Colonial Garden Apartments

Don’t be fooled by the nice entry way. The apartments have no AC, just a measly wall unit in the kitchen. Which is not effective. The bedroom is sweltering at all times of the day and night. The apartment interior is painted with the lowest quality paint I have ever seen and by the worst painters you could imagine. There were, quite literally, human hairs stuck in my walls. They painted over water-​based paint with oil-​based paint and didn’t prep the walls/​cabinets by sanding. This caused immediate chipping from day one. Handles incessantly popped off cabinets. Towel racks fell off the wall. And the noise!!! LA traffic on Barrington, coupled with the Santa Monica Airport in your backyard, on top of a sketchy ally at your backdoor. People rummaged through your garbage bins day and night. People peed by your garbage bins in the middle of the day. Not cute.
All of this, however, could have been bearable if it weren’t for the landlady. She is quite a pill. Puts on a nice face for potential renters, then flips a 180 the second they sign the lease. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, the landlady tried to keep our $ 2,400 deposit after we moved out. We left the apartment in impeccable condition. But for some reason, she insisted that we pay for all the walls, cabinets, interior of the cabinets (which i had lined and never touched), and balcony to be repainted. She entered our apartment without our prior consent or knowledge to conduct an estimate. Which, by the way, is ILLEGAL. She refused to provide us with itemized charges. Which is also illegal. We had our own painting company come in and he quoted us at ¹⁄₅^th of the price she did. We attempted to explain «normal wear and tear» to her, but unfortunately she wouldn’t listen. When we confronted her, she decided to yell at us (which apparently is her m.o.) and storm out the door. After sending a strongly worded and well researched email to her explaining our rights as renters and what we would and would not allow her to do, she gave up for fear of being taken to small claims court. In the end, we won. But I would rather you not have to go through this ordeal. All of our neighbors had similar interactions with the landlady. (And speaking of neighbors, I don’t know why the other reviews mentioned bad neighbors. Yes, the majority of them are on the older side, but they are the sweetest old ladies I’ve met.)

DO NOT sign the lease!!! Don’t get fooled by the good-​look of the half-​way modernized façade of this complex. I moved in this complex less than 6 months ago and right now I can’t wait to hand the management my 30-​day notice to vacate. Here are the reasons why I would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend this place:
1 — CAR THEFT AND VANDALISM — so far since I moved in, two vehicles have been stolen and one vandalized in less than 3 months due to LACK of gated, secured parking lot (tenants park in the back alley). Any thief can access any vehicle.
2 — NOISE — tenants’ vehicles park right beneath tenants’ apartments. Currently there are two vehicles beneath me that sport modified exhaust systems designed to put others through hell during deep sleep between 6 AM and 8 AM. It sucks to deal with IGNORANT people. If you love the sound of loud lawn and pavement cleaning machines, also airplane noises from Santa Monica airport, this is the right place to live. They violate the noise ordinances here all the time.
3 — THE MANAGERS, Janet and her husband, are WORTHLESS. If you have an issue that they can’t satisfy and you want to escalate to upper management… too bad, you are SCREWED. They won’t provide their manager’s or the owner’s info. Janet is conceited but extremely nice when showing the units to prospective tenants.
5 — OVERPRICED — most units don’t have a balcony. There aren’t enough storage in the units, no central AC, no gas stove. When I first moved in, one of my vertical blinds was missing a blind. They sent me a broken, used one. The screen in my bedroom was missing. They replaced it in a untimely fashion.
I just learned that the complex belongs to the owner (Donald Sterling) of one the losingest teams (LA Clippers) in professional basketball (NBA) history. Let’s see what he’ll do to affect my rating. I feel bad for you Blake Griffin.

I would not recommend you live in this place unless you live on market hours or are 60+ years old (i.e. you go to bed at 8 and get up at 430). People here threaten to have you arrested if you make the smallest noise past 9pm (okay maybe that’s an exaggeration). All the neighbors are completely eccentric and uppity about EVERYTHING. During the hot hot days in October, we had SWARMS of winged termites (seriously, I would guess close to 500 bugs if not more) crawling into the apartment from under the sliding glass doors… This was very very very disgusting. Also, the water comes out brown from ALL of the faucets if you haven’t run them for a couple of hours… you have to let the water run for at least 20 – 40 seconds before it clears out. Luckily, the only amenity you pay for here is electricity, and your rent covers water, trash, sewage etc. There is NO central air. There is one unit in the living room, but not in the bedroom, so it gets really really hot in the summer.
The only reason this place even gets two stars are for the following reasons:
1) You can walk to Whole Foods, Starbucks, Robecks, Blockbuster, a dry cleaning place among other businesses, but I don’t use any of the others.
2) They technically have a «no pets» policy, but the management looks the other way unless you have an «aggressive» breed of dog… or an excessively noisy dog.
3) Great location and great neighborhood. It doesn’t feel so much like it’s IN the city… and really decent driving distance to Santa Monica, Westwood, Westside Pavillion, Century City Westfield, the Bridge, and the newest gigantic mall in Culver City.
So, if you think the good things make it worth it to put up with the brown water, crazy neighbors, and termite infestations once or twice a year, perhaps you can tolerate this place. As for me, I can’t wait for my lease to end so I can get out of this place.