I lived at The Jefferson at Birchwood Park/Birchwood Park/Copper Canyon for about 3 years. The management changed frequently, water was out sometimes weekly, and bums picked through the trash and crossed through the complex daily. My side of the complex was fairly quite and parking wasn't a huge issue (my area was out of the general flow of traffic). Non-residents would use the parking lot (it's cheaper than UCR permits). A UCR non-resident backed into my car once. I would spend on average 4 hours a week cleaning my 400 sq ft studio (probably boarderline OCD). And I STILL had ants. The pest control wasn't very good (left a ring on my carpet where he placed his chemicals). I ended up buying clear silicon caulking to caulk between the cabinets and the wall, around all light switches/outlets, baseboards, wall and ceiling intersections, windows, and plumbing. That seemed to do the trick but it took hours. Water was out so frequently was lived part-time with my now husband. At one point the fire alarms were pulled in the middle of the night (and once it was cold and raining). The managements were also pretty shady with lease renewals a "12-month lease" would end after 13 months. After 2 renewals my lease was over during school instead of the summer when I first rented their (who would move at midterm time') When I first moved in I had to pay a full months rent and would pay the pro-rated rent the second month. But they would give you the incorrect pro-rate then three days after you pay what you where told you would get a demand letter with a $50 late payment fee attached. I thought it was a fluke, just a one time mistake but a few months after I moved in a took my rent check in and heard another girl screaming at them about it. She was told, "Well...the prorate is never calculated right." Shameful to abuse 18 year-olds like that! Shady, shady people!

Safety became the deal breaker for me. The 2004-2006 management leased to trashy people. I started to notice the carports getting "tagged" and management wouldn't paint over it for months (it was still there when I moved out). The breaking point for me was when I walked by a parking spot and saw a swastika spray painted on the asphalt. I complained to the leasing office and took a maintainance person with me to show her. "Well... it's black on black and we're going to re-asphalt in 6 months anyway." The gate worked probably 3 of the 36 months I live there and the only way your guests could get in was the give out the code EVERYONE used. I was very careful about who I gave the code to but based on the riff-raff I lived near I was probably the only one who did. I had police (like 6 cars) blocking my entire building on several occassions. Those were probably the few times I felt safe in Copper Canyon. I hated coming home every night and was always afraid someone was going to break in (all bedroom windows on every floor where accessible from the balcony). I finally had a neverous break-down and my mom flew out from Florida to help me. When she saw the situation in the complex and what I was living with, she and Dad paid the $2000 lease break fee and moved me across town to a much more secure location. That was the best $3000 my parents have ever spent on me.

I spent two weeks cleaning the apartment top to bottom to avoid their huge cleaning fees. I wasn't going to give them any excuse to keep my deposit. It was quite honestly cleaner than when I moved in and most assuradly cleaner than their clean people would get it (two weeks ... two hours...hmm...who would get it cleaner). The walk-through was a joke. He walked in, said "looks clean", and promptly walked out. When we returned to the leasing office I was told there would be a cleaning charge. Luckily Dad flew in (from Florida) for the key turn-over. He very calmly and forcefully explained things to themand they gave me my entire deposit back.

At least they can be intimidated in to doing the right thing. But maybe that's why security was so bad: they were afraid of the criminals.

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