Apartment Review for Casa Del Sol Apartments - Huntington Beach, CA

ave lived here for 1 year and 8 months, 8 months ago I signed a 9 month lease instead of a 12 month lease as I was not sure if I wanted to stay any longer. I am now sure, at the end of this lease I intend to leave. First the good points, the grounds are very well kept with many wide open spaces. There are two pools which are in good condition considering how old they are. The jacuzzi is working and fairly clean 99% of the time, but for a place with 500 units that 1% is not bad. There are laundry rooms on every floor and the machines are quick to be repaired anytime one goes out. The gym is small, but is kept clean and in working order. The mailbox areas are kept clean and neat. I have not had any of the plumbing problems that other reviews have stated, but my neighbor below me has, as well as the neighbor next door. Now the not so good points. Yes, there are TREMENDOUS parking problems as the other reviews have pointed out. There are several (20 plus) vehicles that are stored on the property in the 48 hour maximum spots and the management states that they are not permitted to do anything about it. I have complained to the management that I have had to drive around for 30 minutes waiting for someone to leave before I could park. Yes, there are several neighbors who are loud, ride their skateboards right outside my door, toss trash down onto my balcony on a weekly basis and keep dumping their garbage in the laundry rooms. Cats are supposed to be kept inside, but there are several cats that run around. I have found cat dropping outside several times and twice on my balcony, and had cat paw prints on my vehicle. The management claims to be aware of the individuals, but has not done anything about it for the past 9 months. Yes, the security is poor. When I first moved in both security gates were broken, yet I had to leave a deposit for a gate remote. Then 3 months ago the gates were finally replaced. Currently only one gate works and one is broken. My vehicle has been borken into once, my neighbors has been broken into twice. Plus my neighbor got a flat tire after someone placed a beer bottle under his tire and he ran over it. Did not think you should have to check your car everytime you get in. Yes, the rent is more expensive than other places. When I signed the new lease 8 months ago my rent did increase substantially. The amount of the increase was higher than any other rates that I found looking elsewhere, but at the time I decided to tough it out anyway. I have now looked around at several other places in the same neighborhood recently and I found that 5 of 6 of them have lower rents than Casa Del Sol. When I first moved in, I was shown a place on the property that I could wash my car. I thought that that was a nice extra. Now someone has slashed several hoses (fine, I will bring my own), broken the faucets multiple times (fine, I asked for them to be repaired on four occassions), someone has removed the faucet handles (fine, I will use a screwdriver), now someone has glued them shut. The management refuses to fix them anymore. There are some very good points to living here, but as you can see there are more negative points. I do not recommend moving here.