When we moved into San Palmas back in 2005, we thought that the apartment complex was one of the best in the valley. The staff on hand truly did an exceptional job of caring, policing, screening and generally just making tenants feel like they were getting a value considering what they were paying to live here.

When driving through the parking lot you could really tell that this was an "upscale" neighborhood and you generally felt attracted to live here. The cars, the landscaping, the people walking around, many nurses, physicians, students (who could afford to live here) etc. would generally provide a nice community. We had many community events such as BBQ's at the pool, parties in the clubhouse at Christmas, Thanksgiving, St. Patty's Day, etc. The landscaping was always immaculate, along with the pool and all of the recreational areas.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Not so long ago, Lincoln Properties purchased San Palmas from the company that originally built the apartments (Mark Taylor). When under the management of Mark Taylor, this apartment complex was one of the highest rated places to live in the valley, and with the combined efforts of the staff, a few caring tenants who wanted to see the place remain as it was, and the maintenance team, this was a great place to live.

As far as big problem tenants prior to the takeover, we had a young woman move into an apartment adjacent to ours who would come and go all hours of the night with multiple people with her. They would yell at one another from across the apartment at 2:00 in the morning sometimes, not even considering that it would wake their neighbors from a dead sleep because one of them standing at their door means they are literally 40 feet from another person's bedroom since the patios face doorways a lot here. In the dead silence of night, it's like a bucket of icy water being thrown on you. It took a few months, but the Mark Taylor management team evicted her due to all of the complaints from everyone on this end of the complex.

Maintenance wise, the only real problems I have are that the appliances are complete crap. I did install my own thermostat immediately after moving in since the ones on site were just plain junk. Kitchen stuff is made by GE, big hunks of crap. All appliances are electric. For this price, I would love to see some kind of decent counter tops and stainless appliances, but you won't find it here. I wanted to bring in our own washer and dryer, but they absolutely refused. I have destroyed more clothes in these pieces of crap GE laundry units than I should have had to worry about. Our set was a Maytag Neptune set, which we wound up selling for $500 since we couldn't do anything with them (you can't store washers for long periods of time if they have been used). The tile is annoying, and it seems like it just never comes clean. The bathrooms have cheap shower doors, which are hard to clean. Sink drains are hard to keep clear. The dishwasher sounds like it's about to explode it's so loud.

One maintenance problem we had (not with our own equipment, but our upstairs neighbor) was that her washing machine would overflow. The poor girl wasn't at fault, it was just a piece of junk washer. Maintenance didn't fix it the first 3 times they came out, but it hasn't happened again since the last time. The girl moved not long ago, and the gentleman living there now hasn't really had it happen either.

Once Lincoln purchased the property, they shortly fired the old manager (even though he did a great job) because he kept trying to continue to be someone who brings more to the tenants. From there it has steadily gone downhill.

Lincoln stopped being so restrictive as far as applications go, and lowered their prices (but, of course, not to their current tenants, we still paid the same high rate). This, obviously, attracted more renters and quickly filled up any open apartments. What this also provided was a little less desirable tenants being on the property.

It was like a transformation had happened over the course of a few weeks. People walking around on the grounds that previously would have been immediately spotted as visitors, were now people who actually lived here. Walking around on grounds would make you uneasy as some of the people just didn't make you feel safe.

Our latest complaints are pretty much the same as the others that have posted.

The gates are a joke. People race to get in the gates behind someone else who is entering, then complain when the gates hit their cars! (lol) Leaving the complex will almost inevitably result in someone sitting there waiting to enter the exit as soon as you drive out of it. They are broken quite a bit (probably more due to the ridiculous tenants we have now rather than the maintenance staff, etc.) and sometimes will just stand open all night.

People hang out at the pool that don't even live here quite often. A group of teenagers it seems, who get in however they get in, and vandalize the property.

A few tenants have children that run around the apartment complex, which is normally no big deal, but these children will grab handfuls of rocks up out of the desert landscaped walkways and throw them around in the parking lot hitting each other, the cars around them, windows, doors, etc. My wife has trouble walking through areas where they have been playing (unfortunately it seems that is always near our apartment) since she is permanently disabled and walks on prosthetics, rocks can easily cause her to fall and be hurt severely.

Probably my biggest problem is that there is someone who thinks it's funny to run around flipping off power switches to the apartment buildings (they are plainly displayed on the sides with a big ON/OFF sign next to them and they kill the power for the whole building). This first happened on super bowl sunday this year, right at half time. Watching the game, and all of a sudden the power is out. I have contacted our power company and they claim that the apartment complex manages everything inside the complex. Our complex managers say that SRP will not allow anyone to touch the boxes or they will fine you. I swear this happens probably two or three times a month at least, sometimes more. I have all of our important equipment (computers, etc.)on battery backups now so that if they flip it, they won't die. To this day, no one knows who it is, or if they even live here. This was started over 4 months ago now.

All of this has been reported, and nothing has really been done about any of it so far except that they finally fixed the cameras next to the gates so that they know when someone is lying about the gates hitting their cars all of a sudden (rather then them just being too lazy to hit the button on their transmitter to open them).

At this point we will likely not be renewing our lease when it expires, and even if we have to move to another apartment complex, we will not stay here. All of our friends who lived here previously have all moved away due to all of the things constantly happening around here, and we will be following suit.

If you are scouting for a place to live, please look somewhere else. There are quite a few nice apartments near here that are still in great shape and are much more worth the price. This one is no longer one of them.

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