apartments.com

Management is Horrible

I do not recommend Diablo Pines Apartments in Walnut Creek. I am sad to say this too because my memories of living there in 1986 for less than a year were so good. This is why I decided all these years later to rent there temporarily again when I returned to the Bay Area during Covid after being out of state for a few years. In an attempt to keep this review brief I will only say that I regret that I ever assumed that my experience this time would be anything like I was so fortunate to have 30+ years ago. Management is the problem. Lack of concern and disorganization plagues the Rutherford Realty Company that owns these apartments. There were too many inconveniences & too many issues to list here. Basically it was almost impossible to get anything taken care of once you moved in. The office number for Rutherford is listed on their website but it is just for show. It is impossible to reach anybody unless the manager decides to answer your calls/texts which often was the case. The weekends you are pretty much on your own because no one was available for tenants if something came up that you needed help with. Over 3 1/2 years of living there I spent 2 weekends in the middle of the summer with no AC and a ceiling fan that didn't work. Unable to get anyone to help me I even got desperate and called an electrician myself one of those times. Plumbing problems happened all the time. I had 8 clogged toilet events and 5 bath back ups. Then they decided to fix the plumbing problems which all of us in this building were having. They did this by yanking out every bit of the landscaping that we had in common outside our front doors. We were promised "an even nicer landscaping" than we had before after this 5 month project finished. Jackhammers and a crew of 7 guys outside of all my windows worked on the plumbing for months. I worked from home at my dining room table and put up with a guy working day in and day out cutting a massive tree stump I had right outside of my window where my "office" was. Fast forward: They never put ANY landscaping in. It remained all just the ugly concrete that they had laid for the pipes. This was what all of our guests saw when they came to visit us. This in addition to trash bins that were out in the open where we parked near our assigned parking stalls~ always overflowing with garbage and old car batteries, dead plants and stinky cat litter strewn around the bottom of it. Old mattresses left inside the Recycle bin enclosure for weeks on end until finally hauled away. I was not offered a walk thru when I moved in but I did make my own notations anyway. I spent month after month trying to get things fixed that were broken when I moved in. There are plenty of washer and dryers in the laundry room but the majority of them were always broken & you lost money over and over again and no one to reimburse you. Tenants began using magic markers to write "Broken" on them & someone got so angry they ripped the coin slot machine apart from one of the machines. They advertise fireplaces & they sure do have them & they sure make your walls turn black even with the damper open. You are then charged to have the walls painted when you move out even though this was brought to the attention of apt manager many times. I ended up repainting the white bricks around the fireplace myself three times. I warned them last year that mine needed to be cleaned or the next time it was lit there could be a fatal fire because it needed to be cleaned professionally. I moved out two months ago now and have not received any of my deposit back and have not received my accidental overpayment for month of April. There are many more issues but are too complicated to go into in this review. I simply urge people to look elsewhere for an apt. It was the worst place I have ever lived. There are so many other places that are nicer and that have actual phone numbers for tenants to call no matter what day it is that you happen to have a problem that you need addressed promptly. Management is the key to any residential community running smoothly. Rent is very high these days and there are many options for folks here in the Bay Area. I think Diablo Pines needs to start with some basics like initial walk thrus, move out walk thrus, keep machines in working order in their laundry room, have real contact numbers for managers and also have a schedule for the manager and let residents know when she is gone for the day or not available certain days for some reason. I have written a couple of emails to the current new manager in my many attempts to wrap this up. I have asked to meet with her and still waiting for my pro rated April rent & my deposits to be returned. I have not heard from her and will now have to call Tenant's Rights and take her to Small Claims Court. Don't bother looking at Diablo Pines if you are looking for a nice place to live.

Date of experience: Jun 03, 2024