Noho House North

Pros
1. Management is responsive if something breaks 2. Walkability is high 3. There is a pool, laundry room, small exercise room 4. One garage parking space comes with the apt 5. New appliances in the kitchen 6. They allow small dogs 7. Pierce and his staff make an effort to keep the hallways, pool area, laundry room clean 8. My one bedroom apt was a decent size although the setup was slightly weird. There was no door to my bedroom — the door was to the hallway leading to the bedroom/​bathroom. So if I had company, it wasn’t possible to keep my bedroom out of site if they went to the bathroom. And sometimes if your bedroom is messy, you want to keep it out of site.
Cons
1. The roaches are horrendous. They sprayed my apt when I went out of town during Thanksgiving (you have to empty your kitchen cabinets which was a hassle) and it was good for a couple weeks. They came back in full force. 2. You have a patio but you can’t keep anything on it except chairs (which I guess prevents the place from having laundry hanging out but it would have been nice to keep the bike out there) 3. It is like a college dorm — loud parties, residents or guests getting drunk and screaming, marijuana smell in the hallways (ok, some people may not object to that) 4. I don’t know if it’s because of the dark wood floor but my apt was dark. And because both my patio and bedroom window faced the pool there was no privacy and impossible to open windows because people are constantly walking by 5. The location — the street is narrow with a lot of cars. If you have company come over they may have difficulty finding a place to park. In addition, if 2 cars are coming in the opposite direction, it’s a tight squeeze. The street is dirty. People around here feel it’s acceptable to throw garbage onto the grass and sidewalk, staple advertising signs to the street poles, throw furniture out onto the swale where it stays there for a month. Someone threw out a mattress and for a while, a group of homeless people slept on it at the end of the block. 6. When I first got there (it has improved the last couple months), probably once/​week the water would get turned off in the middle of the day for some reason or other. Now it’s down to about once/​month. Not a problem for me cause I worked during the day. 7. My apt had a very noisy gate next to it that would slam shut at all hours of the day and night. I complained about it which would have involved fixing the spring but that never happened. 8. I don’t know if it’s because of the wood floors but I could hear my upstairs neighbors whenever they walked, in addition to a squeaking bed. After 30 minutes of listening to a squeaking bed I would bang on the ceiling wall. Figured I was doing the girl a favor. However the walls are thick in that I couldn’t hear conversations. 9. It’s supposed to be a secure building with locked entrances but residents are constantly propping the doors open. 10. At least three times in the year I was there the fire alarm went off. There was no fire. 11. In an effort to keep the lawn in the front green, the sprinklers go off every morning at 5 am. HELLO. Draught going on. However the flowers, grass and plants look nice. 12. Several times the residents living here would try and throw boxes down the garbage chute even though there are signs saying don’t do this because it blocks the chute. However there are knuckleheads living here who obviously can’t read. Again, think college dorm. 13. For some reason phone reception was bad in my apt regardless of your phone company. I could not stand in my kitchen and talk on the phone. I have ATT and my friend had Verizon and we both had difficulty with our phone. 14. The top kitchen cabinets are probably 8 feet high. Even with a step stool I could not reach those cabinets. 15. Water leaked on my car from the pipes in the garage and stained my car. Had my car washed and that didn’t remove the stains. Had to pay $ 140 to have the car detailed. This happened right before I moved out. I was told I would be reimbursed that amount. When I gave notice that I was moving out (beginning of July), I was told my balance for 8 days in August would be $ 325. When I got my bill for the 8 days of August, my rent was $ 460. I was told it was because I didn’t have a lease and I was paying at the rate of month to month leasing. So while they reimbursed me the $ 140, funny how the difference in what I was initially told I was going to pay, and then what they said I had to pay came out to around $ 140 16. During the one time it rained last year, the water leaked into my apt. My doggie bed got ruined. Did not get reimbursed for it. 17. Don’t bother overly cleaning the apt when you leave. They keep $ 100 of your deposit money for a cleaning fee no matter how clean or dirty your apt is.

The worst apartment I’ve rented in the last 8 years of renting. Constant policy changes, overly visible management, and general shottiness and tackiness make this place feel more like a second rate college dorm than an actual apartment. Have never felt like it was a home. The rent prices go up every year, only after the most superficial and useless updates to the building.
NOGO House North is the perfect metaphor for LA; Looks
Good on the outside, but it’s all for show and has no humanity.