I lived here from February of 2005-February 2006 and have nothing nice to say. Now I know if you don't have anything nice to say you are not supposed to say it, but I feel compelled to warn anybody thinking of living here. Now let's start with the negatives that I can easily list:
1) Filled with college students who live 4 or 5 to a 2bdrm apt, thereby, paying little rent and treating the place like a dorm room. For a working professional, there is rarely any quiet. As there is no courtesy patrol, I had LAPD out three times to shut down parties in the unit above me.
2) Nickel and dime for everything. It was cheaper for me to do laundry at the laundromat across the street. And for a period of 4 months, the laundry card machine was out of order so the laundry room was useless.

Now for the good stuff. I had to move in on short notice because of a job related relocation so I moved in with my sister who was finishing up her senior year at SC. Since my employment history was new at the time and my credit not well established, I had to leave an initial security deposit of 2 months rent. Anyone familiar with California landlord-tenant law knows that a security deposit must be placed in a separate account and commingling it with the general tenant account is strictly against the law.

So you can imagine my surprise upon moving out that I was informed out of a $2400 deposit I would only be getting $1,000 back. Knowing I am an attorney, Patrick (former manager) was not surprised that I was livid. We spent hours going through the ledger before realizing that in one month when my sister failed to pay rent, a portion of the security deposit was used to cover her portion. His position was "No harm, no foul, you would have had to pay it anyways." That position is accurate, but ignores the fact that The Plaza commingled money. Well it just so happens that the district manager, Chris, came by that day (a big rude New Yorker wearing a lot of gold jewelery) and Patrick tried explaining the situation to him.

Let me say, I have never been treated SO HORRIBLY in my life. Chris first told me that I did not in fact leave a deposit of $2400, rather I only paid the base one-month deposit because on the initial lease agreement, the one-month payment was crossed out once it was decided that I'd have to leave a 2 month deposit. After producing my own paperwork and Patrick's reluctant corroboration, he finally accepted that I did indeed pay the double deposit.

So he proceeded to take the same position that I would have owed the money anyways, he wouldn't let me get a word in, but instead chose to belittle me in front of whomever happened to be in the lobby. When I told him that I am an attorney and cannot be intimidated like most college students in the building, he replied "Well, you must not be a good one." With other individuals hearing his statement, that constitutes slander per se as it went to my professional reputation. He continued to cuss me out for a good 10 minutes as I tried to get a word in, but I finally gave up and left to no avail. Poor Patrick was sitting there watching the entire time, afraid to say anything for fear of recrimination. On my way out, I went to speak with Enrique (a handyman, and one of the few bright spots), but before Enrique could say a thing the Chris ran out and forbid him from speaking with me. I agree, upper management is the main problem here.

Needing as much of my deposit back as possible to put down at my next apartment, I reluctantly accepted my deposit back and agreed not to pursue litigation; however, that is not a bar from a defamation suit against the district manager and it is an avenue that I am seriously considering pursuing.

DO NOT MOVE HERE!!! DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT.

User Responses
From: Westwoodworker	Date: 10/15/2008
You have our sympathy, indeed. Maybe because we were older working professionals, we weren't berated by management but they definitely played games with the deposit and DID NOT return hardly any of it though we were excellent tenants for two and one-half years!
From: christine31482	Date: 10/17/2008
contact me, i already have an attorney suing them.... my email is Justiandchristi@aol.com hope to hear from you very soon!

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