Moving to westgate

amother

NeonPurple ↓

Wed, May 29 2024, 8:51 pm

My happiest years were in Westgate. We live in Toms River now in a big beautiful house with tons of space and my kids are constantly asking if we can move back to westgate lol.

Pros
Tons of options to make friends since the area is so densely populated
Kids have tons of freedom to do things - I would send them to buy groceries from around age 10 and they felt so big and responsible.
Shul is huge and has learning programs
My apartment was brand new when I moved in but got worn down as the years went by
Low cost

Cons
Crowded
No parking sometimes (not usually a problem for me though)
Hard to get around in the AM
tons of kids everywhere
Don't know where your kids are by 8pm (that may be a pro for you)
Shopping is close so may spend more for convenience

I know a lot of moms like me that say they had their best parenting years there.

amother

↑ NeonPurple ↓

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 7:14 am

I only dealt with them to sign the lease, to paint my house and then when I was ready to move out. The Lakewood office is no problem. The management company I had to deal with when I had to break my lease was tough. They will not bend at all if you leave early - I had to pay the remainder of the year.

Otherwise never had any issues and if anything since its "corporate" they do everything by the book so we had insect preventative treatment, repairs etc done very timely.

amother

Tulip

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 7:16 am

amother NeonPurple wrote:

How long where you there? Every year I got a letter stating my lease auto renewed for a year. Are you saying of you don't move out on your anniversary there will be a penalty?

amother

↑ NeonPurple

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 7:18 am

amother Tulip wrote:

How long where you there? Every year I got a letter stating my lease auto renewed for a year. Are you saying of you don't move out on your anniversary there will be a penalty?

I lived there for almost 10 years. Yes- if you intend to leave then you must give notice (see your lease) and if leave earlier than when the lease is up there is a penalty. I'm not going to say don't move to Westgate because of that but more just a heads up - they take their lease super seriously. That was a pain for me since I left 3-4 months early and had to pay up those months.

amother

Oatmeal

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 11:56 am

Ask some more…it’s not an only Jewish neighborhood and your next door neighbors can be questionable. Some people with teens complain bitterly of the hangouts. Do your research.

amother

Chicory ↓

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 1:11 pm

amother Tulip wrote:

How long where you there? Every year I got a letter stating my lease auto renewed for a year. Are you saying of you don't move out on your anniversary there will be a penalty?

Yup I had a neighbor move out not long after their lease renewed and Westgate told them that they need to pay for almost a year extra! They found tenants who wanted to take over their lease but westgate refused to allow it.

They also raised rental fees by crazy amounts because they apparently don’t need to follow rent control.

Druggies recently moved in BH not near me.

I have my girls first and my boys are little but my neighbors tell me that you don’t want to be living here with teen boys, so when we get to that stage we will IYH move.

All that said, I would move here again! We are on section 8 so we can leave whenever we want as per section 8 rules and westgate can’t do anything about it. And westgate is one of the few places that will take hud rates for the rent. Most of Lakewood is too expensive for section 8.

If I weren’t on section 8 though I’d think hard about moving here because they will give you such grief about moving out!

amother

↑ Chicory

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 1:12 pm

PS there are so many units here just sitting empty with westgate trying to milk the previous tenants for the rent money instead. I know people called the office and were told they had nothing for them to lease!

amother

Gray

Sun, Jun 02 2024, 1:23 pm

I broke my lease and moved out early. I had to pay a fee (Maybe a few hundred dollars, I don't remember) and commit to pay rent until they found someone. But they did find someone to take over my lease.

It's a very convenient place to live. Almost everything you need is in walking distance.

If you have teenage or preteen boys I'd be very careful about making sure they're supervised/ that you know who they are spending time with.