Tenant Reviews for 6301 ALMEDA RD

The move in process was a hassle. Was told I could move in on one day and the date kept getting pushed back. I'm in a "removated" unit but some of the fixtures are outdated. Maintenance is friendly and swift with getting things done. Location is convient. Overall quiet neighborhood so far. Not sure yet if I would recommend this property yet. It's not a luxury complex but it's decent for the location and rent I suppose.

Although it's an old property I moved because it was close to my job. But the property owner doesn't seem to be interested in the well being of tenants and the property. Security should be #1 and it's not. Too much vandalism and no security on property.

Let me start with why I liked the complex initially. The location, the units are spacious with good storage space, it appeared they had adequate amenities. None of it was worth it with my moving out experience. Management changed some time last year to Haven Residential. For months the elevator was out, common areas inaccessible, the security gates often fully open with no night time security whatsoever. I personally know of two tenants who had their things stolen and gotten absolutely no help from management, including permitting to review security footage that is available for limited areas within the complex. Regardless. The straw that broke the proverbial camels back was when it came to renewing my rental contract. Due to prior lease terms being 13-14 months, I had only 7-8 months left before moving for a different job. Anticipating a hike in rent, I reached out through the resident portal requesting a renewal quote, especially since I wanted to avoid moving for such a short period. Not only did I not have the option of leasing for 7 or 8 months, the hike was quite steep. They forced me to have to renew for six months with the new rent & then pay month to month fees for the remainder. This when new tenants can sign for any lease term, as confirmed on their future resident forms. I requested a negotiation, while trying to find a new place. Notably, despite reaching out few weeks before the 60 day mark/move out date, they did not respond till I only had 45 days left to move out. So between that and having to figure out an alternative, I couldn’t give a 60 day notice. They pushed my move out date by a month. Sheree attempted to push it another month halfway through claiming I hadn’t sent a notice. At this point, I’m paying approx 700$ more than my previous rent, without accounting for amenities. Any attempt at contacting them is shot down immediately. The only way to reach is via their resident portal - where I’ve rarely received a response, or via their phone number, which is also not a direct line to the office. There is never a direct connection to the office. Lastly, the month I was to move out, despite me staying only 10 days, I was charged the entire months rent with other charges, crossing 1000$ of my original rent. I noticed this unfortunately when I tried to pay rent, which was a weekend. I calculated the approximate amount that would be rent for ten days and submitted that to avoid late charges. However with all the additional charges and rent in my apartment, I overdrew my account while doing so and the transaction was declined, which came to my notice only 3 days later. In the meantime, I called the office every day requesting they give me the right amount that I can pay for the month. Of course, they added further fees but never corrected the rent to reflect I’m there only for ten days. I went there in person several times, as much as my schedule permits, often to be told that the person who does finances is either not in or won’t come in till the middle of the day or whatever. Eventually you end up in the managers office, Sheree McGowan. Unfortunately there is no reasonable interaction during with her. She does not listen to your full sentence before blaming you for not doing something. When you try to reason, upset due to the inefficiency, she tries to police your tone, drag witnesses into the conversation to gang up against you and refuses to engage. There is absolutely no way to go above her to the landlord or her supervisor. Every thing you do is not enough - why didn’t you make an appointment. Why didn’t you keep contacting? Why did you come here? Direct quotes from the worst leasing staff member I’ve interacted with include “I am all you get” “It doesn’t say anywhere in your contract that we will respond on time. It’s your responsibility to be on time.” “I don’t care. Read your contract and tell me where it says that.” I’ve tried to reason with this person at least five different times, each time her interrupting me and refusing to engage any further. I’ve been reduced to tears every single time, to the point outside of her office her other staff members are consoling me. In her absence every one is reasonable but the moment she is there, they cannot say a single word, except forcibly agreeing to her manipulative responses. This being a private property with a brand new management, they do not care one bit. For me the extra close to 2000$ is distressing, and not from lack of trying to reason with them initially with not being given a renewal quote on time, and second by not correcting the charges for the month I was to move out despite contacting them every which way. The charges that you incur for each day is automatically added. All in all, do not get fooled into their rent specials or claims of services, they will more than double the amount you owe them when you move out. The amenities are terrible, the premises are never clean, the elevator is always out, there is no security, there is no consideration for a loyal tenant who lived there for 3+ years always paying rent on time, and no humanity. Do your future self a favor and keep looking for other apartment complexes. The psychological trauma inflicted by their callous management is not worth it.

