The apartment was disgusting when I first moved in. It had a horrible smell and the floor was BLACK with dirt/grime. I had to mop 6 times just so I could walk in my apartment without my barefeet getting covered in dirt/black grime. Not to mention someone in the apartment complex has a dog that barks at all hours of the day. Calling to make noise complaints doesn't do anything or has solved the issue, in fact it has gotten worse. The dog barks during the day, even in the middle of the night and early in the morning. Paying $2k a month and I can't even get decent sleep because a dog is barking all night when I thought this was a pet free apartment complex. read more

Terrible service over the phone call. I was a recent resident here and I've been trying to tackle an electricity bill problem with my roommates. I had a question to ask so I called the office on 8/30/25 around 4'o clock, then this female staff answers my call, keeping me on a brief hold. 5 minutes after she comes back, then I explained my situation briefly and asked further question(asking if a certain information about our residence could be disclosed to us) Then she literally says "What are you talking about??", repetitively telling me that they are not in charge of the electricity but Edison is. Who in the world answers a question in such a rude way like this? It sounded like she was annoyed to answer the phone for the entire time. If this is what I should expect when calling a company representative, the company has an extremely low standard of hiring a person handling the service, which also leaves the quality of their overall service in doubt. She could've just said something like "sorry, I didn't understand your situation, could you repeat that", but it just felt like I was talking to a little child instead of a proper adult staff. The office should review the staff training process or hire a better person. Very disappointed. read more

Run! This place is ridiculous consider it's price. I got an efficiency room, the wall and floor is dirty as hell when I first enter the room. Takes me 30 mins just to clear the floor under the bed area! It feels like after they built this place(it said to be built in 2006) they never have it repaint and deep clean. They don't care the sanitary. No body cares about ur living experience here. I am so confused they charge student so much would it kill them to maintain at least every couple years? And the window is so tiny while my room is located at a place that never gets light in. Even with lights on, the room still looks depressing. I feel like paying 1600 for a basement not to mention the parking structure takes 10 mins to walk there. Definitely not worth it, avoid it! Get a utc or somewhere clean. This place is trash. read more

Absolutely dreadful place to live. As many other reviews have complained about, the parking is THE WORST. Do not live in this overpriced rip-off of a building. Just get regular on-campus housing through UCI, pay $700 a month, and get a parking spot right outside that you don't have to pay for. Did I mention the horrible PDS parking costs $325 a quarter? What an absolute joke. The common areas are also filthy and the bike racks are an absolute mess. The people staffing the office are tremendously unhelpful. The furniture in the apartments is of the cheapest and lowest possible quality. The kitchen appliances are archaic and unusable. It is impossible to ventilate your apartment because there is but a single tiny window on one side. And don't even get me going about the fire alarm. The building fire alarm goes off if someone does so much as fart in the hallway. And the fire alarm was broken for an entire year, going off randomly at all hours of the day. Multiple times I was woken up in the middle of the night from the fire alarm - at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. Absolutely horrendous and a safety hazard! The fire alarm goes off so often that if there ever were a real fire no one would evacuate because they'd assume the mouth-breathers running PDS didn't bother to fix it. Truly truly horrendous, do not live here. Do not put your student loans toward paying the rent to the ACC monopoly. Do not live in Puerta del sol. read more

Wish i could give this place 0 stars. Whatever you do, do NOT live here. Worst "housing" experience I have ever had. I attend the law school here at UC Irvine, so the only "positive" thing about this place is that it's a 5-minute walk away from the law school. The only other "positive thing" is the price compared to general OC real estate (but honestly, choose another student complex that is NOT Puerta del Sol because those are similarly priced). Other than that, everything else sucks tremendously. Here are just a FEW of the MANY horrible things that make this apartment complex the WORST place to live (they obviously don't advertise any of this but lucky for you, you're reading this post): (1) Parking: You have no access to any nearby parking. You have to park at the ARC parking structure, which is a 7-12 minute walk (depending on which building you are in at PDS). Oh, and they make pay for this very inconvenient parking. Also, the parking is on the 3rd floor of the parking garage. Think about having to walk THAT FAR every. Single. Time. You need your car. (2) No phone reception: you cannot make phone calls in the apartment you live in. Lots of the apartments do not get cell phone reception. So goodbye to phone calls--better stick to FaceTime or Wifi calls. (3) WiFi: They just switched to this new Wifi carrier--presumably to save $--it is HORRIBLE. I have friends in the other building here at PDS, and they experience the same thing. It constantly kicks you off the network and whenever you have an issue you have to call this random 1-800 number (usually after waiting on hold for like 20 mins at least). (4) No printing: Of course, to save more money they took away student printing. A "student apartment complex" that no longer provides access to printing. Need I say more? (5) Constant walk-throughs: Do you own the apartment? The amount of times we had "walk-through" is insane. I understand there are inspections required by law here and there (I've lived in several apartment complexes before this), but they have to "walk through" and inspect your apartment and abnormally excessive amount of time to where it became a normal occurrence for one of the years I lived here. (6) No communication from management about anything: Wifi issues? Broken laundry rooms? Etc. If anything breaks/stops working, be prepared to find out yourself and receive ZERO communication from management about what's going on in the place you live. You either have to call them yourself or just find out some other way. A main factor why I chose PDS was because it was one of the few student complexes that hat has A/C; however, after living here for the time I have, I rather melt during the summer than have to put up with the constant problems in this building. I wish I read a post like this before I signed my lease here. SO DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DO NOT LIVE AT PUERTA DEL SOL!!!! read more

Puerta Del Sol, actually one of the newer ACC Communities in the area, is right next to the school. I heard it was meant for graduates only like some of the other areas but they did not have enough people want to live here so they opened it up for undergraduates. The area is nice, because it is close to school and you can walk to and from class. It's not as close as Middle Earth or Mesa Court, but on Friday evenings when the bus ends at 7.15, it feels good to only have to walk to Puerta rather than VDC. In a 4 person- 2 bedroom - kitchen living area room, everything is provided. Except for a desk. So if you do not need a desk, then you are totally fine. The rooms are small (basically the size of Middle Earth/Mesa Court dorm rooms). In your room, you have a closet, a bed, a dresser... and then you're almost out of space. It's tiny in there. Each bedroom does get their own bathroom! So if you live here with randoms..haha good luck. If you live with 3 other people you know, it's better because you guys can all just play and have fun and be merry in the living room, which is *surprise surprise* bigger than your room. You get a kitchen as well. You get a sofa and a chair (something like that) that you can sit on, but everything else is yours. If you need your 4 tables, you might be squeezed a bit here :-/ In a 1 person non-studio bedroom, the room is small (but bigger than the 4/2). You have the bathroom on the right, then a bedroom-living room-kitchen. It's kinda weird assortment but it's fine if you're living by yourself :P Things you do get: the cheapest rent out of the ACC Communities. You get wifi (but router pls) and you don't need 90% of the furnishings. You also get a free parking spot....to a parking garage that is a 7-10 minute walk from your place. There are some 20 minute temporary spots down below, but those are usually for people who are moving in or moving stuff around. And you get an elevator to the 4th floor. You are close to Koba and Albertsons so you have a short walk just to get your groceries or your food. Thing is, you also have to pay for electricity. Haha. Electricity is not included in your base amount. You can use all the water you want though. Do not try though. We're in a drought! xD Hmm.. what else can I say about Puerta? They have paper thin walls as well but they do keep you warm if it's freezing outside. Also, I didn't live here so I don't know about any fire alarm issues, but there are a lot of ants. Like a lot. ugh. Me no likey. read more

First of all, this is my 2nd review for this apartment complex. I was the first to post a negative review in 2010. Shortly after, they flagged me and "Jane Doe" a "student," posted a highly favorable review. This was probably an RA or owner trying to save their crappy image. when i first moved here, they advertised hard wood floors, granite tops, and "luxury" furnishing, such as leather couch. They overcharged us (poor grad students), justifying their price with the luxury. Turns out the floors are fake hard wood and the granite was fake granite. Shortly after my review, they changed the website and advertisement to say, "hardwood like floors" and granite-like tops. This is BS. Also the bed was like a prison mattress. These living conditions are not suitable for animals. read more

