This place was borderline when I moved in, but after the new owner "Stellar Larkspur" & parent company Alliance Residential took over it went straight in the toilet. Their business practices are incompetent at best - fraudulent at worst. Bookkeeping sucks so you'd better have a receipt for everything you pay. And pay you will. Because even things like costs for repainting the entire apartment were written into the fine print of rental agreements. The water and trash bills are sky high, and the shoddy construction of the place means high electric bills too. This is an apartment community that thinks it's something special because of its location. It's not. As you visit other apartment communities in the area ask their managers about Larkspur Shores and Madera Vista (both Alliance-managed properties) and you'll hear the horror stories.

Don't even think about parking a second car either. They charge so much for these fleabag apartments many lower-wage people are suckered in by their low credit requirements and then forced to take on multiple roommates to pay the rent. So you've got apartments and parking lots crammed with people. Increasingly young and blue collar residents. Making noise through the paper thin walls. Make sure your guests have a map, because they'll have to park down the street when they come over to visit. If you like to work on your truck and motorcycle in the parking lot several times a week or if you have a Bush for President bumber sticker on your 1988 Ford F-150 with the wobbly gun rack then you've found paradise. Yee haw!!!! BUT IF YOU'RE A PROFESSIONAL LOOKING FOR A NICE MARIN APARTMENT YOU CAN BE PROUD OF, THIS AIN'T IT. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

There is not-stop heavy construction both on site and next door. Yet management is not concerned with fixing things like torn stucco or "temporary" 2x4s propping up some wooden 2nd story walkways. That's right, there's a walkway that's had the structural support of a 2x4 with weather-worn "Caution" tape on it for OVER A YEAR. NOTE: ISN'T THIS SOME KIND OF SAFETY VIOLATION''' Walk on over to the building in the far east corner next to the hill if you think I'm lying. They don't mind raising rents whilst you live in the middle of a construction zone either. Painting and seismic retrofit was originally supposed to last 6 weeks and 6 months later has created a permanent work site where crucial parking spaces used to be. It also creates a loitering spot for construction workers every single goddamn day of the week.

They are concerned about renovating vacant apartments only - so they can annoy current residents into leaving and then up the rent AGAIN. Ask your neighbors how much they pay in rent. The consensus among mine was that as soon as they're ready to renovate your apartment they jack up the rent as a not-so-subtle way to get your ass out. In other states this is called PREDATORY EQUITY. Here in California we call it BXLLSHIT and when you call the tenant association and mention Larkspur Shores they just sigh... Arbitration is only $10. I advise any resident with problems to start at arbitration and then take these thieves to small claims when they try to steal your money with a litany of greedy fees for every single possible way they can leech your money.

This community is seriously a bad place to live unless you absolutely can't find another place that accepts dogs. All of my neighbors did, or were planning to, move out. Even the ones WITH dogs. Don't believe anything you see or hear from the management. There was a time I thought they were stuck in the middle, but after all the ridiculous deceits it's clear they are facilitating the problem. Once you sign the docs you and your wallet are SCREWED. STAY AWAY FROM LARKSPUR SHORES APARTMENTS.

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