| Location |
| 320 K Street |
| (Central Davis) |
| Hours of Operation |
| Monday-Friday: 12 pm - 5 pm |
| Phone |
| (530)753-3636 |
| Features |
| On-site laundry ($1.75 for washers/ $1.75 dryers most expensive in town) |
| Permit Parking Only |
| Pool |
| Near bus routes A, P, M & O Lines |
| No Pets Policy |
University House Apartments (not to be confused with University Square Apartments on 3rd Street) is a small apartment complex with 48 units located on K & L streets between 3rd and 4th. They have four studio units and the rest are two bedrooms units. Rent for fall 2012 begins at $750.00/ month for studios with a Security deposit of $1,000 and $945.00/ month for two bedroom units with a security deposit of $1195 (out of date 07-10-2016). New on-site managers starting late 2015 (Laurissa).
Upsides:
Near Taqueria Davis, Aggie Liquor, 7-Eleven, and Pizza Guys.
Being near Davis Bike Collective, Bikram Yoga Davis and Rodness Martial Arts Center makes it convenient for exercise.
An on-site Coke Machine sells 20 oz. bottles of soda for $1.00 (Note that the soda machine on-site is known to take people's money - If the machine does not register your change, do not put any more coins in and call the repair number on the machine.)
Close to both downtown and campus. It's about a 5 minute walk to the heart of downtown and about 15-20 minutes to campus. The A line bus stop is right on the corner, so it takes less than a minute to walk to it from the complex and about ten minutes for the bus to get to campus.
Small complex means you know your apartment manager and she/he knows you.
Lots of bike parking. Managers prefer that you park your bike at the bike racks instead of in your apartment. There is plenty of bike parking provided.
Downside:
Older units, made originally as a motel and converted into an apartment complex makes for some thin walls and easy to annoy/be annoyed by neighbors.
Across the street from the PG&E Service center (not to be confused by the payment center on 2nd Street) creates a noisy atmosphere at times, often late night/early morning.
Popular drunk route after the bars close. Late night drinkers tend to walk by, often loudly, on their way to 7-Eleven or Aggie Liquor to continue their binge.
Loud children make it very inconvenient for late-night workers who tend to sleep during the day or sleep in after a long night. They tend to run and play on the balconies, against apartment rules, vibrating the entire area around them while doing so. This, of course, depends on which apartment you are in. Some apartments are more so affected by this than others.
Gas heat, both costly and useless unless you sleep with your bedroom doors open you will not feel any improvement from these units. Save some cash by not using them at all.
1 AC unit in Kitchen, 1 AC unit in one of the two bedrooms, sorry if you have the second unit, suffer during the summer or invest in a swamp cooler. Studios have only one A/C unit.
Echo effect. Even the quietest of people will make loud noise in this complex between the Square design of the complex and the thin walls. Expect a lot of noise during the day and early evening.
Expensive Laundry ($1.75 wash/load, $1.75 dry/load). The laundromat located in Downtown does one full load (wash+dry) for approximately 1/2 the price of one load (wash/dry) using the on-site laundry.
Loud Trains. Proximity to the Amtrak station and the railroad tracks makes this complex relatively noisy if you are not used to living near highways/freeways. Unlike the railroads that go up North, the Eastbound railroad is active 24/7. (This means you can hear the horns of the trains passing by 3 or 4AM in the morning) Some people get used to the train noise. (not nearly as bad as man other complexes like College Square, Arbors Apartments and others right next to the tracks. Note that since the Olive Drive Railroad Fence was built, the frequency of the train horns have decreased significantly. Some operators still sound their horns though, although not as often compared to what it was before. The complex also installed dual pane windows to help with the noise level. It is significantly more quiet.
Small Management. There is only one maintenance guy (and two apartment managers) on-site. That being said, the office is also rarely open, the office has shortened its hours to 12-5pm Monday-Friday. For the very same reason, don't expect FedEx/UPS/USPS to deliver your packages to the office, new rules as of 2012 forbid them from accepting them.
