Avalon Calabasas — Local services in Calabasas

UPDATED REVIEW AUGUST 2024: I have now moved out of my apartment after living at Avalon for 3 years due to graduating and moving for work. Although I previously rated this community 5 stars, I do feel that over the past year the quality has decreased while the cost has only increased, so potential renters should be aware. Let me tell you about some frustrating issues that I’ve witnessed recently.

First of all, they closed the second pool last August, and I believe sent an email that it would be closed for a week or so for construction. First of all, why close the pool while it’s still prime swimming season? You can’t wait another month or two? Well, fast forward an entire YEAR later, and it’s still closed - with no communication from admin about why it’s been closed at any time! Rumor is there were permitting issues with construction, but even if that’s the case, why was there ZERO communication to residents about it?

Second of all, the rent has been hiked up the maximum amount they are allowed to increase it every year, and potential renters should know that water, sewer, electric, gas, and trash are not included in rent - my “sewer” fee alone was $80+ dollars every month. For a single tenant? What a rip off.

Third of all, a month or two ago they emailed that they would be testing the fire alarm systems in the apartments on a given date between given hours. Instead of knocking on my door during that time period (I was working from home), in the middle of the day I was suddenly BLASTED with a genuinely ear-ringing alarm blare that lasted for MINUTES, was genuinely painful to listen to, and sent the dogs next door into an anxious tizzy (I feel very bad for all the resident pets who were probably scared to death, and it’s not like owners could do anything or take them on a walk when ZERO WARNING was given before the testing occurred!!). I emailed admin to complain about this completely egregious and unnecessary occurrence - no response. Wow.

That’s another huge problem. You literally cannot call the main leasing office directly - you can ONLY leave a voicemail, and the office door is locked all the time so it’s really hard to communicate with anyone directly. It feels like they really do not want to have to deal with residents!

In these past couple summer months, the pool and hot tub have also been consistently dirty, which probably isn’t helped by the fact that the other pool has been closed and is unable to use! There are also multiple (multiple!!!) residents who will use the main pool (which is 3 feet at either end, and is like a hotel pool for lounging and hanging out) to swim laps for, no joke, an hour every evening, which means everyone else has to get out of their way or risk being splashed. It seems super inconvenient for the parents with kids who live there when they have to watch out to make sure their 3-5 year olds aren’t about to be bulldozed over by a middle aged person treating the community pool like an athletic swimming lane. Geez.

I’m still giving it 3 stars because my apartment itself had great updated appliances, it was a great location, premises are generally well maintained, maintenance was usually (although not always) pretty on top of things, etc. But I can’t in good conscience leave a 5 star review up when this place is charging upwards of $2600 for a one bedroom and then leaving all these other issues unresolved or failing to adequately communicate about them.

Overall, is it a nice apartment? Yes. Is the admin staff good? Not really. Is it worth the price? Well, LA is overpriced everywhere, but it was feeling less and less worth the cost of living at Avalon Calabasas, so I can’t say I’m too sad to have moved on.

PREVIOUS REVIEW (2023): I have lived at Avalon for 2 years now while attending law school nearby and absolutely love it. The neighborhood is quiet, safe, and the premises are well-maintained. The two pools and gym are such nice amenities to have. Any time I have had a maintenance request, the response time has been very quick. I highly recommend living at...

Update at top so people read:they jack up your rent on year 2, say they can't price match own units, then when you cancel lease unit goes for less then currently paying. Avalon sucks, and will rip you off.

The admin office for this building is horrible.

The units and grounds are kept really nice, but anything else (community events, tickets for admin questions, renewals, etc.) are horrible.

I just reached end of 1st year and came to renewal. I pay 3643 for rent right now. The exact same unit was going for 3517 as of 3/26 when I last looked. I have seen it go a bit cheaper over last few months too.

My renewal came back at a rate of 3838 for a 14 month lease or 3774 for 13 month lease.

That is an outrageous increase when unit is going for cheaper on your site. I asked for some clarity to understand why and they just closed my ticket. I have still not heard from anyone.

