University Village

Edit 9/9/26: On 7/14, University Village stated that Bruce Johnson Jr has had "no prior reports or complaints made against him during his tenure" here. This is false. On 3/18/25, a tenant's dog escaped following an unauthorized entry by Bruce Johnson Jr and was fatally struck by a vehicle. Search “University Village dog death" online for NBC4 coverage - her post below names Bruce. The property disregarded eyewitness evidence and gave an implausible explanation to police, that it must have been a person nobody saw, with no evidence and no motive, who entered during the exact window Bruce was present and let the dog out. Bruce denied responsibility. That is not “no prior reports or complaints.” I notified them of the false statement on July 20. As of 8/14, they still continued to knowingly rely on this letter. They blamed me for not accepting a letter they knew was false (“it does not appear that this response was satisfactory enough for you”, and “as such”, “nothing” can be done to satisfy my “demands”.) My primary “demands” were a lease renewal honoring the same restriction on Bruce Johnson Jr's access provided in the property’s April 1st assurance, and independent review conducted by someone without a conflict of interest. No real investigation has been conducted. My requests for independent review were ignored. The conflict of interest of the property manager handling my complaint, the same manager during the mishandled 2025 incident, has not been addressed. On April 24, management walked back the unconditional April 1 written assurance that "We have addressed the issue with Bruce, and we are so sorry for the situation. There is a note in the computer that Bruce is not allowed to go to your unit." Despite management acknowledging "I would really like to tell you that he, under no circumstances, he will come to your apartment," they refused to honor their April 1 assurance. At 11:34 AM on April 27, I stated the primary issue remained unresolved. Less than 2.5 hours later, at 1:59 PM, management posted a public response claiming “the necessary actions have been taken to resolve these issues." I've filed a complaint with the attorney general's office for misrepresentation. I’ve also filed a police incident report regarding Bruce Johnson Jr, with the understanding that neither guarantees action. On 7/9, I stated my preference for a lease renewal with a safety addendum. 6 hours later, a notice to vacate file with "addendum" in the filename was placed under "Other Documents” in my tenant portal, with no notification email, mislabeling me as "Resident Not Renewing" as if it were voluntary. I discovered this over a month later. They have refused to renew my lease, displacing a 9 year tenant following a safety complaint. They characterized the incidents I reported (see below) as "personal generosity" and "good faith," and reduced safety and tenant protection concerns to a matter of discomfort. They cited a clean record to justify keeping him in his regular duties. Management refuses to say whether his access to other units and master keys is restricted at all. Another example of blaming me - they claimed it was "abundantly clear" that I was "unhappy at the property." They still haven't corrected a single false statement or substantively addressed the issues raised. Messages are ignored, except to assert legal rights, blame me, or tell me to stop raising it with them — History: Jan 19 - He represented a wear and tear charge, which tenants are not responsible for, as required and billed by the property. He quoted $9, then at the end presented it as $20 that day, or $30+ if billed to my rent. I reported this to the leasing office and he returned the cash two days later. His explanation, that he was making it "cheaper for you," was also false; I owed $0. Feb 4 - He requested access to my unit only after encountering me in person by chance, despite already working in my building that day. Access was never needed, and the "ghost" work order was closed only after I called (see attached). I filed a complaint end of March.

Bruce was efficient and easy to work with

I lived here for 2 years. I had a furnished apartment, but I frequently visited people in their UV units that were not furnished, so I have a good idea of what those were like as well. I don't think you will regret going to UV, but you will get frustrated at times, especially if your expectations aren't set right. I'm trying to help you get them right. First off, your rent is paid in installments, meaning you'll pay the full amount whether you move in/out in the middle of the month or at the end/start of the month. You will also have to pay a $260 per person per year "community fee" for using all the shared spaces, i.e., the pool, gym, study spaces, coffee machine, etc. The streets are genuinely beautiful and safe. There is also a COTA bus stop on Olentangy with frequent buses. So, if you don't have a car, that and the UV shuttle are reliable ways to commute. Although, there are quite a few occasions when the shuttle will not operate for various reasons. The furnished units (all of them are essentially the same) have better aesthetics, but the ventilation in the apartments is bad. On top of that, the heating/cooling system is stupid, and your bedroom will not get properly warm or cold. You'll also pay a ton for electricity in the colder months since the heating system is electric. You'll see a ton of imperfections in the finishes of the unfurnished units, but the heating is much better and much cheaper. Also, all the rooms have an A/C unit. We didn't experience any pest or noise problems. The shared areas are cleaned regularly, and the landscaping is maintained as well. The maintenance is essentially like most other places in this price range; they'll try to fix everything as cheaply as possible and will fail a lot of the time. They are also not good at communication at all. When moving out, in our experience, they tried everything to not return the full deposit. But we pushed back and asked for proper evidence of the claimed damages, which they couldn't provide and they ended up giving us our full deposit back. Overall, UV is very convenient as your first place, especially when you're moving to the U.S. But it's a bit too pricey for what it offers.

Great looking apartments. Street parking available in some areas.

I lived here for two years, and overall, UV is an okay place for college students, but I don’t recommend living here if you can find some other places. Pros * A 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment costs about $750 per person per month. * They provide a shuttle bus every 30 minutes on weekdays during the school year, which makes getting to campus very convenient. * Residents have access to a gym and study space. Cons 1. Your experience depends a lot on your neighbors. Unfortunately, my packages were stolen three times, even after I had Amazon deliver them to the building’s mailroom. Each building has a unique access code, so only residents can enter. I reported the thefts to the leasing office, but they told me there wasn’t much they could do. 2. I also had neighbors who didn’t clean up after their dogs (please don’t ask how I found out 🙂). 3. The laundry room was often dirty, and the washers and dryers frequently broke down. 4. My roommate and I kept our apartment very clean, but during our first year, we still found and killed several roaches every week. We requested pest control, but it didn’t work well. 5. Getting your security deposit back can be difficult, even if you take good care of the apartment. Before moving out, I thoroughly vacuumed the carpet and cleaned the light stains myself, yet I was still charged $85 for carpet cleaning. The carpet was already quite old when we moved in. 6. Finding someone to take over your lease for the summer is extremely difficult. The new tenant has to pay a $100 application fee, a $200+ community fee per person, plus other charges. On top of that, the lease dates are structured in a way that makes subleasing much harder. For example, my leases ran 08/15/2024 - 07/28/2025 - 07/21/2026. The lease ended well before the end of the summer term, since OSU’s summer classes usually end in early August, many students aren’t willing to take over a lease that expires in late July. 7. My required move out date was 7/21/2026, and my lease ends on 7/28/2026; I got my electric bill this morning saying that I need to pay $160 between 7/15 - 7/28. I don’t even live there anymore, the only thing running was the fridge, and I’m required to keep my electricity activated until the lease ends. Clearly, their team went into the room and never turned the AC off. DO NOT LIVE HERE.