The Grand Apartments — Local services in Oakland

LEAVING TODAY THIS APARTMENT WITH A BITTER FEELING.

Had an amazing experience at this place for two years, but moving out today with a very bitter feeling and disheartening experience that me and my partner had to undergo in the past couple of months with the staff here.

Loved this place when we came here, and it had a total different aura when managed by Saif, Jasmine, and the old team. Never had any issues and even though the rent increased at the end of our tenure, we felt heard and mutually agreed. Thus, happily extended our lease for another year to call this amazing place our home for the 2nd year. But it was never the same as the management changed entirely!

The last couple of months were different and stressful for all of us, globally, due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation. Our lease was due expiration in June, 2020 and we were concerned about moving out during such times. In good faith we reached out to The Grand team a couple months prior to our lease end asking if they have made any provisions to accommodate such unusual times. Firstly, our emails went unanswered. After multiple follow ups, we got very vague replies from the leasing manager. Again, we emailed trying to get answers to our two specific queries below- A) We are interested in moving to a bigger apartment and would like to continue our stay with The Grand. Could you please let us know the availability and the other related details? B) Should the above option not work, would we be able to extend our lease for couple months till the situation normalizes a bit and we are able to look for apartment elsewhere? Would month-to-month rate be the same?

To these two questions, first went unanswered again! For the second we got a reply - “Yes. Monthly rate will remain the same”. With that, we were a bit relieved and thankful to the team for understanding the situation of the tenants. Still, for the love of this building, we kept following up for the availability of other units as we really wanted to continue our stay here, but the response from the management team was very damp and we felt as if they are hardly interested.

HERE COMES THE BLOW! When we understood that the option of extending the lease wasn’t working out, we tried to let the management know again that we would be renting on a month to month basis, as discussed with them previously, while we are looking for another apartment. Now, the person replying emails is entirely different and oblivious to the discussion we had with the other member. Despite the ignorant behavior we had received from the team, we very calmly walked the now other person the conversations we had and forwarded all the email threads. Now, when we turn our one month notice (we only extended one month on monthly basis), immediately we got reply to our email listing the increased monthly rate. We were literally shocked! The fact that we had it in the email, by Leasing agent confirming the same rate and then we walking this whole thing through with the another agent was very upsetting. One more time we tried to forward our point backed by all the previous email conversation, but they come back denying the whole thing, manipulating it, and billed us in the end at the increased rate.

Not to forget, the current rate at their website for our unit at the moment is $700 more (plus they are running specials) than what we were already paying. We also requested them if they can normalize the cost a little bit as the difference is huge in and let us keep the same unit. No reply on this, again! On top they, in the end, charged us the increased rate for our last month. With this behavior, we gave up! These are already stressful times and the management staff here left no excuse to add to our stress.

Today, we are moving out and with a very heavy feeling I decide to write my experience here, which was amazing at the beginning and left me very bitter in the end. ESSEX team, you could have...

I give the Grand a solid 3 stars after living there for 2 years because the building is solidly built, but the management simply just does not exist or care about you. IMO it’s too expensive for a “luxury building” where no one is taking care of anything. On the flip side, since management never does anything, you could literally do anything in your apartment and no one would ever be sent to check on you, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Pros You rarely hear your neighbors. Building is made of concrete Management will never do anything except email you or call you once if someone complains about you. I think you could get away with anything in this building. Don’t bother reporting your pets or paying the pet fee

Cons Management sucks Pretty sure all the workers know management sucks because right after management moved all their operations online, all the staff in the building quit. The maintenance team used to be amazing and would respond to your problems the same day. After everyone quit during the same week, it’s been taking 1 week for anyone to respond to your requests. They advertise to have 24/7 front desk staffing, but it is regularly empty for 1-2 hours every day, which means if you have any deliveries they can’t get inside the building. The windows are extremely dangerous because they open super wide and don’t have any protective screen/netting. Management knows, and they won’t pay the money to do anything about it except send an email very summer. If you have kids or pets, don’t make any mistakes. Even though the building is pretty quiet, the surrounding area can be loud. You can’t really open your windows at night to sleep. This was ok for us though. Somebody in the building on the 7th floor DID GET SHOT in the leg by someone shooting outside while doing donuts at night, but that is an Oakland problem. However, management never sent out any email addressing this even though we all knew it happened. When we renewed last year they would not have any sort of discussion about rent negotiations or concessions. This year, after we terminated our lease, they called us trying to have a discussion about how to have us stay. If you want to negotiate your renewal, be sure to end your lease first! They will also charge you a minimum of $400 for carpet cleaning + apt cleaning when you move out. It doesn't matter what state you leave your apartment in, so DO NOT BOTHER...

Update on 8/7: After someone from Essex finally responded to my multiple inquiries of a month ago, this has been cleared up. Turns out Essex underbilled me for my final prorated month of rent, so they corrected it by deducting it from my deposit. I had no idea that they underbilled me in the first place, as I never received anything documenting that they didn't charge me for the full prorated month, and they never replied to my emails with an explanation. It wasn't until I posted this review that I got a response. All of this would have been prevented if Essex was communicative. I was a perfect tenant at The Grand for 2.5 years, and the entire experience was ruined thanks to property management illegally withholding a portion of my security deposit it was not entitled to. I submitted my intent to vacate 33 days prior to my lease expiring. I then started to get one-off emails from several people at Essex - none of whom I've ever heard of - asking me to clarify my very clearly written email with all of the details of my notice. Eventually I put 2+2 together and gathered either their email system is having issues, or someone on the shared email alias is forwarding emails to team members without all of the details.

Anyway, they seem to have documented my notice date incorrectly, because when I received my move-out statement from Essex corporate in SoCal, they had charged me $800+ for extra rent, supposedly due to not having received 30 days notice (they never actually told me this - I had to piece it all together from a vague billing statement). I immediately emailed to correct them, sending them documentation (multiple emails between me and staff; Google saves all, including metadata) proving I submitted my notice even earlier than required. They apparently made some correction, but not all, because I got a check in the mail that was still short what I should have been refunded. They still charged me for a day of rent, despite me vacating the day prior to my lease ending and despite me giving 33 days notice. I again emailed, and emailed Essex corporate and finance department, and have received NO response.

I will never rent from an Essex property again, and I warn anyone else from...