My husband and I lived in Park La Brea townhouse for two years. Our townhouse is very close to rental office, model room, and security office. We were in vacation in October2008. Before we left, we went to the security office (in building 47) and reported to Park La Brea security guys we would be out of country for a couple of days to avoid our cars be towed away because they have a weird policy -- all the cars can not be parked in the same open parking area for more than three days. But when we came back on Nov. 12, our apartment was broke into during our vacation and our $2000 big Samsung LCD TV and our $300 portable Garmin GPS were stolen. The police checked carefully and got conclusion that the thief used the KEY to break into and obviously he knew we were not at home! Only security guys knew our absence and only they have every resident's key! We were so surprised and upset. We once thought gated community was safe but it is not if one of its employees is thief.
Theft is so unpleased, but the worst is the cold words and attitudes from Park La Brea management! We talked to their Service Manger the next day on Nov. 13, and he said he has no right to do anything except changing our lock. He suggested we need to talk to GM. Then we made appointment with GM on Nov. 18. But GM did not meet us that day. He was said in the meeting, and sent Director of Residence Service to meet us. The guy named John still said he has no right to do anything, and suggested us the only way we can do is to file a claim to their owner's law office which calls Karsaz & Associate. And this weird law office only has a fax number and PO box, they just do not tell you their address and phone number. So we reported our loss to them on Nov 18 attaching with the police written report (the police wrote down the thief broke into with KEY!) and wrote a detailed report to them on Dec. 5. Several weeks later this law office Resident Service Representative Jennifer Rider wrote us a letter with cold words, denying everything. She wrote Park La Brea "does not and cannot warrant the safety of persons or property". But the serious fact was the thief used the KEY to break into! So their key management and background check of hiring employee must have some problems. At least they should say sorry to us but they don't say that and have bad attitudes. Then we wrote emails to this Jennifer but she did not reply our emails. We tried to make appointment to GM again, but this time, the GM Assistant said GM always does not talk to residents face to face so she can not make appointment for us! That was obviously an excuse! We made another appointment to Residence Service Director, this guy did not want to meet us and called back, said he can not do anything. We spent too much time on this and felt very disappointed and tired! I'm pregnant and I do not want this bad mood affect my baby too much so I made decision to find a friendlier and safer apartment to live and move out of this disgusting Park La Brea as soon as possible. When I went to the rental office and drop the notice of vacate, the receptionist said I could talk to accounting stuff about penalty waive. Then I made appointment to accountant. After hearing the reason why I left, this accountant still has the cold attitude and wrote down I must pay "$2175 buy out fee" on the notice of vacate. She said the receptionist was wrong coz she has no right to waive the buyout fee; only that law office has the right to do so and the only thing I can do is to file the request online, she said they always reply the residents within one week. So I was fooled again. I filed the requests online to that law office residence service division on Dec. 18, but 3 weeks passed by, nobody replied us. We can not call them because they do not give you their phone number. They just intend to ignore us and avoid talking about this theft. When you need to talk to anybody from management, you need to make appointment at first; When you meet them, everybody says "I have no right to make decision", and they just put you write something to that weird law office. That law office just sent you a denying letter as if they were supreme court making final decision. They don't reply you after that. PLB employee used the KEY to break into and stole, when we felt upset and want to move out because of this theft, they still want to charge us $2175 penalty! This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life. My lease due on October 2008 and we were out of country at that time. They just sent us letter and automatically renewed our lease term to one year. After this unhappy theft, they still want to charge us $2175 buy out fee to earlier termination the lease. I think they'd better ask their security guy to break into our apartment again and steal more from us!
BTW, they just painted their towers to an ugly black color, which really brings its residents bad fengshui and bad luck!!!
