Sunterra, Oceanside CA

Cockroaches, Lies… a Lemon

Worst place I’ve ever lived and somehow it’s the most expensive by far! I know people don’t like reading long, drawn out statements so here are bullet points of how awful my experience has been at Sunterra.

1. Lied to about the units having Central Air. They told me they did over the phone, I arrive and they don’t nor did they do anything to make this massive lie better.
2. COCKROACHES! Non stop dinosaur size cockroaches. It’s disgusting!
3. Absolutely no guest parking
4. The unit looked like but was horrible built and they didn’t update everything like they said they did.
- Dishwasher didn’t work, kitchen drawers fell apart, the freezer door doesn’t remain shut, the master bathroom shower doesn’t drain properly.
5. NO HEAT! I have two girls under 4 and even after informing management multiple times, it took them until late January to get us heat.
6. The most insane utility bills ever! Make sure to add $450-650 to your rent. It’s criminal.
7. Multiple packages stolen from our front door
8. The front gate has not worked and they don’t event try to fix it
9. They sent me the incorrect move out bill and after repeated attempts to get it corrected they just ignored me and sent the bill to collections

The model unit and area around it is beautiful, but don't be fooled. The rest of the complex is disgusting, full of cockroaches, and part of the building near the back "gate" (the gates that never actually open or close, even though the complex is supposed to be gated) is actually falling down and has been like that for almost a month. Management also likes to change the rent you pay when you're already in a contract and the office will never answer their phones. Also apparently everything that is a problem with the complex is another company's fault (or COVID) if you ever do get to talk to a person. Do yourself a favor and live ANYWHERE else. EDIT: I forgot to mention that over the course of living here, my apartment flooded with LITERAL SEWAGE multiple times where the apartment did nothing, refused to pay for a hotel while we had to evacuate our apartment, would not professionally clean the sewage (they used their own cleaning team) and then after they did not clean it properly, we found out that the walls and cabinets were molding from the inside and began to fall off the walls. This place is the WORST

0 Stars. Unprofessional, unresponsive management. You will not receive amenities that you pay for. Management does not care about safety or wellbeing of residents.

- When moving out I was charged $275 for cleaning fees. I provided them with photos and videos of the state that the apartment was left in (much cleaner than when we moved in). The manager then said “I understand you have cleaned the unit, but it is standard for use to charge a cleaning charge to get it cleaned by a cleaner and a carpet clean for the unit to be ready. ” She later went on to confirm that ALL apartments were charged a cleaning fee regardless of the state that they were left in. This mandatory fee is not stated anywhere on the lease. When I informed her that legally (to my knowledge) I was not responsible to pay for normal wear and tear on the apartment, and a mandatory cleaning must be stated in the lease, she said that she would work with IT to get this removed. After FOUR months and hours and hours of work trying to get a response and action to resolve the issue from the property, the fees were finally removed from my account. This should have been resolved immediately and should not take this much work from a tenant to complete.

- Upon moving into my apartment, BOTH showers did not work. After calling the property and requesting maintenance the first shower was fixed within a few days, and the second shower was not fixed for over a month. This again took an excess of time and energy on my end to be resolved.

- The gate to drive onto the property was broken and left open 90% of the 11 months that I lived here. One of our cars was broken into and homeless people wandered around the property. There was still no assistance from property management, despite the gate being left open all night and never fixed. The management stated that “As for the gate and fireplace, I apologize for the delay. We are having some issues with the vendors. ”

- Young children were running around the property unattended at all times, swimming in the pool, playing in the parking lot, and at the gym. Not only is this loud and disruptive, but it is also a huge liability and safety concern.

- Maintenance issues were not resolved for months, if ever, and were closed out before being completed. The water filter in the gym needed to be replaced, and two machines were broken for months, and again despite my many attempts to request maintenance, were never fixed. Another amenity that I was paying for and could not use.

- Police were constantly at the property for domestic disputes and I would hear screaming and fighting often at night. I informed property management and nothing was done.

- I was concerned there was a leak in my ceiling and mold growing and it took multiple calls and maintenance requests to get them to look into it two months later. Your health and safety is not a priority to this property management team.

- I was told in July the community fireplace would be functional by the time I moved in, August, however a year later when moving out, it still did not work. Again I contacted the property repeatedly to try to get this fixed, as this was an amenity I was paying for and told I would be able to use when signing my lease agreement.

- Good luck getting a response from the property management ever. When calling you are forwarded to a call center and will rarely be called back. If you are lucky enough to get a call or email back it is always extremely unprofessional. Even the announcements sent out to the complex had terrible grammar and spelling. Very unprofessional.

Do not rent here. The management company does not care about a single thing that goes on in this complex. Our neighbor across from us had their apartment flooded ten times with sewage and Haven property management still had the audacity to charged them after taking their whole security deposit once they left. The flooding continued after the apartment was vacated due to clear plumbing/building issues the company refused to fix. They allow their residents to leave their dogs off leash with no consequences, leave their dogs on the 2X4 balconies 24/7 while they bark and disturb the peace and are out in extreme heat, the dog park is flea infested and they will not take care of it, they charge residents $50 for a parking space when they own the parking lot - a clear profit money grab - and allow residents to take up 6 out of 8 washers in a laundry room at a time which makes doing laundry difficult. The management company doesn’t care and refuses to acknowledge the ongoing problems and allows the nonsense to continue. It’s far overpriced for what you get. If you’re gonna pay top dollar live somewhere it’s worth it.

I used to visit my relatives here. And always clean and beautiful. I love the community there.

I moved in last month and I could not be happier! From the very beginning, Alma has been incredibly helpful and kind. She answers all my questions and makes sure I have exactly what I need. I had a few maintenance items that needed attention and they were completed right away by Hector. He was very polite and efficient. The complex is very clean and quiet, and my children and I feel very safe here.

I don’t have the time to sit here and tell you why. But all I can say is do NOT rent here. It’s disgusting in every way and you will regret it! Reviews don’t lie! The reviews were 2.7 when I got here to write mine. So obviously others feel the same way. But really. No matter how “nice” this place looks, stay away. It’s NOT worth being forced to live here for a year.

There were cockroaches, the washing/drying pretends not to work so it can double-quad charge you onto the 4th try, and cheap materials for housing (this honestly goes for the entire California apartment complexes). Lets not forget the rent. Not even worth that price