The Faircrest — Local services in Ottawa

Apparently there's a second listing for the apartment on Google which is odd so I'll briefly summarise my statements from my other review.

Experiences have been a mixed bag, general office staff and maintenance staff are generally polite, articulate and friendly. Office hours are short and after hours support can be tenuous but considering conditions thats understandable. Maintenance requests before the pandemic were followed up on in around 10-14 business days and fulfilled within a month or so depending on booking which seems reasonable. Currently only emergency requests are being fulfilled which is totally understandable.

Building is under near constant repair which is both good and bad, amenities installed before the pandemic are closed for good reason but rent has not changed except for every legally allowed increase. Ceilings and floors are quite sound porous meaning you need to be lucky about your neighbours or get ready to hear music, footsteps and other noise constantly. Electrical fuses are glass fuses and most apartments have 4 circuits at maximum so likely need to run your kettle and other high amperage appliances through the stove to avoid blowing a fuse.

All installed appliances are older but solid, flooring is clean and functional, balconies are spacious although often in need of paint work and etc.

Bathrooms are small but usuable, water pressure is low but usuable, hot water is plentiful. Pipes are definitely older and after each water repair (happens every other month more or less) water will run brown/yellow for hours.

Heating during winter is quite intense and tenants have no control over thermostat meaning it can get uncomfortably warm quite quickly depending on the outside weather.

Tech infrastructure is very solid with both cable and dsl available with very competitive speeds and fibre was physically installed but no company offers fibre to home connection as of yet.

Washing and drying facilities are decent and not excessively priced, machines will occasionally break down but repairs often occur within the week.

Geographically the location is decently placed for amenities but a car is heavily recommended especially during the pandemic. Close proximity to the transitway is a plus and parking fees are very reasonable.

Overall the building is very solid if not exceptional, and while I've definitely had personality conflicts with some management the building is kept in a solid state, much better than other places I've lived in. I can sincerely recommend the building with the caveats I've...

The management is very very poor. A couple examples. The pool is outdoor and seasonal, and they never do maintainances during the offseason. Every year when the pool opens, you'll have issues here and there. Same with the heat system, they don't do maintenance in summer and every start of the winter they'll shut it down from time to time to do those works. It is water pipe based and they barely have enough pressure to make it go to the upper floors. Every winter my unit was constantly at 16 degrees and their solution was to give us electric heaters. They are responsible for heat and we pay hydro, so the responsibility is now ours. The wall also leaks everywhere. In winter cold air comes through, and in summer not only we pay a lot for constantly running the AC, those small flies would also come in from the cracks at night when we have the lights on.

This building also has losing packages problem and the management couldn't do less. It is ironic that they claim this building crime free but I can't remember how many packages I have lost and I know for a fact that many of my neighbours have the same problem. I once went to the office and the building manager was like "just pick it up when it is delivered" and blamed me for not picking them up on time.

Management record keeping is minimal. They would ask us for proof of insurance when we literally mailed them a couple of weeks ago. And also now they contracted out the insurance business and if you don't send your proof of insurance to a third party, they'll charge you.

Some other small things, they run fire alert every month and the way they do it is that they go into every unit so you'll have the fire alarm go on and off for 15 minutes when they check your floor. They also shut down water once a month for maintenance. Mowing grass starts at 830am and it is very loud and noisy. I am 100% certain that they have issues with the ventilation system because sometimes I could smell my neighbour's dinner from bathroom's vent.

The only good thing is the superintendents are...

Pros: large rooms and good location

Cons: Poor amenities Regular construction and alarm testing inconveniences Shady management practices

In 3 years of living here the pool has been usable for only a few weeks, likewise the gym was completely closed for the first year of the pandemic (now it's limited to 3 people at a time). This is unfortunate because these amenities were part of the reason I chose to move here in the first place. The water in the building is shut off for a whole day (from 9am to 5pm) on a monthly-to-weekly basis, making it difficult to work from home. Despite the 2 years of waiting for them to put new cabinet doors in our kitchen, there seems to be some sort of construction going on in the unit above me for the entirety of the pandemic... Once a month they test their alarm system by ringing an alarm on and off for hours as they check each unit one by one to make sure it is working (there are hundreds of units).

As for the shady management practices, when I first inquired about finding a 2 bedroom unit in their building, they showed me one price, and when it came time to sign the lease they had increased the price by $100. I tried to argue with them but they just told me the demand had gone up (in the few days that I was talking to them...) What's also worrisome is that the management put up signs offering a raffle ticket for a "free month of rent" if you gave them a "positive review" online. In effect, they were trying to bribe tenants to repair their tarnished image. If you notice there is a small wave of overtly positive 5/5 star reviews around 10 to 11 months ago, while the other reviews...