Two Pronged Outlets. As far as I know, this is the only apartment complex in Davis that has two pronged or does not have properly grounded three-prong outlets. Consider this fact if you have expensive electronics. Note: Some of the outlets in the apartments have their polarity reversed, which can render ones' surge protector useless even if the outlet is grounded. Invest in a three-light receptacle tester if you have expensive electronics that you want to protect using a surge protector.
While there have been mice on the premises, reported incidents are taken care of quickly and occur rarely. It is entirely dependent upon the residents and their eating/cleaning habits. Report it to the management and they will take care of it extremely fast and effectively. Better yet, maintain your apartment as if it was meant for humans and have no problem at all.
See our Housing Guide for more information on housing in Davis, and our Apartments page for a thorough list of complexes within Davis.
2008-08-29 23:30:43 2006-'07: $700 for a 2-bedroom apartment. 2007-'08: $750 for a 2-bedroom apartment. 2008-'09: $800 for a 2-bedroom apartment.
There is a waiting list to live here that usually fills up around April or May. The rent is great given the excellent downtown location and the huge size of the bedrooms. Tons of bicycle parking, none covered. Car parking lot (unreserved) plus street space. Lazy apt. managers, the pool was often green, they've been having water problems that affect the entire complex for hours at a time (scheduled shutdowns). It is forbidden to hang your clothes to dry on the balcony. —Angel.York
The old managers no longer work for the company, so green pool syndrom has been corrected. —jmitchell
2009-09-15 15:39:15 I pay about $680 for a studio apartment here from 2009-2010. It's not the greatest place, but for the money, you can't beat the proximity to campus as well as size of the apartment. While the place is pretty old, management is pretty good about taking care of stuff if you bring it to their attention of what you want fixed. I had a pretty crazy move in with cockroaches and broken electrical junk, but they fixed the broken stuff, replaced what i needed replacing, and got terminex out to hose down my apartment a second time. While it's no luxury unit, with a little effort, you can get it up to a "habitable" on the cheap and it's relatively close to campus. —Wilfred
2010-03-22 14:38:11 Close to three different bus-lines, a 20 minute walk to campus or groceries (5 minute drive) and one of the cheapest places in town. I began at $750/mo. rent and am now paying $825, will be going up to $850/mo. in fall.
As for maintenance, if you actually report a problem, they will get it fixed ASAP, but keep in mind, turn-over in davis will delay all but emergency repairs (ie: Leaks in water or gas) and can take up to a month to fix. They do a good job and will be changing the tenant rules and obligations thanks to a bunch of kids who like to violate all of the lease rules from throwing rocks in the pool to riding their scooters on the balconies which vibrate the entire place.
Other than the kids, it is a quiet neighborhood, good location, and affordable. I would recommend it. —WesOne
2010-04-14 12:44:28 The price is the only upside to this place. This place doesn't provide phone lines so don't bother getting AT&T internet service there. The landlord said it's not included. There are a LOT of cockroaches! GROSS!!! Agree with WesOne about the kids problem. Those kids never stop. I usually head down to 24 hours studyroom or the library when I need to study. Neighbors had blasting loud parties during weekends and do weed all the time, but they are friends with the manager; thus, there are nothing we could do. Nevertheless they don't cause any trouble to me, except loud noises. Wells, what can one expect with cheap apartment? If you can put up with all of those problems then this is a decent place to stay. —roxisamantha
2010-04-16 10:00:17 Every apartment complex must provide phone lines, but we are not required to have special installations to provide DSL service. A DSL line and a phone line are two different things, despite the fact they both plug into the same outlet. We have a contract with Terminix, and would be happy to have them perform services on your unit. Please just ask. We do address noise complaints, so if you have complaints of unreasonable noise in the future, please let us know. With the new 2010-2011 leases, comes a new rules addition regarding parents monitoring and controlling their children. We had never had a problem until this year, so it never been added to the rules, but we realize there is a need for it now so it is being addressed. Again, please inform management of any troubles and we will do our best to take care of the problems. —JMitchell
