Universal Realty Group - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Jenna H.

If I could give this apartment complex (241 Willett) negative stars, I would. I truly hate leaving bad reviews, but I’m writing this in the hope of saving someone else from the experience we endured over four long years of living here.

From the start, it was a constant mental and emotional burden. We dealt with mice, bugs, leaks, unpleasant neighbors, and consistently unhelpful and negligent staff. When we moved in back in 2020, several windows were broken—a problem we were told would be addressed, but never was. The windows were so poorly sealed that water and snow would come inside, and on windy days, the curtains would literally blow from the drafts.

We also experienced a major bathroom leak that destroyed much of the space. It took staff three separate visits before they finally called a plumber—who diagnosed and fixed the issue immediately. During the rare occasions when repairs were done, staff would leave our apartment in a complete mess, showing zero respect for our space.

The breaking point came when the building’s handyman and his wife moved in next door. Despite living in a smoke-free building, they chain-smoked indoors. The smoke was so strong I thought someone had broken into our apartment and lit a cigarette. I have allergies, and my eyes would turn red from the exposure. We complained multiple times, and while staff claimed they would speak to him or move him back to his old unit, nothing was ever done. They knew this was a problem—he had already stained the walls with nicotine in his previous unit—but they chose to ignore it.

Even after we moved out, the issues continued. We realized we had left some items behind in a cupboard, including alcohol, and contacted management the next day. By the time we returned, everything was gone. Neighbors reported seeing the smoking handyman leaving our unit with the items. While we had no proof, we know what happened—and so do they.

The final straw? A month after moving out, they still withdrew rent from our bank account, even though we had given proper notice. They admitted the mistake but took nearly three weeks to return our money—a significant amount. For some people, that could have caused serious financial strain. I had to physically go to their head office to collect the money, just to make sure it wasn’t mishandled again.

The staff lie, neglect repairs, ignore serious issues, and turn a blind eye to unacceptable and unsafe living conditions. I genuinely hope someone sees this review and runs in the other direction. If you have any other option, do not rent her

ian G.

Building manager is beyond sweet and does what she can but is held up by the higher ups. Half the washers and dryers do not work anymore throughout the building, unit heat is inadequate to say the least, all the windows and patio door seals are completely shot letting cold air in on cold days and if the rain comes in at the right angle the leak horribly. Building is now infested with roaches, mice and ants. They did a million dollar renovation to make the building LOOK "pretty" but don't be fooled. They should have fixed the big issues instead of making it look nice. Put makeup on a pig it's still a pig.... Do not move to the Armadale building or any of their properties!

Nagendira P. J.

Bad management and maintenance at Ridgeway towers. Whole building is infested with pests and roaches. Common laundry doesn't work in many floors. For any complaints, their default answer would be "waiting for parts to arrive", which never comes and problems will never get addressed. Deplorable living conditions . Not suitable for living at all.

Samantha H.

I do not recommend renting with this property management team. My spouse and I have been tenants at the Abigail apartments for approximately six months and our experience has been anything but pleasant:

- Staff has a tendency to be timely when responding to inquires via e-mail. However, in reference to tenant inquiries, managerial members (head office) do not comply with the same practice. When having limited success with on-site staff, we made numerous attempts to address issues with head office. After weeks of e-mails, phone calls and providing documented concerns, management responded, recommending we direct our concern to the property management team.

This not only shows a lack of professionalism, rather, an open disregard for client well-being and satisfaction.

- Several maintenance inquiries have been previously logged for completion and left unaddressed. Other cases have been addressed and required further attention, yet staff has not made an effort to follow-up and complete. For example: the hardwood flooring has moved in our unit. When a maintenance employee assessed the situation, it was expressed that the exposed materials beneath the floor could be hazardous to our pet.

- Upon arrival as new tenants, our apartment was not cleaned properly. Property managers were made aware of the conditions and neglected to work with us for a solution – or show any concern for our situation. Prior to moving in, we were obligated to fully clean our unit; removing the filth from previous occupants.

- Noise complaints were falsely filed against us (our dog) within mere days of our arrival. The complaint filed outlined that our dog was barking at late hours of the evening. We advised staff that this could not have been our animal. Despite providing evidence, management has showed no concern when we followed up to confirm the status of this accusation, as we requested that it be removed from our records.
A meeting was requested with management, and left unacknowledged.

