Gema Apartments — Local services in San Diego

Great property as a short term and suitable for young, healthy and fearless. But, if you are mature and planning to create a family or expect older visitors, think twice before signing a lease here.

I moved to SD 5 years ago and was offered an “affordable” unit by Heritage. Bathroom and carpet in a bedroom had very strange smell, I was getting sick all the time - 3 rounds of different antibiotics, brain fog, difficulties breathing, hearing loss. Many service requests, many strangers came in to fix things, but no improvements. Finally, BLACK MOLD, very different from harmless mildew, came out and was fixed immediately with chlorine and white paint. I was assured that it is perfectly safe for me and my grandson to reside in an infected unit. We hired very reputable independent mold inspector who is unfortunately very familiar with this building. He took an air sample and the lab results came up very bad - highly elevated level of dangerous mycotoxins. Carpet was changed, but Gema didn’t want to open the wall and do the real work. I ran for my life to the closest hotel and hired an attorney. As a result of that they remediated that unit partially and renting it now as Airbnb, Gema moved me into a smaller unit here, raised my rent and compensated only 60% of my out of pocket expenses while remediating. I was told that child splashed the water and that’s what caused the mold, it is a lie and I am NOT ok with that! I was asked not to talk to neighbors, they promised insurance coverage but failed to provide the report from remediation company. Case closed, their attorney sent me a letter basically suggesting to disappear from the face of earth.

Hard to believe that multibillion dollar company that constantly testing fire alarms, totally ignores such a big problem as toxic mold. It took me a full year to feel better physically, but I lost my faith in humanity here. They wear fancy clothes and fake smiles and have only one thing in mind - to dig deeper into your pocket.

Kindness is a totally foreign concept here. Previous manager Shelly M. resided here and was representing Greystar perfectly - cold, robotic and always talked about rules, regulations and policies. She quit suddenly, hopefully not from the growing mold spores. The moment I posted this review, they put a note on my door raising my rent for the 3-rd time, they want me OUT, but I have no where to go.

Annual air quality control must be provided to every tenant who is in doubt. I recently inquired about it and was told that they only do it in a garage. I need to be connected with “appropriate party” as I was promised by a previous manager. The current one asked me not to talk to him about mold, I get it.. not a pleasant subject and not an easy job. I am sure I will get AI generated respond, but I need real answers to be sure I have a safe breathing future.

During 5 years of living here, we’ve seen them come and go way too often, so hopefully next ownership/management will be better. I strongly believe I was totally mistreated here because of housing assistance status, disability factor and my background. When I was asked to remove Ukrainian flags from the patio, my feelings were deeply hurt, but the horror of dealing with mold was a total humiliation. All existing problems are true: management can’t control criminal activities, termites or noise, non-working cameras, weak jacuzzi jets, bursting old pipes - it requires different level of professionalism. But it is still the best location and the hope that things will get better never dies.

Please be nice to Osiel, he is the longest employee here and a true backbone of this property, he is eager to help and means well. I wish he would be assign more landscaping projects, after all he was exposed to black mold the most.

P.S. People who already to live here, please don’t ignore symptoms and check for black dots, especially on wood - main...

Where do I start? We can't wait to move out of this property; it's disgusting. Since moving in August, we've been complaining about mold. Our entire A/C unit is covered in black mold, which has spread to the walls and all surfaces in the bathrooms. Maintenance came out once to "fix" it but only changed the air filter and added an air freshener to mask the smell.

There are constant fire alarms and inspections. They pound on your door while you're sleeping and yell for you to open up. They are inconsistent with informing you when they need to enter your unit and often lie about notices, entering whenever they please.

Fixtures constantly fall off the walls or ceilings. Once, I carefully pulled open my blinds, and they crashed down on my face, cutting my eyebrow. Thankfully, I was wearing glasses, or the injury could have been worse. It takes multiple service orders or emails to get a response. When you do get one, the A/C is loud and unevenly distributed, blowing out mildewed, toxic air. The bills are huge and not energy efficient. The washer smells like sewage and barely cleans. Spiderwebs and spiders are everywhere.

