Minto Homes

after sign contract, I figure it out, minto offer 3 free appliances, but you need install them after closing day by yourself (you need to hire sb to install and pay by yourself, previously minto will install them for free)

don't buy Minto's condo, really bad quality and worst customer service with no knowledge in basic construction. Minto try not to fix problems and claims the problems is normal like that. They just want to grab your money. They foolish themselves!

Mito Management appears to be on a race to the bottom,How much money and poor service can they take from tenants before the sites all get sold.Try talking with any Minto management i swear they havve hired the dumbest people in order to get them to fufil their demands. They are brainless individuals and don't even know it. Its unbelievable it used to be nice when the service was personal now its just a money grabbing machine with out most disrespect of us tenants

Minto Tanglewood, Ottawa, ON, Woodfield and Merivale
this has slowly declined into a Minto cash cow. It's sad really. We pay around 1270 for two parking spots and a small garden home from the 1970s. Minto repair is not bad as long as it is something small and even then its usually a patch job. I just got my bathroom painted, I could have done a better job myself, streaks all over. I have probaly logged 5-7 different service requests because when I moved in I signed that I wanted the place (obviously didn't do a super thorough inspection). When I brought up the issues, I was told that if I had any issues, I should have identified them at the time, otherwise I was accepting the unit as is. Great customer service. I have taken care of my unit and beautified my backyard which minto will all reap the rewards of, why? because they won't put down more than 9 patio stones (I guess they get the first 9 free).

The crowning gem has to be the parking. We have visitor and regular parking spots. When it snows, all snow gets put in the visitors parking and not cleared (been at least 4 days now and still there), but this is when the tenants who park long term in visitor parking get anxious and park in regular tenant spots. So I called the parking coordinator because someone was in my spot. I was told that minto cant help me with that, I have to call city of ottawa and have my lease with me and they will tow the person. So I let it slide. Come in another time, same damn thing someone in my spot, I get out my lease and call 311. What do I realize? My unit issued parking sport isn't even written on the lease, so bylaw says they can't help me and the pole I park in front of has some random number instead of my unit number so they can't even verify it belong to me. Call minto after hours and get directed to security. They suggest I park in visitors, I tell them its full. They tell me they cant help me so I say I will take someone else's and they reccomend against that. So here I am paying 45$ for a spot I can't use because someone parked in it AND I am being told minto can't help me.

I send a message to the parking coordinator that falls on deaf ears. Quite simply it seems like they do not care at all. Threatening them with moving out doesn't help, the vacancy rate is already high and they don't seem to care. They would rather die on principal and spend the money turning over the unit instead of working with the existing tenant to try to attract people. Worse as a tenant, I feel like I have nowhere to go and no one to speak to, I just get ignored. I will tell you this. I was in customer service management for a long time and I would fire or at least write up these people for how they treat their clients.

Minto has the worst customer service I've ever seen. We had nothing but problems with the design center... We asked for a meeting with Candice, she replies with a short email that didn't answer what we wanted to discuss. I asked the contact person of the director and I was told he would contact me this week - well, it's Friday night, the week is gone and I didn't get a phone call. Very disappointed and would NOT recommend Minto to anyone!!!

Buying a new house has never been so difficult!!! Would I ever deal with Minto hell NO!!! Would o ever recommend Minto hell no!!! I don't even know where to start. First of all staff sucks!! Communication sucks!! That being said we didn't close on time and my lawyer had to request. Extension because Minto kept giving the wrong final price to the lender. When designing the kitchen all our requests had been denied but when our friends who bought the same house had the same upgrades done blew me away!!! This was suppose to be a dream home for a while and they took that away!! So many things that we asked for our design agent said "sorry that falls custom" then you we spoke to neighbors and heck they got it done. Wtf!! Staff was impossible to get ahold of , emailing calling did nothing , to get what our lender needed I had to take a day off work and go to head office and request for it to be done because smply the staff never returned a call or email!!! All they can say is we are busy!! Well I'm busy too and I'm closing today and we don't have the right documents still after chasing for a month!! Anyways if you can avoid this builder please do!! They over sell the product heavily !! Come down to enclave location and see the distance between the "single houses " you can't fit a lawnmore In between. What a joke!! Should have stayed with my gut and bought again with Tamarack further out. This has been written on behalf of 70% of the community. Every person I have spoken to in the area said I wish I never bought this house just because of the lack of service!

I moved into a Minto managed apartment building in January. In March I issued my first noise complaint after new tenants moved into the unit above me. All of sudden, day in and day out, I heard every footstep that they took. To give an idea of the level of noise generated by each footstep - I sleep with earplugs, white noise and a fan right beside my face - I still clearly hear every footstep. Everyday for the last 4, almost five months, I have listened on a consistent basis to the tenants above me. The second I walk into my unit, the last thing I hear before falling asleep and the first thing I hear in the morning is vibrating, pounding footsteps. My weekends have now turned into periods of limited sleep as I am kept awake past midnight by the tenants above me and then woken up at 7am when they awaken. After my first complaint, Minto spoke to the tenants above me. Nothing changed. I complained again. I was told that Minto would not proceed further unless they could verify the noise which requires me to call Minto in to "catch the noise". As I explained to Minto, they were more then welcome to come sit in my apartment and simply listen to what I hear. They would not do that, rather insisting that I call them in. I explained numerous times that their solution does not fit the problem - that the nature of the noise is everyday noise. I am not complaining about bouts of noise that last for a short period of time that would benefit from someone being called in to verify. In total, I have invited Minto representatives into my apartment 3 times and they refuse to come. I have now complained approximately 9 times since March - each complaint outlining the same problem. Minto is now refusing to respond to me - simply ignoring my complaints and refusing to answer my questions such as why I was directly told, after asking what the noise level of the units was, that it is a "very quiet" unit and what their definition of "very quiet" is. To have a company completely ignore you - one that you pay money to - is completely unprofessional. My complaints are valid - I can think of no one that would consider a unit where you literally hear every footsteps reverberating - a place of "reasonable enjoyment."