As a former resident, Puerta was okay. Relatively close to campus, structure parking included in rent (not completely free) that you have to walk a while to get to, lots of free community events and sometimes food (always a plus!), and NEVER ENDING FIRE ALARMS. When people tell you about the horrors of Puerta fire alarms, they aren't joking. The fire alarms will go off at the worst hours of the night for weeks at a time. There's almost no consideration for exam weeks (or sleep) when it comes to testing to see if they're still working. But undeniably, it's the unfriendly student staff that make this place a 2-star residence. Disrespectful and rude, even if you were just picking up a package or paying rent. IMHO, just awful treatment of fellow human beings. A call down to the front desk leads to incorrect (if any) information regarding your original question, probably getting your name and apartment number written down (to be used for who knows what), a raise in your blood pressure from how many times you have to repeat yourself, and a general reduction of your lifespan from how terribly the student staff will treat you and then pretend like it's your fault for asking. 0/10 would recommend interacting with them. However, the adult staff are the opposite of the students (weird, huh?) and work really hard. Still, the student staff somehow made living here something not to write home about. TL;DR- Take a shuttle to get to campus. Horrible student staff. Bathroom bigger than actual bedroom. read more

Wifi is fucking horrid. I asked the lease office of there is anything can be done to improve the situation, the lady at the counter said "Oh my wifi works fine". Fire alarm goes off every night to destroy your eardrums. 8 out of 10 times you get hot water in the morning. AC never works properly. Worst place to live. Get as far away as you can from here. read more

Avoid this hell-hole. All the other negative reviews are 100% on point, though some are overly kind. Fire alarms are unreal. Right now, it's 2 days before finals, and the fire alarm has gone off every 5-15 minutes the last 5 hours. It's 4am. This isn't an isolated instance. This happens all the time. There's a 15-30 minute extra commute every time you drive because you park your car at a The ARC, not at Puerta. The rooms are too small for anything. If you want a desk, something decorative, a place to live, anything at all--don't live here. I live on the 4th floor, so I'm lucky in regards to insects. We only have a swarm of fruit flies and gnats, but no ants like my poor 1 and 2nd floor friends. Maintenance staff are not competent, but friendly. AC gushed, not leaked, but gushed buckets of water everyday for weeks without being fixed. Took several visits to resolve. My girlfriend lives on the 3rd floor, and had a similar problem with the sink and dishwasher flooding the apartment. The electric stove is a nightmare. I hope you like to starve, and like smoke, and like fire alarms. If you aren't getting the message... PLEASE... do not live here for your sake. There are other options!! My lease ends soon, and I'm getting the hell outta here. May God forgive these evil people that run this godless place, exploiting 2nd year students who had no where else to go. Seriously. You'd be better off buying a tent. read more

I've lived here for almost two quarters now and I have to say I'm really liking it here thus far. This review is for where I live in the "efficiency studio" so I can't really say much about the other floor plans. As far as pricing for an apartment with no roommate , this is by far the cheapest you'll find anywhere in the area. (Which for many $ 1200 for 350 sqft might seem insane in other parts of the country , but for the area it's priced right). The apartment pretty small but for one person it works just fine. You probably can't get away with having more than one guest without having to feel cramped. (Think really small hotel room). That being said , I got used to it super fast and once you add your own personal touches it becomes a lot more cosy. The only thing I'm especially not crazy about in my unit is the lack of light inside. There's a pretty large window on one side and then a tiny little one near the kitchen is on the other side. My apartment is also facing a bunch of trees so my apartment is basically dark 24/7 unless I keep the light on. But I guess that depends on the unit you have. Otherwise, the bathroom is an excellent size and a lot bigger than I would've expected. The toilet is brand new , and the tub was also surprisingly large and deep which is perfect for baths. The galley style kitchen is decent with full size black appliances and this sort of fake granite. (Still much better looking than the ones at vdc). However there's like very little prep space at all. I solved that problem by buying a moveable island which helped a lot ! But if you don't cook a lot , shouldn't be an issue. Laminate wood floors throughout the unit that look pretty great and the white walls keep the space fresh. The furniture the unit comes with is pretty bland but not the worst. It's just your generic looking college furniture but decorating around it and personalising the space will make up for it. Additionally the mattress on the bed is absolutely terrible without a memory foam pad. Definitely be sure to get one. Utilities are not included here but water is. For this space it's around anywhere from 15-30$ for the electricity bill every month. Depends on AC usage. Free parking makes up for it but you have to walk around 5-6 minutes to get there. (Depending on where your unit is located). You also get around 150 hours of free guest parking. Fortunately, they also give you a laundry card with 50$ on it. Each cycle Is ,25 cents so it should last you the year. They also host heaps of events here with free food that they'll advertise throughout the quarter which is pretty cool. The biggest advantage is being so close to campus too. There's a shuttle stop right out front if you prefer not to walk. Staff here has been really friendly so far and any sort of issue has been solved right away. All in all , not too sure about all the negative reviews here. Haven't heard any fire alarms in my unit at all except when they did a test one night. Maybe I've just been lucky. If you can get passed the 5-6 min walk to your car Id definitely recommend this place. Especially for those who want there own apartment. Puerta is cheapest option and the way to go! read more

Now that I've lived in Puerta for a good amount of time, I would consider myself a Puerta Del Sol fire alarm survivor (x5). I believe that with such a title comes a responsibility to help prepare other unknowing souls out there for the inevitable. Here are my list of top 5 things you'll need to know to survive the fire alarms at Puerta: 5. Never try to shower between the hours of approximately 3am-6am. At some point your luck will run out and there will be a fire alarm and you'll be scared, deaf, AND soaking wet. 4. Never go to bed in anything less than pajamas. That way, you won't be stuck trying to find clothes to put on when you're scared from the fire alarm and trying to get the f*** out of the room. 3. Make friends with someone in Verano Place, so you can go hang out/sleep at their apartment in the meantime instead of sitting on the cold, hard concrete at the crack of dawn. 2. Always keep earplugs right next to your bed, so you won't get a migraine from the piercing sounds of the alarm. As an added precaution, keep a pair of over-the-ear headphones next to your bed. The earplugs won't be enough to prevent you from becoming permanently deaf. 1. Finally, you might need to seek counseling for your post-traumatic fire alarm disorder. Every time you hear a short "click" sound (you'll know what I mean if you've lived through these alarms), you will probably have a heart attack thinking it's another 5am fire alarm. Psych! Sweet dreams! (until the fire alarm goes off...) read more