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While the residence we currently occupy is visually appealing, I highly encourage prospective tenants to not inquire with this company.

Melissa

Terrible company to work for. We were left without pays on more than one occasion. Sometimes we were told that they don't sign checks on certain days. We had to go to their head office and refuse to leave until we were paid. Our supervisor told us this happens all the time.

Brodie L.

This is a shady company. Their office texted me asking me to directly pay half my rent to a third party, as they had made a mistake and only took half from me and it needed to be corrected immediately. So I did. I have a formal document from my building that verifies it was their office number that sent me that text. They have been claiming I've been late on paying that amount ever since that event. I have responded to them WITH SCREEN SHOTS showing my intent to pay the full amount, them taking half, and their own text telling me to pay the other half to the appropriate party, and my payment of that other half. But they have consistently ignored my replies, as the building manager obviously doesn't want to acknowledge her negligence, and just continually act like I am intentionally not paying them.

I was going to give the company the benefit of the doubt and have tried reaching out to people higher up in the company, but again, I'm getting ignored. I try calling their office and it just rings and then gets hung up.

They are either crooks or just completely incompetent.

Glenda P.

I ended up contacting "Head office" directly after attempting to deal with the superintendent of the building we were living (Armdale Place), in regards to an issue we had regarding a rent increase and am extremely disappointed and frustrated with the service of all involved. For some background:

September of last year, we were advised that upon the end of our lease (January 31st for February 1st), they were going to be increasing rent on our unit. Our unit was an un-renovated unit, with carpet, terrible cupboards and counter etc. The apartment would not be worth living in with a rent increase no matter how small the increase was. I sat in the office when the increase was presented and I explained that we would not be accepting an increase in rent. I was told I just had to sign the paper as proof I received it, but, I could then draft a letter with my concerns and send it to them advising I do not accept it.
I went home, drafted the letter explaining that we did not accept the increase, and if they chose to enforce it we would be forced to give notice and move to a comparable apartment in the area. At this time we also sent a letter advising at the end of our lease we would like to go Month to Month.
After sending, we never received a response, which to be honest didn't surprise me AT ALL since we never seemed to receive a response in regards to any of the emails we have sent to the building.
We decided we did not want to live in that building any longer than we had to, so on November 7th, we emailed to advise that we would be leaving at the end of our lease (January 31st). We were at this point advised that we missed the 3 month cut off to give notice and would have to stay the additional month of February. I was pretty irritated as I assumed the notice to go month to month meant we would only have to give a month notice to leave; however, it was my mistake in assuming and if we missed the 3 month notice (even if only by 7 days) we would have to deal with it.
Come February, we were mostly moved out; however, went to pay rent for the month regardless and they INCREASED THE RENT! Even though we had emailed that we would have given notice if they were going to enforce the rent increase back in September. This would have given plenty of time to give notice like we ended up wanting to had they gotten back to us. We were advised by Linda the "Superintendent" that our email regarding the rent increase "Went to their junk mail" and that was the first time it had ever happened. She assured me that she would send the email off to their head office and get back to me.

Since then (February 1st) I have contacted her at least 4 times. I have also tried calling Universal Realty Group directly and spoke to somebody who advised that they would forward it to the building manager (Same person I was dealing with who NEVER gets back to me) to follow up with me. I even called her and followed up with her that day... she said she would get back to me. NOBODY has followed up or gotten back to me.

SO I am still out the money for the increase(which wasn't that much but the principal is important to me), as well as a whole month rent that we never would have had to pay because if we knew they were going to increase anyways we would have given notice in September.

TERRIBLE TERRIBLE Experience! I don't think it is too much to ask for people to get back to you, especially when you have followed up numerous times!!

Karim S.

We now live for 9 years at ogilvie on the park and we were about to leave as no maintenance get done and we ask for so many months. So many staff and finally Simon come and fix all my issues in one day, he's so friendly and made laugh and my kids laugh and he explained what he was doing. We see him in the hall and he said hi and have a nice day to my kid's remember their names . I hope he stay.
l and a welcome to this job or we were moving. Great employee. 😊 Please he stay.