Casa De Vida Apartments Ltd · avg 2.6 ★★★★★ · Los Angeles
“I never usually write reviews but dealing with these people I made sure I wrote a review so other can understand never to sign up for this place. Even after leaving they are adding cost for no reason. They try to make even penny off of you. Please be aware and never rent here. Also not to mention the hot water was broken 3 times when renting.”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“i like the central location and nice bedrooms and bathrooms but the hot water has been out for so long now.And the staff we worked with was really rude to us. I dont know why he says maintainence is going to work on it but never do.”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“My girlfriend and I were put through an extraordinary amount of negative experiences since the start of our lease, some of which have been building-wide and others specific to our unit. To begin, within 2 weeks of moving in on September 22nd, 2018 work began to repair the roof of our building. We would have been okay with this had we been notified that this was clearly going to affect our unit before we signed our lease. However we were very upset to learn, not from management but experience, that the construction workers were using our particular roof space as their main base of operations for the next 6 months of repairs. This meant that we dealt with loud and constant footsteps overhead from October 2018 through February 2019 starting as early as 7 AM and ending as late as 7 PM. This also entailed the majority of removed roofing being thrown from over our balcony and crashing into a giant waste container that remained directly under our apartment for the entirety of the roof repairs. We would also awaken to things being thrown from the ground level up to the roof and hitting our windows or being dragged along them as items were raised from below. After over 2 months of noise, I called and emailed the leasing office on 12/15 to ask if the workers could relocate their base to a different roof-space and was told that this was not possible. Again, prior to a note left on our door notifying us about the roof repairs shortly after moving in, we were never informed that any repairs were to occur when we signed our lease (let alone that they would so heavily affect our unit). The second major issue came as a direct result of the roof repairs. We first noticed containment zones on our floor less than a month after moving in and learned from newly displaced and very upset neighbors that asbestos had been stirred up in their apartments by the roof repairs. These tenants had nearly all of their possessions condemned and were forced to leave the building. At this point in October, we had not been informed of the asbestos issue from building management despite so many of our neighbors being forced to leave their apartments with all of their contaminated possessions left inside. These concerns were heightened when we realized that the removed roofing (which was possibly contaminated) was being thrown directly over our balcony while our windows and screen door had been open. When we expressed these concerns to the leasing office and asked if our apartment was safe we never received any confirmation that our specific apartment had been checked. Through the completion of the asbestos issue, some 6 months after we moved in, we watched as hundreds of contaminated items were stored in the unit next to us. Slowly each apartment on our floor was sterilized and re-leased, but next to no notification regarding the asbestos issue was followed up on by the leasing office. The third major issue occurred when we learned that despite all of these repairs, the building had been in violation of several fire codes the entire time we had been living there. This culminated in a number of frightening notifications being left on our door regarding the now imminent repairs that would involve blockading access to and from our apartment for 1-2 business days. From what we understood, the blockade was needed due to the potential asbestos contamination involved in the installation of wiring into the hallway ceiling for a fire exit sign right above our front door. Without more than a week's notice we were then blockaded from our own apartment for a full day. According to the documentation we received, apparently had these repairs not been made, the building would have been seized by the city. What really added insult to injury was the increase of our rent from $2250 to $2325 per month after all of this occurred, at which point we officially decided to leave the building. I posted a similar review on Google and received a reply from the new manager saying she wanted to make it right. After I called several times in response (received no reply), I emailed her this breakdown and asked for my 30 day notice to be waived and to receive my meager $500 deposit back so that we could part ways without legal involvement. She agreed to waive 2 weeks of the 30 day notice before charging us $415.50 for "routine" carpet replacement and cleaning. Between those charges and our final utilities they seized 100% of our deposit and charged an additional $96. This building and its management company are beyond incompetent and their audacity to ignore their past blunders is astounding. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS. PS: Nearly half of the units directly face the 405 that butts up against the building. And the other half of exterior facing units view one of the worst intersections in LA (Palms and Sawtelle) which has near daily accidents and has been under construction on and off for the last year.”
