Most, if not all, of the current problems - or negative issues - at Sunray can be placed squarely at the desks of the current manager and her immediate superiors. I feel she has exceeded her level of competency, or needs further training and experience, and the company for which she works should have recognized this a long time ago. This is also true for the newest assistant manager type. I can only believe that there is a lot of "you cover my back and I'll cover yours" within this management team and company. The company which owns this property is called Venterra and they self-manage all their properties. I have lived here for some time, likely longer than most current residents, and have witnessed the physical and managerial decline of this property. True, they are repairing certain deficiencies to the buildings. But this is gradual, long term, and as needed, which means you must tolerate the noise and inconvenience of the almost constant construction or repair projects. There is a lot of noise associated with this work and there are numerous sub-contractors that come and go. You must tolerate the noise from the repair work, machinery, tools, trucks and, on occasion, their own personal jam boxes playing music while they work. I think that some of them may be illegal aliens and the management does not make sure that those subs that work on this property are all properly documented, even if they are employed by a sub-contractor. There is a high rate of turnover amongst tenants here and, yes, the quality of these tenants has been steadily declining. They appear to try and compensate for this by emphasizing kids activities and various functions like a taco breakfast or a movie night. Big deal! I receive no value from this and, one way or another, I'm paying for it. What I care about is my cracked walls, old carpet and paint, rotted fence and shingles. I wonder why the water running through the pipes in my walls to the adjoing apartments is so dang loud it makes more noise than if my own water was running. It is very, very loud. I don't care for the lack of adequate insulation in the walls that makes them carry the slightest noise or music from the neighbors on all sides. I care about peace and quite, not punks in cars with loud stereos, cruising through or sitting in the parking lots while they carry on as if they are the only ones in the universe. I don't want to put up with the late-night and early morning disturbances of almost every kind, virtually every week. I care about knowing that my neighbors are the individuals whom have been approved to live there. Too often this management ignores, or fails to acknowledge, that sometimes there are other people who have moved into an apartment after the initial lease has been signed. These additional occupants have not been checked out. They could be criminals for all I know. Also, because the water, gas and garbage expense is passed through to the tenants, we pay more fees for these "undisclosed occupants". Parking is a problem in the evening when people arrive home and the place fills up. If you arrive after 10:00PM forget about finding a parking space close to your apartment, unless you get lucky. This may sound like no big deal, and it wouldn't be, except that they have many UNUSED parking spaces for which they charge extra because they are covered and reserved. Yes, the laundry rooms are not clean, or even well lighted, and the grounds are frequently litterd with trash. Heck, I have even seen trash in the trees, remaining there for months. Maintenance does try and keep up with the litter, some, but this littering and laundry room mess is more a reflection of the people to whom they are leasing. Don't be fooled by the nice big trees and the grounds. If you park under these trees, and you likely will, you will have to deal with a great deal of bird droppings, tree sap, thick pollen, and fallen leaves. Plan on washing your car more often. Oh, and definitely put a few dollars away to repair the car door dings from careless adults and children. They have beat the heck out of mine. Crime has been an issue and you can check that out on the crime data bases but know that more goes on here than shows up on the reports, or even that management is aware of. I get the impression that the police calls on this property is something the management would rather ignore, as if they didn't know about it therefore they can't be responsible for it. I know that the management and staff have completely ignored police cars and officers on the property, seemingly not at all concerned nor interested as to why they might be there. The impression I get is that they are more concerned with leasing apartments and then washing their hands of the responsibility for the tenants once the deal is done. Except of course, if they don't collect the rent. It always amazed me how the owners and management will spend money to fix an apartment (new carpet, new paint, new fences, new whatever) to re-lease it, but don't offer an existing tenant, particularly their long-term tenants, the courtesy of even a carpet shampoo. It would be nice if, without prompting or asking, they would give you a call and say something like "We really do appreciate you living here and always being prompt with your rent, water, gas and garbage fees. And we certainly appreciate your cooperation, understanding and patience with all the on-going repairs, related noise, and other issues. We just want you to know this and to check in with you to see if there is anything WE can do for YOU." Nope. Nada. But I can get that free breakfast taco once or twice a month and take in a kids activity or two! And lets talk about all the vehicles on this property that are not running or don't otherwise move, or have registrations and inspections long ago expired but still are driven daily, and the commercial or business trucks parked on site, and, I believe, one or two car dealer types that may be working out of here. They don't keep up with this on a regular basis so they have to have a big concerted effort every year or so. We get frequent notices from the management that are taped to our front doors. Usually it means you are about to be inconvenienced or disrupted in some way, like the water will be turned off for a while. Or that a unit inspection will be done on certain dates and they better be able to get in each one or you'll have to pay for them to get a lock smith to open up YOUR apartment. I like the ones that say they are going to be doing something that requires cars to be moved so they can do some repairs or, in the most recent case, tree trimming. Dang those chains saws and that wood chipper is loud. (It won't make a darn bit of difference in the above mentioned problems with trees). They say that if your car is not moved when the work is being done, they will tow your car away and bill you for it. Threatening your tenants is not a gracious move and I'm always curious about how many times tenant's cars have to be towed or how many times they broke in to a tenants apartment and sent them the bill. Then there are the notices that are intended to make you aware of some special initiative they are undertaking about one