The staff is slow to respond and does not always complete requests. The gate is constantly broken and locks anyone inside until maintenance comes to release it. The property never answers the phone and the call is always forwarded to an offsite location.

Service requests go unmet, the pool is closed more months than open, including at the start of every summer I have been here, and people don't clean after their pets. As of currently, there has been an alarm going off outside of my apartment for weeks. But you can walk to the med center.

I absolutely do not recommend moving here. It's noisy and things get done at a glacial pace. It is cheaper than all the other apartments in that area for a reason. I should've listened to the bad reviews online before I signed my lease.

On-going theft and rodent issues, had several bikes stolen, vehicle vandalized, and my outdoor patio burglarized and although the rodents are not seen as much during the day they still exist. Rodent urine smells.

This place has a lot of potential, and the units themselves are nice but it is not worth coming here at all. For the rent they charge you can get a much better place that is secure, has adequate parking space and actual amenities in the same location. The management also changed recently so a lot of the older reviews are for different staff, the current crop are rude, play dumb and are not responsive at all. Regarding the property itself: - the parking garage is so tight, you have to pray that you don’t run into a speeding car each blind turn because often you have to drive between the two lanes to avoid hitting pick up trucks and bigger vehicles parked in the restricted space. You will also have a lot of body damage in this apartment as each space is very constricted and you or the driver next to you are likely to scrape by the beams or cars next to you. Literally every car in this garage has dents or scratches - Terrible security. Things get stolen and you’re on your own. A neighbors personal items were stolen and some of it retrieved from an empty apartment months later. Also gotten stuff stolen from cars. Apartment provided no form of assistance in the first case, including allowing to review security footage. The main gates are constantly open, and there is no onsite security personnel or tools - Frequent water outages - Frequent fire alarm inspections . They are courteous to let you know half the time, so good luck getting some sleep in after a night shift - really sparse amenities. The gym has barely 3 working equipments. The common area is not accessible before 10 am and after 6 pm on weekdays. They do not keep the corridors clean at all. Overall if you care about amenities this isn’t a good place for you - access issues from the garage due to needing steps to get into each individual building. Elevator is almost always out, so if you have something heavy to get to or from your apartment and you don’t live on the ground floor, good luck - hiking the rent. No room for discussion. Worst case, if you have to renew your lease for anything other than 6 or 12 months, they will not let you do so . This means, if you choose 13 or 14 month leases and are left with only 8-9 months for your last year (eg you’re here for limited time, near the medical center for whatever reason) you do not get an option to renew the lease for 8 or 9 months. They will force you to sign for a 6 month lease and then charge a much higher month to month rent for the remainder. However, they offer various lease terms for new tenants. Any discussion is met with “it’s in the contract” so you’re on your own. I was not given a renewal offer within the 60 day period and reached out earlier to plan accordingly. Not only did they not respond till 45 days before the move out date, they refuse to budge on the 60 day notice because I’m supposed to blindly decide if I’ll leave or stay regardless of what prices they offer for the rent. Completely selfish, inhumane and heartless management, and I wouldn’t have written this review if I didn’t feel so strongly misled by their initial presentation. If they were available easily for discussion it would be another matter. I would strongly avoid this complex and it saddens me to say this. No offer they give you is worth it, you will pay for it in other ways

Although I feel that there have been some good updates to the property since the new management took over, the amount of new fees on my apartment is horrendous. Not only am I now paying a "community fee" for the SAME amenities and also building insurance on the exterior, which I didn't have to do before. But I also can't do a free credit card transaction when I pay for my rent. All of these things add up, and now my rent is significantly more than it would be for other facilities in the area. Also, when renewing my lease I got very frustrated because the manager could not give me any better price then a brand new resident, even though I had been at the complex for 5years and nearly the whole place was under construction. haven should be more considerate and flexible when it comes to raising their residents rent. As for the staff, they are great.

We personally had our car windows broken twice which has cost us over $800 total to repair. I have personally seen 2 cars on blocks where thieves stole all their tires. We used to have a Security Guard walking around when we first moved in, but I guess it is not cost effective for the apartment complex. Instead, they email us a canned email saying to get friendly with our neighbors and to get video cameras which are cheap to purchase. I see video cameras around the complex, but do not know if they work or not. They finally did add more lighting (our complaint after our first break in (which they did nothing about at the time). They did announce that we can meet with the local Police in a meeting, but that was all that seems to have been done.