La Jolla Canyon Apartments — Local services in San Diego

Shady, low-quality apartments with cheap appliances/materials that only get away with charging so much for rent because people want to be able to walk to UCSD campus.

Management puts a lot of effort into making the outdoor landscaping attractive so that potential residents don’t realize the place is kinda sketchy. Packages stolen, random homeless people knocking on your door at night, etc. Someone stole large parts off my and others’ bikes from the rack right in front of the office. Management promised new more secure bike racks afterwards (the current ones only let adult-sized bikes lock up by the wheels, not the body), a year later still nothing; I kept my bike in the living room so it wouldn’t get picked over again. In theory there’s security but it seems to be one guy in a truck spread across a ton of properties, so not very useful.

Word is our addict neighbor died of a fentanyl overdose (so I gathered from cops and lawyers milling about our front door afterwards)… so at least you wouldn’t be bored living in La Jolla Canyon! XD I’ve seen other residents complain about mice. We never saw any of those - just ants, roaches, and a scorpion in the bathroom, so I guess we got off easy :P

Another problem is their COVID closures policy. Public health agencies put out guidelines, informed by experts, about what is and is not safe to open; La Jolla Canyon consistently ignores those guidelines and does whatever they feel like. Sometimes playgrounds are open when the county says they should be closed, sometimes hot tubs or gyms are closed when the county says they can be open. The only pattern is low-IQ apartment managers pretending they know more about pandemic safety than the CDC. I understand and expect that some common use amenities will be closed because of COVID, but individual apartment companies should be deferring to public health experts on this topic instead of making things up.

Honestly, if you’re a 19-year old student and being able to walk to class without staying in dorms is your highest priority, this place is probably fine, I lived in worse when I was 19 :P But if you don’t HAVE to walk to campus, there’s simply no reason to consider living in La Jolla Canyon, you can do WAY better for the same money only 5-10min away. ...

When my girlfriend and I moved in, the price was right, the location was good, and I was pressed for time as my PhD was starting. The year we spent here was good, but we chose not to renew our lease. The management is very professional, work orders are dealt with in a timely manner, and they tend to be communicative about issues/maintenance.

The primary issue for me was that the apartments are just poorly constructed and maintained for the price they ask. The cabinetry is cheap, faucets/handles/doors/blinds are all low quality, prone to breaking and generally not well maintained. The countertops are this awful plastic material that peels and gets gross easily. They repaint everything religiously so it looks shiny, but at the edges things start to look bad the longer you live here. When we went to renew, they asked us for a very substantial amount more than the previous year, with the only options for renewal being a month-to-month for MUCH more money and a year+ lease with a solid jump in price (~$100 per month). Had they asked for slightly less, we would have undoubtedly stayed another 9-12 months, though the price jump is what pushed us to leave last minute.

I was expecting this, but it was still more than we wanted to pay for a low-quality apartment, so we looked elsewhere only to discover that the complex was listing our exact unit (in the neighboring building) for less than they had asked for on our renewal. Overall, we didn't feel valued as returning tenants and I felt that the management company (not the on-site employees) was just price manipulating to keep profits to a max, with rents fluctuating almost daily by hundreds of dollars, with no loyalty to existing tenants.

It's a solid place to live, but I feel that if I am paying $1700+ for a low quality 1b/1b, I would rather pay slightly more (~$2000) for something of substantially...

My girlfriend and I moved here in May 2020 during the pandemic. In the beginning, our stay was pleasant, Mary in the office is a really nice person and goes above and beyond for you. The quality of the apartment we were in was very poor, old kitchens with chipped paint and old cabinet doors, the finish is cheap and the entire apartment needs a renovation. We were off Eastgate Mall road so it was extremely noisy all the time and heard construction constantly from work being done in the Canyon and roadworks. There are no gates to block strangers coming onto the property and little to no security and so it was not uncommon to see people rooting through the trash and randomers walking through the car lot. There was an attempted theft on my motorcycle there and I was left on my own to deal with it with very little support from La Jolla Canyon. There are also no cameras and when I brought this up to management, I was met with excuses about how Cameras don’t prevent crime. The pros were definitely the pool and hot tub which are really nice, but that’s about it. The rent is definitely very high for what you are getting. For anyone moving in, make sure you be very detailed about the move in inspection. When we moved out, despite leaving the apartment pristine clean, they kept part of our deposit for the carpet which we had cleaned thoroughly. You are then sent to the Corporate office to fight for your deposit and the nature surrounding ours was extremely bizarre. Nothing was brought up about it in the move out inspection but stains UNDERNEATH the carpet was attributed to our deposit not being fully returned. So maybe in the move in inspection, have them pull up the carpet to check for stains. As bizarre as that sounds, unfortunately this is what would be needed to ensure full return of deposit because they definitely look for anything they can to keep...