Villas on Rio — Local services in Austin

I'm a current resident and living here is absolutely awful. Ignore the reviews that have 5 stars speaking to the quality of the leasing process. These are incentivized posts where future residents are receiving a kickback/discount on their rental agreement, or a one-time freebie gift card (or similar), in exchange for posting a 5-star review about the leasing process. This is a very frequent tactic apartment communities in West Campus will use.

The elevators here are slow or often broken. There are only 3 to service all 19 floors of approximately 800 residents. My unit had growing mold and missing floors and baseboards for approximately 3 months. Villas was adamant that they would not offer any sort of rental rebate despite that I was living in the presence of mold and had no floors (just concrete).

If you pay any sort of money even a few minutes "late," they will chase you down for your late fee. They will never let it go. The management is insistent that every dollar they claim you owe (even when you paid on-time, but their bank didn't process & receive it on-time), must be paid. They are naive when it comes to hearing an explanation or any sort of statement where they might be wrong.

Furthermore, they charge approximately $100 per month of bogus fees. They charge you $25/month just to live on specific floors (never mentioned through the leasing process because they wait until AFTER you sign to mention this, and it's not mentioned in the lease itself), as well was overcharge for water and sewer charges because they use a billing partner and the costs of the billing partner is passed onto the resident, as well as meter faults in the configuration results in sometimes hundreds of dollars of over charging per month which you have to argue with the City of Austin to have dismissed/waived.

Furthermore, Villas initially advertised their gym/pool as an "indoor spa" sort of environment, but when the massage chairs broke, they actually got rid of them and put vending machines instead. Just another way to remove the convenience you pay for and continue to mint money from its residents instead. This apartment community is terribly ran, and almost all of the students who work here at the front desk can't speak out to management about their own living concerns out of the fear of being fired. Additionally, other staff members (not specifying who because Villas management is known to retaliate and fire employees) have stated that specific departments, specifically maintenance and cleaning, are incredibly under-budgeted and Villas won't hire additional staff to maintain the property because they don't want to pay additional employees (yet they have no issue handing out $$$ for future residents to write good reviews for the "great" leasing process). ALL apartment communities in West Campus have great leasing processes--they will do absolutely anything to get you through the door. When you take a tour here, stop an actual resident and ask them if they're happy. I can about guarantee the answer will be "no."

The front door(s) have been broken here for over a month without any repair or progress being made. The security guards spend most of their time sitting in one chair, not roaming, and when they do roam, it's just down to the parking garage to smoke their cigarette. On the topic of the garage, it's totally unsecure. There is a door that does not require fob access and you can walk up to literally any vehicle. There have been dozens of vehicles broken into at Villas, with property stolen, and management is notorious for dismissing their liability by saying "we aren't responsible per the lease." But then the things they ARE responsible for the lease go unaddressed and they don't even bother apologizing.

There are dozens of other reviews with pictures of trash bags in the hallways causing significant health hazards. Go read those reviews CAREFULLY before signing a lease to live here.

This community and its management continue to operate this place like slum lords because that's...

Do not move to villas on Rio, I know there’s hundreds of other reviews saying this, but I’ll give y’all the honest breakdown.

I’ve lived in this apartment for over a year and every month there’s a new issue, I’m paying $1750 for rent (person) for a apartment with 1 window in the living room, that can’t open, so the airflow gets stagnant, musty, mildew, and dusty.

Let’s break down the issues: All the amities you see on their website are always broken, hot tub rarely works, the sauna has been broken for over 6 months, cold plunge has been broken for 6 months + and they claim to fix these issues and it stays broken. Elevators are always broken, I’d say 70-80% of the time there’s 1-3 of the 3 elevators broken, they don’t move and you can only use

1 at a time, for refrence there’s probably a few thousand residents for an elevator that holds maybe 10-15 people and those elevators are filled with 20+ easy most school days

I’ve had to take the stairs 70% of the year when school is in session, I’ve had a sprained ankle and had to climb the stairs for 1 month + because of the fact that the apartment does not prioritize fixing and doing basic maintenance on the property

They spend more time and money charging you extra funds, kicking you out of the amenities, and doing fire alarm drills at 2 am then they do actually making sure the building is in working order

I’ve lived here for a year and renewed, they kicked me out of my parking spot because I didn’t resign fast enough (spots sold out in January) move in is in AUGUST, as a resident I’d think there’d be a little more respect for those of us who decided to keep living in this apartment

The air filters are constantly filled with dust and debris, the air quality is garbage because most of the apartment has 0 airflow, my roommate had to buy 2 fans and an air purifier just to not sweat in his sleep even with the AC on at 68°

The water in the apartment is crap, extremely hard water, and the fridge water taste like it’s from a mercury mine

The bathrooms have mold and mildew because of the 0 airflow in the apartment, after I use the pool or get back from the gym, if I lay my clothes to dry it’ll take 2-3 days before they’re close to being dry.

All and all if you want to spend 1300+ and live in an apartment that has less care then a motel, I’d recommend villas on Rio. If not I’d recommend saving the money and doing a commute to school, or buying a bike, this apartment has great potential but unfortunately the management couldn’t care less and the apartment is a mess 24:7

Don’t move to villas, and if you’re already here, either write everything down and take photos so you can have a lawsuit, or get out of your lease asap. Because this place will ruin your “living experience”

Do not move here, if anyone knows a good lawyer get them to investigate this apartment complex for the shady...

Villas on Rio claims to be a five-star lodging and yet this marketing could not be less reflected by Peak Management’s resident services. Among a long list of issues, here are a few that students seeking housing should consider before signing here:

Overflow of trash chutes into the hallways (photos attached). For over a month, residents have been voicing complaints about the health and fire hazards brought about by this disgusting inconvenience. Peak Management continues to state that they are aware of this issue and have hired more maintenance staff, and yet daily I have new photo evidence of these abhorrent conditions. I live in one of the units directly next to the trash room, and multiple times, I have had to climb over open bottles and food containers to reach my door. An influx of bugs from the open trash have entered my apartment as well, as they fly around the trash as it continues to accumulate. Additionally, even when maintenance cleans out the trash, the residue on the floors remains because they do not clean, and the health hazard lingers.

Lack of security. Once again, Peak Management claims that they have extensive on-site security between the hours of 10 pm and 4 am. Multiple residents have photo and video evidence of homeless people entering individual units and sleeping in our lobby — both around midnight at even at 2 pm during the day — with no office staff documented at the front desk.

The amenities that residents pay for, such as the sauna and pool, have been “under maintenance” for multiple weeks now. Peak Management claims that these amenities have been fixed and yet residents continue to discover the blatant lies in their words.

Multiple packages that residents order have been stolen due to the inefficient mail system. There is one room that contains all packages rather than a secure system in which each order is individualized with a particular access code.

Peak Management claims to be doing the best they can to handle these issues having newly overtaken this property, yet they manage over twenty properties and are keenly aware of how to run a building. They ignore parent phone calls and photo evidence of our complaints for weeks in a row, issue cancellations on residents’ work orders which have gone untended to, and continue to post on their social media to market to future residents as if they are not caving from the inside (they even blocked a resident on Instagram who tried to voice her concern about the trash chutes).

Overall, Peak Management oversees numerous health and safety hazards for its residents with no concern for our voices or our rights to secure living conditions. Don’t let their free Tiff’s Treats and Taco Bell “resident appreciation”...