Avalon Mountain View — Attraction in Mountain View

UPDATE:

We clearly told the leasing office (by email and by submitting a hard copy request for pre-moveout inspection, see attached photo) that we did NOT want to participate in their clean sweep program, yet they billed us $150 for it anyways.

In addition, the leasing staff initially did not respond to our request for our pre-moveout inspection due to "Not performing due to COVID-19 social distancing." This is ILLEGAL. The laws in California about the tenant's right to a pre-moveout inspection have NOT changed! Also, we made the request for the inspection in March 2021. This is no longer lockdown times like it was in March-April 2020. There are methods to conduct a socially distanced pre-moveout inspection--you guys just didn't want to do it and used the pandemic as an excuse to skirt the laws. After multiple emails and calls, the leasing office finally relented and sent Oscar (maintenance employee) to conduct a pre-moveout inspection on 4/9/2021. Note that this was only a week before our moveout date, while California law stipulates the inspection should be conducted at least 2 weeks prior to moveout.

Finally, they added a random $65 charge from Solution Cleaning Service, even after Oscar noted no damages or cleaning needed. See attached itemized apartment receipt from Avalon. Oh and that receipt says we said YES to their Clean Sweep Program--that's incorrect!

For anyone reading this, don't expect to get your full security deposit back unless you fight for it. I don't know if it's this complex or AvalonBay as a company, but there's some shady s* going on. Take high resolution pictures of the apartment. Save all your invoices and forms you deliver to the office. Keep documentation of all this because if you don't, they'll do shady s* like this!

OLD REVIEW:

Pros: Maintenance staff is awesome. Front desk staff is great too and tries their best to accommodate. Grounds are well maintained. Apartments are generally okay but there's some issues (see below).

Cons: Apartments are old. Wall outlets are very loose and feel like they'll rip out when you unplug something. There's some noise from the train and neighbors. There's frequent construction and maintenance of the grounds (e.g. railing repair). There's major construction next door for the Villa MV apartments by Prometheus. Our washer has been defective for over a year (it almost flooded our kitchen once). It was finally replaced with a brand new GE washer/dryer unit, but that turned out to be defective too (would overheat and smell like it's burning). The GE service technician came twice and still the issue has not been resolved. Avalon maintenance has been excellent about this issue, but in some ways their hands are tied.

The biggest complaint is more directed towards Avalon as a company and not the staff at Avalon Mountain View. Avalon is a greedy leasing company like any other company. They consistently increased our rent to the maximum allowed by law. When COVID struck and rent dropped by ~40%, they refused to budge on our existing lease. Transfers to cheaper apartments in the community is more or less impossible. You're stuck with your rent price for the 12 months. Other smaller leasing companies around the area (not the big name companies like Avalon, Prometheus, etc.) will sometimes try to help out tenants. I understand they're a business and all, but when you treat your customers like **, you should not be surprised when many of them (over 25+ vacancies at time of writing!!!) leave when their lease is up. We will too...

TLDR: Avoid. Flea/Bedbug-infested apartments. Incompetent, management that will ignore you and lie.

We moved into Avalon Mountain View in #226 on the 9th of August 2020. When we toured the complex, it was apparent that it was in bad shape. The buildings are old and look rather dilapidated with poorly maintained staircases and decks. This was an early warning sign that we unfortunately ignored.

The initial few days we got used to the thumping sounds when anyone walked on the decks above us, the roar of the Caltrain behind our building, and continuous deck repairs with drills and hammers that started at 7 am. On the 18th of August night I discovered bite marks on my abdomen which were from either bedbugs or fleas. We immediately called the maintenance and the leasing team. They sent a person from the pest control company accompanied by a maintenance person who demanded to see the bites and vociferously claimed that there were no bedbugs here and these were flea bites--as if that makes it any better. Both were extremely aggressive and poorly behaved. They barged into our bedroom without our permission, did not care to keep their masks on. They claimed that the previous residents had a cat that probably caused the fleas. When we called the leasing team later, they said that they had no idea if the previous resident had a pet. I do not know who was lying. These two people asked us to vacuum the place regularly which we did--and we still got bitten for a week later. They were clearly negligent in preparing the apartment for us and anyone planning to rent there needs to know this.

The leasing team had promised us "VIP" treatment for all our maintenance requests in the first 14 days. But after this initial encounter, no one picked up my follow-up calls or replied to my emails after my initial complaints. After many of my calls were ignored I called from a different number and it was immediately answered--so the leasing team is either incompetent, dumb, or malicious. Neither of which is desirable. They were extremely polite and responsive prior to our signing the lease, but promptly ignored us afterwards.

The only good thing about Avalon's lease is the 30-day guarantee term, where you can get out of a lease within 30 days of moving in. Our experience at Avalon was so bad that within a week we started looking for a new place and moved out after 17 days. The Avalon team sent us the bill after moving out and added $165 cleaning fee that they took out of our deposit. We stayed in their flea/bedbug-infested apartment for 17 days, regularly cleaning it, and they had the shamelessness to charge us a...

We lived in Avalon Mountain View for a year now. We always find it agreeable when it comes to the service the complex provides. However there are some major cons.

cons: Inconsiderate neighbors and poor management enforcement. Loud phone call on the patio day/night, dog poops not being picked up, watching video in a high volume at night, walking in the complex WITHOUT wearing a mask during pandemic, leaving a mess in the garbage disposal area with unflattened boxes. Management only send out email reminders which no one reads. With no enforcement, issues would always persist.

Inadequate safety precaution for Covid-19. Still seeing residents walking/wandering in the complex. At least put a sign to remind wearing masks!

A/C is very old, and LOUD. It also drips water to the AC downstair— the dripping sound can literally drive you crazy at night if you are a light sleeper.

Water can drip through the patio wood panels, which can be very frustrating if you want to hang out in the patio and your upstairs neighbor overwater their plants.

No light fixtures in living room or bedroom. Don’t let the switches fool you, those are for the wall outlets. We had to live in the dark for a few days until we bought the lights.

Noises, from Caltrain and construction. To be fair, caltrain is not that bad, as long as the windows/doors are shut. We lived in building E, which is the closest building to the Caltrain, but on the further side, the noise level is all right inside the apartment. Outside can still be quite loud. But the construction noise is penetrating as it’s happening right outside your door. It usually don’t last too long overall(like 1-2 weeks?), but it’s hard to concentrate/rest during the day(9am to 4pm)when it happens.

pro: The complex is well maintained, lawn is mowed weekly, pool is regularly cleaned, tree trimming, etc. Requests are always fulfilled in time, usually the next biz day Dog poop bags are generously provided Amazon locker(not sure if it’s a pro, recently I noticed the packages are outnumbering the cabinet count, and left in mail box area unattended) Positioned in a relatively safe area even without a gate(but do hear from management team that car break-ins happened lately in November) Close to central...