“People: be smart and filter the fake 5-stars review here. We all know companies pay to have "good reviews" in this or any website. Let me tell you my experience, then you decide. I wanted to rent a 1br apt for $2000 a month. The apartment itself is decent, but still way overpriced. Just so you know you are EXACTLY next to the 405. Also, the building is ANCIENT. The elevators must be from the 1800. The hallways had doors to go in between sections so anyone can hide there and do who knows what (not secured). Lets talk a bit about the leasing agents. Peggy was really nice, while Barbara believes shes the top assistant manager in the world. Too much attitude from her. Also when I was filling out my application she was doing who knows what. Zero skills. To add to all these, they didnt approve my application because their "system" was denying it. They call my last 2 landlords (4 years of rental history) and couldnt find anything. No matter how much paper I presented ( showed funds with 1+ years of rent in my bank acct) still wouldnt approve my application. Needles to say they took a week to figure this all out and I had to pay for hotels. I applied somewhere else and my application was approved in less than a day so I said "ADIOS Casa de Vida"!!! Save your time and effort. Go somewhere else. TONS of MUCH MUCH better options in the west side of LA.”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“My family and I have lived at Casa de Vida for almost three years. I met with Nicolle and Barbara and they made the rental process very easy and pleasant. They went out of their way to make us feel welcome and to answer all our questions. Our new community manager, Patricia has already made some wonderful changes, like opening the gym and laundry rooms earlier.Our rent is very reasonable for such a lovely place. The grounds are so beautiful with many trees and flowers. We even have banana trees. I appreciate all the amenities, the pool, hot tub. gym and rec room are maintained very well. I just love using the rec room for parties and gatherings, it is such a great perk. What I appreciate most about Casa de Vida is the staff! I have found everyone to be friendly and professional. The folks who run the office, Patty, Barbara, Anastasia and Stephanie have been so kind and helpful. It is always a pleasure to interact with them. Miguel and his staff have resounded quickly to every maintenance request I have made. They are always busy keeping everything working and looking beautiful. Maria is delightful, it seems like everywhere I look, there she is, keeping everything looking beautiful. I love the diversity in the community of folks who live here. I have the best neighbors. I so, appreciate Casa de Vida and highly recommend it!”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“I have lived here for almost 3 years. The complex looks beautiful and new but its a bit of a fake out. The amenities and maintenance staff are great. Always friendly, professional and prompt. However, as a previous reviewer noted, the hours you can access the amenities are inconvenient. Laundry room/trash chutes and gym are open from 9am-10pm. That means you can't work out in the morning before work or take out your trash off hours. Some residents resort to leaving their stinky trash outside the laundry room b/c of this. It's ridiculous. They should just be more lenient on the hours. Also ------ in the management office is awful. She's rude, cold and dismissive when you make maintenance requests or even just as you're turning your rent in ON TIME. Lastly, but most importantly, the plumbing is old and the water comes out brown every time you turn on the water after an extended period of time. I live on the 2nd floor (out of 3) and my ceiling leaks when it rains- not to mention the loud --- rain pipes right by my bedroom window that sounds like pouring rocks on metal every time it rains. I've reported all these issues to maintenance but they have yet to fix it.”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“Casa De Vida is a beautiful apartment and the recent renovations make it even more beautiful, but there are far too many restrictions that really get in the way of being able to enjoy all of the amenities you pay quite a bit for. First, the laundry room (which also contains the trash chute), the gym, and the pool/jacuzzi areas are all only available to tenants between the hours of 9am and 10pm. It's reasonable to restrict the pool/jacuzzi areas for that time, but it really is unfair that the other amenities are shut down by management. The whole purpose of having a gym in the building is to be able to access it when you want to. As I understand from tenants who have lived here for years, it didn't always used to be this way. Many have complained, but it hasn't made a difference. I know I expected to be able to access the gym in the morning before I went to work, but no such luck. Now I'm having to consider also purchasing a gym membership since for most of the week, since my work hours are long making it impossible for me to make it home before the gym closes. And it restricts my time to do laundry as well and I end up having to do it at the laundromat or compete with all of the other residents to do my laundry on the weekend! Also, the rules say you can't have more than two guests at the pool/bbq areas which is pretty strict and once again really puts some crazy limits on the amenities they are always boasting about. If I had known all of this before I moved in, I would have lived somewhere else. The limited access aside, they are very responsive to any fixes or repairs that need to be made and often come and fix things the same day or the next day at the very latest. The repair people are very nice, though management can be extremely cold at times. I understand that it is necessary to run a tight ship and enforce rules, but you can do that and still be cordial and considerate.”