Terraces At the Oaks

The apartments are big - really big, and the property is rent controlled. If things need repair (other than the elevator, which took many months to fix), they get fixed quite quickly. That's the good news. There are often 2-3 notes per month telling tenants that the plumbing may be shut off during in an 8-hour period, but you never know when or if. Plumbing leaks are prevalent. It's old plumbing, and they don't want to replace it. The ads say central air, but it's a water-cooled system, which doesn't work as well when the humidity rises, which it has in the Valley. The heating system is crazy. The original builders put it in the ceiling of the apartment. Heat rises, so it's very costly to use the heat in the winter time. The property owners have jacked up additional fees for a new roof (which should be all on them), and now an elevator, which they claim serves everyone, but it only serves two floors.

If I could leave negative stars I would. My roommate and I moved in February 1st of 2016 thinking we found a great place for reasonable rent. Since moving in, we've had a plumbing, electric, or Maintenance person in our apartment almost every single week since move in. To start: half of the light bulbs had to be replaced within the first week. Our landlord was replaced with a horrible unprofessional woman as a temp that couldn't help us whatsoever during the transition, who once entered our unit without permission! At first, we weren't able to take a shower longer than 3-5 minutes. The management decided to replace the tiny gas water heater, which did nothing. Then they decided to replace it AGAIN with an electric one. Which only caused new problems. Now the hot shower works, but for some odd reason we can't get hot water out of the bath tub faucet! It's been over 2 weeks since they've replaced the old/new heater (which was over 2 months after moving in) and I'm just finally getting word that someone is coming to replace the water heater AGAIN, which clearly isn't the issue. Side note: we've have cardboard duct taped over the "repairs" this entire time. The HORRIBLE management company called YALE MANAGEMENT SERVICES, hasn't communicated ANYTHING remotely helpful to us during this entire time. We've written letters, emails, and even took time off work to visit the main office where we spoke with the president of the company to try and resolve the issues. In summary of our conversation with him, if they couldn't fix the problem, we could move out, he said. Because If it wasn't going to be us, it'd be another person lined up for the apartment because it's "such a great place". To top it off the walls are extremely thin, we can literally hear the conversations our neighbors above us are having, not to mention their toddlers running laps from 5am-11pm (which management tells us to call the police about). This building is from the 60's and clearly the owner nor the management care to do the upgrades which are necessary for suitable living. I honestly have been putting off writing this review because of how long it's been taking to resolve the issues with added problems, so expect updates. DO NOT MOVE HERE OR WORK WITH YALE MANAGEMENT!!

Lets start the pros. I LOVE my wall of windows as I call it. I have 2 floor to ceiling sliding glass doors, which make up a whole wall, and live on the 3rd floor which gives me a beautiful view above all the other buildings. I wake up and eat at a table gazing at the blue sky and California palm trees. What a great way to start the day. My husband, myself ,and our 2 kids share a 2 bedroom, 3rd floor, corner unit. About 1200 sq. feet and a balcony the full length of my wall window. Couldn't ask for a better unit in the building. The trash shoot is literally out the front door of our unit. Awesome !!! and the side stairwell is right outside our door as well. The walls are thick which makes it feel solid. Like a home, not an apt with paper walls. You can't hear whats going on in the other room. Great !! There's a cool little bar with a sink. 2 bathrooms. One with a tub and one with a stand up shower. No drawers but a nice amount of under sink storage. Hallway shaped kitchen with dishwasher. Central air and heat. The bedrooms are a nice size and because its a corner unit the floor to ceiling sliding glass door in the master goes to the balcony as well. The balcony is too hard to keep clean with all the dust. The on site manager is nice and handles all issues in a timely manner. Now the cons. #1, ONE parking spot. Boooo !!!! It's a street full of apt. buildings so parking is scarce. Con #2, electric stove. There's no gas in the building. #3, The heating system is coils in the ceiling which is fantastic when it works but...it doesn't work in all the rooms. They said they'd cut a hole in the wall and install a space heater so we just bought a heat dish for the living room. The air doesn't work as well as it should either. One of the rooms is great. The other, not so much. Need to run a fan at the same time. The water comes out rusty so you have to run it until its clear. Waste of water and hard on the water filters I have. The last con I have is too little closet space. I'm a girl that needs some closet space. I have this dinky little closet. That's about it without writing a novel. Overall I'd give it an 8 out of 10. Oh and its rent control. I guess we moved in at a descent time. We're up to $ 1740. It's a nice place to live. Not perfect but sill nice. Oh, and beautiful big square pool in the middle of the building. Yeah for that on the hot summer days. That's all for now. Thanks for reading Udee