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Lived in Puerta Del Sol for two years, from 2013-2015. It's very hit or miss in terms of quality. You might get lucky, as I did my first year, or you might get stuck leasing your own corner of hell for a year. Here's why. In my first year, I lived in a two bedroom with four roommates on the fourth floor. I had very little to complain about, apart from the distance from (free) parking adding 15 mins each way when I had to drive, and the shared bedrooms being tiny. But whatever, those are minor issues. Minor enough for my boyfriend and I to decide to rent a studio at Puerta together the following year. I'm a few weeks from the end of the lease on the studio, and I am counting the days. There have been so. many. issues this year... It's unacceptable. First off, our apartment was not move in ready. There were two occupants on the lease, but they only gave us one set of keys. When we moved in, our apartment had such poor ventilation that the odor of the trash room across the way permeated the apartment. That odor and poor ventilation has never gone away. Everyone we have over complains about it. My boyfriend and I both struggle to breathe fully in the apartment because it's unnaturally humid. Again, upon move in, the floors began OOZING a pink substance. It was disgusting. After complaining, Puerta made us move all of the things we had just moved in to a temporary unit so that they could replace the flooring. Good on them for replacing the flooring (they didn't have much of a choice, though), but moving ALL our things three times in two weeks was exhausting. Our air conditioning leaks a blue fluid down the wall when you run it. They've "fixed" it several times. The problem always returns. The biggest, most persistent issue is the worst bug infestation I've ever lived through. Not just ants. Silverfish, mites, earwigs, spiders, fruit flies. Nearly every pest imaginable has invaded my space. We've thrown away hundreds of dollars worth of food. I find silverfish near our clothes weekly. We're not dirty people. I've become obsessive about cleaning because the bugs make me feel as though the space is never clean. We've bought so many different types of bug killers--given that the ventilation is poor, the constant spraying of insecticides actually makes me sick. We've had the exterminator come through five times. He's coming again tomorrow. He's never here longer than five minutes, though, so it's understandable why the pest problem is never actually resolved. The staff, again, is hit or miss. Some employees are very kind, some are very rude. There's a lot of student employees who are nice people and don't deserve the ire; I appreciate them. Then there are employees like the one who told me I was violating my lease because I displayed "alcohol paraphernalia" and was extremely cold about it. It was a wine bottle vase with flowers in it. We're both of age. They then inspected our apartment for suspicious items. When I wrote a long complaint email, they were immediately apologetic and promised to address our concerns, but nothing meaningful came of it. Our fire alarm goes off nearly every time we cook. You have to run the microwave fan, ceiling fan, open a window and run the air conditioning while cooking to avoid it. Beyond the shitty conditions, there's a host of annoying issues. The internet has daily outages. The fire alarms go off at 5am. The studio is absurdly small for the price: There's staff housing in University Hills that's 100 dollars less a month and 100 sq. feet bigger. The free printing only works half the time. We get mail that's not ours every time we check it, while I've had paychecks go missing from the mail. After two years, a half hour roundtrip commute to your car gets really tedious. They've misplaced our rent checks then tried to fine us late fees, despite our having the receipt for that month's rent. Ultimately, Puerta del Sol is exploiting students with absurdly overpriced cesspools of apartments. Some units are fine, yes, but I wouldn't gamble on it. There's plenty of other housing options; don't let this place marr your college experience. read more

I was a little hesitant about choosing to live at Puerta del Sol in the first place, because I was worried about the size of the 2bed/2bath double room, especially since the year before I had my own room at VDC. However, after living here for about 6 months now, I've fully adjusted and space is no longer an issue. It has also taught me not to hoard so much as I tend to do when I am given a lot of space, and to be more efficient with my packing, which will definitely make the moving out process a whole lot easier. The convenience is my favorite part about living at Puerta - everyone gets free parking, it is walking distance from school or you have the option of hoping on one of the shuttles, furniture and utilities are included (except electricity), it is located directly across the street from the Albertsons/Starbucks shopping center, it is walking distance from the ARC, free printing in the community center, $50 worth of laundry which should definitely last the whole year, study rooms located on each floor, and the Community Assistants hold programs every so often for residents which usually offer free food/snacks. Puerta del Sol is also a very new complex so everything looks and works great, and it is also environmentally friendly. The only thing that that might be an issue is the parking - although every resident is entitled to free parking, it is located at the ARC parking structure so it can be a little bit of a walk. But hey, while you're already parked at the ARC, you might as well go in and get a good workout in to utilize your time/tuition money and feel good about yourself afterward. If not, at least the walk back to the apartment can be that extra cardio of the day ;) The pros definitely outweigh the cons in my opinion and needless to say, I've renewed my lease for the next school year. Therefore, I would recommend living here, Anteaters! read more

Pros: - close to campus - free parking (see 1st point under Cons) - across the street from Albertson's, Koba, Gina's, etc - free printing - study room on every floor - free laundry - "hardwod" floors - fast maintenance response and repair Cons: - parking is at the ARC structure - paper-thin walls and floors - 20 min. parking is a trap. you're going to get a ticket if you leave it for more than an hour. - uncomfortable loveseat - the rooms are really really small. pretty uncomfortable if you're sharing a room with a stranger, but not too bad when it's a good friend. read more

When I moved in, my apartment was a 2 double bedroom 2 bathroom layout. I heard that the double rooms were originally intended to be singles.. Hence the doubles are TINY to the point where desks/chairs are not provided because there isn't enough space. Luckily I was only subleasing for the summer to work in Irvine, otherwise I'm not sure how I would've fared at PDS as a student with no desk. The lights are also EXTREMELY DIM. Makes me unable to do a lot of things at night.. Don't want to damage my eyes even more. D: I'm also lucky that I get along with my roommate, because I imagine it would be pretty uncomfortable for me to live with so little space between me and someone I'm not comfortable with. The bathroom is about 75% the size of the room.. I wish some of that could be moved over into the room. The vent that's supposed to clear up the steam fog when you shower does not do its job. Mirrors are still super fogged up and my showers aren't even that hot. Might as well shower with it off haha. The walls are pretty thin. Several times I thought my roommate came home and was inside the apartment but it was my neighbor upstairs. The kitchen and living room are of good sizes. But, I will say that the edges of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets are very sharp.. It seems like they constructed them in a hurry and didnt go back to make the outer corner of the cabinet doors less harsh. I scraped my hand on it several times cause I tend to work fast. ): Never happened to me at VDC though. I actually like the couches.. They're very bouncy, but not good to sleep on. The floors are all hardwood. There is air conditioning as well as ceiling fans in each room + the living room. The ceiling fans surprisingly work very well, so well that I don't even use the A/C. Electricity bill is separate from the rent. PDS is a little hard to navigate at first (I had to ask the lady at the community center where the laundry room was because I was so lost), so it can be confusing at first for guests to find you. Laundry is VERY CHEAP ($.25 to wash and $.25 to dry for 45 minutes), and you get a laundry card loaded with $50! But there are only 4 washers in the laundry room which makes it very hard to wash clothes sometimes (people need to be more considerate and remove their clothes promptly after the cycle is over). I don't understand why there are only 4 washers but like, 10 dryers. Who needs that many dryers?! There is free parking at the ARC which is both a pro and a con at the same time. I like that I don't have to pay, but I hate that I have to walk so far just to drive. At other places, parking is normally at most just a minute away.. I don't even want to drive st night because I don't want to have to walk so far back to my apartment alone. One thing I do like, however, is that there are 20 minute parking slots in front of the apartment complexes. Makes it easier for friends and family to drop by. I also like that it's so close to campus and just across the street from Albertson's and Starbucks. Overall, living here is not too bad despite my long list of grievances. After experiencing life off-campus with Toscana, I would MUCH rather live here. The price isn't bad, especially for all the things that are provided for you (free CA events, parking, and laundry). Just be prepared to bring a desk, study at study rooms, or study without a desk. Oh, and the kitchen is very nice. I love cooking here. read more

Puerta del Sol - Besides the closet, this is literally all the space you get in a double room. - Apartments Near Me - Irvine, California

Puerta Del Sol is a housing option that is significantly less expensive than other on campus options. The rooms are small (too small for desks) but that is the extent of the complaints. This is the closest ACC apartment housing to the campus but shuttles are still easy to use. The apartments have a sizable bathroom and kitchen. The furnished living space is also very nice. The wood floors give the place a stylish, clean feel and the furnishings seem to be brand new. Me and my roommates have no complaints but we aren't in out apartment too much. We all chose not to live here next year; however, it is a good Sophomore option. *included in the rent are free printing, access to all other apartment amenities, utilities (except for electricity), free parking (saves like a thousand bucks), and some great programs. read more

Just moved in 8.11, so I been here for 11 days bedroom is small, bought a desk and it didnt fit well so i had to place it where the dresser was near the bathroom. I have terrible terrible att service here. I had to spend anoher 200 dollars out my own pocket to get a MICROCELL, portable cell tower. The hardwood quality is mehh, the furniture is so so. the bedframes is hella ghetto and cheap, this is cheaper quality than MIDDLE EARTH. So what if this is a new building, the interior stuff is cheap and that just pisses me off. OH the lighting, its so dim that we all need to buy floor lights to brighten up this place. Basically for a furnished apartment, I have already spend 400 dollars within the first week to get a desk, some floorlights and the microcell. I been here for 3 years at uci and this is just total BS. oh..btw you have to pay electricity..there is no limit credit, like at other ACC places..wow read more

