Villas at Katy Trail Apartments

I lived in this community for 3 and a half years, and while my actual apartment was comfortable and I genuinely enjoyed living in it, there are SEVERAL issues future residents should be aware of. I dealt with very frequent plumbing problems. At least once a month I’d get an email saying the water would be shut off due to leaks or maintenance, and my water pressure was always terrible. There were even times I couldn’t get my shower to turn on AT ALL. The appliances in the unit were old, and I had problems with those too which led to $200+ worth of groceries going bad since maintenance refused to replace a broken fridge. Every summer my AC would go out, and it would take many days for maintenance to fix it. Which led to multiple nights of having to sleep in an 80 degree apartment. There was constantly a bug issue which led me to have to spend my own money to "bug proof" my apartment since the pest control that I paid for never helped. The amenities are definitely not worth the price. The gym is extremely tiny, and this past summer they closed it for about a month to remodel, but when it reopened, it looked like all they did was rearrange the same machines (not kidding). The parking garage was another major frustration. The spots are extremely small, making it very easy to get door dings, and guest parking is a nightmare. Guests get ticketed or towed for practically no reason, even when they follow the posted rules, which caused a lot of unnecessary stress. My biggest issue happened during move-out. They tried to charge me for a full carpet replacement even though only a small section of the bedroom carpet was damaged. I went back and forth with them over email where they then sent the photo of the damaged carpet. There was a very small corner that was damaged and the rest of the carpet was in fantastic condition. When I asked for proof of damage to the rest of the carpet, they couldn’t provide any, and the amount was eventually lowered. They will make up anything to try to get money from you. If I hadn’t pushed back, I would have been overcharged for something that wasn’t accurate or fair. So please make sure to do your research and ask for proof of everything on move out. They will try to charge you $600+ for a full replacement when that indeed was not my responsibility. Overall, the apartment itself was cozy, but between the outdated appliances, the plumbing issues, the unreliable amenities, the constant water shutoffs, the parking situation, and the move-out charges, the overall value just didn’t match the cost. I now pay $200 less for a 10x nicer apartment with fantastic amenities, New stainless-steel appliances, and hardly any issues at all. The Villas at Katy Trail could do so much better if they actually tried.

Don't do it! The price for location is good but you will pay for it in other ways. The water is shut off about once a month for hours at a time. The fire alarm goes off for the whole building at all hours of the day and night for no predictable reason; as someone in healthcare that was sometimes trying to sleep during the day for night shifts, this was a nightmare. There is essentially no visitor parking. The pool has seemingly never been cleaned and the water has been green the entire 4 years I lived there. The building has a bug problem and posted threatening announcements that residents would be charged and blamed for infestations. The office changed the gate system to an app without setting it up properly or communicating the entry process so I was locked out after coming back from a late flight. This is obviously a safety concern especially as a woman; thankfully for this situation many of the doors don't lock or close properly so I was able to find one to get in eventually. This is obviously also a huge safety concern; there are regularly non-residents in the building at all hours of the day or night. The office has lots of turnover and has seemed very disorganized in all of its iterations. I could go on and on. Some of these things may be worth it to you for the price/location, but I would be extremely cautious about the scam potential and especially money you might lose during the move out process. You'll notice the positive reviews are from people who still live there. The office will nickle and dime you for everything on move out--this is all subjective on what they determine to be "normal wear and tear" and impossible to argue with as you can see from their replies to the negative reviews. The entire process was also filled with getting mixed instructions from different people in the office so I would HIGHLY recommend getting EVERYTHING in writing if you live there and are moving out. I expected this after reading the reviews and resigned myself to paying--I was charged $630 (in addition to my security deposit) after living in the apartment for 4 years and putting what I would say is a low to normal amount of wear on it. 3 weeks after I paid the fees through the online portal as they instructed me, I got an email accusing me of not paying and threatening to refer me to a collections agency. They attached a leger as "proof" of the charges (this showed my $0 balance and that I had paid; I guess they missed this). I'm not sure if they are being purposely fraudulent or just incredibly careless; either way they have the potential to cost you a lot of money or impact your credit score if you are not extremely careful and keeping track of everything. Keep a paper trail of everything if you live there already, or better yet, don't move there in the first place!

