The Crossways

Horrendous cockroach problem that they will not fix/​nor reimburse you for.
Brutal management staff that will simply yell at tenants when questioned about anything, and no people skills to speak of (the receptionist however is kind and wishes she could help you but simply doesn’t have the authority)
Security staff that do nothing but smoke all day — or occasionally lock tenants outside on the unkept «outdoor patio» but the ratty, dirty pool (with broken saunas cruddy showers and lockers that are nothing but a pile of beat up metal)
No one abides by the no minors in the pool after 6pm rule. (If they’re brave enough to take their children there) — IF ITS OPEN. The pool and laundry room close and reopen for weeks at a time on a regular basis.
THEY WILL IGNORE any plumbing/​electrical issue — including a severely leaking facet or a flooding toilet.
WILL randomly enter apartment for no reason — leave a note saying it was an «emergency» but nothing beyond that and a huge pile of dirt and mess.
I worked at the bar downstairs for about a week before I left due to the incredibly amount of mould/​smell/​drunks that would attempt to follow me home/​homophobic owners comments towards myself and any other minority.
Luckily I looked up the the tenancy act and knew I could leave. Although they did not follow their rights and quickly changed my locks I was lucky enough to already be out of there.
I could go on and on and on, but simply don’t rent here they are over charging for a shitty experience.
So many false pretences and promises.

I been living in the building for few years (too long!), I’m right now in process of looking for new place, and let me tell you I can’t wait!
The building may look nice at the mall level, due to intense renovations. But don’t be mistaken, the quality of the apartments is not up to part.
First problem: cockroaches.
My first year in the apartment I had no problems. Occasional roach here and there. I would just spray my apartment and didn’t had many issues. Sadly, the mix of people that lives in the building changes constantly, and with that comes dirt.
Our garbage shoot is a battlefield. People toss food directly to the shoot, spill food on carpet and around the garbage. It’s just disgusting. I even left few notes myself, because I was so fed up with gross neighbours of mine.
This year, I am not sure what happen but cockroaches are everywhere. Every evening when I turn a light on, I see at least 5 – 8 of them. I wash my dishes, I don’t leave food outside of the fridge, all my snacks are sealed and tacked away.
No matter how clean your place is, they come crawling from other apartments.
Second issue: Parking.
Even though we all have access card to the parking, and there is a security person ²⁴⁄₇ in the building, the cars are being broke into constantly (and I say that because I spoke to few people in the building and it’s a known problem).
My car was broke into, driver window was completely smashed, GPS was stolen. I notified the security person right away. He was rather useless, as if he did not care.
I also notified the rental-​office and was explained that sadly this happens.
Third Issue: Management
As much as the ladies at the rental office are super nice, the manager of the building is VERY rude. He will yell, curse, and is very unpleasant human being. I seen him burst out on people. Very, very unprofessional and rude.
Forth Issue: Rats
Yep, rats. I’ve seen few around garbage. I even had a «pleasure» of running into one when I was going to the recycle located outside, on side of the building.
On couple occasions I’ve seen splatted rat body across the driveway leading towards the main entrance.
In the nutshell, the building has huge potential due to the location, however, thanks to the poor management and totally screw-​up priority, the building is simply nasty!
Perhaps before they started to renovate the hallways (with 80’s-styled carpet and wall-​paint) they should had first take care of the apartments.