Going to be moving elsewhere for the reasons that are inconvenient for my lifestyle as well as I don't want to be broke from paying so much in rent by the time I finish grad school in one year. The main reason I won't be staying is the cost for an efficiency studio. (The cost of housing don't meet the expected returns.) My major other knock on the place is the distance to the (free) parking. I currently intern 3 times a week and usually make errand runs and social visits at least another 1 each per week. That's 10 times i'm going to or from the East Campus Parking Structure. It really does add up. Plus, at 5:45am, it's really not that much fun. I have to budget about 15 minutes in additional travel time to get to one place as well as on my return. Minor reasons, I've had some experiences with the full-time staff that operate the building and the other ACC properties that were less than par, including some unhelpful and resistant administrative staff responses to inquiries. On the plus side, maintenance and facilities are nice. Location + Close to Social Ecology/Social Science/Education/Law + Close to shopping - Albertson's, liquor store, starbucks + Other shopping/commerce is bikeable - Trader Joe's, Peet's Coffee, UTC - Be brave! (or don't..) There are not usually staircases from Campus Drive to your building ---- 3/4 mile walk to parking structure - door to car time - about 10-15 minutes with a pretty dangerous intersection Staff & Administration + Student staff / Community Assistants are pretty helpful. +++ Pretty quick maintenance/repair response ------- Full-time staff seem to be either rude or not knowledgable ----- Move in questions weren't answered very promptly Facilities + Nice & new. - But...no BBQ in building 11 Build + HVAC is good +++ Monthly utilities cost is low + Wood floor is nice - easier to clean ----- Why is the bathroom so large for an efficiency studio?! -------- A lot of floor-to-floor noise: you can hear things from above...and probably they can hear me below! ---- Door closers are tight -- they are heavy for some guys to even open. ----- Not enough light comes in through windows... Furniture + Furniture not very sturdy/stable -- Love-seat isn't so lovely - if it were a person, it'd be that distant unsupportive person in your life --- Desk & chair set why does the chair tip back!?! Tips 1. Building 11 doesn't have a BBQ (can be + or -) 2. Building 11's Laundry is often less crowded on weekends (++++) 3. Best deal if you are an undergrad with friends - go 4 ways on a double 2-bed 4. Good place if you're not going to be leaving the campus area more than 1~2x per week. 5. Buy/bring a large area rug for the hardwood floors -- helps with sound & with cold floors read more

This is my first year at Puerta, and I've got to be honest, I absolutely love it! I live in a studio, and it's enough space for 10 of me (the pictures provided are of the studio)! My full mirror closet and spacious bathroom was the deal breaker for me! It's amazing, especially since I have never lived on my own. I LOVE food, so the best part are the free food programs for residents, PLUS Albertsons and Gina's are right across the street so I don't even need to drive. Talk about environmental friendly here! Puerta is right next to campus too, so I walk to class every morning, I consider it my "daily workout". It's so convenient not having to pay for parking on campus too. Oh it doesn't stop there, you get a free $50 laundry card, that basically lasts you the entire year. I'm still not even half way through mine yet. The facilities on site are really modern and still pretty new! The study rooms are so convenient on every floor and the free printing is a plus. My favorite spot is the Zen garden, I love reading my kindle there on a nice sunny day. Something else that's pretty cool is that we're allowed access to all the company amenities on different sites! Having access to Camino pool is awesome! I love getting my tan on there! Anyone looking for housing next year, I DEFINITELY recommend living at Puerta! It's the perfect place for an undergraduate college student! Everything you possibly need is conveniently here! read more

DO NOT LIVE HERE!!!! For a myriad of reasons: 1. Fire alarms go off constantly. About once a month, the fire alarms will go off intermittently for hours on end, effectively forcing you to vacate the premises if you do not want to go deaf. -No, they will not pay you back your rent for the days you have to leave. -No, they will not lower the sound of the fire alarm (which must be at least 120+ decibels, similar to sitting in front of a loud speaker at a concert. Except it is right next to your bed while you try to sleep, not at a stadium) -Why are fire alarms such a problem here? I have never before lived somewhere where I encountered the fire alarms going off so often and so loudly. In fact, I have never lived somewhere where fire alarms were an issue at all. 2. Parking is a 15 minute walk away. Irvine is a very safe place, but I am still sometimes concerned about getting raped, mugged, or murdered as I make my walk to my car at various times of day/night. ALWAYS add about 20 minutes to wherever you are going if you need to use your vehicle. For safety, bring a buddy and maybe carry a (legal) weapon/line of defense. 3. Hidden charges and fees. Locked out? $25 fee. Lose your key? $180 fee. Park for longer than 20 minutes to unload groceries, entertain guests, etc? $68 ticket. Want to pay rent online? $20 per month (This company really should be reported to the Better Business Bureau or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, because they advertise this service as $1 per transaction. It is only once you are away, ready to pay online from another city because of their advertisement, that they hit you with the surprise $20 charge. The $1 charge is only if you give them access to your checking account.). 4. Not really enough value for the money. I guess the people in doubles are getting a good deal, for around ~$500/month for a shared room, but I do not know if the ~$1100/month single rooms are worth it. Other than that, the facilities are new and clean (waayyyy cleaner than verano, albeit small). I generally feel safe. If not for my complaints (which to me, are substantial), I would enjoy living here. Sometimes the management is incompetent, sometimes they are helpful (what a ringing endorsement). read more

If you can avoid it, don't live here. I agree with the other negative reviews. I even laughed at the person who wrote that they thought their upstairs neighbor coming home was their roommate; the walls really are that thin and that has happened to me many times. I almost shot my own TV because I could hear it from the living room as if I were sitting on top of it. Absolutely avoid if you will not know the person you share a room with. The bedrooms are preposterously tiny, and sleeping practically in the same bed with a stranger for a year has been awkward at best. You will get to know them well. So well. Good luck getting the staff to fulfill a work order. If you fill one out within two months of moving out, they'll just "postpone" it until you're gone. And if you put one in before then, they just pretend it never happened. The appliances are about as hardy as those you'll find in a model home, which is to say, barely if at all functional. The dishwasher feels like a toy, the toilet just messes with you, and the freezer couldn't cool off a frozen dinner in the winter. The back of the fridge, however, will freeze your mayonnaise solid. The parking situation is at least as bad as others say - for free [!!] you get a twenty-minute walk along a recklessly-driven road that is not-so-delightfully pitch-black after dusk. Use the side of the road without the suspicious shrubbery, and if you're female bring Mace. I'm beginning a full time job tomorrow, and I am definitely not looking forward to the workout to and from my car and apartment twice a day at the least pleasant possible times. And if you want a visitor to park longer than 20 pitiful minutes, they have to make that same walk. And also park on the top floor. How welcoming. read more

