Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Retreat Apartments Walnut Creek Reviews – Honest Reviews From Residents of The Retreat in Walnut Creek CA

The Retreat Apartments Walnut Creek Reviews – Honest Reviews From Residents of The Retreat in Walnut Creek CA

If you are considering moving into The Retreat Apartments in Walnut Creek, California, and are looking for reviews of this complex from residents, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article I want to share my experience and nightmares of living at The Retreat ever since this complex was sold to its new owner by The Equity Residential Inc. – the former owner.

This morning I woke up to find that water in my apartment was shut off. Thus, no shower, not even brushing my teeth in the morning.

Luckily I had bottled water, so I was able to make a cup of coffee in the morning.

I kept checking on the water every hour, hoping that I could at least flush the toilet which continued accumulating excrements.

No luck.

At around 2:30 PM I finally called The Retreat at their main telephone number at 866-399-8240, which prompted me to dial 3 to speak with staff.

I wasn’t surprised when no one answered the phone there, so no luck.

This is not the first time water has been shut off in the complex, or perhaps just in my building.

Some other horrors of living at The Retreat I have experienced – fire alarms going off randomly in the entire building, sometimes late at night, for no reason whatsoever, constant construction, construction workers who do not speak English crawling up the exterior walls outside my apartment while replacing windows in the neighboring apartments, unavailability of some amenities, such as the pool and the Jacuzzi, gigantic garbage disposals located within 2 feet from the exterior walls in violation of all city and building codes, etc.

The faulty alarm system has not been fixed since this complex was owned by The Equity Residential.

A friend of mine used to live here several years ago and she says that even then the alarms were going off randomly just like they do now.

I remember The Equity Residential management claiming that they tried to fix the alarm system, and sure enough, some workers came on site, worked on the alarms setting them off and on to find out what was wrong and what caused the alarms to go off at night, and apparently found nothing, because it’s been years and we still have this problem.

The pool, according to The Retreat’s staff, has multiple pipe cracks which makes it unusable (even though we used it until The Retreat took over and shut it off, draining all the water).

The Retreat management claims that they are trying to obtain permits to fix the pool from the city of Walnut Creek, and that they are looking at possibly getting those permits and starting the actual work sometime in the summer of 2012. Until then we’ll have no pools for sure.

Many residents are complaining about the ongoing construction, noise, parking issues due to the construction and the Mexican workers dumping and storing piles of lumber, granite, and waste in all of the parking lots.

I personally don’t understand why The Retreat’s owner is putting all these money into fixing up an apartment complex, while making the current residents suffer. Many residents try to break the lease, and they threaten to make us pay for the remaining term of the lease, even though we never signed a contract saying we agree to live in the midst of a construction zone, with no amenities, no water, and no parking.

If you know Creekside Dr. in Walnut Creek – that’s where The Retreat is located – it is the crack heart of Walnut Creek. Street parking is almost impossible to find especially if you come home from work after 3 PM.

This street is the ghetto of Walnut Creek, with the Police circling around day and night. This street has high criminal activity with car theft rate higher than in Concord and other neighboring ghettos.

Creekside is where reportedly drug users come from all over the place to get meth, marihuana and everything else your heart desires.

I personally got mugged in the parking lot of my apartment building at The Retreat coming home late on a Monday night.

Check with Walnut Creek PD before moving to this ghetto! I am moving out of here as soon as my lease is up in 2012. Over the years I’ve had worse and worse experiences, and am finally moving to my own condo in Walnut Creek!

Are you a resident at The Retreat in Walnut Creek? Leave your comments!