Domain at City Centre — Local services in Houston

We’ve grown to love living at Domain but these are things we wish we knew before moving. We probably wouldn’t have moved if we knew in advance. But we like to stay positive. It’s mostly just really loud. The ceiling and windows are paper thin. We can hear everything they’re saying upstairs, their doors creaking very loudly, as well as all their footsteps. We can tell they’re not being loud but that it’s just audible because the ceiling and floors are thin. Conversations of poolside passersby are also very audible when they’re speaking at a normal register. Every week or so we hear hollering or loud music from the poolside courtyard one time starting at 6am going for several hours. For a couple days, we heard a couple dogs barking nonstop.

Parking The leasing office allows residents to reserve parking spaces on any floor of their choosing. Packages are on the first floor of the Domain garage, so residents choose to park on the first floor and take the elevator up to their floor. Our unit is on the first floor and we often have to park on the third or fourth floor and take the elevator down. Sometimes the elevator is out of service and I need to hike up the stairs pregnant with a toddler as well as other medical conditions. We purchased a reserved spot before move-in but it was almost on the second floor, far from the elevators, and between two pickup trucks. There are lots of pickup trucks. The spaces are very small. There are two handicap spaces that are usually taken. My health issues are currently controlled and better, so we don’t use it so others in need can. Car alarms go off sometimes multiple times a day. Not sure if it's a theft issue or damage.

Please be careful when exiting the garage. The parked cars lined up make visibility very difficult. We’ve seen and experienced multiple near accidents.

Packages The Domain packages can end up in lots of places: small in lockers, large in leasing office, which cannot be retrieved after business hours, or entry vestibule. We saw packages outside people's doors for over a week during the holidays.

There are 3 different phone apps to access the entry and exit points in Domain.

It’s really loud and still affects my sleep.

The doors also stick and pop when the weather changes.

It’s hot in the guest room and cold in the master. We’ve tried closing vents and it makes the living room damp and stuffy.

Management A gentleman who has lived at the Lofts and Domain for over ten years said management charged an amenity fee for several months during Covid when all the amenities were closed. He had to get a lawyer involved anytime he needed to get something done like needing to change units due to noise.

Maintenance Our move-in maintenance list was so long. The hot water was still shut off. There were large gaps in the window screen and ended up telling us every unit screens have gaps.The guest room toilet seat is too small for the toilet. Maintenance says it’s every unit. So you sit on the rim. We’ve found small roaches in the toilet and bathtub. The hot and cold kitchen sink is backwards on every unit. There are chips in the wall paint we asked them to fix upon move in and they didn’t. The master shower door leaks. They came to fix it once, it still leaks. We asked them to come back. They didn’t.

The leaf blowers come every morning around 8 or 9am. It’s loud. They blow leaves on top of our chairs and tables and blow dirt onto the tiles we installed for our toddler. Makes it dirty and hard to hang.

Community We’ve lived here 4 months and there are no community events. We are very friendly and have met all our neighbors but everyone we’ve met has complained about the inability to meet neighbors. We’ve seen incredibly high turnover.

Location We absolutely love living on the CityCentre campus. We love our apartment layout. All of our belongings fit perfectly in this space and it's just the perfect space for us. There are lots of children at Domain. We see small children almost every time we leave the apartment which is great for us as a family with...

FOR POTENTIAL RESIDENTS SEEKING TO MOVE IN HERE, UPDATED OCTOBER 2024 -

I recently moved out after living in this apartment complex for 2 years. If you're thinking about moving in to this apartment complex, keep in mind the following :