If you want a short term cheap place DO NOT come here. They will charge you for nothing when you leave. I got nearly $700 in charges when I moved out and this was the best condition I ever left an apartment and also paid for a cleaning service to come in after me on top of it. Would not recommend, the rent is cheap but they do a lot to nickel and dime you.

I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Leslie Vivanco for her exceptional service at The villas at Katy trail. She is always professional, friendly, and incredibly helpful. From the moment you walk into the office, she greets you with a warm smile and a willingness to assist with any concerns. Leslie goes above and beyond to ensure that residents feel heard and taken care of. Whether it’s handling maintenance requests efficiently or answering questions with patience, she makes the entire experience smooth and stress-free. Her dedication and positive attitude truly make a difference in the community. If you’re looking for an office staff member who genuinely cares about residents and provides top-tier service, Leslie is the one!

A literal nightmare. I would never recommend this complex to anyone. Only positives are price and location. I've lived in many apartments and have NEVER experience the things I have at the Villas. WATER ISSUES The amount of times I had to drive over to a friend's house to shower is ridiculous. Whether its no hot water or no water at all, there's always an excuse from the Villas. We had no water for 24 hours and all that was offered were water bottles in the lobby. When I emailed asking about any compensation because this was probably the 12th time I was without water, I heard nothing. Because the staff will never reply to your emails and will never return your phone calls. APPLIANCES & UTILITIES Literally everything breaks. My microwave almost caught on fire twice and instead of replacing it (the logical thing to do) they just continued to "restart" it and just pretend like it wasn't a fire hazard. AC died in the middle of summer. Exactly 1 week before I moved out, I had the pleasure of having rain pour through my roof onto my TV and furniture. What did maintenance do? Gave me a bucket. For a full week I got to listen to my roof leak into my apartment :) And lets not forget the random shards of paper I would find in my ice from the freezer? Nothing is ever repaired, they just throw a bandaid over everything and hope it holds till the next time. Even maintenance complained to me about how they desperately needed a new roof because they were tired of patching holes left and right but the owners were too cheap to pay for a new roof. PARKING GARAGE Whoever decided to make half the parking spots "compact car only" is out of their mind. I drive a compact car and still could never actually get out of my car without dinging anther car or walking out to new dings on mine. Also if you park on the top floor, hope you have a car wash membership because you will make great friends with all the pigeons and the PILES of pigeon poop that just builds up. TOXIC MOLD? A few months into my lease I walked out to find every single car in the lot with a flyer on the front. Another resident had found toxic mold in her unit and reported that the Villas were doing nothing about it (shocker). Am I surprised by the Villas lack of response? Absolutely not. Would I be surprised if there was mold in the building? Not at all. Did the Villas make any kind of response to any of the residents? Nope! OVERALL CLEANLINESS The day I got the email saying the Villas were replacing the carpets in the hallway was the day I thought "I might sign for another year". lol. The old carpet in the hallways were putrid, covered in dog pee and poop and random trash people leave. So when they changed the carpets I thought things were looking up. Then my cat got fleas the day after replacing the carpets. My cat has never had fleas in her 8 years of life and the vet said it was most likely from the old carpets. Also there is zero housekeeping being done. I have never seen someone vacuuming those carpets and I have seen trash stay out in the hallways for days. The new carpets already look like garbage and the smell from the old carpet will never go away. Everything just looks and smells old and dirty. MOVE OUT Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my opinion when an apartment says you have your lease through 6/11, I would expect to still have access to my unit on 6/11. Well not at the Villas! I showed up at 1:30pm after leaving work early to do final cleaning and repairs, but to my surprise my locks were already changed! They accessed my unit without my knowledge and just assumed I had already moved out. And then I got a fun little letter telling me I owed them $300 in repairs...THE REPAIRS I SHOWED UP TO DO ON 6/11 BUT COULDN'T. And when I called to pay the fees, the woman at the front office decided to argue with me about the fees rather than just direct me on how to pay. As if I haven't been through enough with this god-awful apartment. That's not even all of it but I'm tired of wasting my energy on this place. Please listen to me when I say this place is not worth it!!!