months, (2024 - 2025) I am a clean and organized person who paid rent on time, worked a full time job and went to UVU. Here is what I thought:

To be blunt, this definitely isn't the nicest place to live, but, when compared, it's around average, if a little below the standard for Orem / Provo area. So not terrible either. The rooms are well used, as are the bathrooms. Nothing really too bad though. The kitchens are actually really nice, with two fridges and TONS of counter space. Any carpet you are going to find is very worn, and often stained, and ours was also very sun bleached near the windows, since there was no curtains on our balcony doors. Our living room area was also enormous, which was nice when we had people over, or wanted to all hang together. Sharing 3 bathrooms between the 6 of us wasn't too bad either, and the vanity area, when kept clean, is nice and plenty large enough. Having in unit washer and dryer was nice too, even though the dryer took an extra few cycles to dry our clothes.

The rooms are, indeed, very small. But, they are nice enough. I have a LOT of stuff and I was able to cram it all in. Be warned though, that they come with a full mattress and usually a wood or cabinet bed stand that it is on, that might move, usually not. Some have desks, others don't. Not a bad thing per se, just be ready for most of your tiny room, to be taken up by bed. The rooms have big closets though, and, big windows, which was awesome if you had a mountain view. I'm deeply sorry if you chose the freeway view, it was so insanely loud in those rooms.

The "amenities" or "perks" were, at best, laughable. They used to have a pretty well stocked gym, with a treadmill and everything, but during my time there, they moved it all from the private club house it was in, to the 4th floor, (?) and removed the treadmill, so that made it pretty worthless. Even if you do want to work out, it's on the 4th floor now, so have fun not waking people up. thumbs up They filled the clubhouse with arcade games and with a Ping Pong table, which all looked great. But that door was locked, and I never saw it open, even with my resident key. Also, if they ever say there is a hot tub there, it's just like, not true at all. There IS one, however, it's very very full of dirt and weeds. That was fun to find out. There are some nice study rooms, and just sort of common rooms, and even one rumored vending machine! There was even a printer there for us to use, which was nice. The "covered" parking, was underground, but we ended up calling the underground parking the "batcave" because it was full of bats, birds, bird poop, random vehicles that never moved, and lots of old furniture. Not worth $40 a month for that, the uncovered was fine. The internet was b a r e l y enough, if it was working.

The biggest thing this place lacks in maintenance. The bathrooms had some mold and the walls are all in need of some paint. Most doors you encounter have been.... abused, at best. Rough around the edges, is the way I would put it. Nothing too serious, but not great.

I found that, the biggest factor here is room mates. While everyone has a private room, the common is where a lot of hanging out and talking happens, especially with the big couches and dinner tables each unit comes with. When I moved in, we had one extremely messy and interesting roommate, he was nice enough but he had stuff EVERYWHERE. He moved out during my time there, and it transformed the experience, as the rest of us were clean and generally well kept. That made this very, very doable and actually pretty nice. Once we all started cleaning and picking up, the apartment, while still rough, was very livable and good.

The biggest redeeming factor, was the staff. Trace, the guy at the front desk and, it seems, the guy who does every thing there, was awesome. He was able to accommodate me in all my requests, and even helped me move a bed personally when I requested a different one. He was super chill, and helpful. And I would rate...

Pros - The private rooms are pretty nice and with 7 other roommates there is usually something going on so you won't be bored. North tower has washers and dryers in the apartment so laundry is free. Each apartment has a TV, and private rooms are supposed to come with a full size bed, though some of them have gotten mixed up and are only twin sized beds. If you move here (which I don't recommend) and you get a private room, make sure you get your full sized bed and don't get stuck with a dinky little twin.

You can't beat the location if you go to UVU. It's also pretty close to Walmart.

Cons - Read the contract very carefully before you sign it if you still decide to live here. Management is terrible. They will try to stick you on every little thing they can. Last month they did some kind of crackdown and made everyone take everything off of their balcony, which had never been an issue before, but then suddenly they decided it was a big deal and tried to fine people a bunch of money for any little thing they could find on the balcony.

The people working in the office are extremely disorganized. They once lost their copy of my contract and threatened to evict me. When I found my copy of the contract and proved that I was within my rights to live there they didn't even apologize or anything.

Internet is THE WORST here. Little attention has been given to maintaining the wireless capabilities here.

Clean checks are overly invasive and they will fail you even if your apartment is sterile. You can lock the door to your room to try and keep them out but they have keys and they'll barge right in regardless. Contract states that if they do that, they have to leave a written notice but they never do. Management is not your friend here, nor do they seem very sympathetic to your needs. To them you are just another source of revenue.

They advertise a hot tub and a weight room, but the hot tub has been broken for years (that's not an exaggeration... It has literally been broken for years), and the weight room is just full of a bunch of broken equipment that they don't maintain. Graffiti is everywhere, even in the elevator, and they never do anything to get rid of it. They have a few cameras in the parking garage but they are mostly all damaged and cars get broken into all the time down there. As far as maintenance goes they are pretty good at making repairs to your apartment if you put in a work order, but not so good at maintaining the common areas. Lights went out in the garage once and it took them about 2 weeks to fix it. Fire extinguishers are missing or depleted so don't count on being able to stop a fire if you leave the stove on. Pretty sure this is some kind of fire code violation but has yet to be addressed by management. Walls, doors, and carpets in the hallways are usually filthy.

Residents are also partially to blame though if I'm being completely fair. They cram 8 people into each tiny apartment so the places are inevitably dirty no matter how hard you try and stay on top of keeping it clean. Many of the residents abuse the property and it's difficult for the maintenance and cleaning crews to stay on top of things. But that seems like the natural consequence of cramming so many college age people into a tiny building. The hall ways occasionally reek but we have been unable to identify the source of the stench.

I want to reiterate how important it is that you thoroughly read the contract before you sign, as you're pretty much signing away your right to privacy when you sign up here. The contract is riddled with typos that make it difficult to understand exactly what you're getting into and after reading it you will likely question if such a poorly produced document would hold up in a court of law.

The worst thing about this place is that it actually could be really nice if it were run by adept people who gave a crap or were willing to invest a little time and energy into making it nice. Hopefully they can get some management that cares someday and then maybe it will be...