I lived here for about a year, and was exceedingly happy to move out. There's both good and bad about the place, but overall it was not worth the price or my time/effort spent trying to get help from the staff.

My unit itself was great: clean & cozy & fairly new, on the top floor w/ great sound insulation. I barely heard any neighbors the whole time I was there, and I loved it.

The actual complex has some major maintenance issues to work out. The elevator for my building broke at least a dozen times during my time there. At times, it could stay broken for days, not just hours. When I looked at the safety inspection certificate in the elevator, I found that it had EXPIRED for a couple years already! Isn't that illegal as well as hazardous' The garage doors also broke several times. Once during a power outage, I was stuck in the garage for a while because the doors were broken and they couldn't manually open the gates yet.

Location: It was very convenient, right in downtown SJ. That was the main reason I lived there (plus the fact that it's gated and fairly new).

Parking: 1 assigned space for myself was fine, but it would have been better if they had spaces for guest parking. They were supposedly "strict" on where people can park, but some random cars parked in my space multiple times rendering my own car homeless.

Staff: Most of the staff appeared polite and friendly enough when I first spoke with them. However, when there was actually a problem to be resolved, it took forever. For example, when I came home to some other car parked in my space, I called the office right away and was told they would take care of it ASAP. Several hours later, that car was still there, and I had to call the office again, only to find out that they hadn't yet contacted the owner of that car (who apparently also lives in the complex). It took another few hours before I could get into my own space. This happened multiple times. In addition, the horrendous treatment after my move-out really highlights the incompetency of the staff and the fact that they really just don't give a ****. I'll provide more details on this below.

Safety: Overall, I felt safe enough in my own unit given it's in downtown SJ, and it's a gated complex. However, the constant police sirens, and even police helicopters blaring announcements overhead during several weekends was not reassuring. Often there was yelling/cursing outside, and once a group of delinquents who were obviously being chased by cops climbed over the gates into the complex. I called the "night patrol" to tell them, but I didn't see any security guards do anything about it. We also heard people getting stabbed and saw blood on the sidewalk. I'm not exaggerating.

Attitude upon moveout: This was the worst. Even though I don't expect any apartment to be really nice to ex-residents, they could at least pretend or have some minimum level of decency. It took them 3 months to give me back my security deposit, after cutting out a huge chunk for "cleaning" and only after I called the office to ask why I hadn't received it yet. Apparently, they had the "wrong address" even though I gave them my full forwarding address. After I finally received the deposit check back, I had some questions because the itemization for it was horrible so I called them again and asked for the lady in charge of the finances. I called on a Monday, was told that she was out of the office, left a message & my number and was told she would call me back the next day. I still hadn't received a call by Thursday, so I called, office was closed, and left a voicemail explaining that I was waiting for a call and left my contact info again. I still haven't received a call from them.

User Responses
From: thesheba	Date: 07/06/2007
I know this was months ago, but I just read your post. Check your lease for the amount of time they have to give you back your deposit. I am not sure what California state law is, but it is usually about two to three weeks unless otherwise specified in the lease. If they do not return it in that amount of time, then they have to give you your full deposit back.
From: alynn1741	Date: 01/24/2008
yes, ca law states landlords have 21 days to get back the deposit to you, or info re: the deposit. otherwise you are entitled to not only a full refund, but up to 3x as much. however, if the wrong address was given or the address wasn't forwarded, that's not their problem. so if you have a copy of the doc you gave them w/ your address or something showing you did everything right, you should speak w/ a lawyer.

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