Avalon Irvine — Attraction in Irvine

First, the positives, before I explain why I chose to leave.

1. The modern floorplans are beautiful. We stayed in the 2 bedroom with sliding doors and walk-in showers. The renovated units provide tons of storage: the hallways double as closets, and the walls are equipped with boards to hang personal items. I've yet to come across another apartment in Irvine that rivals the innovative quality of Avalon's.

2. The location of the apartment is extremely convenient – a 2m drive to the 405, and a 3m walking distance to DJ and HMart. However, this also means living next to busy streets like Alton and Jamboree. Throughout the day and sometimes night, you will hear car engines revving.

3. Maintenance is fast. Wayne is friendly and knowledgeable. When my smoke alarm started beeping, I submitted a request and Wayne showed up within 30m to change the batteries. Another day, I smelled rotten eggs, and Wayne searched the entire unit until he found the cause. Wayne even wears disposable shoe covers before entering. Seriously, thank you Wayne for your helpfulness and professionalism.

For these reasons, I wish I could've stayed at this apartment. However, I had to terminate my lease early for two reasons.

1. ANTS. We don't leave food, trash, or dirty dishes out. After cleaning the apartment with disinfectant, we still found ants all over the counters, floorboards, hallways, showers, kitchenware, and even our beds. After many extermination requests, we couldn't find evidence that the pest control company, Orkin, entered to treat the apartment. No written note, no confirmation, no traps – nothing. Management later informed us that the "pest guy was new and didn't know to leave notes".

Another week passes. We notice ants crawling from behind the oven and asked for the kitchen appliances to be treated. They weren't. We eventually bought and used our own ant traps, but that still didn't fix the whole issue. Jacob and Micaela met with us, then accused us of using "counteractive" OTC treatments. We pointed out that the traps were the only solution so far that has worked to any degree. They argued that our apartment was not uninhabitable, so they couldn't help. Lesson learned: Don't trust pest control, you'll need to take care of it yourself.

2. NOISY NEIGHBORS. Due to COVID-19, we began staying at home more often. During work hours, we noticed bass music coming from the adjacent unit, a corner unit on the 1st floor that only shared walls with ours. The vibrations would shake the walls of our unit for up to 8h/day, causing nausea and migraines. Sometimes, the music would continue until 2:30am. We took every action possible. First, we talked to our neighbor, explaining that the volume was fine, but the bass was distracting and caused us to miss work for medical reasons. He agreed, but did not actually lower the bass. Instead, he began deliberately making vibrations to shake our apartment and refused further attempts to communicate – he would walk up to the peephole, then ignore us and leave. We resorted to taping written notes on his door. He ignored them.

At this point, we called Avalon's courtesy patrol service. Over the next few months, we called security on a daily basis. After each call, it wasn't until 4-6 hours later that an officer would actually come to the apartment. We had to escalate to management directly, and provided them with call logs, photos, videos, and doctor's notes (e.g. prescribed migraine medication). In fact, we also spoke with his neighbor on the 2nd floor, who stated that she was moving out due to his noise. After 3 months, March through June, of back and forth emails and calls with Avalon management, Megan finally provided a satisfactory compromise for our situation. We appreciate Megan's help, however resolving our issue shouldn't have taken 3 months of migraines and nausea.

tldr; If you get lucky with your neighbors, you'll have a great experience. If you don't – it will take months of thorough documentation and daily communication with security and management before you possibly...

We have lived here for about 4 months now, in that time we have had to evacuate for a fire alarm no less than 6 times. The most recent was tonight at 2:00am, in which the fire alarm system was sounding for at least 10 minutes. The fire department didnt bother to arrive this time, likely knowing it was another case of someone smoking in their apartment.

When I contacted the Avalon management with complaints after we had to evacuate the building twice in one night, followed by another time the next night, they simply responded that they "were sorry" but there was "nothing they could do" with the girl I was speaking to not even being aware of the previous night's alarm sounding (acting as if I was making a false claim). I would rate 0/10 if possible for their management team in general, as they have been absolutely no help since we have lived here and would STRONGLY recommend anyone considering living here take a look at other nearby options or The Irvine Company, because as terrible as I thought they were when we lived there, Avalon has set a new low.

Do yourself a favor and don't live here. The apartment quality is great but the leadership of the management team is absolutely lacking. It doesn't matter how nice your apartment is if you're constantly being woken up by fire alarms because your neighbors know they can smoke freely (breaking the apartment rules) because the Avalon management team are absolute pushovers and won't punish tenants for behaviour that negatively impacts hundreds of others.

I can't stress this enough. Do not live here unless you have no need for uninterrupted sleep. If you're pregnant, have a family, looking to start one, or just really like your peace and quiet, this is absolutely NOT the place for you.

EDIT #1 - 9/17/18:

After reporting the fire alarm sounding for ~10minutes last night to the Avalon reception, one of the staff I was speaking to (Megan) suggested that there had been no alarm the previous night and that if it had other tenants would've reported it/she would know about it - that the claim I was making was for some other motive. 0/10 not the quality of service you would hope to be displayed by any tier of management or their representation. Since my first call, there has been no contact from anyone in actual management, nor an apology for the alarm or conduct of their employees. Will edit again following any update.

EDIT #2 - 9/17/18:

The Avalon manager returned my call and we discussed the alarm from the night before. This specific event was caused by an individual smoking in the hallway and the smoke getting into a switch room which delayed ventilation and subsequently a longer sounding alarm. I suggested that management take on a more aggressive disciplinary action plan for residents not abiding to the community rules and after a fair amount of back and forth the manager agreed to post some signage making note of the consequences for being caught smoking indoors. We will see if there is any follow-through or if it was just words in the next few days.

As for the problem with the previous call when initially registering the complaint about the fire alarms, I discovered that the individual I had spoken to earlier was the Community Service Supervisor, which honestly makes me more pissed that someone in her position would have the audacity to speak to her residents in such a disrespectful manner. The manager apologized on her behalf but I cant say I am at all impressed with the attitude she displayed and couldn't imagine it would be what I would hope for in an employee if I owned the company. The manager I spoke with was agreeable for the most part and I cant complain against his attitude specifically. I cant say that I somehow expect to not be evacuating the building in the next month for the same...

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