I wish that no one would ever have to deal with minto again. When we moved in a stair was broken and I almost fell. We went directly to the office to get it fixed and it took a month for them just to glue it back together. The stove was broken and when their people came inked replace not only did they replace it with another broken stove, they scratched and dented the floors. Then they CHARGED US for it!

I moved into the Castleview in 2009 and thus, I have been living at 1755 Riverside Dr for 5 years now and I finally decided to move out. I couldn't be more happy about my decision, as the quality of service and management of the building greatly decreased in the past 2 years, while the rent as now increased up to 25% since 2009.

First, this place is not all bad. The location is very convenient. 5 minutes from Smyth station, near the river and its bike path and within 20-30 minute walk from Billings Bridge. The location was my main driver when I first selected this place. I moved into a one bedroom facing north and back then, at a monthly price of 1027$/month. Already expensive, but near my work.

Initially, I had no issue with service. Maintenance requests, while not always speedy, were done as satisfaction. Survey were made to make sure the work was done adequately and the serviceman, which was very nice, made sure to keep the place clean. The office clerk were helpful, despite using a pen and paper system to catalog issues.

The building offers a pool, laundry service (which costs around 2.75$ per use by machine, i.e. 2.75$ for the washer, 2.75$ for the dryer, so laundry can come up to 500$ per year). There is a small gym. Gym may be not be appropriate, as it's more a room with a threadmill, a multi-purpose weight machine and an elliptical. There is a backyard with a gazebo. There are also storage room available for a fee. Above ground and underground parking spaces are available for a fee. Underground parking is a hefty 65$ per month.

While I have no real complain for the years 2009 to 2011, the decline in quality and service started aroudn 2012. Most of the staff changed, including building and regional managers. This year was probably the worst, where multiple water issues caused days without water, balcony repairs meant that balconies were not available the entire summer, also leaving residents to themselves to move and find storage for their items. Many older resident had much difficulty moving their personal effect from their balcony to whatever place their could move their furniture. The management offered no temporary storage. The pool was closed for weeks, gym equipment took for ever to be repaired. Garbage collection issues this summer caused awful smells, causing residents from up to 3 floors to complain about the lack of collection in warm summer days. Errors in parking assignment (due to errors in the management system) caused my car to be towed errorneously on a weekday morning. The fees incurred were fortunately refunded by Minto. Finally, we received noticed to remove our effects from our parking spot on threats that our items would be disposed of - the notice came 3 hours before the maintenance crew took my summer tires to God knows where.

Communications between the management and the residents are done mainly by letters taped in elevators - despite collecting email addresses from the residents. As such, it is very easy to miss an announcement.

Maintenance also deteriorate. While my last request was done courteously and rapidly, the previous one left a hole in my bathroom for 2 weeks. The service person left plaster all over the walls, my shower curtains and didn't replaced anything he had move, some of which were just dump in the sink. My last request to fix the buzzer took 3 weeks and 3 visits to the office to get fixed. The only positive item I can remember from the last year is the replacement of the machines in the laundry facility.

The tone of the management in their few written communiques also took an authoritarian turn, often threatening "disciplinary actions" or "immediate disposal", often agravating events with the residents.

To conclude, I highly discourage anyone to rent with Minto in the Castleview at this moment for the reason above. While the location is great, the management of the building is aweful and unhelpful. The spirit of community is inexistant and service is poor, communications between management and resident is terrible and almost dictatorial. For the rent you will pay, you may want to look at much better alternatives.

I bought new 2 homes from Minto within 3 years. I will not buy another Minto Home in the future. The Sales team in Ottawa were good with me anyways. However, the quality of the homes from Minto have gone down.
Upgraded cabinets were scratched and screws were coming off. (Never tightened properly in the first place). The front door handle was inside out. The Toilet had hot water. Chips in the tub. Chips and scratches on the upgraded window frames. Rotted wood deck. Walls and some ceilings show seams. Several Windows were scratched and they forgot to put the seal on the window frame outside. The Driveway is rough and not smooth like they promised it would be. Try sweeping the driveway with a rough driveway.
I also had a friend who bought a Minto Home. His exterior house siding was warped. It was 2 months old. They eventually re-did it but it makes you think. These are things that we noticed. What about the things that we do not see?
Some things they did fix but most they ignored or were unable to fix.
Quality has gone down. Consider other builders for new homes or buy existing resale homes. If you have to buy a Minto Home make sure that that they are from before 2005 at least (in my opinion). They appeared to be better in quality than what they are making these days.

On the plus side. My house did close on time as they promised twice.

Good Luck!