Internet. If you're working from home, good luck. In the 2 years I've been here, internet has been disrupted no less than 15 separate instances. These are no 5 minute outages, so if you had an important meeting you better have a backup mobile phone hotspot. The internet provider is mandated by the apartment when you move in. Water supply. The water supply has been disrupted no less than 10 times over the past 2 years. Hurricane Beryl. There was no power or water at the apartment for close to 3 days during Beryl. The apartment's management knew well ahead a hurricane was headed to Houston, but did not prepare any emergency power. Properties nearby had mobile generators prepared for at the very least, emergency lighting. The corridors were pitch black and residents pretty much had to leave the complex during this time. Garage Gates. The gates to the garage entrance break down all the time. As such, more often than not, it is left open. During my stay, there have been 2 incidents of mass cars being broken into as well a a truck being stolen. Key Fob. The interior access doors require a fob or an app. However, these frequently break as well. As such, when this happens you have to walk to the main entrance where hopefully, one of the two entry systems they use works - or wait for an existing resident who happens to be there open it for you. Security. There used to be security patrolling the garage and the property. However, since August 2024, security has been non-existent in the community without any notice to the residents. Pedestrian Access Gates. There are convenient pedestrian access gates located around the property however, these are frequently broken and if you put in a request to fix them - it's taken as just a suggestion. The gates between Domain to Lifetime fitness has been broken for more than a year. Mailboxes. Mailboxes were broken into, no doubt, due to the lack of security. Mail was stolen, and the residents were notified without any further action. EV Chargers. There are 2 EV chargers in the property. However, more often than not, they are non-functional. If you have an EV, you will need to look for chargers in the paid garages nearby the property. Elevators. By my count there were more than 10 separate occasions where the elevators were not working for extended durations. Moving Out. I did a walkthrough together with Jessica, where there was no damage noticed in the apartment. However, a day later I am sent an email that the "carpet could not be cleaned to its original condition & color". I've attached a photo of the said "damage" to the carpet and these are two lines where my desk legs stood, that did not move from the time I moved in. No physical damage to the carpet, no stains from my dogs who are well trained, no burn holes or anything like that. Just where a book shelf stood that I propped a desk on was enough to "irreparable damage" the carpet.

As such, if you're comfortable moving in to these apartments know that if the previous residents had pets, it's not a given that the carpet is replaced. Mind you - this is on top of move out charges of $145 "Pet Treatment" and a $75 "Apartment Cleaning", which I did not contest.

This is also in addition to move in charges of $1,000 "Pet Fee" in as well as $50 every month for 2 years as "Pet Rent".

To top it off, they send you a nice little reminder with the final payment notice that these will be sent to a debt collector if not promptly paid, based on what they decided themselves.

If you think the above are hard to believe and exaggerations, refer attached emails of official notices for each of the issues I mentioned above.

This is doubly unfortunate as the maintenance people as well as the leasing staff are wonderful people, really let down by...

To start , I lived all over from Seattle to Portland and now Houston so I've had my fair share of experience living in apartments. This is such a beautiful community with great amenities but awful staff besides Kourtney. She's the epitome of an awesome leasing staff. I've had several incidents with management. First incident that was apparently wearing a thong at the pool, Im sorry but I would never wear such an explicit clothing in a family pool( I do have a larger bottom and due to that sometimes bottoms don't fit properly but its minimum of two fingers thick) plus I always tried wearing a chiffon to cover from the pool to my apartment. I think it's not only petty but harassing to approach me at the pool and tell me Im breaking dress violation where there are plenty of other ladies wearing skimpy cleavage that doesn't even cover a nipple and getting intoxicated while their kids at the pool. after that , I didn't feel uncomfortable coming to the pool because it was one constant pestering after another. the second thing that made me want to move out was they had to inspect and install lock system for bottom floors and didn't even a 24 hour notice and just decided to barge into my living space which it didn't give me enough time to lock my pets and when I came back home , had notice that not only they came in without permission yet had left a mess and someone had step on my pets accident and wiped on my living room rug. ( of course after I went into the office to complain, they had decided to clean) and knowing they went in before the 24hr notice, by law any property manager or landlord has to give that notice then enter the premises I checked the email when it was sent and obviously didn't add up to the time frame they were supposed to come in. Lastly , after Harvey they had to inspect there was no water damages so when this temp leasing agent came in , I was present and had placed my two small chihuahuas on my bed while she did her job and we were just having conversation. My pets were barking since they didn't know this stranger and she thought it would be smart to reach out and put her hand out to two dogs that are barking and we continued to chit chat and she left.Later that day, after two hours to be exact I received an email about how one of my dogs had bitten the leasing agent and had to provide shot records or they would have to call Harris County. ( which the question that raised was don't they already records of my pets current vaccinations?) and If in fact, my pet did bite her. why not say something at that time ? so I could have corrected my dog, and not wait two hours later and complain to their supervisor Jaimie and then make up an issue out of it. Not only it was disrespectful and unprofessional. And, if you like to be woken up at 4am due to faulty fire alarms and...