Tuscany Apartments — Local services in Los Angeles

Here’s everything I wish I knew when looking for a place to live. For reference, I lived at Tuscany for 3 years. 2 years in a 1B1B (shared with a roommate), and 1 year in a 2B2B (with my own room and bathroom). This review applies to BOTH units as the experiences were the same.

Pros: close to campus (Marshall). Honestly the biggest thing Tuscany has going for it and the main reason why I stayed here for 3 years despite the issues I — and others in the reviews here — experienced.

very spacious apartments. The rooms/bathrooms are made for 2 people. For example, I had 2 twin beds (pushed together), 2 sinks in bathroom, and 2 walk-in closets.

generally quiet in the building, but also not much sense of community between tenants if that’s something that matters to you. For me though, it was great: I was only kept up by party noise maybe 2 times in my 3 years.

great amenities (pool, rooftop patio, gym) that are very underused. Study rooms do get busy though and the furniture in them is bad shape… hopefully management replaces the office chairs in there soon.

management is helpful if you are proactive about getting help/repairs when you need it. I have always had them come same day or next day to do maintenance (depending on severity of issue). But I did have to follow up with them sometimes — you have to be proactive! I would say that I’ve had more maintenance issues than most though, mainly due to being on the top floor. More about that in the cons…

Cons: have had some bug issues in the past, but none this year. Changes every year but are usually resolved quickly. First year was termites, second was roaches (in hallways, not in unit). That’s not really managements fault though as there is only so much you can do prevention-wise.

the roof leaks every single time it rains. This happened in both apartments I was in (both on top floor). I had to move out of my unit for a few days for repairs, which clearly didn’t completely fix the issue as the same leaks happened the next time it rained. At least they tried to tackle it quickly, but still an inconvenience. However, it is avoidable: if you choose Tuscany, just don’t select the top floor. Request a floor 4 apartment instead. Floor 3 is fine too but avoid floor 2.

can be noisy in exterior-facing units. I strategically chose units facing the inner courtyard to mitigate highway/figueroa noise. Much quieter.

another top floor issue: people walked on the roof every single morning around 8/8:30 AM which always woke me up due to the roof having gravel on it.

washing machines frequently broken. Has been worse some years than others though… have been 2/4 washers working for the past 5 months.

cost for a single room is steep (at least for 1 and 2 bedroom units). However, it can be lower if you choose a 3 or 4 bedroom unit.

no overhead lighting in bedrooms. Meaning you have to rely on a lamp at night… but I’ve noticed this is pretty typical in a lot of apartment buildings around campus.

Not thorougly cleaned in between tenants. While I’ll admit that I am more nitpicky than most, it was clear that little attention was given to proper cleaning. For example, there was mold on the underside of my toilet seat when I moved in, meaning the cleaning crew that was supposedly hired didn’t even wipe the toilet seat. You’d think if one thing was properly cleaned, it would be the bathrooms… also incredibly dirty floors and stovetop.

hot water takes a long time to get hot.

Overall, it’s comparable to most apartment buildings and management teams around USC I’d say. Every building has its problems, which is why this review is still 4/5 stars. I’ve seen most student housing complexes from working as a house cleaner and Tuscany is very middle-tier. If you’re not in Marshall though, better options exist. Other complexes to look at would be a newer building like Hub Coliseum or The 505 that also have laundry in-unit and that are still close to campus and are comparable in price. Newer means less wear and tear and often fewer...

During my time as an undergraduate student at USC, I had an extremely unpleasant and regrettable housing experience at Tuscany, which I consider to be the most horrendous living situation I've encountered.

Imagine living in an apartment without cell phone signals and the only way to receive phone calls / texts is by going outside. Now imagine a sudden, 48-hour internet outage, rendering your apartment utterly useless since there is no way to create a hotspot without a signal.

And imagine not having hot water for 48 hours straight, again without any notice in advance. Additionally I experienced a complete power outage on the day before my final exam, forcing me to seek an alternate location to study.

On top of these issues, the fire alarms would randomly go off, when absolutely no one was using the kitchen. This occurred multiple times each month, in addition to the highly frequent scheduled "fire alarm tests" that either disrupted my sleep by ringing at 6 am or went on intermittently for hours.

Whenever I reported any of these frustrating events to the front desk, their responses were extremely impatient, making me feel as though I was the one causing trouble. They would dismissively claim that there was nothing they could do or say something like, "Yeah, we're experiencing the same issue too," which provided no reassurance or assistance whatsoever. It hurts to even think that your insanely high monthly rent goes into the pocket of these people.

And finally, if you lose an expensive package on the first floor where the Amazon Hubs / deliveries are at, they won't even let you check camera footage. Good luck keeping your stuff safe.

Before I conclude, I must mention that Tuscany is at least very consistent in one aspect: their pricing. Regardless of how terrible the living conditions became, e.g. without water, power, or internet, and regardless of the minimal service they provide, they never reduced the rent by a single dollar. A price with which you can get a nice room, even a studio, in DTLA.

I would rather endure any other unfavorable living situation than subject myself to the nightmare of living at Tuscany again. And if you are reading these comments I hope I have convinced you to find somewhere else to live. And you...

After living in LA for 4 years, my most regrettable experience has been living at Tuscany apartments. Living here for two years highlighted everything wrong with housing next to the USC area. The greatest offense I have experienced has been the amenities by far: specifically the laundry rooms. For the last three months, of the five measly laundry units they offer per floor, 4 have been consistently broken (pictures included). Upon notifying management, workers have come in and removed one laundry unit while leaving the rest broken. As of now, there are 4 laundry units and 3 are broken and I don't think that it will ever get fixed honestly. I have had to compete with EVERYONE living on the same floor in order to do something as basic as doing my laundry, which is absolutely ridiculous. The rent in my one-bedroom unit has totaled to around $3500 per month. For those of you who are new to the LA area, I could have lived in a REAL luxury apartment in west hollywood or downtown LA with amenities that would blow Tuscany out of the water AND pay less. Yet, I pay a premium living next to USC all the while having to drive to a local laundromat weekly to clean my clothes.

Many of you are looking for apartments to live in after guaranteed housing is done at USC. If you look at these reviews and think to yourselves "okay there might be some issues but living that close to campus is worth it", you are wrong. The gym is smaller than that of gateway and new mansion, the amenities are far worse than the Lorenzo, and the laundry machines are consistently worse than any house you would find on 36th place and Ellendale. Tuscany is a culmination of greystar's incompetency lumped into one building which makes profits by exploiting their proximity to USC. If you are a USC student and value your self worth at all, do not live here.

To any management reading this review, this entire rant is coming from the lack of working laundry units....