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“This complex has great amenities. The gym consists of a few treadmills and a sauna, and the community room has a pool table and ping pong table. It has fresh grass, nice flowers, flowing streams...etc. Half of the complex looks over the 405 freeway and half faces Sawtelle, so expect loud and heavy traffic noise almost all parts of the day. The maintenance staff is friendly and organized and always fixes the issue. The move-in process was smooth sailing, Barbara is a sweetheart and a dream to work with and finalize the paperwork. The two other managers seem all smily and bubbly when showing the rooms. However, as one of my fellow Apartment Ratings reviewers noted, the move-out process is taken straight from a horror film. DO NOT BE FOOLED into thinking Nicole and Paula are friendly. Say goodbye to your security deposit and be prepared to pay far beyond for minute fixes. I took the time to steam clean the entire apartment and paint the walls and left the rooms in nearly immaculate condition and was charged almost $400 JUST for painting. In addition to the normal security deposit, you also have a $100 key deposit (don't ask me why two sets of $5 keys would be worth $100). I turned in one set of keys to Nicole's hands and the others I was instructed to drop in the box that night. I followed these instructions, and Paula informed me that they never received the keys in the box. when I talked to Nicole, she said she had no recollection of me handing her the keys, but did receive the ones from the box! A COMPLETE LIE! I was charged 50 extra dollars for this set of keys that she "never received." This is the most dishonest, corporate-run, scumbag management team I have ever dealt with and if I can dissuade just one person from moving in then this review has done its job and made the world a better place. (ALSO do NOT buy anything from Nicole when you move in. She sold me a "like new" refrigerator when I moved in which she claimed belonged to one of the tenants that just moved out. She instructed me to be "very secretive about it because she did not want the other tenants to know she was doing this" and took $100 cash from me to have it delivered by maintenance. Refrigerator died in three months and looked like it had been sitting in a field for 3 years. I assume she pocketed the cash, but denies this vehemently. I also arranged to have some items sold to the next tenant taking over my apartment, but she claimed maintenance threw them away. I later discovered that she took them down and re-sold them to the current tenants, again pocketing the profit.)”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“If there was an option for a minus star I would have chosen that for this!..don't even think of getting into this apartment complex, we possibly had the worst experience here!..everything appears to be rosy and friendly till the day you move out!..but once you are out of this hole, you will receive the bomb..we went to them to turn in our notice after 6 months of stay..it was our 10th month, 4 months after lease and we were on a month to month..we said we will vacate by next month whatever the date was..it was due to change of jobs and my husband mentioned the same..so the lady at the front desk asked us when would be starting the next job and we told her the date which was 2 weeks earlier than the notice end period..we were willing to stay the entire notice period btw..she said its fine, you can leave since you are on month to month and we expect customers coming in as well..we asked her many times if she was sure and she sounded sure and cool about it..then we got a statement 2 months after demanding 700 dollars for not adhering to the lease no return on the security deposit of 875!!!..can you believe that!..Its ridiculous!!..they charge atrociuosly for a small apartment with 875 as security deposit and u dont get a penny back they backtracked from their words..not even a word was said when we left and now all this..stay far away from these people..Nicole, the owner is a complete ----- doesn't give a chance to explain and doesn't give a damn to the tenants..all that they do is suck the money out of you!!..beware and stay away and make sure u understand their lease terms you will possibly end up paying from your pocket!!”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“I have lived at Casa De Vida for five months. It is everything I expected it would be! The grounds are immaculate and beautiful, The maintenance crew has responded quickly and professionally to every request I have made. They are constantly making improvements to the property. Every member of the staff has been courteous and efficient, just genuinely nice people. Nicole first showed me my apartment, and I found her to be a really sweet and caring person. Barbara and Paula have been kind and always helpful. As property managers, they have upheld their part of the bargain. There really is something special about Casa de Vida. My family and I are very happy here. The longer I live here the more I like it!”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista“excellent place to live. This review is for case de vida apartment at 3230 overland avenue and NOT for casa de vida at sawtelle. The managers,Joanna and Tina are very helpful and friendly. We had lived here for the past 3 years happily. All maintenance works were fixed immediately. Managers even take care of receiving all the packages inspite of their own jobs. Apartment has more than enough closets and cupboards for storage. The exercise room {upgraded recently }and the garden are very well maintained and this place is gated and more safe to live. We had enjoyed our stay here and had to leave only because of my son's school.”
— 3450 SAWTELLE BLVD · Mar Vista