Oh, where to start. This has got to be the 2nd worst apartment I have ever lived in, surpassed only by the place on Riverside that was infested with rats.

I've lived at San Paloma for two years now. We will not be renewing our lease come March. I've had more than enough.

Let's start with the value of what you're getting. These apartments are pricey, relatively speaking. When you go on the tour before deciding to lease, they show you dressed up apartments, dazzle you with the pool and the work out area, and take you to their amphitheater, promising all sorts of good times.

The apartments have faux-granite counter tops in the kitchen. When we first moved in, I noticed the laminate was tented up at the seams. Fearing water damage underneath, I asked maintenance to take a look. The fellow told me, "Oh, some of them are just installed badly" and didn't fix it.

Looking up on my porch, I see a lovely water stain from the water heater above (I'm on the first floor). Mold is rampant in these apartments, especially in the bathrooms, partly because of bad plumbing and largely because they chose to go the cheap route and carpet the bathrooms themselves. If you're in the back bedroom of a 2-2, prepare your morning by getting a cup of coffee while you let the water run in the shower - by the time you finish your second cup, you may finally have hot water - but only for about five minutes. I'm constantly battling rust stains in the toilet because instead of galvanized bolts in the water tank, they used plain old ones. There's no water pressure to speak of in the shower.

The walls of the apartments are painfully thin. A person sneezes on the third floor and I can hear it in my living room. Energy efficiency doesn't exist at San Paloma. In the summertime I have my A/C turned up to 80 degrees and it still runs constantly. They installed Berber carpeting in the apartments and advertise it like it's some kind of asset. It's not. At the slightest breath, a single string will come loose and begin to unravel across the floor. I guess it's an asset for them when it comes time to tally up the damages upon move-out.

Our water bill in our less than 1000 square foot 2-2 with two people living in it is between $50 - $60 a month. You're paying for the pool, which is usually so crowded with screaming kids and people from other apartments sneaking in that you can't even use it. You're also paying for their watering fetish. The sprinklers come on at least twice a day, turning the already damp ground into a muddy mess. Then, they mow it while it's still wet, creating deep gouges all across the area, which then fill with water when they turn on the sprinklers again, creating a mosquitoes' paradise. They even kept the sprinklers running during the snow and ice storm earlier this year, the parking lot becoming a world-class skating rink.

The security gates rarely work. If you're lucky, they're stuck open. Sometimes, however, especially when it rains, they are stuck closed. You'll end up driving around in circles, trying to get out of the apartment, grumbling as you call work to tell them that you're going to be late. Also, they change the access codes on a regular basis. You can have a thing to put in your car to automatically open and close the gates, but only if you're willing to put a $25 deposit. They don't trust that you'll return it when you move out.

They don't keep the grounds spiffy at all. The bushes are overgrown and there's trash everywhere (mostly because they only have trash pick up between 5pm and 7pm Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and there are no dumpsters - only a compactor. People put their trash out anyway on the wrong day and animals get into it).

Last year, I woke up early to take my dog for a walk, wrinkling my nose at the odor of chemicals in the air. A pest and lawn company guy came running up to me as I was going the dog walk area, warning me to keep off the grass! See, they were spraying herbicides and pesticides, but the management didn't think it was necessary to inform anybody about it. I saw kids running out to play as I hightailed back to the apartment to wash my dog's feet off.

Safety is also not a priority at San Paloma. There are no fire extinguishers in the apartment - I had to buy one of my own to keep in the kitchen (a necessity, since the oven tends to overheat when you're cooking with it - maintenance will just say it's "working as intended" if you complain). I've never felt unsafe in the parking lot, but that's probably because the lights burn out at fairly regular intervals and it's too dark for me to see if somebody is coming up at me from behind. It can take them up to three months to repair things like that.

The gym equipment rarely works properly. The amphitheater hasn't been used for anything since I moved in and is slowly rotting away. The hot tub is closed half the time. Yep. Great amenities.

Ok. Now that we've gotten the problems with the apartment itself out of the way, it's time to talk about the management.

Never will you deal with a more ----, rude, immovable company. The rent is due on the first - no grace period. You will suffer a $25 late fee on the second, no matter what the situation (we were only late once because I was in the hospital after an allergic reaction, got it to them when they first opened on the 2nd... no dice).

Want to actually put something on your patio' You will want to, because there's no storage anywhere. Well, you can't. They will come after you for something as benign as an outdoor storage box (clean, a neutral color, and used to store gardening supplies) and empty flower pots (hidden out of sight from the road, only empty because it is almost winter time). They will leave harassing notes on your door, threatening to enter your apartment while you are not home, steal your belongings, and charge you a removal fee if you do not comply (not allowed, according to the Austin Tenants' Council).

Need something fixed' Don't hold your breath. Oh, they'll send somebody to come and take a look at it, but then they actually won't do anything to fix the problem.

In fact, you'll never feel safer when dealing with strange men coming into your apartment to pretend to fix things. San Paloma trusts their employees so much, they apparently don't do any background checks! I know this, because while sitting at a light on Parmer Lane, my car was crushed from behind and totaled. The fellow had no license, no insurance, and only spoke enough English to point furiously and say, "You live in San Paloma! You live in San Paloma!" in a threatening way when I said I was calling the cops. Yep. Undocumented maintenance worker without a license, who has keys to my apartment and still works here, even after a year. Sweet!

This place is a nightmare to live in. I would sell my left hand if it could to raise enough money to break my lease and leave tonight. Unfortunately, eBay canceled that auction before I had a chance to collect. Only a masochist would enjoy living here, and even then, it might be a little bit too much. The way the place is falling apart (it's only three or four years old), I expect the whole apartment complex to be nothing more than a pile of rubble in five years time.

If your apartment locater shows you this place, run, run as fast as you can. Don't move in. You'll be grateful you didn't. aLKeoXpj3s4OSgrp1trb

User Responses
From: DSpaw	Date: 01/31/2008
Some of these problems are due to the tenants who don't care about their fellow tenants. Don't obey rules like they are above them. If you don't like the trash talk to the people that put it out. The complex is not responsible for some idiot that has no regard for others. If there were more people who would do this there would be no problem. Oh and by the way my building has no problem with overflowing trash. Or as some of you people say "TRASH IS EVERYWHERE". Take some pride in your home.
From: Anonymous	Date: 02/23/2008
I'm with DSpaw... I have had no problems since I moved in other than the thin ceiling (can hear my neighbor above sometimes). If people are looking to rent here, I'm about to post a review since I finally am not busy enough to get away with wasting my time on here. Look for the date, it should be posted 2-23-08.

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