Vestavia Place Apartments - Vestavia Hills, Alabama

Larry Gibson

After living there for almost three years, my mother suffered a near fatal disease and was taken by ambulance from the apartment. She was admitted to UAB for several days, released to a Rehab Center, another stint at a hospital, and was finally admitted to a local nursing home. Throughout this process i notified the management about her regression and that she would not be returning to her apartment. I was reassured by the manager that "everything would be okay and we'll take care of everything in the future-to just take care of your mother," as I was her primary care giver. This was not the case as I was told on Oct. 28 that to break the lease, even if she had died- or was dead- that we would still owe 4K in penalties.. Even though the apartment will be completely vacated by Nov.1. This is simply taking advantage of an elderly person on a fixed income and unethical, unsympathetic, and just cruel behavior. The apartment has been unoccupied since Sept.26 and we will have to pay over $5,500 because a lease is a lease, is a lease, is a lease. Pitiful management and ownership. Other items in question are that mail has been mishandled for over 2 months, trash pick up is disrupted frequently or non existent and the pool- for the past 3 years is open less than half the time during the summer season.

Mason Brooks

We moved in about a month ago and love everything so far, we didn’t have any problems thanks to miss Frederick in the office she was so nice and happy to help with any questions that I had. It was very easy figuring everything out and our unit is great with no problems so far. Frederick was also a big reason we chose this place after being accepted because we knew she would help us out on anything we would need.

Mallory Evans

-DO NOT sign up for auto pay! I was charged THREE times!

-I’m on the ground floor, and my floor is sinking into the ground. The furniture in my bedroom is leaning towards the center of the room because of the sinking floor. I said I wanted another unit as soon as one opened up, but 3 years later I’m still dealing with a sinking apartment.

-My bathroom was flooded from the upstairs unit, and the ceiling was very poorly repaired.

-My apartment walls and cabinets were never painted before I moved in, so I’ve had to deal with the previous renter’s mess.

-I’ve asked to have my patio pressure washed but it remains dirty and dark.

-The pool is always needing maintenance.

-I was without a working dishwasher for several weeks.

-My sliding glass door lock doesn’t work.

-3 of the 4 burners on my stove do not work.

-Weather stripping around door needs replacing, but I’m still waiting.

-Flood light on my building has been out for 2 years making the parking lot dark and dangerous.

-Make sure to keep jugs of water, because the water cuts off too often because of busted old plumbing.

-Do not expect owners to take care of their property or their tenants.

*Reply to Vestavia Place’s reply:
There’s another issue, and thank you for reminding me so I can add even more to this bad review. The APP they tell you to use keeps saying error. Pic included. Use my review as a work order, since your app is busted. And how that has anything to do with getting charged rent THREE times doesn’t make any sense.

Dylan Williams

We’ve lived here almost three years now. The management and maintenance are both seemingly nice, but there are many issues that go on ignored. Our A/C has not been working for over a year. Most days in the summer the thermostat will get up to 85 or 86 degrees when it is set on 73. We've put in at least 4 or 5 different work orders for it; each time someone comes out, they say nothings wrong. So it sounds like there’s an issue with the unit, and they just don’t want to pay for a new one. We were told this March when the heat started to kick up that it’s “not AC season yet” and there was nothing they could do at the time. There is a current work order for the A/C we put in that has been active for months. Maybe if the building caught fire with us in it, then they would fix it. The water is constantly cut off, a problem that has gotten worse over the last few months. Someone else brought up the bizarre new rules around paying rent, including paying by the 2nd and management cutting off tenants from being able to use the AppWork portal to pay. We never had problems with any of our neighbors previously, but our next door neighbors constantly smoke outside our front door and leave joint roaches and various trash in the breezeway. Other than that, we love it.

Ari Ginsparg

Do yourself a favor and avoid this place or any other Dasmen Residential property. You will be met with negligence, cruelty, and greed. Within 2 weeks of moving into here, my girlfriend and I began finding roaches in our unit (2509C). We notified management immediately, and despite being assured weekly treatment until the issue was resolved, we received far less than that. We had to keep pestering management to send out pest control after they would stop coming after 1 week. We were also told that the infestation was coming from a neighbor and that the situation was “delicate”. Our issue was not taken seriously, and the infestation escalated for 19 weeks before we reached our breaking point. We tried to request being moved to a non-infested unit, and the regional management cruelly rejected the request and did not provide any reasoning for the rejection (despite asking). Finally, a bed bug was found in our kitchen, and the pest control employee who came to assess noted that it likely came in on an invading roach. Management had the audacity to try to charge us >$600 for treatment, when we were the victims of the infestation. Fortunately, we were able to lawyer up and get our lease terminated without penalty and get to keep our deposit (at this time, still awaiting it to be returned). We were let out of the lease, but the regional manager tried to retaliate by forcing my girlfriend and I to sign a nondisclosure agreement to prevent us from telling our account and avoid legal pursuit. We were told that there could be retaliation from management if we did not sign the NDA. We did not sign the NDA, and that is why I am able to warn you about this awful place now.

