Don K.

My elderly mother lived at Summit House in Kerrisdale for the past 3 years. Previously, she lived in a combined strata/rental condominium, with no onsite manager. It was a nightmare trying to get any repairs done through their property managers. One of the criteria,. when I was looking for a new place for my mother, was that there had to be a very good manager. We looked at many apartments in the Kerrisdale area, but overall was not impressed with the managers of these other buildings. From the moment we met Marinela, I knew this was the right place for my mother. My mother was unsure if she wanted to move in, so Marinela was kind and patient enough to let my mother come back multiple times to look at the apartment. Once my mother moved in, Marinela promptly took care of any problems that arose during my mother's tenancy, and always with a smile. There are a number of elderly tenants in the building, and I was impressed with the empathic and kind manner she treated all her tenants. My mother has now moved into a seniors facility due to mobility problems, but we will have very good memories of my mother's stay at Summit House. I hope Belmont Properties realizes what a star manager they have in Marinela, as I'm sure she is a major reason why people feel comfortable living there.
Regards,
Don Kim

Lynne T.

Marinela, the building manager at Summit House, is an absolute gem. My parents lived in the building for 15 years, before sadly they had to move into a care home. Marinela was always helpful to them. She is a kind and compassionate human being who cares deeply for her tenants. She is a top building manager and any issues get dealt with in a speedy manner. She is passionate about her job. Her communication is excellent and no one works harder. The world needs more people like Marinela. Thank you for everything you did for our parents.

Stephanie P.

Heat turned off in the winter for the day for repairs or something. Why couldn’t they do this in the summer months. I have two kids one of which is a four month old and my apartment is like an ice box. Not to mention there’s tons of other children that live here and elderly. Disappointed.
Susan offered a space heater for the remaining two and a half hours left without heat. I said no we’ve waited this long I can wait two hours. It’s 9:44 pm there’s still no heat the notice said heat would be on at 4:30. Also our cold water was cut off for an hour without notice. My grandmother in her 70s our four month old baby, nine year old, us and the entire building have been without heat all day and now it’s cutting into night.

Cynthia S.

My mother lived at one of the Belmont properties on Balsam in Vancouver. The building was managed by Marinela who went above and beyond ensuring that everything ran smoothly. She was extremely helpful to my mother, a senior with mobility issues. For example she organized the parking spaces so my mother could have one closer to the elevator. The foyer and hallways were always very clean. I would love to live in the building myself as my mom’s suite had been gutted and renovated beautifully. Being an older building, the apartments were very spacious and this one was now modern and fully updated.

Lydia V.

I wanted to give a review to the property manager Marinela Podoaba. She is exceptional, we need more people like her. She is professional & hard working and will get any job done in a timely manner. She is friendly, kind and will go out of her way to help you. I feel Lucky to have met her managing Savoy Apartments.

mike M.

I had the pleasure of residing at the Executive Towers for 3 years. Marínela Padoaba was my building manager. She was simply amazing!
Marínela always had tenants as her first priority. Whenever there was an issue she was quick to attend to it.
Her ability to assess the situation quickly and find an appropriate solution was highly evident.
Marínela was also extremely personable and always took the time to converse in a kind and friendly manner.
I would recommend her highly to anyone seeking a rental unit at Executive Towers.
This is the place to be!

Chinnapalli M.

I stayed at the Vine Street apartments for three years. Right from day one, Marinela the site manager has been excellent. She is very quick and super efficient in sorting any problems with the apartment. She is always smiling and full of energy. She made my stay very comfortable and memorable. I hope the management takes good care of her. It is hard to find exceptional workers like her these days.

Tarun K.

This review has been due for sometime. I lived in the Shalamar building from early 2020 to mid 2023. Place is ideally located in Quadra village with plenty of cafe, restaurants nearby. There is a fairway market walking distance away and downtown less is than 2 km. There is a good bus connection to downtown, Hillside mall and UVic. Unfortunately, that's all good that I can say about this place. I can see in other reviews how some people are praising their building managers in other buildings under Belmont ppts that how they went the extra mile to take care of their tenant's needs. It's good to know that it's not bad everywhere. But from my experience, I can say our building manager is the opposite in that sense. She will drag her feet as long as she can to avoid any request for repair. We reported the day we moved in that the toilet is faulty. It needed to be flushed a few times for it to work even for minimal use. Our request was ignored by saying it's not a big issue. It took them almost a year to finally repair it and it was not even a big repair just replacing a few faulty parts. We have to literally flush the toilet a few times with a bucket. Next, we reported that our windows are in bad shape and the building manager agreed they need to be replaced. The windows were in such bad shape that I had to stuff newspapers to keep the window from falling from the frame and we lived on the ground floor where a few times I caught homeless guys hanging out and doing drugs in the backyard! Not to mention the cold draft in winter and the banging of the windows in windy weather made it hard to sleep. But they keep pushing from fall to winter, winter to spring, and so on. When I would reach out to her for updates, she would ignore the messages for weeks or become rude when I sent a reminder. She also changes rules on a whim. We used to travel to europe for summer so one year we were allowed to sublet (when windows were in bad shape) but next year she refused (when windows were already repaired). Don't get me wrong, I understand most of my experience is from Covid times and I know there were supply chain issues but there should be a certain level of professionalism and courtesy which the current local management lacks. They keep raising the rent every year but don't care about the tenant's needs. I have lived in many cities in different countries and a few places in Victoria aswell, this far was the worst place I have ever lived. Wallpapers were torn from the cupboard shelf before we moved in but never got repaired. In a first world country, it was a third world country house! We decided to leave to have our piece of mind.

Just to be clear, I have never received any complaint from the building manager, and have been a model tenant from my side. Followed all the rules and paid my rent ahead of time, before they started taking money directly from your account which is ridiculous but understandable as some tenants may not be paying their rent on time but this is expected as a bad place invites bad tenants.