Highlands of Marin, San Rafael CA

If you care about your loved ones, don’t let them live here.

We loved the idea of the amenities at Highlands, and were willing to look past living in a smaller unit because the community seemed great. What a mistake!

We lived on the second floor, day ONE our downstairs neighbor was complaining about us making too much noise when we were simply walking. The bass from other units’ music would rattle our windows, we could hear our upstairs neighbors washer machine when it was being used.

Lots of transients and drug users wandering the area near the clubhouse (I lived next door in 1040). Cops would be outside our building constantly. Some neighbors would pile trash and furniture outside of their units and the dumpsters were always overflowing with trash and surrounded with furniture. Loud revving, yelling and fights outside were a regularity.

Gym, pools, hot tubs and the playground were out of service pretty frequently for maintenance or repairs and because “people were wearing clothes” in the hot tub, per UDR emails.

No one picks up their dog poop. It’s everywhere. I watched several neighbors take their dogs out and let them freely use behind the building where my balcony was. Constantly smelled like poop.

We were always sick. Runny nose, sore throats. My infant would cough throughout the night, every night, despite giving him medicine and buying a humidifier. Hasn’t happened at all since we left that building.

Upon move out, they attempted to charge $700 for tub damage. We asked them for pictures of said damage and they sent us photos of our neighbors, carpeted unit. When they sent us the right photos, we compared to the pictures I took before we moved in with the exact same chips. They took off that charge but are still trying to keep 650$ for cleaning and paint, even though we scrubbed down to the baseboards. They haven’t yet returned our deposit, it’s been 23 days. Know that they need to provide you with itemized receipts of everything they’re deducting from your deposit, and please, PLEASE document all damage with photos.

Consider this your warning!

Bad Soil. (coyotes on site full time - if you have a small dog. NO warning was given prior move in).
This Environment is stagnant! There hasn't been a sense of community since Margaret left. The amenities are often out of service, filthy & highly accessible to anyone in the neighborhood - including the people who live in the woods behind the apartment or children who come in groups of ten to use the gym/pool facilities. Steven is the ABSOLUTE WORST MAINTENANCE “MANAGER” that is complacent with the complex falling APART. Working with the staff remains a chore. The high turnover between the main office & maintenance community makes getting to know one another extremely difficult. Cars are left in random areas + break ins. Counting the days until my lease ends.

The grounds are extremely well maintained and clean. This is a beautiful place to call home. Appartment appliances in the kitchen are top of the line, with gorgeous marble countertops.

I wanted to give a personal shout out to the entire maintenance team here at Highlands but especially Steven, who goes above and beyond to help and assist whatever the problem is. Caring, kind hearted, and a such a hard worker who always gets the jobs done. If your a Highlands resident, don’t forget to wave and say hi in passing. Thank you Steven!

I and my roommates absolutely love living at Highlands of Marin. It is a beautiful community with great staff and lovely views throughout the property. Throughout the 3+ years we have lived here, the staff has been wonderful, supportive, and quick to respond any time we have had a service request. Steven and Jonathan are quick and efficient, and we are feel like we matter and are important. Gunther and Jamie always available to answer questions and take care of anything related to our lease. It is a privilege and a pleasure living here. Thank you Highlands team.

Steven, one of the maintenance crew members is awesome and super helpful! I’m not very handy but whenever I need help he’s great with communication and quick to fix even the smallest of problems. Thank you Steven!

Steven Smyles <service manager> is one of the most attentive, responsible and wonderful maintenance persons I’ve ever met. I’ve worked on properties with many folks and he is the best! Always grateful to have people that care about home comfort and are attentive to all needs immediately. Thank you!

Want the truth about Highlands of Marin? Visit their Yelp page and check their "not recommended" reviews down at the bottom of the page. They have 133 not recommended reviews at the time of this writing.

I lived here for 3 years and have absolutely nothing nice to say about Highlands of Marin. Once you move in, you will be extremely unhappy with the service you receive from management and maintenance. First of all, they ignore 100% of phone calls and emails, so when you have a problem, you are forced to go into the office. However, each time I went into the office, I ended up getting into an argument with the manager, and frequently saw other tenants arguing with him also. The staff simply doesn’t care about you and have no problem lying to your face or arguing with you.

During our last year here, we had to live with a terrible smell in our apartment. The maintenance guy acted like nothing was wrong and didn’t do a single thing about this. We asked him so many times to fix the smell, but all he did was enter our apartment, told us that he doesn’t smell anything, and left. He then proceeded to ignore us for months.

The smell never went away, but I eventually gave up asking for help. I even reached out to UDR, the corporation that owns Highlands of Marin, and all they offered was for the regional manager to reach out to me, yet no one ever contacted me. Not once. UDR clearly doesn’t care about the wellbeing of the tenants or the service they are receiving from management and maintenance. I should have taken legal action but as someone who has never been in this kind of situation before, I wasn’t sure about what to do and ended up toughing it out.

An elderly woman that used to live below us had a faulty HVAC unit that was causing intermitted problems. When she tried to heat her apartment, it would sometimes get stuck blowing cool air indefinitely. Management never fixed her HVAC unit. They didn’t believe her and were blaming her for the issue to avoid taking responsibility. They continued to ignore her and let her freeze on cold days. In the end she had no choice but to move out due to this problem.

The equipment in the gym frequently break down and become out of order for months, sometimes years.

Very surprised at these reviews, they scared me in the beginning a bit. Since moving in we haven’t had anything but good things to say. Very kind residents, AMAZING maintance (yes they do no answer phones) but go in and say hi! Quiet beautiful area.