AVA Burbank — Attraction in Burbank

I’ve now lived in building 7 at AVA Burbank for close to 4 years (in August).

Pros • Considered part of the Toluca Lake community with access to everything, near the 101, Vons, Starbucks, Bank of America, The Roguelike Tavern, BeaBeas (great breakfast), Handels (great ice cream), Magnolia Blvd. shopping, Patys diner, Bob’s Big Boy, Gary Marshall Theater, The Smokehouse, Warner Brothers, Universal, Hollywood, etc. • People in the neighborhood are relatively nice and you can feel generally safe walking around most times of day in this community (but this is in the LA area so always be alert) • You’ll run into famous faces like Josh Todd walking his dog, Macauley Culkin, and Peter Facinelli who live in the area, or others, like Michael Keaton, while they may be filming in the community • Maintenance men respond usually in 24 hours, 48-72 if they’re slammed • Fiber internet through AT&T

Cons • WFH people: There are a variety of noises and interruptions here (neighbors, pets, airplanes, constant landscaping, and on-going maintenance) which can make virtual meetings and presentations a constant pain point. • Apartments were built in the 60s and are only cosmetically updated. Most appliances won’t be replaced with something new if they’re broken. Asbestos and lead paint addendums will be in your lease agreement. Additionally, at least in my apartment, the bath water has a teal tint from copper corrosion in the pipes. • If the tenant in the apt sharing the wall of your kitchen/bathroom smokes, you will smell and may see the smoke in your apartment (this includes incense and air fresheners) • Once you sign the lease, the leasing office is done with you. There is no month to month, and you’ll have to pay 3x the monthly rent at minimum to break the lease, annual increases are usually 10% • The only way to contact the office staff once you’ve moved in is through the resident app; no one is physically staffed in the office without appointment • You’ll need to contact corporate offices or the Burbank police department for any neighbor-related concerns, as the office staff won’t take action beyond a community email • The Amazon hub for packages has frequent issues (either not working or doors are jammed) – the leasing office does not accept packages • Irreparable rain and plumbing water damage on building structure/in apartments/in carports (an active leak in the carports ruined the hood of my once brand new vehicle); cracks in walls, building structure, stairwells, and overhead walkways (from construction, earthquakes, and human traffic); the pool is only sort of maintained in the summer (lights and filters don't always work, and evidently there's a water heater I didn't even know about because it has never worked) • There are cockroaches, ants, black & brown widows, galore I've had to deal with this and rats since I've been here - the rat was only on one occasion and it was dead in the courtyard, the roaches were remnants of my neighbor's infestation prior to me moving in. • Dog policies aren't upheld. While I don't mind dogs peeing in the courtyard (we're more open air and less prone to smells than other bldgs that are more enclosed in the community), there are dogs off leash (and cats) - or "on leash" but no one is holding the leash. Poop is frequently left behind inside and outside buildings (owners aren't paying attention or don't care), and some of the cats will kill the local lizards and birds and leave them behind.

My personal experience with the people and businesses in this community have been wonderful. My experience with the apartment has been the worst I’ve had in 20+ years of apartment living in 7 different states. Please note, if you’ve lived in an Avalon property on the East Coast, they are managed differently than this community.

I will say out of fairness, I think my experience has been exceptionally bad, but my neighbors – while they may have had a handful of things occur, have not had the experience I’ve had.

*Pictures are from my first day in the apartment, in...

Look closely at how many reviews their reviewers have written! After each service call, they ask for a Google review so you are getting reviews of their maintenance crew (well deserved) and not the apartment complex.

In short: DO NOT MOVE HERE! It's a bait and switch. Don't fall for it! If they're trying to rent you Apartment 23 in the 4210 W Sarah St. building, the upstairs neighbors are the loudest I've ever experienced in my 20 years of renting in Los Angeles. You will be up all hours of the day/night because of whatever it is they do up there (sounds like gymnastics or wrestling or circuit training). They WILL jack up your rent at the end of your lease--YES, even in a time of a global pandemic. And ROMEO (who tells me he's the manager) is not only entirely unresponsive 90% of the time, but when he does respond, offers no help and literally says he's too busy to answer. Literally. I have this in writing. Having said that, when he wanted me to give him more than 30 days of notice that I was moving, he was able to call and email me multiple times a day.

Two stars are for the maintenance staff. They are truly lovely, work incredibly hard, and exemplify customer service. Their leasing staff should take a page from the maintenance crew, honestly.

Whole story: Let's start with the bait and switch. These folx will lure you in with leasing specials and will treat you like gold. They will assure you that there will always be someone on hand to help you and that they will take care of your every concern. When I mentioned that I'd heard a lot of people have to move after one year due to rent increases, I was assured that this was not the case (they lied). I watched every single one of my neighbors systematically get priced out throughout the year I was in the apartment, meaning they had to leave and the apartments then get filled with college students all bunking together and splitting the costs. What this means is that you have 6-8 20something year olds living in each apartment. Imagine what that sounds like. Now, imagine that these apartments are not made for that many people...so parking is overflowed...so the trash overflows and sits around rotting in the middle of the parking lot (even though the maintenance crew is constantly cleaning)...plumbing and grounds get worn. The "secured gate" at the front of my apartment was broken for the entire year I lived there. Go there now, and push on it. It's not even locked.

