Rendezvous Urban Flats — Local services in Tucson

Title of this Ted Talk: A Complete Dumpster Fire with Nice Windows

Cliff Notes version: This building is unsafe, unclean, a mess when it comes to management, and a scam when it comes to move out

The full version of the year I lived there:

There’s a joke amongst residents of “Oh, you fell for the nice windows too?” Anything beyond pretty windows, this building falls shamefully short

I’ll skip the part where I had to sign my lease 3x due to admin’s disorganization, was given the wrong keys at move in, or moved in to an absolutely filthy apartment that I then had to re-clean and start with the most important part: safety.

In one year of living there, there were three situations involving the cops. The worst of which was when a young man pushed his way into the building, ran up the stairs, and was banging on his ex gf’s door, harassing her until the cops were called and he was taken out in cuffs.

How could he run up the stairs in a building with fobs?

Because the stairway in the lobby doesn’t actually require a fob. Residents were assured this was being fixed after the incident. It was never fixed by the time I moved out.

Moving on to the trash: The first 3 months I lived there, they couldn’t figure out their trash situation. The hallways smelled so, so badly of a mix of fish and trash every day for three entire months. Having the apt next to the trash room, it got to the point where I was going into the room with Febreeze to spray just to make it livable. I came home from a weekend in Sedona to an apt full of fruit flies at the height of it. It was absolutely disgusting for any living situation, but especially for the rent we were paying there.

I came home from a different weekend away to find a leak in my closet. It took 4 full days for someone to fix it, as the bucket in my closet full of clothes continued to fill day after day. Joe, the maintenance man, is absolutely wonderful…but there’s one of him for the entire building. Leaks did not seem to be urgent.

There were a hundred other small things in there: cabinets that don’t open correctly, a kitchen island that started peeling week two of living there, the fact there’s no intercom so if you have a dinner party you need to run downstairs for every guest to let them in one at a time, a package system that often resulted in your packages just laying on the floor instead of in a locker, but you get the idea: the apt is pretty; the building and management are a hot mess express.

Finally, just for good measure, move out: my partner is an absolute clean freak so we scrubbed that apt prior to move out. They kept a good portion of my security deposit because…we didn’t clean the inside of the washer/dryer. (I’ll refer back to the fact I “manned” the trash room to make the place livable, which was pointed out to them in the thick of trying to get my money back, to no avail)

If you’re ok paying 2x Tucson rent for some pretty windows, you’ll love this place. If you want any kind of safety or quality of life,...

I moved into unit 601 in March 2023. Starting in early April 2023, a strong garbage smell became evident, especially when I turned on the AC. Over the next few weeks, I spent time and money deep cleaning my apartment (cleaning the garbage disposal, draining the washing machine, purchased a large air filter, and many other things).

Unfortunately nothing worked, and the smell got even worse. More details are below, but this became a several month ordeal. I finally decided to move all of my belongings to unit 606 in December 2023. The previous tenants of unit 606 told me that they sometimes smelled garbage faintly, but not nearly as bad as my unit.

My rent was $2300/mo. The pictures looked great, with the bright sunlight through the floor to ceiling windows, so I thought it would be worth it. I really wanted to like this building but this was by far the biggest waste of money in my life. I spent over $25k on rent over my year lease, and for the vast majority of the time I was counting down the days until I could move out.

Details: I soon realized, in early May 2023, that the smell was exactly like what the garbage chute room across the hall smelled like. I brought it to the attention of the manager who said they would clean the garbage room more thoroughly. This was a losing battle as there was only one maintenance person for the entire building so his time was limited on how much he could clean. Sometimes when he cleaned, the smell would noticeably improve, but not always.

Many times over the next several months, I met with the manager and staff in the 6th floor garbage room to show them how bad the smell was, then went across the hall to my unit to show them the smell was exactly the same in there, and that it almost always got worse when I turned the AC on. Many times, it even smelled like garbage in the hallway.

Over the roughly 7-8 months I lived in unit 601, there were multiple times I woke up in the middle of the night the smell was so bad, and there were multiple stretches of several days and weeks I had to sleep in the living room on an air mattress with the balcony door open to get some fresh air. Remember, I was paying $2300/mo for this experience. There were some days the smell was so gross, I even had to leave for the entire day.

Unfortunately the response from management was slow at best. It took several months for a new ventilation fan to be installed above the trash chute, and there were times it was suggested that it was somehow my fault.

As I said above, I wish I had chosen any other apartment building. I was unable to live in the unit for a vast majority of the time without the balcony door open, and whenever I came home, I had to brace myself for the stench of trash. I recommend avoiding this building and if you do decide to move in, please take an in person tour and test the AC for an...

Honest Review

I have been living at Rendezvous flats for over four months now. It's not a bad place to live but I was expecting more from their "luxury downtown flats." They are very convenient for university and downtown life. You can just walk home from most nightclubs, and you can use the sun-tran to get around.

NO HOT WATER FOR 13 DAYS You would think since this is a new building, everything would work like new. Given, all appliances work well and the wall/floors are thick and somewhat sound resistant (better than others). You will still hear your neighbors as expected with community living.

We did not have hot water for 13 days! Imagine not being able to conformity shower for two weeks, while paying almost 2K / month for your apartment! Water has also been temporarily disconnected at least twice.

I reached out to management on day eight about a possible discount on rent, and NOTHING was provided to me. NO personal apology, NO discount on rent, NO gifts for the inconvenience, NO accommodations. I guess I expected more for the money.

Also, service requests were ignored during those 13 days. Even though the building staff did not fix the hot water issue. So much for the 24-hour maintenance service.

It is extremely inconvenient for all adult chores. For example: getting to a supermarket will require you to go up three underground parking floors. Making through the underground parking garage will take you about (5 min) and driving the to store will take another 10 min. Once you get back to get to deal with the hassle of "hotel-style apartment living" and take your groceries up the elevator :)

Also, there is no way for you to let ANYONE into the building, without you having to walk to the lobby or parking garage and physically open the door for your guest and other deliveries that do not go into the amazon locker. (e.g. food or groceries)

Final Notes: -You have to physically open the door for all guests, there is no remote opening. -You have to park on the last floor of the parking garage, which charges 100 USD a month. Driving those three floors every day is a hassle. -Do not expect management to be better than any other apartment community. -Poor move-in instructions (internet set-up, trash service, and parking.) -Good location for nightlife, university, and close connection to I-10. -Apartments are well built. -I'll leave it up to you to consider if leaving your entire building without hot water for 13 days... makes your flats...