Been living here for over 3 years. It's conveniently located, right next to the M and V line drop off and across from Albertsons. There are study rooms on every floor but these are small and usually fill up to capacity around finals. Besides that this place is not pleasant. Parking is included in the rent but Parking is at the ARC. You're lucky if you find parking on the 3rd or 4th floor but usually 5th or 6th floor is where you get to park. Parking nearby is 20 minutes and tickets are $70 and that ticket on weekends and holidays. It wouldn't be so bad if parking weren't a 15 minute walk away and up 4-6 flights of stairs. Rent is outrageous and increases every year and you also have to pay your own power bill. Do you like fire alarms? Not just any fire alarms but fire alarms that sit above your bed and rage at over a hundred decibels anytime anyone in the building opens their door after burning a piece of toast? Then you'll love it here. Around finals week, you can set your sleep schedule by the very loud chainsaw and leafblowers outside your window at 8 am or the fire alarms. Just this week, the building fire alarm has gone off over 4 times. The alarm is so loud, friends who live over a block away complain to me about the noise when it goes off at 3 am during finals week (which happened two days in a row last year) in my entire time living here, I've only seen one legitimate use of the fire alarm. I had to call the housing office because the idiot next door had their smoke alarm blaring for over an hour. The housing office then decided to pull the building fire alarm to get access to the room. OH AND I ALMOST FORGOT they will test the alarm for about two weeks (yes two weeks) before the Fall Quarter is over at random times. They go room to room making sure the building fire alarm that you can here a block away is still audible in each and every room. The fire fighters must hate us so much for so many false alarms that I wonder if they'd take an actual fire seriously if it happened, I know that most residents put on earbuds when the alarm comes on because we all just assume it's a false alarm. You may say "well that's dangerous" you're right, but it's hard to take the alarm seriously when it will go off early in the morning for several days or nights in a row and you have to wait outside in the freezing cold or the heat until they go buding to building clearing everything (which can easily take upwards of 20-30 minutes). Washer and Driers are on the first floor but you can only pay with prepaid laundry cards that you must purchase from the housing office. The laundry rooms are often dirty and they've broken down a few times this year with leaks and construction. Theoretically there's a website you can use to find out if washers and dryers are free but they're flawed and more than once I've gone down to find either clothes sitting in a washer or dryer labelled as "free" or out of order. Construction and maintenance are constant and at the most inconvenient times. Bug sprays, door paintings, etc. with almost no consideration of midterms or tests. I touched on this earlier but the gardening staff are up at 7:30-8:00 sharp reinacting a saw film on the hedges and blowing all the leaves on the property to kingdom come. They make so much noise and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. I've asked numerous times if the gardening staff could wait until the afternoon to do work but the excuses from the housing office are always the same: "we don't control the gardening staff," "we don't control parking," "we don't control maintenance" etc. That's a common theme you'll find with the housing office, they have control over almost nothing and have excuses for everything. That's when you can get a hold of them. Unlike the other communities, there is no night desk and the day desk hours are sporadic. They'll say that they're open from 7-11:30 but I've gone numerous times between those hours to find the desk closed and a sign stating that someone will be back 90 minutes. Don't live here. read more

I lived here for 3 years. The 1st year was okay. The 2nd and 3rd year, I set up a monthly rent payment plan but they never received my payment electronically so I have to pay 2 months of rent at once. I usually disregard the first mistake but since this happened a second time, I was disappointed. I'm originally from N. Cal so it's either drive 6+ hours to pay rent in person with late fees and COVID or pay electronically when the website is buggy for an apartment near campus when classes are online anyways. read more

Positive: 1) No carpet, vinyl floors that look like wood. I have allergies so this is a plus and it's easy to clean. I live in a 1 bedroom unit. 2) The front desk staff are nice to me and I've had no problems with mail. I get my packages signed for. 3) It's a convenient place to live close by grocery stores and restaurants. 4) I decided to sell my car because having one here is a pain. I guess that's not bad right? I use Zip car occasionally or Enterprise on weekends ($9.99/day). 5) I got a $50 laundry card. Negative: 1) Noise. I've been here since March 2011 when it was only graduate students. Starting Fall 2011 they opened it up to Undergraduates and on top of that, they increased the density by allowing two students to a room. While typical of college living, it's not what I signed up for. I keep windows closed at night and I have an air purifier which drowns out most of the noise. 2) Trash outside increased significantly. Would it hurt to add trash cans in the trash rooms? I live on the first floor so we don't have a trash shoot and trash overflows. I wish we had weekend maintenance staff to pick up. The laundry rooms are disgusting on weekends. You can complain about Irvine Co, but they have maintenance staff 7 days/week keeping the property clean. 3) My rent will increase $70/month for next year, starting Aug 2012. The circumstances surrounding the lease renewal are curious. I renewed because the office said my rent would not increase and there was advertising through email claiming if we renewed now, we could expect our same rates. However, on the lease, it was clearly increased. I was not happy with their explanation. One more thing, I felt pressure to renew and if I didn't renew right then and there, my place would be reassigned to someone else. Again, the front staff has always been kind. This seems to me a business management decision. I've always paid on time too. 4) Not enough parking for bikes. 5) Inspections. Sometimes they're called "Fire equipment inspections" or "maintenance inspections". One time I was sleeping and I don't recall hearing a door knock or door bell. My bedroom door was closed, so maybe I just didn't hear it. I think someone saw me in bed. There have been 3-4 inspections in the 8 months A notice is placed on our front door at least 24 hours in advance. Even with the negatives, I consider myself lucky to live here. I recommend anyone considering living here weigh the other options. Irvine Co isn't great, but you'll live at a property that is better managed with more staff trained in property management. For now Cox cable and Internet is included, we get HBO even. Water is paid for, if you go to Irvine Co properties, you have to pay this. My only bill is electricity which is around $50 because I use the air conditioner. My phone is T-Mobile and I've had no problems with reception. This property is operated by a private company, not UCI. I'll visit the nice UCI housing folks in Univ. Hills if things don't improve soon. The sad thing is most of the properties in the surrounding area can be shady at times, in their own way. At least I know what to expect here. read more

I have lived at Puerta for almost a quarter now, and I believe that is enough time for me to write a review for my living experience here. The location is amazing, the only reason (a big one) why I love it here. The bus stop is only one stop to and from school, the green line or the dark blue line takes you back to Puerta directly. Right across the street is Albertsons, and some food restaurants which is great. Starbucks too! Laundry is free, meaning they give you a $50 laundry card. Each wash and dry is 25 cents... Literally it can last you the entire year. Printing is free as long as you bring your own paper. Or so I have heard, I haven't done it myself. The thing that bothers me the most about Puerta - my car is parked WAY TOO FAR from me. It drives me nuts. I work off campus, and the walk to my car drives me insane. This 7 minute walk to my walk every time I want to get off campus... just no. Sometimes I want to go to the mall really fast, nope. I am too lazy to walk to and from my car afterwards. The parking lot in front of the apartment complex is 20 minutes, which is really stupid because it is ALWAYS filled. People do not even listen to the rule. Probably because everyone, like me, hates the damn parking at this place. Now to talk about the rooms - Kitchen: Very spacious and lovely. I love how many cabinets there are, though not enough for all four of us to have two top cabinets. I love the layout of the kitchen, because I can cook and do dishes while talking to my housemates on the bar, unlike the other housing communities where the sink is not facing the way of the bar. The dishwasher is super crappy, have to use an off brand detergent of else its too strong. I have had multiple work orders regarding the dishwasher. The fridge is alright, though never seems to be the right temperature for my frozen items, either not cold enough or my food is super rock hard. Living room: I like it very much. I brought my own TV, so I have that luxury of sitting on the couch and watching cable, which I didn't have when I was growing up or in the dorms. The couches may sound terrible quality and super loud when you move around on them, they are surprising comfortable and I can easier fall asleep on them. I brought my own high table with chairs, which I managed to fit into the apartment. It literally matches so perfectly with the other furniture and I love doing homework on it, and of course eating meals, because I was NOT going to settle with eating at the bar. Bedroom: WAY TOO SMALL. I am so lucky that my roommate is NEVER home, besides to sleep, because I could not live in that room with someone all the time. I like my own space, listen to music aloud and things like that, living with someone who liked to be there all the time would not have worked out for me. A desk was not provided, but I brought my own that I got from Ikea. I don't even like that desk because my printer takes up half the desk, cause I have no where else to put my printer. The bed is so high, I hate it. I always have to jump on it a little bit. The closet is so small, literally not enough space for a girly girl like me, always shopping and having no room to put my stuff. The dresser is not enough space at all, and its so cramped under my bed. The lighting in my room is terrible, not even bright enough and when I tried to get a work order in, the people said that my light is just like that. Really, its supposed to be super dim like that? Its so bad that I brought two lamps from home because the top lighting in my bedroom is so bad. Its like a night light. Seriously though. If the entire room was to myself, I could make it work. But since its not, the room is too cramped for both my roommate and my stuff. Bathroom: I love the bathroom. Its so big, oddly. I love having a tub and a nice area to just be me. Dance in the bathroom, do my hair in the mirror. I do not like doing my makeup in the bathroom though, I can't get that close to the mirror. Not comfortable. But I like the bathroom a lot. Overall, Puerta del sol is a good place to live. I enjoy it, however there are still many little things that bother me about the place. I mean I really want to have a pet. Thats something that I just had to suck up because I am living on an on campus housing community. The biggest thing for me though, the car. Definitely. Not having my car close enough is the main reason I am moving out next year. Rent is $589 at the time I am posting this. (it is increasing next year to my knowledge) Electricity bill needs to be set up with Edison. The bill is usually around $20, split that by 4. Be prepared to hate fire alarms. If you have any questions about Puerta del sol, I am happy to answer them. I know that making housing decisions are a huge deal, and I would have loved if there was someone I could go to with my questions. Overall, I liked Puerta. But I could only stand a year of it. And now I'm moving on. read more