2010-06-22 12:29:39 I have lived at these apartments for the past year and have been pretty satisfied. The kids are outside playing most afternoons, but in reality they aren't that bad. I personally have had no bug problems, so I am not able to comment about that. The managers at the complex have been amazingly nice and helpful when we needed it. Its a college town so there are college students who live there and like to throw parties sometimes, we deal with it. I have never experienced it being so loud and so late that I was not able to sleep. The rent is incredibly cheap and you are walking distance to the bars. Its not the Ritz but as far as I am concerned I have been pretty happy living here the past year. —flipnflygurl
2010-06-22 17:54:25 this place is great. Ive lived here for one year and ill be staying for another. I have never had any problems in my apartment or with the managers. The apartments are the biggest and cheapest ive been able to find for such a good location. The best deal here is the 2 bedroom units —ryebread
2011-02-25 22:45:00 I agree with everyone that the price is the "only" upside to this place. On move in day my apartment wasn't ready (and it wasn't the only apartment). I don't know why? So, we didn't get to move in until a week later! Then when we actually did move in the place still wasn't ready!! What ****ing kind of management is that!?! The floors were dirty, closet doors were hanging out in the living room, no light bulbs, no battery for the fire alarm, no screen for one window, mold on windows, and bumps in the carpet. We gave them one extra week and all they said was well if we missed anything let us know. Hmmm, I think you missed everything!!
Then skip to a couple of months later...We have mouses. Our mouse traps already got 4 mouses in 2 days. My advice is pay a little more to live somewhere else so you won't have to deal with all this bullshit. —liaface
2011-06-08 14:18:00 I am sorry that you have had such a bad experience. Please let management know and we would be happy to do something about it. —ChristinaHanes
2011-03-11 23:27:59 I have lived at the University house for the last year before graduation and I love it! I lived in Davis for four years, so I know how difficult it is to find a nice apartment in a safe neighborhood with a responsive building manager. But, that is exactly what living in the University house is like! —daviscatu8
2011-05-18 19:52:36 i have caught many mouses in my unit also... i wonder what other units in this apartment also have this problem?
2011-06-08 14:21:00 Honestly not very many tenants tell me/management if they have a problem with mice and if they do they dont let management know. If you tell me/management i can fix the problem but if you dont im sorry but i can do nothing to help you. Please let management know and I will do anything i can to fix the situation. —ChristinaHanes
2011-06-08 16:00:00 Hello my name is Christina but my tenants know me as Tina. I am the manager at University House Apartments and would like to clear some things up. Yes this place was built in the 1950's and was a hotel, it may look old on the outside but on the inside is a different story. Our bedrooms are huge 13x11.5 to be exact. Since I have been the manager here at UHA every apartment (when the old tenants move out) has been re-painted, new carpet and leno in both bathroom and kitchen. I have tried my best to get this place up to where it should be. As of this spring 2011 we are getting a face lift; new downstairs balcony's, a new paint job, new and improved laundry room with new washers and dryers. I take the advise of my tenants and Im trying to make a difference. I would like everyone to know that if there is ever an issue in your apartment let me know and I will get it fixed or fixed the situation at hand. I love working here and love meeting new people, i know all of my tenants their name and talk to them on a weekly basis. If that is the atmosphere you are looking to live in come join us here @ UHA. —ChristinaHanes
2011-06-15 18:43:06 Tina is such a happy and helpful manager! —ANETTJESSOP
2011-06-27 08:36:22 We love Tina and University House Apartments!! We have lived in a few different complexes in our years at Davis, but never have we had management so friendly and responsive as her. She knew all of our names after only turning in our applications. The rooms are huge, the complex is amazingly close to downtown and campus, and yet the rent is still some of the cheapest we have found anywhere in Davis. As far as bugs or mice, we never had any, but we know that all we would have had to do was tell Tina and it would have been dealt with. What's more, Tina and her staff allow people to move out on August 31st by 3pm and then allow people to move in on September 1st at 3pm. They give themselves just barely 24 hours to paint, clean, and make any necessary repairs, all so that it will be easier on the people who live here. It is a testament to just how dedicated they are to their tenants. THANK YOU TINA!!!! —tcobra8
