Newport Village Apartments

I have lived at Newport Village Apts for almost three years and never had a problem with the any aspect of my stay. It’s in a great location and close proximity to South Coast Plaza/​Metro, the 405÷55÷73 freeways, and Irvine/​Newport Beach.
THE UNIT: My unit is a one bedroom/​one bath unit on the 2^nd floor. The carpet was recently installed when I first moved in and the unit was clean and fresh; it had a new coat of paint as well. My unit is 710 sqft, plus a patio. I only have one parking spot (a carport with a storage container). The unit came with a dishwasher, electric oven, and garbage disposal, all properly functioning; I have not needed them repaired since I got here. I had to buy my own refrigerator, but there are several places nearby that sell them new/​used and deliver for free (Sears for example). My unit is quiet and my neighbors have never been noisy. There are other reviewers who say their unit has bugs/​cockroaches/​etc; if you keep a dirty apartment and never clean it, of course you will see creepy crawlies! ;)
THE FACILITIES: The laundry and mailboxes are close to my unit. The pool/​barbecue area is well maintained. Newport Village is cheaper than other apartment complexes in the area (usually by more than $ 100 a month), so that’s also a bonus; that’s $ 100 more for me! There are basketball and sand volleyball courts here too, though I never used them. I never went to the gym either, but I hear it’s nice! The management company pays for gas/​water/​trash. You only pay for electricity (SoCal Edison) and cable (Time Warner and AT&T). You are able to pay your rent online, for those who wish to do so. The grass/​plants/​trees are trimmed and well kept by the gardeners.
PARKING: There are parking rules, of course. You must be either a resident with a parking permit sticker (you are given this when you sign your lease) parked in your assigned spot or a «free-​for-​all» spot, or a guest with a valid guest parking permit (it specifies the dates and times you are allowed to park) put on your windshield and parked in a «free-​for-​all» spot. If you break these rules, you’ll be towed; if you follow these rules, you won’t be towed! Simple as that. One of the two gates was broken for a few days, as one of the other reviews states; however, that was once, they fixed it, and it hasn’t happened since. The other reviewer is likely exaggerating the details of this incident in her angst. Another reviewer states that he thinks delivery trucks are towed, which is of course nonsense. Unless the FedEx gal is making deliveries at 3am, you won’t have a problem receiving any packages or deliveries.
THE FRONT OFFICE: The people in the front office have been really cool from my experience. They respond to emails fairly quickly and repair requests are often resolved within a day or two. No complaints here.
If you pay your rent on time and follow the rules that are in your lease (aka, being a responsible adult), you won’t have any issues living here. Overall, I love this place. I’m happy that I chose it. :)

It’s going to become extremely difficult to get anything delivered here because the second a delivery person gets out of their vehicle the tow truck is waiting. It seems as though this place is hell bent on ensuring delivery services stop accepting orders here.

This place is an absolute dump — very old apartments and facilities coupled with several questionable building of residents. It’s not uncommon to find used syringes and other illegal paraphernalia laying about. If you rent anywhere near the freeway side, don’t plan on getting any sleep as it’s if you’re sleeping on the side of the road from a noise perspective. This complex also utilizes Tow and Mo to strategically tow vehicles randomly. Security is not enforced yet the complez states there is a nightly security patrol. Really? Overall, awful experience. Management is nice but the building owner needs to move in to the present and provide automated rent payment systems, visitor registration, and update building interiors.

Thank you so much for working with us on the rent when we moved out. We really do live this place and we will miss it. The other review I wrote was a bad day when there was some bugs but overall it’s a great place to live very quiet and affordable.

I wish I would have heeded the reviews before i signed a 1yr. There are bugs just about every where. Inside and out. I have been badly bitten by bedbugs/​mosquitos. The plumbing is another issue with harmful grease and rust coming from the bathtub pipes. If your neighbor (Upstairs/​downstairs) smokes or have funny smells. Be assured that your apartment will smell like it too. On hot summer days I have to shut my door numerous times because of the second-​hand smoke. I wish they would implement a no smoking policy. The walls are pretty thin so smells seep right through.
It’s generally quiet but if you live on the side next to the freeway it can be bothersome. The neighbor downstairs can be loud but nothing outrageous. The washing mashines are super old and disgusting, no matter how much detergent i add the water leaves a weird odor that smells like puss from a wound. They recently employed a new front desk girl and she is very kind and tries her best to find a solution but it’s the owners duty to invest in more effective solutions