I really love my apartment (efficiency), but the fire alarms will be the death of me. The first month of school, the fire alarm system was malfunctioning and went off from 5AM to 2PM. It is so damn loud in this tiny apartment, I was on edge the whole day and felt wired due to lack of sleep + stress. The past two weeks, we also had fire alarm testing which meant fire alarms starting at 9AM every day until around 10 - 10:30. Not fun. Also expect to evacuate frequently due to idiots burning their food and opening their doors to let the smoke into the halls from 6AM to 10PM. But, this isn't really Puerta's fault, it's their stupid residents. But buy ear plugs anyway.. And don't sleep naked at night because you will be freaking the eff out when the alarm starts blaring. Otherwise, I really like my living space. It's got a full-size fridge, dish washer, and adequate kitchen space for somebody who cooks daily. Full-size bed isn't comfortable at all, so I bought two mattress toppers, and it's good enough to sleep on. It's also elevated really high, so if you're short.. good luck getting on. At least it allows for more storage room under the bed. You'll get used to the two-seater couch (I can comfortably sleep on it now), and the desk is like the ones at CDS and VDC. The bathroom is pretty huge for the living space, which I personally like, but I think others wish less space was allocated to it.. and the full-size closet has mirrors for doors. The dresser is right next to the front door though (weird placement, but there isn't really anywhere else for it, cause I have a mini-fridge). At the beginning of the year, they give you $50 to do laundry at their laundry facilities. People are assholes and take your laundry out of the washer if they've waited 5 minutes, so make sure to keep on top of your shit. You get free parking, too, but it sure is far as hell at the ARC.. there's 20-minute parking, but it's always a risk parking there. Oh and you'll hear your upstairs neighbors stomping around and maybe talking, but you don't hear the people on the left/right of you. Since the apartments are against the street, expect to hear the buses early in the AM as well as cars and the fire trucks frequently. So buy earplugs if you plan to study in your own apartment, and don't want to shit yourselves every time the alarm goes off. read more

This place is some booty. I lived here, in a studio apartment, for a year and experienced a myriad of issues with my apartment and the community. I moved to Cali from the East coast, so I was happy to find a furnished apartment that was within my budget, but now I think the apartments in PDS are overpriced for what you get. My apartment was TINY and the furniture that came with it, namely the couch and bed, were not comfortable (and that's a generous review of the furniture in my opinion). The walls and floors are paper-thin so it always sounded like my neighbors above me were playing football in their apartment. Although the vinyl, faux hardwood flooring looks nice, it started to come up in places in my apartment. Luckily PDS's response times to work orders is timely and they generally send their very friendly maintenance staff over to your apartment in a day or two. I also had roommates in my apartment, and by "roommates" I mean an ant and fruit fly invasion. I had PDS send Terminex to my apartment a few times to "spray," but the pests never really went away and I don't really understand how I had so many little critters since I am a CLEAN person. What everyone else has said about the fire alarms IS TRUE, they are mind-numbingly loud and always go off at the most inconvenient times (like when your trying to sleep). Further, PDS has an office space/computer lab with printers, but during the first few months of my stay here the printers would break, or be out of ink every 3-5 days. They recently installed two nice, new Xerox printers that seem not to break as often, but if you do need to print make sure you give yourself plenty of extra time because on school days there can be a line, which can make you late to class if you do not plan ahead. Additionally, some of the PDS office staff, or Community Assistants (CA), can be kind of rude, and whether or not you have to put up with irresponsible 18-22 year old undergrads all day or not, I paid way too much for my apartment to be greeted by some CA with an attitude when I'm dropping off my rent check, have a question, or am going to pick up a package from the office. They are pretty strict about the 20 minute parking outside, so definitely don't leave your car there for more than an hour, but then again it is 20 MINUTE PARKING so use your brains people. The PDS parking spots for residents are in a parking garage by the ARC (UCI's gym) which is about an 8-12 minute walk from the apartment buildings which can be rather annoying. The garage also has no cameras so if your car gets broken into, stolen, hit (which mine was), or you get mugged, raped, or assaulted while in the parking structure you're out of luck unless there is a witness or the violator leaves a note. Lastly, it's not really PDS's fault, but PDS is located in Irvine, which is the most horrible place in the world. It's really safe, which is nice, but it's also INCREDIBLY boring. Nothing but Albertson's and Yogurtland are open after 10PM, so if all you like to do is sit in your furnished apartment, drink wine, and watch Netflix PDS might be the right place for you. If I would have known that Irvine would try to suck the soul out of my body and my apartment/development would be so crappy before I moved here I would have looked for a bigger, better place in Long Beach or some other place that has people, REAL people, some place that doesn't suck and I wouldn't be ashamed to call my home. read more

Alright. * *Disclaimer: Long Review, but a good overview of living** In the beginning during first move-in, S.J.'s comment is something I definitely would had agreed in. The secretary in the front office was not only rude, but the apartments were not in "move-in" condition. There was furniture missing, the toilet was INFESTED with ants,electricity outlet plastic did not have a screw (so it comes off easily) and you can hear the door being slammed from across the hallway or underneath you.Oh, and the fire-alarm was muffled. You know, rooms should be inspected before move-in right, not only by the residents themselves, but by those responsible as well. And they were quite horrible with packaging (during the summer of move-in date, I came across the person putting the mail in our boxes just tossing them in; my roomate ended up having issues with the mail and she had fragile items broken but we didn't know about it til much later). That being said, I am a PSB who believes in the external locus of control. I like improvements. Granted, it was HORRIBLE and some of the staff were resistant (and were even rude and apathetic) and a CA from one of the other apartment was STILL very horrible (very rude, selfish, and double-face) , but...now, Puerta has changed ALOT if I was to compare it to back then. Staff are much kinder and more flexible. You go in for paper and they say "have a nice day." If you have issues, they'll address it in 3-5 days after putting in a work order. Compared to the ant problem in the beginning that I mentioned, when I was told to "deal with it," then when I complained again that I was not going to, then they called an exterminator (it took 5 complains) . Then I had to then "deal with it" (again) in terms of the clean-up of the dead ants so I complained again until they brought someone to clean it up (it was so gross, toilets are white but all you could see was black during the move-in date). Heck, they even help you do work orders now in the office (though I think they should simplify the online system because it's not really obvious). Also, in the past, I remember being in the office just to ask for paper or pay my rent and this one office assistant was either using the phone to talk to her friends and ignored me until I stated my objectives (to which she was annoyed and was not discrete to hide it). And being sloppy with responsibilities (e.g., we didn' find out who the roomates were or if we were even accepted unless if you were really persistent and called, e-mailed, constantly) That is no longer the case (at least I have yet to see that particular assistant) and most of the current office assistants have changed their attitudes :-) Other pro's of the location is that it's practically in the center: stores, school, other apartments, ARC. That's a huge plus since I hesitated going to the library on the weekends to study because it was a 49 minute walk (and didn't know about UCI Care back then when it was night-time). Also, you get free parking for the year and some visitor hours that is in the ARC. And free printing and a $50 pre-paid laundry card. And occasionally, they do events that are beneficial to the average college student! (like cleaning supplies, book exchanges, breakfast during finals with healthy options!). Except, the printer is sometimes not always working, but you can just walk over to VDC/Norte to get it fixed (but I think more residents should complain to Puerta to get a second printer that should be a toner (less expensive ink). Based on these AMAZING improvements, I would had even given them a 4, but right now I am sour at them because they had unfairly given a charge to my roomate and I because of their own incompetence and our misunderstanding during move-in date. It's ridiculous. But other than that, I look forward to living here again, and if people complain, my advice is take it to the head administrators, do the surveys (about their customer service), or talk o the other housing complexes. Anyone can complain, but to change something you actually have to put some effort on your part. read more