thing or another. A recent example, some months ago, was that maintenance would be going to each apartment and replacing all the faucet screens. Now I was excited about this as mine have been clogging up for some time. (They have had to cut the water on and off there for a period of time to fix one thing or another.) A couple of my faucets have even started to shoot a stream of water sideways. But, alas, here I am still waiting and wondering what happened to that great idea. I'm fixing it myself this weekend. But I darn sure know where to get a free taco or cookies! They seem to be able to eventually re-build a staircase or repair the foundation of a building, but can't make sure the entry key pad is lighted at night so you can see it, or to even completely clean the spit off it that someone deposited months ago. The present management tolerates circumstances and issues that tenants, people who live here and pay their salaries through our rent, should not have to tolerate. Nor should we have to complain about it before it is addressed. Some of these things should be instinctive, if not at least good management principles. Can you tell that things are just out of whack around here' It all starts at the top and just kind of works it's way down. The short-term prognosis for Sunray is not good. It all depends on whether there is a change in management, individually or in practice. Now expect an immediate response from the "manager" to my post. They automatically receive e-mail notification to any post made at this site. They will say how they are on top of things, things are improving, they're doing this, and they're doing that. Or that we need to notify them so they can resolve this or repair that. Or to call their "courtesy officer" if there is a disturbance problem. Balogney! Don't waste your time. Just call the SA Police, Fire Department or Code Compliance depending on your more serious problems. Let them take it from there. While the manager, asst. manager, and the staff may often be out on the property, or just plain out of the office, they sometimes will be in their offices but won't answer the phones. You'll get a message que to make one selection or another and to leave a message. I have left messages with them for maintenance and disturbance issues that were never acknowledged. No return calls or follow up. I have even seen, on several occasions, the door locked and office closed even though I know the manager or staff are in there. Apparently, they have frequent office meetings or reports to do so they shut themselves off from the tenants. Now, having said all this, I want to say that, from my experience, the maintenance staff seems to be on the ball and emergency repairs are taken care of promptly. But keep in mind they only fix or repair what they have repair orders to do. And that comes from management. It all gets back to the property manager, their boss, and the staff. Until that improves, neither will the Sunray. I personally don't know if I will leave or stay. What happens over the next couple months will determine that. But, I do look forward to the day when I can move. In the mean time, I can get a free breakfast taco a least once a month!

Manager's Response
From: Manager	Date: 01/02/2009
Improvements should be looked upon as positive progress. Since change usually comes with improvements there is always a little hesitation or concern, especially with long term residents who have been with us through alot of the changes. Unfortunately, the road to improvements can sometimes be frustrating and tiresome when you are a resident that has to live through the construction on a daily basis, even for a limited period of time. Our contractors are reputable and licensed & bonded and do however, try and limit the amount of inconvenience to our residents as much as possible. I have managed Sunray for over 4 years and can say that our lengthy and thorough application process and qualifying of our residents has not changed. Yes it is different than how the previous owners qualified their applications, but every company is different; however, we are proud to say that we follow the standard fair housing guidelines explicitly. I am also very proud to acknowledge that yes, you can get a breakfast taco monthly from what I would like to consider a unique service that we provide to our residents. Our resident activities have such a large turn out at most of our events and it gives everyone a chance to get together and usually puts a smile on their face which is a positive sign, not a negative one. Sunray is an older community, with age comes age related problems such as settling cracks and deterioration. However, Venterra is a very pro-active management company and has tried to combat these effects of age by hiring full time carpenters to address these issues, and as was kindly pointed out, hires contractors to work on improvements needed to the community from time to time. As for my staff, I have every confidence in my current staff. I welcome any concerns that may arise with a resident regarding someone from my staff, to be brought to my attention right away. Everyone who walks through our doors or within our community should, and usually does feel welcome while doing so. The service and care that we try our best to provide, I believe, is showcased by the high rate of renewals and long term residents still living within our community. There are unfortunately certain levels of toleration that much be afforded when living in an apartment and in such close proximity to your neighbors. However, everyone is entitled to peaceful living and we do try our best to make sure this happens. We appreciate your comments. Luckily it is one of our responsibilities to check websites such as this. It is important to understand and hear out what concerns are lingering out there so we may try and address these issues and hopefully open the lines of communication for individuals to come in and speak with us in more detail.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/03/2008
I cannot agree with you more. I am in the process of sending a letter to Venterra on the issues I had while living on this property. I no longer live there, but still had issues when it came down to getting my deposit back. There were things I asked to get fixed and some of them didn't get fixed until a few weeks before I moved out (this was a year lease). Before I moved to Sunray, I thought these ratings and comments were crazy, but I had to figure it out the hard way and waste money doing it. I would suggest that you call Venterra and let them know what is going on with your issues. I did and a few days after I did, my issues were resolved. I had to take pictures of my issues and let Venterra know that I would take it up with someone else if they were not going to do anything about it. I think the only thing that I liked about this property was the location. I let all of my family, friends, clients...etc. know to not consider moving here. I have a put in a call to Sunray to get some information from them so that I can send to Venterra and just waiting to see what they do, so is Venterra.

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