Avalon Walnut Creek — Attraction in Pleasant Hill

Avalon Walnut Creek is the worst place I have ever rented because of the horrible management. The tldr: Our apartment shakes 3x per week at 6am like an earthquake because they take out the trash at 6am and won't change. It's driving us nuts. They will end up costing you money. First electric bills were $1000+/month. They will charge you unfair fees ($300+). Mandatory cleaning fee, "Accelerated rent" Dog pee in elevator Maintenance is slow and only the 1 guy actually knows what he's doing.

1. Electric bill $1000+/month When we first moved in, a maintenance guy called us to see if we were the people asking about the crazy electric bill. We were not. So I checked PG&E and actually it turns out that our projected bill WAS crazy and I called Avalon back to investigate and calculated that it cost us ~$350 per week that it was not resolved. After getting a full billing cycle (and $1000+ bill) later, I asked the leasing office to escalate our issue and they finally fixed it after several weeks. This means that not only did they have someone else have the exact same issue, they didn't deal with it before we moved in, and didn't deal with it quickly even after alerting them.

2. Cleaning fees and more fees In reviews in the area, I got the overall impression that you generally never get your security deposit back. In my last apartment in Oakland, I didn't get charged a cleaning fee. They were fair and just took out utilities (which you are responsible for anyway) from the security deposit. That's not the case with Avalon. $195 for cleaning fee, probably regardless of how clean you leave it. $140 for "accelerated rent" even though we didn't break our lease or leave early or late. I just couldn't get any understanding on why we were charged this or how to avoid it from their customer service team. Also, they force you to use their building's internet provider, instead of letting you pick your preferred utility company (like Xfinity, Comcast, FIOS, whatever). I'm fairly certain these practices are illegal in California.

3. Maintenance team First of all, I have huge respect for people who do this work. Generally our interactions have been positive, but they are seriously understaffed and/or undertrained. It took over 6 months to deal with a problem we reported when we moved in. Our bedroom window didn't close all the way and it created a lot of noise when we were trying to sleep. The first guy said it's missing a window screen, so it'll take a month to order it. A month later, a different guy said that these windows don't have window screens, it just needs insulation. The next guy installed the weatherproofing but it actually made it worse and didn't close properly. So we made another request. The final guy pointed out the weatherproofing was done poorly (he even left the plastic film that covers the sticky part on) and then FINALLY got the window to close all the way after a total of 6 months and 5 different maintenance team members. Also, this is not the only incident. They had to shut off the water to repair and after I got the notice that the water was returned, I waited 3 hours to find out that the water is still cold so I made a request to look into it. My response was this was normal (basically something like it's a big building), but the next morning, they called me at 8am to tell me they forgot to turn the hot water back on but confirmed it's NOW turned on) so we still had to deal with one more cold shower that was completely avoidable.

4. Apartment "Earthquakes" from morning trash The apartment SHAKES like an earthquake 3x a week at 6am. I'm a light sleeper, but my partner is a heavy sleeper and he gets woken up by it too. It turns out this is caused by taking out the trash bins in the garage on Jones St. I asked the leasing office if there's anything they can do, like take it out the night before or change the wheels on the carts, but they refused. Now we're just constantly sleep deprived for a whole year.

5. You have to request an appointment to talk to someone and the office is only open 2...

I thought a lot about whether or not I should post this review, but unfortunately, we are 6 months into our lease and I have not observed any meaningful change.

The positive

Staff: The on-site staff are very friendly. Both the administrative team and maintenance team treat residents with respect and I (for the most part) am convinced they try their best given what they have to work with.

Latch: Latch is great- it is a modernized way of traversing the property and I love not having to bring a physical key with me when I leave.

Gym: I have not used the gym myself but it gets a lot of use as there is a ton of equipment. Definitely, one of the most robust amenities I've ever seen.

The areas for improvement

Trash management for 7001 building: This is the catalyst for this review. Like, bruh, how can you ask me for $3k / month while allowing our home to become a dump-site?