It would be cheaper to pay for high end movers, move to a different unit in same complex then to stay in same unit. I just want some clarity on this.

Please read reviews and understand. The units are nice, they are clean, area is nice (minor issues like any apartment) the groundskeeper and maintenance are great. Its the admin office that is doing a bad job. There are a lot of high star reviews and I do like this place. I am sure all of those high star reviews are from people that just moved in or have only lived here a few months. This is my first renewal and I am just looking for some answers.

For other admin issues. They dont seem to try to fix anything just some generic emails. They have threatened to close the gym from 5pm going forward do to some mess, but not sure what. They constantly send emails about smoking and pet waste on property. I only see cigarette butts outside of the admin office, and dog waste is sadly a usual issue in many complexes.

The complex does food trucks every other week. It is really nice. The admins in office might send an email announcement after truck shows up, often time with wrong info, wrong truck, spelling errors. I have been confused on this one a lot. Last truck came at 5 (usual time) office sent email at 5:33pm. Not sure why that cant happen at normal time, or with right info.

The apartment has a pool table in their resident lounge. Great idea, but poorly executed and not maintained by admins. The table has a rip, it is disgustingly dirty and the pool sticks are broken.

They advertise as high end and charge high end price. Groundskeeper and maintenance live up to that standard. The admins in office who keep closing tickets and can't help with questions are my issue.

UPDATE: Just had to submit another ticket to get answers. Ticket went to a corporate office. They offered to have my rent be 3759 for a 13 month lease. Catch is I have to agree within 48 hours. This is lazy and the type of behavior you see at shitty used car dealerships.

They do not price match their own units

I have 2 months to decide and will update the review accordingly.

You can see how generic and copy/pasted their response is below. This is the level of care you get from Admins at Avalon.

Update: they have exact unit with same package now going for 3654 for a 2 year lease. This place will jack up prices during renewals. I still don't understand how it would be cheaper to move to same unit and model within complex then renew lease. Dumbest thing I've had to deal with in awhile. Good luck getting non generic answers.

Update: cancel lease renewal and apt. Is now on site for less then current rent. This place will screw you over on renewals. Up for 3648. If you take unit they will jack up rent on next renewa

Update to apartments comment: im comparing cost of my unit to the same unit, same address, same exact everything. When lease is up my unit b3cones available starting July 22nd for unit I'm currently residing in. This is on your website! The new rent is less then what I pay currently and 400 less then what you had my renewal at. This apartment rips off tenants after first year. And is complete...

TLDR: LOOK ELSEWHERE. I've held off writing this because I wanted to try to address these things the mature way with the office but I just can't anymore. I've lived here for years, and had previously lived here before that. I moved back years ago because it was a quiet, peaceful, well managed community (hence the good reviews listed, including a previous good review from me I have since deleted). The last year it has gone incredibly down hill, and I have not been able to just live in peace in my apartment. This morning I was woken up by an unannounced project where painters started scraping and banging on the carport right outside my window with no respect to the tenants living here.There seems to ALWAYS be a project now- painting the buildings, testing the fire alarms, tree trimming, repaving areas if the community that are fine, and NONE of it actually improves the community. It just disrupts the tenants. And some tenants themselves have become completely unhinged- a group of parents are letting their young kids play unsupervised for upwards of 6 hours a day, sometimes everyday in the week, and doing things like screaming outside others' units, taking items from the trash area and construction zones and spewing them across the community, and climbing in other tenant's patios without permission. There is only one person in the office that actually seems to care and he can only do so much without upper management's help. If you are looking at this place thinking it looks like a calm, chill place to live, you are absolutely in for rude awakening. This place is not that anymore, and it makes me incredibly sad because I loved it here. I sent all this feedback to corporate and they never followed up, even though in the past they have followed up when I submitted surveys. Oh and by the way, a tenant died by gun suicide a month ago in one of the units, and that unit was up on the website for rent 3 weeks later. It's still up for rent so good luck figuring out which one that is if you want...