DO NOT RENT FROM BLVD
After several properties in San Diego, BLVD has been our worst experience. We were excited and hopeful to make this new property our home, but this quickly turned into a nightmare experience from dealing with management, our unit, neighbors, and the 'security' of the building itself.
Please note, management asks all tenants to leave a review for them just after a month from moving in. This is not enough time to full experience living here. We were here for a year so this is what our experience reflects
Our unit itself was already overpriced for what we received. Extremely small and cramped with very little storage for anything. It is clear BLVD was built to minimize money spent reflecting the poor quality in the construction and units. Walls were thin and you can hear your neighbors just talking. The appliances were cheap and low quality, especially the tiny refrigerator and terrible dishwasher. Our sink wasn't even properly attached to the counter. We could easily hear all our neighbor's voices, and had to call numerous complaints about noisy neighbors in the middle of the night on weekdays, and still nothing was done. I've never been one to complain of noisy neighbors but here it was too much, too loud, and a disrespectful community.
The utilities (water, trash, sewage) are done through another company and cost over $100 a month. The garbage chute rarely worked, the spa was constantly broken down, and the security gates were broken on more than one occasion, giving access to anyone. BLVD refused to take responsibility and blamed it on a tenant. The gate currently has been broken for almost three months now, and this gives anyone full access to the entire building. As a result, neighbor's cars were broken into and BLVD refused to take responsibility. Why pay for these luxury amenities if nothing is ever working properly?
Our unit itself faced El Cajon Blvd and was a terrible experience. Due to no sound proofing, you hear cars speeding by through the day and night. You can clearly hear the bar across the street late at night, and also voices coming from the restaurant downstairs. Also, with how the balconies are built, if anyone is standing on their balcony, it channels their voices up the building making it impossible to ignore. We also could clearly hear our upstairs neighbors' voices and walking around. I've never been able to hear my upstairs neighbors so clearly in any other complex.
With living facing El Cajon, I began to experience health issues due to the amount of dust kicked up from the street. Our patio was constantly filthy and our unit was always dusty. I began experiencing breathing issues and allergy issues I never had before moving here, and has gotten better since moving away.
After our first year, we were given the option to renew for 12 months with a 10% rent increase or go month-month with a 25% rent increase. When asking management to negotiate, we were told in the office that our unit was highly desirable and could easily be rented out at a higher rate, basically "Go ahead and leave, we will find someone else to pay a higher rate." They also didn't offer any improvements to justify this ridiculous increase in rent. At this time, with the gate being broken and the way we were treated, we no longer felt protected or safe to keep this our home.
Before we moved out, maintenance entered our unit without our permission at least once while we were home, unknown how many times while we were not home. When we told management, they didn't even apologize but just acknowledged and said "he thought you guys were gone." This further justifies our feeling of unease remaining in our unit and how little we trust management.
We scrubbed our unit top to bottom before leaving as we wanted our full deposit back, as we have discover this is a very advantageous company. Upon move-out, we cleaned and scrubbed our unit to maximize our deposit. They ended up charging us for a full deep cleaning, and full painting of the unit when we only mounted a TV (which was allowed). They also charged us extra fees for prepping the unit for the next tenant, which is not allowed in California. They kept most of our deposit without full justifications.
After our experience, awful building, awful staff, awful company. Very rude and definitely not a place I would ever call home. All of management is extremely fake, rude and unprofessional. These types of companies are full of crooks, and are an indirect cause of our insane rental increases and they should be avoided. They do not value your tenancy and they do not value you as a person. You are just a number. Tenant Beware. read more