┻━┻︵ (°□°)/ ︵ ┻━┻

I live in the 7001 building and the trash compressor has been broken for an unreasonable amount of time. This has lead to a mind-melting excess in trash overflow.

The chutes are clogged and unusable. The hallways actually smell like garbage.

Trash management in general: There are a number of businesses that operate in these buildings, so it feels like everyone's trash is constantly out on the streets. A number of side-effects take place because of this:

The block generally smells like garbage. Residents and non-residents use these areas as dump-sites, both unsightly and unsanitary. Trash gets everywhere- sidewalks, streets, front of your building. Less parking and less room for cars passing through.

Package theft: We were told that package theft is a thing when we were signing the lease and to use the Amazon lockers. Most of the time, Amazon couriers use the lockers. If they don't, your package is at risk of being stolen.

Packages are stolen / torn open in broad daylight. Avalon puts the responsibility on the resident with no plans to proactively prevent theft, which is unfortunate.

Parking: You get 1 spot for free in the lower lots per apartment. You must buy a pass for visitor parking for $150/month if you want additional parking.

My issue with spending the additional $150/month is that it seems there is not enough enforcement of parking in the lower lots. Cars without permits park there all of the time. I have only seen tow trucks towing cars a handful of times. Also, the gate providing "security" has been broken for months.

General grievances: Fire alarm in the downstairs lobby goes off like once a week. Communication and managing of expectations could be better (ie amazon locker repairs, water shut offs). Office staff seems pretty inaccessible with their "closed door policy" and "appointment only" system. Requests for adjustments to the apartment before move-in were mostly ignored (ie apartment cleaning, renovations, etc). Also, the apartments are not sound-proofed well, so footsteps from above sound like thunder.

**update: 1 elevator was out in our building for weeks. Both elevators out for days (apparently, the same is true for the 7000 building). This should be a priority, not sure why it took so long.

We don't want to move, but we are having a hard time justifying the price for what we get. I hope things improve, in which case, I will be back to write a more...

I hope Avalon headquarters will read this review and investigate this management’s actions, but not very hopeful.

The new administration of Avalon Walnut Creek run by CJ is very irresponsible and unprofessional in operating Avalon Walnut Creek community, and I suggest those reading this review ask residents living in these buildings about their experiences, instead of making their decision based on the positive reviews because as a tenant with some history of living in this community, I can tell you things are not good and the management is one of the main cause of that.

This management took advantage of the covid restriction and closed its office doors to the renters after the restrictions were lifted state wise and to this day, FORCING residents to use an app that would give this administration every opotuinity to undermine the renters rights in every shape and form. The management has a full authorization through the app to close residents requests without provide them with a chance if they have follow up questions for the concern they brought up. So, residents' voice is limited and completely controlled by the management just like any dictatorship or authoriterian society on the planet. Secondly, residents are PUSHED to use the app because the management insures in all their emails that they will DELAY responding to emails and phone calls and response to those using the app at priority. Thirdly, if you show up at the office door because you have an emergency, the staff treat you like a disappointment, instead of helping you with an open arm and this scenario only is different if new residents trying to see the apartments. Aside from the office, when there are breakins in the buildings or parking lots, the management with use of evasive language does everything to not showcase the reality of the situation in their emails, which is very similar with the methodology they are using with having ALL THE CURTAING OF THE OFFICE CLOSE so nobody can see inside and having a TWO DAYS off, when nearly the amount of Avalon apartments have doubled with the new building (across from the bart station) that was recently added to Avalon Walnut creek community. Not to mention, this administration does its best to create fear among its residents and bring animosity against them by encouraging residents to sell each other out to the office when it comes to parking or other matters, which is another indication of the roots of this leadership.

I hope there is a survey going around by this management after this review to ask if the residents are satisfied with this sort of management and their actions cause everybody that I talk to is not.

Wishing for the best by addressing the issues on this review but not hopefully, considering this management has acted as a complete authoritarian and destroyed renters’...