I am having a lease of 13 months which started Q1 last year. In the middle, new owners came and took the control. They started publishing that they are very good and will take care of the property & make it beautiful etc. After a few months, some day there will be no water in the apt complex, other day their will be no electricity. Water shutdown happened quite a few times. They said that the water facility and pipes are very old and they will have to replace them. Then one fine day they mailed everyone and said that from now on a third company will take care of the water, trash & sewage and bill the renters directly & it can be more that what everyone is paying along with the rent which was $20 to $30 based on the type of apt.
I went and asked how will you how calculate who used what amt of water bcos there are no meters for water usage for each units. They said they will calculate based on something (') and the lady staff said she herself does not understand how it will be done. Now after 45 days, yesterday I was sent the bill which is more that what I used to pay along with the rent. If I total my base rent and the new bill, it will be around $20 more each month (which will again variable since they average out the total water by the renters and send the bill).
So today, I went again to the leasing office & asked her that this is a bit difficult if the total rent goes up even if I am still with the old lease & they should do something. She was the same lady which said she does not understand how the water bill calculation will be done 2 months ago. To my biggest surprise, without asking any details, apt number, anyyything or why i feel mine water bill should be less (i am not in the apt most of the time and in the whole unit, some of the apts were empty during this period) she just blasted me saying, "You can leave anytime you want. You will find other cheap places where you will be happy. I cannot do anything". She said, market goes up, things change blah blah. As if I don t understand what these people dwell in market. It was very offensive & frustrating to talk to her.
She was ridiculous. Now the best part is San Ventura is under a new owner from 28th of this month and she said "we ourselves are moving out on Monday. We don t know about what the new owner will do and we cannot do anything bcos we don t care anymore".
My lease is expiring in few months and also wanted to talk to her abt lease renewal but now due to this incident, I don t think I will renew. And I bet the way they are increasing the rates people are going to go
This management staff sucks. They are the worst property owner. They were the owner for a small time but they only did bad things, raised the rates, and nothing else Never live in any property where they are the owners

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/26/2008
We lived there 3 years ago and found the same kind of treatment. We moved out before our lease was up and drupped our keys in their mail slot and refused to make final lease payment. The collection showed up on our credit report. I hired an attorney who removed the item for $250. It saved me $800! Tough Luck San Ventura. You lost! The staff appear to believe that we work for them. Sorry San Ventura... you work for us!
From: bmontoya	Date: 01/28/2008
Wow. It's a bummer that you guy are upset with the place, but if you read the paperwork regarding the water system, you should understand how it works. This is why I read absolutely every piece of paperwork that I see that pertains to me, ESPECIALLY when it comes to my apartment. If they were changing the community for the better, then you are going to run into those "shutdowns" that you were talking about. If you read the process on the water, it is actually a more efficient system. However it is based on how much water everyone uses; so if people use more water, it will cost you more. I have been living at San Ventura for a while, and love it. If you are polite to the staff (treat them how you would like to be treated), and actually read for yourself the regulations of the community, you will be fine.
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/05/2008
I currently live at San Ventura with my girlfriend. The way the water system works is you take total water usage and divide it by total square footage of all of the apartments in the complex. Then you miltiply this number (total community water use per sq ft) and multiply it by the square footage of your apartment. You are basically paying a standard percent of the total water bill based on whether you live in a one, two or three bedroom. I have exoerienced similar problems. The days the water were off sucked. I had to take a shower for work and couldnt. It was off half the day. Under Mark Taylor, we moved in and the towel rack/handle on the shower door broke off within two days. We called for maintenance. The guy came when we were at work and left his report saying that the door was not broken. We gave up after that. Also, the counters were stained when we moved in, which seemed to be fine to them. However, Mark Taylor is gone and now we have ConAm. No better. They are friendly, but it has taken a ridiculous amount of time to service maintenance request. Two weeks and running. Our toilet in our one bedroom apt stopped working. It took them two days to even come look at it because the listed it as a low priority. It took a week just to fix then initila problem. There are still lingering problems (excess water running due to a faulty flap) that have not yet been fixed. It's been over three weeks. The place is nice, but overpriced and the service is somewhat iffy. They are also doing unncessary painting and shingle replacement which actually make the place look worse.
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/27/2008
absolutely agree with you

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