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If the Park La Brea thief happenly saw this post, I want to ask you: Are you really happy when you watch your stolen LCD TV every night' Are you really comfortable when you use your stolen GPS when driving' I doubt that. Coz you know the police will catch you one day. Yes,you were cautious and well-prepared. You put our wind chime hanging on the door on our sofa to avoid awaking our neighbors at late night, You even used a weird cloth to clear up your fingerprints(but you forgot to take it,the police took it as a proof!). Yes, you got sth "for free", but you lose more in your poor life! God bless you!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/05/2009
The office they put you in touch with is a law firm. They will do nothing but deny any liability on their behalf until you file a police report and contact a lawyer. A lawsuit will get them talking. Anything short of that and you are in shitsville (aka Park LaBrea). Karsaz & Associates 3216 Midvale Pl Alhambra, CA 91803 (323) 938-6744 Did a google for them, and they really work with ------ slumlords.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/05/2009
Hi - sorry to hear about this. . .but, I'm not surprised. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that I've heard about PLB employees with keys (or ones who loan their keys to others) who break into apartments. And, unfortunately this is a typical reaction from PLB management. Their attitude is "if you don't like it here, you can just leave." I'm hopeful that this won't won't affect your pregnancy - and I'm glad you escaped. Thanks for the comment about the bad feng shui. The colors are hideous. You deserve better.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/05/2009
It happened to me also, when I used to live there. My bike was stolen within the first couple months. The lock was cut. Anything I put outside on my patio was stolen. Gardening tools, absolutely everything. It's the worst place in the world to live and I'm SOOOOO happy to be out of there.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/05/2009
how ridiculous, I would get a lawyer for sure
From: JRFrogman	Date: 01/05/2009
Yep, that sounds like PLB. Nothing has changed in the last ten years. If anything, it sounds like things are going down hill. BTW: did you catch that remark in Californication about PLB? Sounds like everyone in L.A. is wise to this place. Too bad there are more suckers for PLB to take advantage of every day.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/06/2009
Not surprising. Management DOES NOT care about tenants, only about avoiding being sued.
From: Anonymous	Date: 01/06/2009
You DO NOT have to pay that "fee" of $2175. I lived there 5 months and broke my lease. They had their "attorneys" come after us and we fought (it was not difficult as we had all of the documents (letters and such)that we had sent and received) and won. You certainly have a case and I hope you have all the letters and times and days you spoke to people to back you up. The best of luck to you. I wish we could get a civil suit against them (to start). God Bless you.
From: Mereo311ri	Date: 02/03/2009
I also was in contact with this Jennifer Rider at Karsaz. They gave me the same mumbo jumbo about the lease buy out option. The landlord on the premises said we could break our lease because we had termites that they weren't able to exterminate. We tried and they kept our deposit saying it was a penaly for breaking our lease. Even though DAVIN ROSS said we would get our deposit back. I tried to sue them but the first time, DAVIN ROSS said he wasn't the landlord just an employee of the management company. The second time, the court sent the claims papers throught he mail but they didn't return the return receipt so the case was dismissed. They are very cold like the lady said and Jennifer Rider does not respond to anything you say. I would love to be part of a suit against Tower of Hollywood Hills or Riverstone Residential Group or Karsaz and Associates!!!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/31/2009
Employees actions on behalf of the management company still counts under the theory of respondeat superior, as the employee was acting in the scope of employment....As for the return receipt, every document mailed should be certified by USPS to provide evidence of delivery...Every phone call should be documented and sent to the person talked to for evidence in a court of law. All of you should definitely go after all three companies: Tower of Hollywood Hills/Riverstone Residential Group/Karsaz & Associates. Negligence, fraud, inhabitability....
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/04/2009
I know what you are going through! I moved out of my "identity Theft" ring going on at my apartment building. The management covers up everything, they keep a mailbox key and get in our mail to put in UPS delivery notices. Phone wires were tapped in my attic, cable tv boxes have the wires spilling out of them...the police will not help they will just tell me it is the responsiblity of the apt manager....well, if they are behind it, we are screwed! Turns out it is rampant through out all the apts in our city (Don't move to Texas). Good Luck and I will say a prayer for you!

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