I have lived at Alicia Plaza just under 6 months. When I first came to live here, things seemed much different. The advertisments really make this complex look like a very nice place to live. With the rent as high as $1,300 a month for a 1-bedroom 1-bathroom unit with no garage, you would expect to find younger, well off people who wanted to live near a beautiful, upper middle class area as tenants. In our first meeting with the leasing agent to view the apartment, there were some people squeezing through the security fence at the Stockport St side. These were adult males, mind you, not just kids looking for a shortcut. I expressed my concerns to the leasing agent who responded with something to the effect of, "It's nothing to worry about.". I did'nt see it happen again in the couple hours we were there at the property and decided to disregard it. The apartment had been painted and appeared clean. The carpet was old and slightly worn but acceptable. The bathroom vanity cupboard doors were warped and did not close properly but I was assured this was something that would be fixed before I moved in, supposing I accepted to rent. The grounds are well kept in general except for the carport areas which seem to collect litter quite regularly. And here is where reality set in. After a few months of living at Alicia Plaza all the dirt began to surface. They will rent to ANYBODY and seemingly with no questions asked. My first assumption of the tenants being younger people of class was the opposite of the truth. Maybe somewhere in the mix of illegal immigrants and degenerates there is are a few good, honest people but I have yet to encounter them. This complex is much like a college apt building in a bad neighborhood. My fioncee wont even wander the grounds alone at night. The security gates are useless and provide NO measure of deterring outsiders from accessing the complex. People wait outside for the gates to open and they sneak in, whether on foot or in cars. You might think the management would want to deter these people but they do nothing. I have seen people wait for an hour to "scavenger park" their car or for whatever other reason they want in. The management claims it is not their responsibility to secure the building and that "another company handles security". I have NEVER seen anything or anyone that resembles security. The booth in the driveway that usually would be attended by a guard is not used any longer. I doubt it was ever functional. The gates might as well be left open, nobody cares who comes or goes. I personally DO care about who is lurking around my home. My concern finally prompted a call to the Laguna Hills Sheriffs where I was informed of what a crime infested complex I lived in. I even was told of a murder that had occured! Like I said before, I have lived in bad areas before but even in the worst of them, namely a gang infested part of Pasadena, I have NEVER encountered anything like this. It has been 6 months since I decided to rent from Alicia Plaza and finally I have decided enough is enough! I called the manager to discuss my concerns and was given nothing but excuses. I explained why myself and my wife dont feel safe here and it meant nothing to her. It frustrated me to the point of asking to breach the lease and move elsewhere. The manager, who is an early 20 something girl, made some hasty remark about craigslist and I asked for the next in line. I was given the name of her supervisor who apon calling was equally ready to shed responsibility for everything. The first call was placed the night before and after being placed on hold for 3 minutes I was told, "I'll call you back in just a minute". Never recieved a call again. In the morning I called again and after espressing my saftey concerns, the supervisor tryed to turn the whole thing around on me as if I was the problem. She treated me like a child and with the attitude of a typical heartless, careless corporate pawn, she stated, "It sounds like you're just trying to get out of your lease.". I think this property has enough negative history to validate my claims.

Now I am here searching for whatever I can to back up my case against these slumlords and writing my own experience. It is clear to me that without thousands of dollars and time I dont have, I cannot fight Arnel Properties. They dont care about their tenants and are ready to dodge any responsibility as they sit back and line their pockets while Alicia Plaza continues to be a hive of illegal activity too large to manage. They have supreme corporate marketing to lure you in and supreme corporate smoke screens to hide the facts. I can only imagine how embarrassed the residents of Laguna Hills must be of Alicia Plaza.

Why put yourself though any of this' DO NOT RENT HERE! Arnel Properties proves that American corporate greed is alive and well. They prey on everyday people for nothing more than money. I am ashamed to be supporting such a rotten corporation by paying them rent but it would be much harder and more expensive to take them to court. They dont care about me or anyone else, as long as the money keeps flowing.

User Responses
From: georgelehmann	Date: 02/14/2008
Yep, that was my experience spring 04 - spring 05. Count the number of times PER DAY a two truck goes in and out of there, hauling away cars (insufficient parking). The small booth at the front has never had a person in it. And the locked grounds only proved to be a MAJOR annoyance every time I came back from the grocery story, carrying bags and having to deal with the keys. BUT the icing on the cake was the MURDER that happened there less than one month after we moved in(!) Sure it was kids/gang outside of the property grounds that wondered in, but management never said anything about it until I asked. If you ever rent again, look at the place at night time - if it's poorly lit (Alicia Plaza is), then it's a CREEPY place to be. Assuming you can overlook the barrio atmosphere and you would like to invite guests over, where would they park? Maybe over at the Laguna Hills High School? The parking is exacerbated by the management not maintaining any sort of control over the number of people who actually do live there per unit. Is it greed? It's more like demand exceeding supply for living in Orange County. If there were more competition for GOOD tenants, then I'll bet Alicia Plaza's of OC would have to clean up their act or face declining occupancy rates. WHEN YOU DO GET READY TO LEAVE, make your 30 days notice intention to vacate in writing and address it to the management and send it through the US Mail, requesting delivery receipt. I gave my request verbally and they had me fill out a form, in the process giving away a lot of rights. If I had just a few more days I wouldn't have had to do that. I solved their problems (hey they aren't MY problems!) by buying a condo and moving out exactly 13 months after moving in. Count it as a blessing - you're now motivated to find a way to get your own place, so you don't have to deal with this BS. If living in apartments was cushy then you wouldn't have that motivation. It worked for me!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/02/2008
I am also a current tenant. My fiance' and I moved in Feb. 2007. We only moved in because we knew the head maintenance guy at the time and the manager at the time was reputable. First they moved the friend to another property and the maintenance declined a bit. Then they moved the manager to a different property and ever since then the complex has gone to hell in a hand basket. My roof has major leaks every time it rains (6 times in a year and 3 months). It used to be a nice complex with a good group of diverse people. Next thing you know no one speaks English and I am scared to leave the apt. at night by myself. They will rent to anyone who has a pulse and is breathing and can make the rent. And the messed up thing is they raise the rent ridiculously when its time to renew. They wanted to charge about $100 more a month for our 1 bedroom. We had to go directly to the person at corporate we knew well after the current complex manager said that she wanted us to stay and would discount the rent and when we went to sign the lease all of the sudden there was nothing she could do, and they went to bat for us and had a hard time getting it reduced (she got us $50 off the $100). Arnel does NOT CARE about anything. The owner of all the properties also owns the water company Pacific Water and Power....sound familiar.....thats who we pay our water bills to. He also owned the cable company (Skylink) that supplied the cable for the apts. before Cox took over the account and Skylink went out of business. They owe us $120 for a prepaid month of cable and just like Arnel all I got was the run around and blaming it on Cox when I tried to collect. WE WILL NOT BE RENEWING OUR LEASE. If I wanted to live in the ghetto I would have moved to Compton or Santa Ana. DO NOT MOVE HERE, YOUR LIFE MIGHT DEPEND ON IT!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/26/2008
These posts seem a bit dramatic! I am currently living at Alicia Plaza and although I will admit the majority of the people that live here dont speak english, I have never felt afraid to walk around the complex at night(and I get scared pretty easily!). The only thing I will say is that as a woman, it really sucks that I cant enjoy the pool because all of the men just stare and make it a very uncomfortable place to be. I have gone to the pool once in the 10 months that I have lived here and I was there for maybe 20 minutes! It was disgusting.

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