We were told that our case was an isolated incident, and it absolutely was not. After talking to all of the neighbors in our building, every unit in building 2509 was infested with German roaches. Testimony from neighbors who knew the previous tenant in my unit noted that the infestation may have sourced from that tenant, meaning that management moved me into an infested unit. Further, I snuck a peek and picture of the list of units that pest control was set to treat on August 22nd, and about 1/3 (13) of all buildings had at least 1 unit that was receiving treatment for some kind of infestation (to protect these tenants’ identities, I will not reveal other unit numbers). Stay far away from this pest haven. They only care about your money, not you.

(Review update): Dasmen's response to my review is laughable, to say the least. Either someone has been contacting someone that is not me, or like I expect, they have made absolutely zero effort to contact me to resolve this after posting ny review. Given how the regional manager treated my girlfriend and I and made no effort to resolve this in a positive manner, I am inclined to believe that Dasmen is not truthful in stating that they have tried to reach out to me since I posted this review. The management office and regional manager have my contact information, so there is no reason for them to not be able to contact me.

Alan Talley

I have been mostly happy with my residency at Vestavia Place outside of a couple things. The due dates for rent are the strictest I've ever seen( paid by EOD 3rd of each month) and the new management seemed to throw previous management's promises to the wind. I was supposed to have my autopay reinstated( it was disabled because of a banking mixup) but rather than find a solution the new staff just quoted their rule book to me. The day that I found out I was 1 hour out of town and have to drive in to do a money order because upon this new management taking over they blocked my online autopay forcing me to pay in person.Outside of that and the fact they will NOT take phone calls about maintenance or issues with your apartment, they have been just fine and friendly. To be honest the BEST part about living here outside of location is the waste service. The guy who handles the waste service does a fantastic job and always says good morning with a smile on his face. He will take boxes that are broken down and everything. By FAR the best waste service I've experienced at an apartment. Back to the no phone calls on maintenance orders thing, they make you use an app. Which that is fine until you have a compounding issue that can't be identified by their AI system. If you try and list multiple issues it will identify the closest thing in your request to a category it can be matched to. Honestly the entire time we have lived here and even leading up to moving here the phone call attentiveness has been spotty at best. We were super nervous when initially moving because we could not get anyone on the phone. If you are reading this wondering if this apartment is OK, if the price is still reasonable yes. The price MUST be reasonable at this property because their facilities for kids and the overall look of the outside of the buildings is lacking. For me it is perfect even though I wish they had an actual playground for my kids, may not be for everyone though!

April Malone

Sam the maintenance guy is very helpful I just moved in two weeks ago and been making sure that I have everything fixed. I really appreciate this because some locations don't have good maintenance or good customer service and this apartment complex has both

Ingrid Ellis

I'm in a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment at Vestavia Place. There are many reasons why I love staying in my apartment!
1. My apartment faces pretty much a forest, so if I'm out on my balcony, I have an awesome view and a lot of privacy. I love even sitting on my couch with the blinds open and looking out of the window and hearing the birds chirping.
2. These apartments are spacious. Kitchen is narrow, but there is lots of countertop space and cabinet storage space. I also have a coat closet, a pantry (probably supposed to be linen closet, but I put my food there), a walk-in laundry room and two huge bedroom closets. My bedroom is big enough for a king bed. The dining area is big enough for my parent's hand-me-down kitchen table and china cabinet.
3. For the space you get, the price is right. They're always doing rent specials too, so be sure to ask management what the current special is. When I signed up, I got $300 off my first 3 months of rent, and I really needed that.
4. Dog park! This complex is so dog-friendly, and my poodle loves the dog park. All of my friends want to meet me at my complex with their dogs so we can have puppy play dates.
5. Pool and gym... they've been under construction, but they look awesome, and I can't wait to try them out.
6. Community-wide wifi. It's fast and reliable, and because it's community-wide, it's way cheaper than if you set up wifi yourself.
7. You can save up for apartment upgrades through their "Dasmen points" system. You get points for paying rent on time, referring a friend to move in, etc. Points can be redeemed for new shower head, new smart thermostat, or even a stainless steel appliance package for your kitchen.
8. Super safe. I have walked laps around the community at 9-10 p.m. with no issues or fears.
9. SUPER FRIENDLY staff! They all seem to know me and my dog by name. They always smile and wave when they see you. Very responsive via email.
10. Very quiet. The way the apartments are set up, my living room doesn't share a wall with any neighbors. So you're never kept up at night from a loud TV or music.

My only complaints...
1. I'm not a fan of my carpet. My friend lives in a first floor unit — these have a beautiful vinyl plank flooring in the living room. But I was told that 2nd and 3rd floor units have carpet (for the sound barrier). I'm saving up for a nice rug to put in my living room.
2. They have stands for doggy bags around the complex, but they're always empty. So not every resident cleans up after their pets.