When my lease was coming to an end (a few months prior), I reached out to Romeo to ask if AVA was providing any assistance due to the COVID situation. He assured me that they were helping others by discounting/freezing rents and that he would absolutely submit a request for some assistance for me. A few days passed and I didn't hear back from him. I reached out again and was told he could not help me. When I asked why he had said he would be able to help me and now, suddenly, he says he cannot...his response was, "Things change every day. Sorry!" At this point, I was forced to find cheaper rent elsewhere. Since he wanted to be able to start marketing my apartment, he began reaching out to me via phone and email every single day. It became so disruptive (multiple phone calls in a day) that I asked he please allow me to just give him the 30 days as I was legally required to do. He then sent me paperwork that waived my right to a walk through of the apartment. I reached out to ask him how I would be able to get the itemized list of any deductions they planned to take out of my deposit and he told me they were not offering walk throughs. When I explained that it is my legal right as a renter, he told me that I could take a video of all of the things I think I might be charged for and send it to him. This is not a solution. At the end, I was not given my walk through or itemized list of deductions.

When emailing Romeo about any questions or needs of mine as a renter, it takes over a week and multiple check ins to get any sort of...

I’m not usually one for reviews, but living here has been obscenely strenuous on my mental health & I feel like I have to share the frustrations I’ve experienced here. For example: usually maintenance is pretty good, but I had a request of mine go fully unacknowledged and I didn’t have a functional shower for over a week; I had to go to my boyfriend’s place all the way in Calabasas to take a shower. The apartments themselves are terribly insulated with inefficient heating and cooling systems. I can hear my upstairs neighbor’s every footstep, phone call, drawer opening, and door closing as if it’s happening in my own unit. What’s most disappointing is that my first year at AVA was quiet & pleasant. I was in a 1st floor studio & couldn’t hear anything from the surrounding units. I was even located right next to the shared laundry room & barely heard the machines. But, when I moved into my one bedroom, everything went downhill. & When I brought the noise level to their attention, I was met with an apathetic, “Well, that just comes with apartment living.” This was shocking to me because, as I just detailed, my experience in my previous unit was NOTHING like this. I couldn’t hear my upstairs neighbor at all in my studio, but I hear every creek that my upstairs neighbor’s bed makes in my current one bedroom. Circling back to the insulation: not only are the windows poor quality & release all the heat, but I can hear everything & everyone outside, too. I can’t sleep anywhere in my apartment. Either I get woken up by loud conversations from below my bedroom window, my neighbor’s 6:30AM alarm above me or, if I’m sleeping on the couch, it’s dogs barking & people talking. The amount of activity I hear from my apartment makes me self conscious about what people can hear from my unit. I feel like I have no privacy. I have been living in a constant state of anxiety because of this. There was also a span of time in 2022 where people were trying to break into my apartment! I don’t even know how they got in, but one man claimed he rented my unit as an Air BnB, which obviously he didn’t because I live there, but I found him with a key trying to unlock my door AND he had an email WITH MY ADDRESS AND APARTMENT NUMBER in it! There was another incident with a woman trying to break in, but she ran away as soon as I opened the door. When I called the leasing office to express my concern, they just said “Just don’t open the door.” Completely dismissive. Nevermind the fact that the main entrance door is off its hinges for weeks on end every couple of months, so anyone can just walk in. The safety and quality of life are questionable & then they have the nerve to bump up the rent to the legal maximum every chance they get, just because it’s Burbank. The only reason I’ve stayed as many years as I have is because I have literally been trapped. Apartment hunting in LA County is brutal & I would either have to overlap leases and pay double rent or have a month gap with nowhere to live if I wanted to leave. I used to dorm in New York City and that was a quieter, more pleasant experience than the living conditions at AVA Burbank. Not to mention the one time their Customer Care Center DOUBLE CHARGED me for my rent & left me $2,000 overdrawn & then told me that I should be THANKFUL that I wouldn’t have to worry about rent next month. I’ve never been so angry at a customer service rep in my life. I had to block the payment through my bank so it would get rejected and send my money back into my account, then unblock AVA, then repay my rent and SPOILER ALERT still had to worry about rent next month after all. God forbid there’s a repeat of this ordeal and it prevents me from paying any of my other bills. I wouldn’t recommend living here to my worst enemy. AVA Burbank has made me genuinely question if it would just be easier to stop living than to try to escape its predatory clutches. The panic attacks, the lack of sleep, the stress, the anger, and the desperation just aren’t worth it....