I am a current resident of Newport Village and would not recommend renting here as this complex is severely mismanaged. I have experienced the following issues:
1) Parking and Towing: The complex has «rules» on towing, but they are arbitrarily and capriciously enforced resulting in inadequate parking on some nights resulting in absolutely no place to park as the entire lot is flooded with unauthorized vehicles and a properly registered vehicle being towed on another night resulting in a $ 322 fee and the headacheo associated with dealing with a towing company, in this case To and Mo Towing.
a. Parking is supposed to be restricted to residents and their guests. There are two gates that restrict access to the parking spaces in the complex. In theory, only residents’ and their guests’ vehicle would have access to these parking spaces because the sliding security guests open only with the resident’s clicker.
i. Unfortunately, the gates often are broken. The gate nearest the freeway was open permanently for nearly a month. This allowed unfettered access– by anyone — to the parking spaces and to the entire community.
ii. The result was unauthorized vehicles including taxi cab drivers who seemed to like to park their cabs in the complex overnight or wait for phone calls from drunk people (the Camp, Memphis, Mesa, Goat Hill, etc. are relatively close-​by), a homeless person who lived out of his van and liked to park in the area, and other vehicles that were clearly not invited into the complex.
b. Residents can register guest vehicles with the front office. I registered my boyfriend’s vehicle with the front office and received a parking pass valid until ³⁄₁₄.
i. Surprisingly, on Sunday morning of ³⁄₈ we discovered that his vehicle was towed by To and Mo Towing. The stated reason was that the parking pass was not displayed.
ii. As everyone knows, towing fees accumulate and we immediately paid the $ 322 towing fee to have the vehicle released. We discovered the parking pass was still in the car when we picked it up from To and Mo lot in Santa Ana (it seems to have fallen off).
iii. Essentially, we followed the procedures and properly registered the vehicle. Before towing the vehicle, a simple glance at the log of registered vehicles would have revealed that the vehicle was authorized to park in the area.
iv. Unfortunately, Newport Village prefers to outsource their parking to West Coast Metropolitan Patrol. Instead of serving the Newport Village community and ensuring the safety and well-​being of the community, they seem quite eager to call in their buddies at To and Mo Towing and have — even authorized — vehicles towed.
v. In light of the throng of clearly unauthorized vehicles and unauthorized people including guys who digs through the trash, meth-​heads, homeless people living out of vans, and others, W.C. Metro Patrol clearly isn’t doing their job and seem more interested in towing vehicles the times they are there.
2) Lies and Misrepresentation: When I brought this up to the property manager, Sharon, she stated that she would reimburse me for at least half of the towing cost. Sharon reneged on her promise and refused to set up an agreeable meeting for myself or my boyfriend to discuss the issues I had with the complex.

Do yourself a favor and keep looking. I have a six month lease and will be leaving as soon as the lease is up (two months). Whatever rent you are quoted, add $ 1,000 per month to cover the towing fees. These guys obviously have a deal with the local towing company. My car (that is registered to me) is parked in the spot assigned to me and has been towed several times and it’s always on a weekday when I have to get to work. I’m missing work and spending about $ 250 each time. I ignored the warnings on Unilocal and other sites about the towing racquet here but now I regret that I ignored them. They are all true! The front office is full of incompetent people that pretend they don’t know anything about the situation and you are left to deal directly with the towing/​impound company. You seriously do not need this headache or added expense.

I recently helped a friend move into her new apartment here, so my review is based on my initial experience and observations about the apartment complex. First of all, its close proximity to South Coast Plaza, as well as various restaurants and markets make this place a great location if convenience to such establishments is what you’re looking for. This is a relatively big complex with several apartment units surrounded by well groomed lawns and trees that give the effect of living in nature, in the middle of the big city. I noticed the pool area right away, with bbq pits and a «beach» volleyball court available for the tenants’ use. Always nice to have some fun amenities where you live.
I’ve read the other reviews for this place, and I just have to say that some of the negative things people have said can’t be farther from the truth. My friend’s upstairs apartment unit is a good size for a single tenant or a small family to live in. Upon inspection before moving in, the carpets were brand new and walls freshly painted. The appliances work, and the rooms and bathroom was clean and bug free. The new property manager was very friendly and helpful in helping us with anything we needed to help make the initial move a pleasant one. She made sure to let me know that if there was anything I needed from her, she would gladly assist.
The move was a bit of a struggle as moving furniture to an upstairs unit goes, but once everything was moved in and everything put into place, the apartment started to feel like home. Not really sure how much my friend is paying per month, but I’m sure its comparable to other apartments in the area (as far as apartments in Costa Mesa goes). Assigned parking is strictly enforced here, so if you have any guests that require parking overnight, it’s a good idea to let management know so you won’t get ticketed or towed.
I’ve stayed with my friend here a few times, and for me it does feel like home. I suppose home is what you make if it. My friend hasn’t had any negative issues as of yet, and that’s always a good thing.

We lived here for 3 years and are only moving because we want a bigger place, the rent goes up too much (in my opinion) every year, and we want to get a dog. Otherwise; we loved it here. There are no cockroaches… although if you don’t keep a clean house, i would assume you’d get cockroaches anywhere! The parking is great, the management is decent, and the neighbors have all been pretty polite. When we moved in we had the «studio» and paid $ 990… if we were to sign for another year (which would have been our 4^th year here), we would have had to pay $ 1176. We decided the place isn’t worth that much. So we’re out. But this was a nice little apartment while we were here!

I lived at Newport for two years and really liked it. My apartment was very spacious and the rent was reasonable. The office folks were nice and if there was ever a problem (we did once find termites) the repair guys would fix it quickly. Its quiet, friendly and an easy commute to Irvine for work.
As to be expected with any community like this, sometimes there were inconveniences. Sometimes they’d turn the water off for an hour or so to repair something without telling anyone. They are always doing projects to make the complex nicer but sometimes that means having to move stuff off the porches or what not so they can paint.
It might not be a swanky complex, but it has character and feels very safe and clean.

The management at the Newport Village Apartments is awful. I carpool and don’t drive my car often (about twice a month), they harass me about driving it more. Even though I explain my situation to them monthly, they always act like it’s the first time they’ve heard about it. They leave notes on my apartment door and call me while I’m at work asking if my car has been abandoned. No… like I explained LAST month… still carpooling.
The whole place is also infested with termites. I came home one night to find a big pile of woodchips in the middle of the living room floor covered in termites. Disgusting.
Can’t wait for my lease to end. Hate this place.

Just moved in… we got a 6 month lease, for the sake of convenience.
Now i’m glad we did… cause the whole place is INFESTED WITH ROACHES.
Sincerely,
Grossed Out …
PS (we plan to ask for significant rent cut… and will report this to the health department next week)