Toscana Apartments — Attraction in Irvine

There's much concern these days about how trustworthy a review can be, considering a positive review could potentially be an employee and a negative review might in fact, turn out to be competition. That said, I'm a current resident and my review will be honest, perhaps a little 'rantish' but anything listed is truthful and can be backed up with video or photographic evidence.

Many of the reviews across several other sites have similar issues regarding parking and trash. This is a dire problem for those of us with several vehicles or visitors, there's constantly a choke point of illegal parking just outside the office, by movers, maintenance/office staff and future residents. This problem is compounded by the constant construction crews and landscaping that leave their vehicles parked illegally or in visitor areas.

Trash, pests and pollution are probably the most personally concerning to me, as I have a family and a history of lung related medical issues, attributed to smokers and dust. The complex itself is disgusting and looks as though it's never been cleaned since it was built. Rusty pipes, black widow nests in doorways, obvious structural damage that's been resealed many times and trash left sitting out by residents in the walkways. There is no non-smoking policy here and the office, like many other issues just defends themselves with apologies while giving the run around. Cigarette butts litter the planters, which are in turn blown up into the apartments when the landscaper comes by ( 3 to 4 times a week ) with a leaf blower. The landscaping company is called Four Seasons and is terrible at their very very simple job. Unlike the respectful pool cleaners who are quiet while doing their work, keeping their voices low in the early morning, the landscapers have no issue coming behind them and blowing dirt, leaves and other debris into the cleaned pool.

Lying is a rampant issue here, as if some employees want to be honest with tenants and the majority in the office are lying to save their jobs. I recently inquired about laundry machines and flooring upgrades, to which I was told would never happen as they'd be too disruptive to neighbors. Not a week later new appliances and new flooring was being installed into apartments above me. Construction was loud and continued until 9:30PM, many of my neighbors and family at one point, ran outside to look for the loud noises coming from...pipes? Still have no idea but we all thought the other was causing it.

There are several benefits to paying such an absurd price to be, what feels like undeserved punishment for living here. Just East of the property, across Carlson Ave., is a protected marsh that's superb for taking walks or jogs ( when not mosquito season anyway ). There are many nearby restaurants, some more pricey than others but I recommend the Daily Grill for their bar service alone. Toscana is renovating their Clubhouse, but it used to be great for reserving a pool party, though parking was terrible and guest would likely have to park along Carlson Ave. The Clubhouse closes at 6pm and the doors are chained.

Security is something that needs to be addressed before I forget. There are no on-site patrols here, no surveillance either which makes for many 'gated community' flaws. Most of the gates are broken, unlocked or left open. The pool located at the 30 Building, is frequently used well past hours ( open till 11pm ) with trespassers drinking open bottles and disturbing the peace for other residents. They should feel lucky this isn't Texas, where they'd likely be shot at. Speaking of shootings, there is much violence in this area, not sure why it's this way but after speaking with local police officers, the crime rate is well above what I thought originally and I guess we shouldn't be surprised as Santa Ana is only blocks away. Packages, parcels and cars are stolen, broken into and the remnant shards of tempered window glass, glitters the floors in any of the parking garages. The 'Courtesy Patrol' is located in Anaheim, you're better off...

DO NOT RENT HERE UNLESS YOU STAY 5+ YEARS. THEY WILL STEAL YOUR DEPOSIT AND THEN CHARGE YOU EXCESS FEES WHEN YOU MOVE OUT. I rented from this complex for almost 3 years. Each year they not only increased rent by 10%, but began making renovations to elevators which caused them to go down a lot. HUGE inconvenience to the tenants. Then when I decided to break my lease, I followed protocol and had to pay 1.5x my rent for the fee. OK, standard procedure. Part of the move out process you have to do a pre-move out inspection. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TAKE PICTURES AND MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS IN PERSON AND HAVE IT RECORDED. Because I happened to be at my unit in person, when Maintenance came to do the inspection. I was told it was STANDARD CLEANING/Normal wear and tear. I then asked how much those charges would be - ~$150 for cleaning and $100 for painting and $80 for carpet cleaning, something in that ballpark. I was NEVER informed I could do the cleaning/repairs myself, nor was provided a list of things I could do to retain my deposit. I then moved out on a day early and turned in keys on 7/30. By Monday 8/8, I received a statement of the cleaning fees on my account. It listed everything that was discussed. THEN 24 HOURS LATER, THEY DELETED THE STATEMENT AND REVISED IT WITH A CARPET PLACEMENT AND CHARGED ME AN ADDITIONAL $215. They claimed there were pink bleach stains that ruined the carpet. If there were any stains like that, why did it not come up during the in person inspection then??? Why was it also not called out on the inspection report??? Isn't that the point? And my unit was completely empty when the inspection took place. THEN they claimed they tried to clean the carpet and couldn't get the stains out, so they had to replace it. Hmm... sounds like the bleach stains came from the cleaning and NOT from me. BUT THEN they said they talked to the vendor and they recommended replacing the carpet. SO WHICH IS IT? DID YOU CLEAN THE CARPET FIRST OR DID YOU DECIDE TO REPLACE IT? Either you cleaned the carpet, and the bleach stains came from that process OR you decided to replace the carpet when it had normal wear and tear. EGREGIOUS. Normal wear and tear btw according to California law includes normal spot stains.

BY LAW they have to return your deposit within 21 days. I WENT BACK AND FORTH WITH LEASING OFFICE FOR WEEKS to try and resolve the matter, and it was approaching the 30 day mark, at which point, per their lease they could start assessing interest on any fees you owe them. I ended up paying the $215 to move on with my life. Writing this review to prevent others from making the...

The location of Toscana Apartments and the state of the units is second to none. However, beware the leasing office. They are, without a doubt, the most frustrating group of people I have ever encountered.

From miscommunications to neglect, the leasing office made my whole experience at Toscana that much worse. The move-out process is a nightmare. Called them three times over six months to confirm move-out information, just for new information to magically appear the week I'm moving out (after I had already schedules everything). I had to stay awake for nearly 30 hours since they could only accommodate my PODS container for "2 days" despite the container really being there for only 24 hours. Keep in mind, this is last minute information, so I'm forced to pack and move boxes the entire day AND night, not sleeping until the afternoon of the next day.

The phone calls? Those were the lucky times I was able to get through to them. Most of the time, even during office hours, the phone will either ring to voicemail or go straight to voicemail. It's as if no one ever watches the phone. You might get a more timely response through email than actually calling them. In the event of a miscommunication, don't expect an apology. On the contrary, expect to be blamed. "My fault" that the 2 day rule wasn't mentioned the first three times I called.

The only silver lining to this place is the maintenance team. They are rockstars, and they deserve all the appreciation they can get. Even when the leasing office was unresponsive, the maintenance team checked in on us and followed up on incidents and the like.

Overall, the apartments are pretty and the location is exceptional, but the leasing office will have you wishing you could bury your head in a hole.

Also, thank you to Sam, the only helpful person I encountered in the...