The Haven at Westover Hills — Local services in San Antonio

Disclaimer: Digital reviews can be taken out of context. This review is not written in anger. It is simply with high concern from a resident/human being. This is not regarding the management in the leasing office. It is regarding their leadership above them. This is going to be a long one so I’ll say the most recent situation first. This is a gated community and this had still occurred. This morning 6/26/2023 @12:52AM, there was a shooting right outside of the unit I live in and a car crashed into the wooded area behind my apartment. This occurred within the gates. Police came, we all took photos of the shell casings, tire marks, and also confirmed that no one was in the vehicle prior to the police arriving. This was to ensure that no one needed medical assistance and this was done while on the phone with the police. A stray bullet hit another building but thankfully no one was injured. The car that crashed was a stolen Kia. Over the past decade, the crime rate has increased here and security has not really been priority. There has been no community notification about this incident via Email or community app. Safety of the residents is to be top priority and I do not feel that this has been the case for a long time. There have been countless mailbox thefts (Even though the mailbox area is now gated and has a camera) and car thefts/break ins. They also have a wall locker area that you pay for to have packages stored in but packages are still left at our resident doors. They are still being stolen and it increases around mother’s day, father’s day, valentines day, Christmas etc... A while ago, a new trend on TikTok started where Kia's can easily be stolen. There was a neighbor in this complex who had their Kia stolen due to that. We do not have police or security patrols in this community but you would think that we did with how much we pay to live here. Security: A lot of the other staff have come and go but I have slowly seen a decline in how they interact with their residents. For example, during covid, a lot of "get together's" occurred instead of going to bars. I had attended some of them and they seemed fun. It did seem that at times things would get crazy in regards to noise, duration, etc. Due to this, they had security patrolling the premises. From what I have gathered, he lived here and it was a voluntary thing. I could be wrong on this. Either way, there was a security presence. His purpose was commendable but it did lead me to question the motives. Why are they able to provide security to take corrective action against residents who were not following the rules as stated in their lease but not have security for such a rising crime rate in this area? Now there are shootings residents have to worry about and we as a community feel neglected. I have been here for 10 years and have never missed a rent payment. That kind of response that I provide as a resident is something I expect from the leadership, above management, when crimes occur in...

TLDR: They charge a fee for terminating my lease with orders. AC was broke… ALOT. Rodent problems.

Let me say that the ladies at the front office were absolutely amazing, always smiling, and super helpful… up until the time it was time for us to move out. Even after explaining to the manager that a move out fee isn’t applicable in our case, due to us providing military orders, she still charged us a reletting fee and then sent the account to collections. It took multiple calls and emails to the manager and me going to the JAG for the office for her to finally realize the fault and then refund what we were owed. Talk about an unneeded headache.

Overall, our stay at The Haven was well… eventful. From the time we moved in, we had issues with our apartment. The first month or so our A/C went out twice in the night, but maintenance arrived promptly the next morning to fix it which we greatly appreciated because we didn’t want our toddler overheating. For a while, as long as we kept our AC above 72 degrees, we had no issues. Until we did again. Finally after a few more service calls maintenance replaced a certain part and all was right in the world of cooling.

Next, after coming back from a long weekend trip we noticed our fridge liner chewed up. Immediately we submitted a work order only to find out that virtually nothing can be done about it until the upcoming Thursday when the pest control person rolls through. We were pretty confused how we could even have a mouse/rat or whatever it was because we sweep and vacuum throughout the day and we deep clean on the weekends. But things happen. We tried to fix this as soon as possible because this posed a health concern for our toddler, but we still had to clean up droppings even after a visit from pest control. The last straw for us was when the rodent chewed up my child’s play mat that we had to throw out. After submitting multiple requests and emailing the manager directly, we finally got this issue resolved. My hope now is that they have identified where rodents are coming in and fixed the process in which they respond to pest service requests.

The good:

Parking - There were always plenty of parking spots relatively close to the our apartment, it never felt like we had to walk miles just to get to our doorstep.

Location - The apartments are located right off the 151, so good food and amenities are really close by.

The gym - Moving in, one of the more important things to me was the gym at the apartments. I can honestly say that I was never disappointed whenever I went. It was always clean and tidy. It has all the equipment you need for a good workout and is...

My wife and I lived at this location for a lease term of 13 months. During that time, we had little to no issues with the complex and area. Some problems we had were neighbors above us causing loud noises at all hours of the day (and night), cars being broken into, and limited parking (I was informed a soccer team was renting some units there). Outside of that, Lacey, the manager was super helpful when we originally signed our lease and was also eager to answer any questions that arose.

However, while my wife and I were in the process of getting approved for a home, we had requested an extension for the deadline to let Haven know if we were staying or leaving. They acquiesced our request but DID NOT state that, because of that, the additional week granted had us paying the "at-market-value" of the apartment. When we brought this to their attention, they claimed it was in the paperwork that was sent to us but could not procure such paperwork when we asked to see it. To add to this, they claimed the shower was not cleaned, the microwave was not cleaned either, and the rugs needed to be cleaned as well. My in-laws spent a week cleaning the apartment from top to bottom as my wife and I had a busy schedule being that we are teachers. This included shampooing the carpets, cleaning the refrigerator and freezer, and the bathroom. For what it is worth, the baseboards by the shower were already in horrendous condition when we got the unit and there was some sort of black gunk underneath the bottom tiles on the wall of the shower. Lastly, we were told that our final water bill was being paid with our deposit. This water bill included TWO bills: the month we left and, apparently, from the very first month we moved in. My wife and I were shocked. We were told that the because we did not have a water bill the VERY FIRST MONTH we moved in, that Haven was appropriating funds from our deposit to cover that. To make this EVEN WORSE, we never had a water bill over $52 and change. The final bill was around $122. We are receiving 1/10th of our deposit back from all of these things that Haven decided to bring up at the last moment.

We had a great time staying there but the last month had Haven showing their true colors and it was very disheartening to see. Please be aware of these practices and make sure you get everything in writing. Save any and all paperwork they send you on the off-chance that they state that they cannot procure said paperwork you might...