I cannot advise AGAINST living at Puerta del Sol enough. They seem to bill themselves as a graduate community, but it primarily has undergraduates. Also, because they have 4 undergrads in a 2 bedroom unit, there are far too many residents at the complex to use any of the amenities. Study rooms, the printer, the grills, everything was always too crowded. CONS: -Absurdly expensive. If you want to live by yourself, I would recommend for the price of a 1-bedroom just paying for a 2 bedroom at Verano Place or Palo Verde. -Terrible insulation. I intimately came to know my upstairs neighbor (from his showers at 4 am, to his late night studying and pacing around the room, to how often he uses the bathroom in an hour, to the one exciting time he got laid). I came to sleep with ear plugs and an eye mask but it barely helped. One of my friends at PDS spent almost every night fall semester at his parent's house because he could hear his downstairs neighbor too much. -Fire alarms. Imagine my excitement at my first day of fall break in October only to be awaken by fire alarms going off every 2 minutes for 5 hours starting at 5 a.m. -I was living away for the summer, but mailing in my rent check. One check got lost and they sent me a very threatening email and took 5 days to respond to me (because I was just as confused as them about why my rent payment didn't come through). -No cell phone service in the unit. -Front desk doesn't have a clue. Twice I checked UPS tracking to learn I had received a package and they never told me. I had to wait for the kid working there to look through every box. -Terrible enforcement of quiet hours. I am a law student and law students, unlike the rest of the population, rely on a semester system. I had finals in May and no one seemed to understand in the front office that I needed quiet hours just the way they have them in June for undergraduates. -Moreso just an annoyance to me as a cranky law student, but they have all these stupid programming events (make your own decorative plate! Learn how to tie a bowtie! Come learn "etiquette" with your RA!) that are a waste of money. The complex would be better off paying to insulate the apartments. -Make up rules and regulations to charge you a $100 fee anytime anything doesn't go according to plan. For example, I was billed as improperly moving out because I had moved out in May and planned to have someone turn in my keys for me. Apparently this was a bad decision on my part, and I should have paid $500 to fly back to California to move out of this terrible complex. PROS: -None. Seriously, don't live here. This is the worst of the worst of on-campus housing. read more

Well since I renewed my contract here, it's a good place to live. Pros: cheap. cheapest for what you get for on campus housing. new - it's clean and you are for sure it's not gross or used. free guaranteed parking for you and your guests! free printing FREE LAUNDRY no fees for internet, water, or gas fans (so you save money on hot days for a/c) furnished close to campus - in case you miss the bus you can run, but if you're late to the main campus it's okay because its never full until you reach AV (so you'll almost always get a seat on the main campus green line) cons: No pool far parking free printing - yes, but runs out of ink occasionally free laundry - yes but long wait on weekends cheap - yes, but rooms are small. honestly. the pros outweigh the con, especially if you are thinking about living off campus because it's a hassle to buy furniture, pay for water, find parking, pay for parking (especially if all your roomates have cars), yeah parking is far, and i have little space but it is livable especially for college. this isn't the ritz carlton. it's good enough for the price. wood flooring - yes it gets cold, but trust me. you don't want dirty carpets and having to clean them. as for the mail - i haven't had any big issues before. read more

When I first moved in, the staff seemed nice, so I thought I was off to a great start. My housemates in the other room was living here already, so my roommate and I were the new ones. I understood that the cleaning staff wouldn't clean the living room and kitchen, but I thought they's at least give a clean room to move into. They just randomly painted spots on the wall, the ceiling fan had a build-up of nasty dust, and the room was just gross. Floors were extremely dusty and the bathroom was NOT CLEAN. The bathroom has nasty stains and there were still things that belonged to the previous occupants! That was a huge indicator that the staff wouldn't do their jobs correctly. Kitchen: It is pretty spacious, but I don't think the kitchen needs to be this big. The counters have nasty rips in its fake granite top. The stovetop isn't that great, but I guess they made it an electric stove so that there wouldn't be any trouble for them. The refrigerator is alright, but not big enough for 4 people (all my roommates eat at the apartment). The sink is just nasty. There's a sewer smell that comes from it. Almost forgot, the bar stools just hurts your butt. Living Room: The living room is the room that most of my roommates have a problem with. The couches are HORRIBLE. Yes, they are leather, but you can't comfortable sit on it without having the cushions fall out or suck you in. The big couch can't really fit two people comfortable let alone one. Yes, the TV has cable but the cable box came broken. We can't get some channels, and we did call but the staff told us to call Cox, where we will get charged for Puerta giving us a broken cable box. And because Puerta gave us a horrible location, the living room gets so dusty from the debris that would fly up into our apartment (we live in the apartment facing Campus Dr). Bedroom: Small, just small. The virtual tour makes it seems like it's big because they took out one dresser! There no room for a desk at all. You have to strategically place your dresser at an inconvenient location for there to be a desk. I've seen people put their dresser in the closet just to make room. Well, my room was dirty and dusty when I moved in. The closet space isn't big enough, they could've just gotten the two wardrobes that dorms have so that there's more room and more space for our things. Oh and the doors.... the doors just squeak a lot. we've had it oiled many times, but it doesn't do anything. Bathroom: The bathroom is huge, but not worth the sacrifice of the bedroom space. Now, because my room and bathroom were already dirty, there's a whole lot of dust on the white lining of the walls. Shower has low water pressure, many because it wasn't clean. My roommate had to clean all the grime and soap scum off of it to get better water pressure. Amenities: It's honestly not worth the walk to go to the car anymore. I would try to take the bus, but when you're in a hurry, the bus comes late and sometimes they skip you. The gym and pool are just far, and Puerta knows it, which is why they try to make up for it by giving us free parking. The walk to the parking structure isn't worth it, and the parking enforcement just try to find ways to give you a citation. We honestly can share some of Verano's lot. The study rooms are nice, but there is only one study room for each apartment structure and there is the two private study rooms and the MPR. The study rooms at each apartment structure has many people in it because there isn't enough for the amount of people in each apartment structure. Not to mention, some people can be rude and loud. People fight for the private study rooms near the office. Printing was always broken. They recently got new printers, but they suck too. The computers are breaking down as well! Staff: Of course there are some people who are nice and some who are mean. I've had my fair share of nice ones, but it doesn't make up for the rude ones. They don't really know too much about the contract and they try to lie to you to get you out of their face. I've had a couple lie to me about my contract, then I catch them in the act when I have my contract with me. The supervising staff is nowhere to be found, so it's mainly students who don't know what they are doing half the time. Mail comes in late and sometimes they just don't put them in when we already know the items are delivered. And Puerta honestly tries to charge you for random things. When the fire alarms go off, it just seems like they are trying to find ways to charge us. My roommate got charged for broken blinds (I didn't for some reason), but our blinds weren't broken at all. She talked to the bookkeeper, who just kept charging her when they "waived the charge." Not worth it, especially since it gets more $$ each year. read more

This is my second year living in an American Campus Community student housing complex and my first year living at Puerta del Sol. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the price of my apartment, but considering the amenities and location of the community, I am definitely getting my money's worth :) First off, the studio apartment looks as nice as it does in pictures... you are not getting gypped! I also love the fact that I have a full-sized bed... back home at my parent's house I have a twin ;( I also live really close to campus! A lot of my classes are located in UCI's Education building and it's literally a less-than-10-minute walk to campus--even faster if you cut through the police station which is conveniently located right next to Puerta! (A fact that had my mom SOLD. She's very concerned with my safety since I live away from home, hahaha). Did I mention Puerta is also the closest student housing community to Albertson's?! Also a less-than-10-minute walk, compared to the 20 minute walk it used to take me during my freshman year from mesa court (uh, yeah, carrying back a jug of milk those days wasn't a joke). Utilities such as water, cable, internet, sewer and gas are included in the pricing. Laundry is free too! The only bill you need to worry about is the electricity bill... and even then it isn't even expensive! I sleep with the lights on at night and highest bill I've had yet has been ~$14. The community also sets up programs for their residents and they're free! It's nearing the end of fall quarter and so far I've participated in a free yoga session, had free pizza, and even got some scantrons and blue books for finals week. The staff is really helpful and nice! What's really cool is that the ACC communities are all very intertwined, I've gotten invites on facebook to attend the other communities and their programs (VDC, VDCN and CDS). Camino's pool was my second home everyday during the summer after class ;) Long story short, Puerta has definitely been my favorite place to live on campus so far. Actually, one more thing... people complain about parking being so far, but it really only takes around 7 minutes to get to the ARC parking structure. I loathe working out as much as the next person, so I think of the walk as my workout for the day hahaha along with my walks to campus and Albertson's! Oh and WOODEN FLOORS = my dream come true. I hate vacuuming! Okay I'm really done now hahaha. This my first review on yelp and I hope this was helpful... Puerta is awesome, take my word for it! read more

