I would, if it were possible, give Pacific Oaks and its sister housing complex, Mariana Village, zero stars.
One month after moving in to our unit, our downstairs bathroom flooded, and we were told that there were cracked pipes underneath the concrete-slab below our floor.
To avoid having to jackhammer through the concrete, Pacific Oaks hired contractors who, without any protective clothing or masks, cut open our asbestos-containing cottage cheese ceiling, and left it open.
When we saw this and told Pacific Oaks of our concerns, they sent out a worker who, again with no protective gear, stapled plastic over the open parts of the ceiling.
We complained further, and were put up (with our three-year-old daughter and our cat) at Motel 6 for a night. Then we were told that Pacific Oaks was probably not going to do the asbestos testing we'd asked for, because they didn't think our building would have a problem.
They tried to tell us that post-1978 buildings didn't need to be tested; this was a lie. The cutoff date is 1981, and cottage cheese ceilings are always presumed to contain asbestos, even in later buildings.
Now, a week later, we're still living out of Motel 6 (although we did have to drive to Lompoc last night to stay in a hotel, because Pacific Oaks only made our reservations one day at a time, so they were unable to find us rooms in town for Saturday night), and our duplex unit may not be finished until next week. We're not even sure we'll be reimbursed for all of the expenses caused by this ordeal, and we're running out of money.
Judging by the number of phone calls we've had to make (5-10 per day), the letters we've had to fax, and the number of times we've had to remind Pacific Oaks--and its parent company, the Towbes Group--of their legal responsibilities to us, we've got a lot of work ahead of us before we can move back in.
We did, after requesting that they put their denial to do asbestos testing in writing for us, succeed in getting them to do the asbestos testing.
And guess what! Our ceilings are 3% asbestos. Which the Towbes Group wasn't even going to warn us about before they started the major repairs that involved cutting into our ceilings. They just didn't care, apparently, about following the law.
At this point, we don't trust the Towbes Group to treat us like human beings, and we have no faith at all that the work being done on our unit is safe, or that the asbestos dust will be cleaned up by licensed contractors.
I'll be sure to come back and leave another review if we or our child get cancer from asbestos.
We're worried about the probably-unlicensed construction workers who were exposed to the asbestos, too, but we'll never know what happens to them, or their families, to whom they may have done major damage by bringing home asbestos particles on their clothing.
Short version: Don't rent from Pacific Oaks or Towbes. They absolutely do not care about you, your health, your children's health, or anything at all aside from cutting corners and saving money at your expense. read more