I lived there for a bit over a year a long while back… and last time I was there, while visiting a friend, well, I can report that little had changed.
As mentioned before, this complex is actually two towers (A & B) that have the horrible bad luck of facing south, northeast and northwest. As the towers are like triangles as seen from above.
As such all units in this complex suffer for anemic to outright depressing low levels of natural light, even though my unit was almost all four/​five feet windows across from end to end. But trust me, I tried to keep a few plants alive but none survived the first few weeks regardless of how close I placed them next to the larger than average windows.
I was on the 11^th floor and facing northeast and all you can see from that side is a parking lots, houses and the Go Train station which like Chinese Water Torture will drive you mad as the trains come and go, the sounds of their screeching halts will invade, force themselves into your unit as they flick-​off the next to non-​existant sound proofing. The fact the line is off during weekends will be your only respite.
Now the reasons I moved in there was partly a personal one plus the strangely cheaper than usual rent for a 1 bedroom with a mall on the main floor, a decent pool (!) and more importantly, steps away from the subway station.
However if there is one thing I can call this whole enterprise is this:
Depressing.
The white paint did not so much peel off as smear off. So you could not wash any dirt/​dust stains off. However in most of my appartment I did not have that problem since I painted it myself to fight off the sense of dread. So did my friend.
The hallways are unusually under-​lit and the overall red with green carpet décor is far from cheery and I could assume some girls might consider it, specially at night somewhat creepy.
The office management was nice to me, so I really can’t complain about that, they were friendly… to me. But I tried to be nice to them first.
As far as roaches, I never had one for most of the time I lived there, however, a new neighbor moved in and she used to throw tons of parties. Which if I recall she used to leave the boxes of empty 24’s in her kitchen (I used to get invited as, well hence I know) and the sent of sugary leftover beer was to roaches what cocaine is to Charlie Sheen. Soon enough I started getting them coming in from our adjacent piping in my washroom.
As far as the management’s response, they just sealed my unit with filler anywhere there were holes in the walls where pipes came into my unit. Never found out if they fumigated her apartment. Also I heard by the staff (yes, the cleaning stuff) that if you lived below the 3^rd floor to expect rats. Which I did see once or twice just outside the driveway, meters from our front doors. As there is a bench there where people go there and hang out.
As far as the mall, the drug store, bank machine, convenience store and bar where the only places are really used, although there is also a hair salon as well that I remember. Although before I moved, there used to be a beer store there! I missed it by a year. However avoid the bar at all costs, I have never seen a larger amount of depressing borderline looking drunks on weekday nights in my life.
If you ever have to live there, at least there are two grocery stores. A PriceChopper just north and a No Frills 2 blocks south.
I am happy I only lived there for a year.

Brief update. Asked for a simple repair (well within their domain of repairs. a minor electrical one). I got attitude, I got hung up on, I got no repair. I’ll fix the damned thing myself and knock the cost of materials and my time off next months rent. Good thing I’m qualified to do electrical work. This place is like a Gulag without the charm and warmth.

The Crossways is located right on the corner of Dundas West and Bloor, directly across the street from the Dundas West subway station and just north of the very lovely Roncesvalles St. The building is comprised of two separate towers (A and B) with a mall taking up the first floor.
I lived in this apartment building for almost two years and I will never return. A few months after moving in, the pipes in the ceiling of my one– bedroom apartment exploded due to age and started flooding my apartment with gray water. The leak started on December 6^th and by January 20^th, the problem still hadn’t been fixed. I had to live for at least two months with a giant hole cut in my ceiling, having wooden tiles in the parquet floor missing and damaged and having big nasty stains on the wall. I had to wear shoes to walk through the living room area of my apartment if I didn’t want to get my feet wet.
When the repair men came into my apartment to fix things, they left a huge mess. I had a plastic storage bin I’d been using to catch some of the leaks and they used it as their garbage bin, dumping plaster and bits of ceiling into it. They never cleaned that up and I had to throw the bin out in the end. Also, there was toxic mold growing in the front closets. I called to see if I could have my rent reduced for the two months I had to put up with this and the woman I spoke to told me that I had no right to ask for compensation because my apartment was still «livable.» In the end, she knocked off $ 200 from one month of rent. Wow, so generous.
The damages were finally completely repaired by the end of February, but I still had some guy come in late March (almost a complete month after all repairs were finished) without any notice whatsoever. I was home the day he came in and there was no warning, he just knocked twice and entered. The management had also entered my apartment without my permission on at least one or two other occasions.
Aside from having horrible management, the building itself is just awful. Aside from the problem with cockroaches (yes, the building has cockroaches), the apartment itself suffered all of the great characteristics of your average «paint-​bombed» Toronto apartment: everything coated in several layers of white paint (including light switches and electrical outlets), old and worn parquet flooring, awful, poorly laid linoleum tiling in the kitchen and painted kitchen cabinetry (the type that if you put a damp glass on, the paint will lift right off; cabinetry should never be coated in paint). I paid a lot of money for my apartment and I regret staying there for as long as I did.
The mall is the ONLY high point of this apartment building. It’s rather small by Toronto standards and kind of dated, but it offered a lot that made living at the Crossways very convenient. There’s a dental office, a sexual health clinic, a Rexall pharmacy, a CIBC bank, a convenience store and a couple of restaurants and other stores. While it’s great to have the convenience of all that at your finger tips, it doesn’t make up for the rest of the problems that the building and its management has. I’ll never live here again and I’ll never recommend it to anyone else.