Don't live here!! Fire alarms go off at least 25 to 20 times (at 9 am too most of the time!) and I've only been living here for 5 months. 5 more to go :( I hate it here! They won't even let me cancel my lease no matter how much I try. Parking is ridiculous. It is at least a 15 minute walk. Not only that but there 7 floors on the parking garage. Parking is not assigned, you park any where. Well I don't always remember where I parked so it takes me another 10 minutes to actually find my car. The whole apartment is wood flooring so it's ALWAYS cold. I wouldn't be writing this review but I truly regret living here and if I could save someone from making that mistake that's enough. Trust me when I say this, it's not worth the price! read more

My name is Luis and I will make this review as entertaining as possible while remaining completely honest. I believe Puerta del Sol is an excellent housing community. Pros: Let me just start off with a couple of facts. You get free parking,its at the arc which is like a 5 min walk, but like i said its free. And free guest parking too! It's a lot cheaper than VDC VDCN AV and even places like Dartmouth and Cornell, comparing prices of living in a double. It's closer to campus and, in my opinion since i visited both locations, a lot nicer looking. A stop for the shuttle that takes you around campus is literally right in front of your house,in case you are feeling lazy that day or since Puerta is so close to campus you can simply walk, which i prefer. Utilities are covered except for electricity,just ask the people who have to pay for all their utilities and they will tell you what burden it is. Albertsons is literally across from your house so its not a burden to get food and snacks. Before i continue I would just like to emphasize how nice this place looks. The colors and furniture Puerta chose to provide you with gives your place a really classy look. I have an amazing view from the fourth floor. Washing only costs $.25, it cost me a $1 back at Campus Village. You get access to other housing communities facilities like the pool at Camino del sol without paying their really expensive prices to live there! I could go on and on about the benefits but i'll just cut to the chase. You want proof that this is a great place to live?Me and my roommates,we are all males, renewed our lease without hesitation. Why would we even consider living anywhere else when we are paying a lot less for a better quality place. Side note we convinced our dormates from freshman year , all females to live here in Puerta as well. They too renewed their lease. So it doesn't matter if you are a guy or a girl we both liked this place so much we decided to stay another year. Ask your friends who live in other housing communities if they renewed their lease without hesitating or better yet, ask them if they even ended up renewing their lease and once your hear their answers, Ill see you at Puerta lol Cons: The only complaint i have is that the fire alarm testing was a bit absurd and lasted like two weeks everyday at 9am. That's why they got 4 stars but i wouldn't have renewed my lease if the pros didn't out weigh the cons. Oh and the close door button doesn't work on the elevator. read more

I have been living here for almost 3 years. I enjoy the proximity to the university and to Albertsons. The apartments are furnished and rent includes most utilities. Not too expensive and not too shabby. read more

The only reason I decided to live here was because of the $499 rent. However, it's only cheap because they made single rooms into a double. So...there are no space to put your desks. Maybe like one. My roommates and I have our desks in the living room. Like the comments below, the secretary in the front office is RUDE! I went to go pay for my rent and it wasn't long since I moved in and didn't know my apartment number and she straight up mocked me for not knowing it. The one thing I like about Puerta Del Sol is that it has study rooms on every floor (but no bathrooms inside) that is 24 hours. Oh and I like that it's closer to the campus compare to other housings. Other than that... The FIRE ALARM GOES OFF like EVERY WEEK!! They do a lot of tests as well at like 9am. The fire alarm is off right now as I am writing this. It's 3AM!!! I feel like it goes off every week or two for like 20-30minutes. Everyday I have to struggle going up and down a muddy hill just to ride the bus because they don't have a straight path and I don't want to walk around the apartment to get there. Even before I moved in, it took them so long to tell me if I got in or not. It has been almost a year since I lived here. I don't think I would want to live here again. read more

ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS EVERYWHERE. Even if you have a clean apartment, you can count on your neighbor for some ants. No ant extermination thus far. I mean there are truckloads and gazillion ants all around the compound. Near the parking lot, there is a fat trail of ants which will freak you out so bad when you see it. It's the most disgusting thing your eyes will ever lay on. read more

Pro: Relatively cheap. Close to campus. Close to Albertsons / the ARC. Free laundry. The maintenance staff fixes the toilets / showers very quickly. Cons: The front desk is absolutely terrible. We were missing furniture when we moved in and after contacting them about it, they waited MONTHS to get us the furniture. When I asked what was taking so long they said they had to "investigate" to make sure we hadn't stolen the furniture. Then, when we finally received the stools they were too short for the bar and had NAILS sticking out of them. They were not the ones other apartments had and were clearly not the ones we were supposed to receive. Their biggest mistake was with lease renewals - they have yet to provide any confirmation that residents have a spot next year. We requested lease renewals in November and now in May we have yet to hear from them. When I asked about confirmation the woman at the front desk acted like she had no idea why we would even want confirmation, saying "You confirmed your renewal when you put the renewal slip in the box." Yes. We were expected to rely on putting a half sheet of paper in an unwatched box. When I asked the woman if she had any way to check, she got frustrated and asked me what my name was so she could check. Then she cut me off half way through, telling me that, "yeah, you're fine." I sent an email to someone working at the office and they replied saying we were expected to follow them on Facebook for important information and basically it was my fault for not knowing information that was on their Facebook page. It is unbelievable that a company doesn't understand that their clients should be provided with complete information, delivered in a reliable fashion. They have a ridiculously high amount of fire drills at terrible times in the morning. The furniture is laughably uncomfortable - bring a foam top for the mattress and don't count on using the couches. The rooms are too small and desks aren't provided (You read that right. A furnished apartment for college students doesn't include desks.) My roommate and I had to put furniture in the bathrooms to make everything fit. Overall, Puerta is an okay place to live if you never receive mail, don't have a car, can sleep on a rock, and aren't interested in legal things like contracts. If you can avoid the front desk and being home during fire drills, you'll be fine. It's liveable but honestly, for what you're paying, it's a very frustrating experience. read more

Living at Puerta for the past few months have been very different and new for me. This was my first time living on my own and let me say, its been the best experience I've ever had. Not only is my apartment super spacious, it comes with all the amenities that I have at home and so much more. Although there is not a pool or gym on site, I was able to have access to the BBQ, pools, jacuzzi, and gym at the neighboring communities (Camino and VDC Norte). Whenever I had any questions about anything, there was always someone at the office whom I could call. Even if they didn't know the answer to my question, they made sure to email/call me back with an answer. I absolutely have LOVED all the programs that the CA's put on! There's always good food and the CA's are always nice to talk to. The programs are especially fun because I get to meet a lot of the neighbors. It's usually pretty quiet around my area and no one really seems to know each other, but at the programs I've been to, I've met a few nice people and even realize that some of them are in my classes! It's really nice that there are soooo many study rooms located around the property. I'm pretty sure there's one on every floor, which is nice because I feel safer walking from the study rooms back to my apartment alone. It's cool because the walls are dry erase boards and I don't even have to bring my own markers, the office loans them out! The overall environment of the place is very peaceful. I feel like there's always someone around that's either studying, doing laundry, BBQing or just hanging out at the fire places. Its makes me feel safe knowing that the area is well lite and that there are friendly staff members around at all times. If I wasn't graduating at the end of this year, I would consider living here again. Puerta's prices compared to other properties around UCI is way less expensive and it comes with so many resources. read more