2011-08-23 13:53:42 I had a really great experience living here! Tina and her husband work extremely hard and are very diligent in resolving any concerns you have with your apartment. They are very friendly and professional at University House. Overall i would recommend anyone who is interested to live here! —ToddBaumgarnder
2011-08-29 16:13:50 I absolutely love this place!!! I moved here mid lease after winter quarter into a 2bed/1 bath. Tina the management was super awesome in helping me move and letting me have extra time to settle in while I went through the necessary paperwork. The rent is wonderful for my own room and I already signed my lease for 2011-2012. This place is fantastic and its an easy ride to campus just going up third street! I would definitely recommend this place. :D —LaurenTopaz
2012-01-13 21:24:31 Can any tell me if water/sewer/trash is included in this rent price? —Kaleigh
2012-02-03 13:07:31 Re Kaleigh: yes, they are included. —-jiro-
2012-02-16 19:54:19 I hate to have to revise my last post here about loving this place. Ever since Tina left, the new managers have been nothing but rude and passive aggressive. Their knowledge of the lease is lacking and they often post notes on the doors misquoting the lease in order for us to remove items outside our apartment. I have had to actually quote the lease word for word so that they would not penalize. I wouldn't have bothered posting about this until today, when I got home late from class and found a note on all the doors from the landlords asking us to give our car information (which should already be included in our lease file). In addition, they want this note by tomorrow at the latest (giving us less than 24 hours notice). The note is also mis-dated as the 15th, giving tenants the impression that they had a longer period of time to turn in this information, when in actuality they do not and may have their vehicles towed for this. I'm very dissatisfied with the management and it has only been a month and a half since they have started.
2012-04-09 23:21:04 Second on LaurenTopaz's comment of the new management, Christina and Adam. They don't even try to make living here pleasant. When you try to defend yourself, they will call you a trouble maker. They will not listen to you at all. And the apartment owners will have no problem over charging you on their outdated and minimally maintained facilities. For example take their washers and dryers. They're old equipment and yet they are willing to over charge their tenants to make profit. Look somewhere else at all cost before considering here. —BarryZito
2012-05-22 00:41:36 The comments here actually intrigues me, given the past experience I have had with the past management. When the past management was here, they were usually unresponsive to requests and emails. Maintenance usually takes more than a month to fulfill, and often times it takes repetitive nagging to get anything done for that matter. The manager also tended to consider her tenants as "trouble-makers" if you tend to ask her to complete something that should be long done. Not to mention, the manager before would often talk about particular tenants in front of others and how much of a "pain in the back" they are. Shows how unprofessional people can be sometimes.
I do agree though that the laundry prices are a pain. That's one of the reasons why I use the laundromat on G St instead of the one on-site. Nonetheless, I don't think these decisions were made by the managers themselves (i.e. they had nothing to do with such increases). Rather, many of these decisions were made by upper management, which I believe is Simon Properties, if I remember correctly.
Going back to the new management. I had relatively positive experiences with Christina and Adam. What I like about them is that they usually get back to me on the same day about requests, unlike before which takes weeks and weeks of repetitive requests to get a response. Although there is still only one maintenance guy that does the whole complex and it still takes some time to get maintenance requests fulfilled, I am quite surprised by the levels of detail that the new maintenance guy does things. The new managers are usually willing to help you on the weekends if you request to do so, which I find quite pleasing to hear.
Luckily, I haven't really been "plastered with notices" that some has seen here. Although I could say this is true for some tenants. Most of these notices I have seen were about turnover and the lease signing though, which I find reasonable around this time of year. That said, I had to agree that this property has a tendency to ask its tenants to sign more things than other complexes in Davis (e.g. coming in to check smoke alarms, A/C filters, light bulbs, etc). In some sense it feels like that the upper management is paranoid about its tenants and want its tenants to sign everything so they can protect themselves.