The property manager is very rude. I've asked for a callback regarding the mold issues and an upstairs leak for the past five days, but the managers only respond with vague answers via email.

My unit currently has a huge hole in the ceiling with an extremely loud fan drying the damage caused by maintenance crew negligence. One of their vendors explained that they failed to properly install a simple pipe coupling, leading to a massive leak that ruined my rug and shoes and left water everywhere. The unit smells like mildew, my living room is covered in plastic, and workers are in and out, which is very disruptive. The service manager claims that active emergencies allow them full access to our unit for 7-10 days until repairs are completed.

Shelly, the manager, won't answer any questions about concessions or rent credits, despite us not staying in the unit. She only says "sorry for the inconvenience." They sent me a warning about my two small plants on the balcony, while my neighbor's entire patio ledge is covered.

Recently the property switched from fobs to key entry. The locks were changed while I was working and when I got home I was locked out. Luckily my patio door was unlocked and i was able to hop my gate and get in through that door, otherwise I would have been locked out since the office was closed. When I went to pick up my keys, they informed me that one was missing. The Amazon Hub is a disaster, frequently requiring a technician, and packages have been lost multiple times. I no longer trust deliveries there. Loud dogs bark all day, and odd individuals use the jacuzzi; one man was sitting there talking to himself, clearly under some influence. From the very start, my lease paperwork was incorrect, including the pricing and unit number.

You can find a better place for the same pricing , and I hope people think twice before committing to this absolutely horrible place with terrible management. This situation is embarrassing for Greystar. I expected a more professional community and am counting down the days until my lease ends. I've asked the community manager, Shelly, multiple times for a direct supervisor's contact information or a corporate number, but she ignores my requests. Shelly is a nightmare. She should work in a prison or the DMV. How does this woman have a job? She treats tenants like trash, and I've heard from numerous employees that she belittles and yells at them. The other day I was coming home from yoga, and we witnessed her fighting with some people in front of the office.

I’ve had over 30 maintenance visits and inspections in the last...

We had high hopes for this place. It let us down in so many ways during our time there. First, if you want reliable plumbing do not live here. Our toilets would overflow at least once a month, occasionally the shower would backup and black sludge would flow from the drain. Once, hundreds of drain flies flew out of the guest bathroom shower drain and caused serious issues in the bathroom. Every night the toilets and shower would make gurgling noises that made us think they were about to overflow but instead just continued throughout the night. These issues never got resolved during my time here, the problem was only superficially fixed each time. Second, the garage security is a joke. After having my car broken into for the third time we insisted that they increase security and that people can easily sneak in through the car garage gate nothing was done. They said that security was adequate, This is simply not true. Once someone is inside the garage they can easily make their way up to any floor, common area or patio. There are no locks on the doors or key fob sensors that would prevent an intruder from coming inside the building after sneaking through the garage gate. Third, the elevators. I understand that elevators break, but the experience I had while living here was pathetic. Especially during the 3 weeks prior to us moving out the elevator broke, I wasn’t worried because I figured it would be fixed. Two more weeks, the elevator is still down. I became slightly concerned as we started our move out process and had to access the stairs. It became highly inconvenient having to lug boxes up and now multiple stairways when the elevator right next door was out of service. I called the front office every day to ask the status and tell them I had to move furniture in a few days. The response I got was that they hired a company that kept fixing the problem incorrectly which caused the elevator to keep going down. When I asked why they didn’t switch the repair service they said that the company found out how to fix the problem. So on the day I had to move all my furniture, surprise the elevator was still down. When I called the front office to ask what to do, he said that the motherboard went down and needed replacement. He suggested using another elevator... I was shocked and fed up with this place. I spent more time, manhours and effort moving out of this dump than I ever should have. Bottom line the elevators are terrible even when they work. Lastly, and most importantly the way the leasing office, specifically Ricardo, handles business is appalling and frankly embarrassing. He is uninformed and provides incorrect information to tenants about critical information. Communication at this office is not handled properly. I would not recommend living at this apartment complex. The highlights are overshadowed by the many...