Californian Apartments

Management was obviously young and inexperienced. Elyse was the daughter of the owner and Yvonne was just there. Yvonne couldn't do much of anything. Anything she said she'd do, she'd turn around and say the complete opposite days later after not keeping her word. Elyse was flaky. She quit for a while leaving everything to Yvonne, which nothing got done. Then she randomly came back a few months before we moved out. They were unprofessional and didn't know how to properly uphold policies. Elyse... did a rush walk through upon us moving out which she told us that we'd get our entire deposit back because the apartment was move-in ready. Later she tells us that she has to charge us $180 to fix a problem we left behind.. How convenient. We were completely moved out and had handed over the keys. There was no way for us to confirm or dispute he claim.
The apartment suffers from seepage of smells. The unit below us constantly cooked and smoked weed. The smells overwhelmed us in our unit. The managements fix was to provide us with a air purifier.. It was not the solution. When the issue continued, they told us to take it up with the police. So I did. Surprise, surprise.. the police told us there's nothing they can do and to take it up with management. So the issue never got resolved. Our sink was installed backwards, the garbage disposal was installed by amateurs and the shower was suffered from sporadic, unpredictable temperature changes, some of which was really hot. Their maintenance was clearly self taught, untrained handymen not suitable for professional work. The fitness center was a joke. Nothing worked at first until I nagged them into at least fixing the treadmill which they did 6 months after we moved in. It's not a fitness center. It's a storage room for broken equipment and an unkept restroom. I wouldn't recommend these apartments to anyone.
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We lived at The Californian Apartments for about a year. While there were definitely some positives, the overall experience was overshadowed by consistently poor management.

Pros:
The location is excellent—just a short walk to South Shore Center and only a block from the beach. Our unit had a semi-upgraded kitchen with nice faux marble countertops, which we appreciated.

Cons:
1. Inadequate Management Response to Smoking Violations:
Despite the complex being designated non-smoking (with clear... signage and clauses in the lease), we constantly dealt with marijuana smoke from the neighbors below us. We don't smoke, and this was a significant issue for us. Management's response was disappointing—they repeatedly claimed their hands were tied and refused to take any meaningful action beyond sending generic emails to all units and the occasional "reminder" to the violating tenant. They even claimed they couldn't call the offending tenants to confront them due to "landlord-tenant laws," which made no sense since they called us multiple times. After months of complaints and even involving the Alameda Police (who management requested us contact to deal with the issue and who deferred responsibility back to management), the only action taken was to give us an air purifier, which merely masked the issue rather than solving it.

2. Unresolved Plumbing Issues:
The shower in our unit had an outdated three-valve system, which led to extreme and sudden temperature fluctuations—from freezing cold to scalding hot. We reported it within weeks of moving in, and despite multiple promises and visits from plumbers, the problem was never fixed during our entire tenancy.

3. Withholding Security Deposit Unfairly:
We left our apartment in pristine, move-in ready condition. The manager even confirmed this during both the pre-move-out and final walkthroughs, telling us we should expect a full return of our deposit. Despite requesting confirmation in writing, we received no follow-up. After numerous emails and finally a phone call, we were told a "problem" had been discovered with the garbage disposal during a prospective tenant showing—something completely unmentioned during both walkthroughs.

Bottom line:
I cannot recommend The Californian Apartments. The management is unprofessional, unresponsive, and seems more interested in protecting themselves than supporting their tenants. Read More