One of the things that was new here was the new parking permits, which contained the signage for University House Apartments, along with your apartment number on it, clearly visible on the parking permit. This practice, in my opinion, is severely flawed (both in practical and privacy terms), since it allows an outsider to link a specific car to a specific apartment number, which may cause problems in case of neighbor problems/disputes (i.e. neighbor keying your car if they figured that you were too noisy and woke them up in the middle of the night).
With the negativity in place, I do want to say that I haven't really noticed the trains that much since I have lived here. It is probably due to the fact that they have a new fence built on 2nd St, and therefore trains are no longer required to sound their horns while crossing that area, or could just be that I am now desensitized to the noise... :-) —Wiiman
2013-03-19 21:00:48 Tenants in this apartments have been getting notices on the door about water shutting off constantly for about 6 months now. It happens as often as twice a week for the range of an hour upward to four hours without water! It has absolutely become a very annoying problem to all tenants. This apartment is extremely old and problems within the building keep coming up. —-jiro-
2013-06-18 18:15:54 The management, Christina and Adam, have been good to work with, especially with maintenance problems! It's really affordable and the bedrooms are spacious. —AliP
2013-06-19 19:28:10 Complex is close to downtown and there is a bus line within walking distance that goes right to campus. The kitchen is small but meets my needs. The washers and dryers are expensive so I don't use them. I haven't had a lot of interaction with the managers, but they were very helpful at move in and are friendly and responsive if I ever have questions. Planning to renew my lease, I'm very comfortable here. —Susan219
2013-06-27 08:28:38 I have lived here for alittle over a year and havent been able to find a better place to live for the price. It is very close to campus and downtown. For the most part the complex is well taken care of and kept up regularly. The pool especially. Inside the apartments are old but still nice. The large rooms and kept up appeareance make it a very nice place for the price. The old managers have left and the new ones take care of their business. I have been satisified with their responses to my requests, likewise they dont mess around when you dont hold up your end of the contract. —MichaelChin
2014-12-11 16:07:52 The early posts seem to be very unhappy with this apartment complex, how is the management now? —SRose
2018-04-05 14:51:02 DO NOT LET THE CHEAP PRICE FOOL YOU. You will be miserable living here, period. Invest some extra money elsewhere to have a happy and healthy living space. There's a lot of things wrong with this apartment and I don't even know where to begin. Just know that I have lived here for 3 years so I have had my fair share of this housing crap and trust me you do not want to put yourself through it like I did. Prior to this I've lived at The U and Renaissance Park & they were fine, i wanted to save some $ and moved here and my friend it was a HUGE mistake. 1. Rats and cockroaches will be your friends. My housemates and I contacted the management multiple times and it took them months to take actions. Because it took so long, most of our food and furnitures were eaten/ pooped on by the rodents. 2. The management is conniving, manipulative, and unprofessional. I have moved out and decided to lease out my apartment. Even though I have already found someone to take my spot, they still demand me to pay rent even in order for me to get off my lease and move my stuff out. It makes no sense because I've already moved out and found someone as a replacement to pay rent for that month. Why am I still being force to pay rent? They even said that if I don't pay they won't take me off the lease and let me into the apartment to take the rest of my belongings. 3. Along with that I've had roommate issues and it went down pretty drastically. The apartment not only did not try to help, they handled the situation really unprofessionally and harassed me constantly and threatening me with nothing but accusations. The upper manager lady is pretty rude and doesn't know how to run apartment housing so please avoid this place at all cause. They've changed the office managers 3 times within the 3 years I've lived there so it's pretty bad. Do yourself a favor and don't live here. It's not just my personal experience that has influenced my opinions but other people have also voiced their concerns so don't make this mistake. P.S. also had multiple packages stolen while living here as if it can be any worse... —trrn
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