FOUND Study Southside Berkeley — Local services in Berkeley

I lived in Garden Village for the summer of 2019 while in the Bay Area for an internship. Living there was a nightmare, just one inconvenience after another. It started with being offered the wrong starting date, and ended with Garden Village trying to kick me out at the end of my stay, no doubt due to another fault in their system.

On my move-in day, the lady at the front desk gave me the wrong set of keys (keys for a DIFFERENT resident) and didn’t notice until I had already gone through all the paperwork, and so I had to do it again.

The washer in our unit didn’t dry our clothes. They’re horrible appliances, which is probably why they’ve been discontinued. When I went to put in a work order, the girl at the front desk dared to ask me, “Well, are they damp or wet? These are eco-friendly machines.” They’re soaking wet. There’s an error message. I’m fairly certain your machine is broken, thanks. The girl graciously put in a work request. Which was responded to days later when I went back to put in another, after no response to the first one.

The machine was returned, with an excess of what looked like dog hair inside, and still didn’t dry our clothes! Error code, every time. We were forced to air dry our clothes from then on, which took a couple of days. But I was better off than another girl in the complex, who had her washer taken away with her clothes inside it. The clothes took far too long to get back after Garden Village lost them.

Then there was the Wi-Fi, which according to Garden Village, has a unique username/password for each resident which allows them to host 4 devices. Great! Except for the fact that for WEEKS, another resident was using my Wi-Fi, causing my devices to constantly be kicked off. But that’s all good, because the Wi-Fi company reset the passwords! “Earlier than expected,” which kicked everyone in the complex off the Wi-Fi for a day.

A few other highlights from our stay include: constantly coming home to find blinds having fallen down, a bathroom door that was impossible to lock and the door itself impossible to open, standing in two inches of water while in the shower OR, on the other side of the apartment, having only a trickle of water pressure. We did place a work order for the blinds, to which my roommate requested that maintenance come when she wouldn’t be home, as she didn’t want to be harrassed by him as she always was when she saw him. But I guess that’s all that GV had, after losing “another maintenance technician.”

GV had mentioned several times that if a resident were to overstay their lease, the fine would be $130.00 a day. I wanted to stay an extra day, and Cal Housing told me it wouldn’t be allowed. One of GV’s employees, Hannah, had even offered for me to stay, and have the GV staff start their process of making-ready the apartment in the common space and other bedrooms before I moved out. I accepted that offer, and Cal Housing tried to go back on it.

I was pretty surprised they needed so much time to get the apartment ready too, since my roommate had to clean leftover urine off the toilet when she moved in.

Garden Village was an awful place to live, and only gets 2 stars for being safe, being a close walk to BART, and having a cool view...

I stayed there for about a year, with my lease having ended at the beginning of Aug 2024 (though I was moved out at least a month before then). My stay there started with being placed in the wrong room, after being told I would be in my own bed in a room with two separate beds. This actually worked out in my favor, briefly, because the room I got was a single bed in a two-bedroom unit— more on this later. I eventually found out that they didn't have any rooms with two separate beds anywhere in the complex; all they have are bunks, which I specifically asked to not to be placed in. Meaning I was misled over the phone before driving up from SoCal. Even so, I thought my single-bed bedroom was a complimentary upgrade for the misunderstanding. Naive, right?

In actuality, they had mistakenly placed me in a better unit, and once they realized their error, they had their leasing agents hound me for months to sign for a more expensive lease. One woman was pleasant enough to deal with, but I was constantly being fed the implication that signing something more expensive, or letting the complex install a bunk in my room to compensate were my only options. My uncle is a lawyer, so I quickly found out that this wasn't the case. Eventually, we reached a compromise that had me moving into another unit at the same rate I was already paying, while keeping a room to myself.

If all that wasn't enough (real fun to deal with while attending a school known for its rigorous program, by the way), the noise while living in both units was unbearable. Weeknight parties thrown by other residents on the rooftop decks, despite quiet hours supposedly being after 10:30pm. These parties were relentless, and often lasted until 1 or 2 am. Management was useless at breaking them up, and the cops were no better.

There was also a stupid 10$ fee every time I paid rent over their system— and nearly everything is done through their online portal— which might as well just be extra, unadvertised, rent. Maintenance rarely showed up when we had a problem, but they always marked our problems as "resolved," despite that rarely being the case. Their shared laundry room had me paying almost 4$ every time I washed and dried. There was also no parking, and the building is excluded from qualifying for a street permit for anyone living there. I was told there'd be street parking, but not told that I wouldn't be able to qualify for a permit to park for longer than in two-hour increments. So I had to pay off at least 6 or 7 tickets while living there.

Finally, their rooms tended to heat up considerably during the warmer months. Admittedly, that's less a them problem, and more having to do with the general lack of AC around the Bay. But I guess all that hot sea air has made me salty.

Oh, and let's not forget the package thieves who were never caught. But hey, at least the roof looks pretty with all the...

Absolutely Terrible Experience — Do Not Recommend

I lived at Found Study Berkeley Apartments for a year, and it was honestly a nightmare. The rent was insanely high ($2,450/month) plus over $100/month in utilities for a tiny, dark apartment with countless issues.

First, the desk was ridiculously small, the walls were paper thin, and fire alarms would go off all the time. Twice, the fire alarm forced me to reschedule important job interviews — completely unacceptable. To make it worse, the apartment was disgusting when I first moved in: mold in the bathroom, a horrible smell in my room, and a leaking bathroom ceiling every time the upstairs neighbors took a shower.

The heater broke multiple times during the winter, so we had no hot water or AC for days. Maintenance would show up, make loud noises trying (and failing) to fix it, only to tell me they needed to order parts. It literally took weeks to finally resolve the issue.

The washer and dryer in the building destroyed my clothes — overheating, burning, and leaving sticky materials on them. I had multiple pieces of clothing ruined. Also, the door to the unit was semi-transparent, which was super creepy, especially when people would stand right outside.

Management was a nightmare. When I first signed the lease, it was managed by Garden Village, and Tiasha was very responsive. But after management changed, everything went downhill. The leasing office was often locked even during business hours, no one answered calls or emails, and staff attitudes became rude and dismissive. Returning my security deposit also took over three full months after moving out — completely irresponsible.

One of the main reasons I chose this place was because it was furnished, but it was absolutely not worth it. The living room was always dark because another building is so close that sunlight can’t get in — it felt depressing all the time.

I have lived in multiple apartments, and Found Study Berkeley was hands down the WORST experience I’ve ever had. Save yourself the headache and...