Shadowridge Heights Apartments

Wish I could give zero stars but cannot. The complex is terrible and i would not eveb suggest my enemies to go there. I lived here as I was in between places and this was the only place that had a month to month kwase option. The apartments are decent, wall are comparatively thicker, good size apartments and decently priced.
If so much good, what is the bad? Well the leasing office and maintenance.
1. Leasing office staff is rude to the extent that I cannot even say. Carolina is very sweet when you see the apartment however is terrible later. I wish I never get to deal with such people ever. They never help and always take days/​weeks for maintenance which can be threatning to the tenant.
2. Maintenance people do a good work but are so few that they are always slammed. An AC repair in peak summer took them 2 weeks while we almost died in san diego heat.
3. Trash management is crappy. The trash area outside my apartment was always dirty, overflowing and mosquitoes breeded their. I hnderstand it is the tenants but the management should try to clean it and send notices to responsible people. I am lucky I didnot get sick but It was terrible!
4. Second parking is a pain sometimes. I don’t feel safe walking all the way around as even though gated, it is pretty easy to enter as the gate takes a while to open and close. A lot of people abd suspicious cars tag along.
5. Safety! Safety! Safety! As i said before, i felt scared walking in the night parking far away. Once I saw someone trying to break into a car. It was creepy as it could have been my car.
Please avoid unless you are in a dying situation!

I wish I can give minus star. DO NOT STAY HERE. Management is a rip off. They charge you for maintenance if you make silly mistake. I added wrong soap in my dishwasher and they charged me $ 200 !!

My husband and I lived at Shadowridge Heights Apartments for 15 months, and we are glad not to be there anymore. As nice as it was to pay a more affordable rent, there are a lot of things we don’t miss. These are just a few of the negatives, but in talking with other residents, the feelings are pretty common.
POSITIVES:
AFFORDABLE– For the square footage that we had for a 1BR (710 sq. ft.), the price was lower than other apartments in the area. When our lease was up for renewal, the price increase was lower compared to other apartments I’ve lived in.
Low noise — The walls seem to be built pretty well. We barely heard any loud noises from the street or from neighbors’ plumbing or television, and we never had any complaints from our neighbor downstairs. In other apartments I’ve lived, we’ve had to be careful when we run our dishwasher or even walk around at night, or are bothered by noises like traffic or banging on walls.
GOOD LOCATION — We enjoyed living in Vista, especially being so close to the beach and several freeways. (One warning though that making a left turn out of the parking complex is dangerous. There have been several accidents at this intersection.)
PET-​FRIENDLY — There are lots of different dogs in the complex, and most of them are friendly. There is a lot of grass for dogs to walk around and explore. (I will mention that there is one station for pet waste bags, but since it was originally installed a few months back, it has never been refilled).
NEGATIVES:
LIMITED PARKING — Guest parking is limited, and we’ve often had to park our own cars or ask our visitors to park down the street at a shopping center nearby. There’s only one assigned spot, and it’s a toss-​up to see if your car will be targeted for towing. You see commercial vehicles and cars without decals parked for days in visitor spots without anyone bothering them. However, my husband received several notices in various parking spots, that his car, even when parked in our covered spot with a decal, would be towed if not moved for more than three days, which is very inconvenient if you ever plan on going on vacation or carpooling for a week. He literally had to keep moving his car until he finally sold it and bought a motorcycle so that we could share our one covered spot.
MAINTENANCE — The apartment complex itself is not maintained very well. There is trash left around common walkways for weeks at a time, which can be reflective of the lack of respect that some of the residents have for the property and/​or the lack of care that the maintenance and cleaning staff have.
Frequent Short Notices of Work– Every few weeks, we’d see a new notice on our door about work being done inside or around our unit or just reminding us that rent was due. While we appreciated the communication, it seemed a little odd to us that they wanted to come into our units so often at what seemed like random times (and more than once the work didn’t get done as scheduled, so we’d see another note a couple weeks later). In addition, the notices would often request that we make arrangements for pets each time they wanted to enter our apartment, and the scheduled work times would be the next day. On one of the hottest days of the year, they asked us to keep our windows and doors closed while they sprayed pest control chemicals, and it was concerning to me that our dog would be inside our apartment for several hours with only fans (no A/​C in the units).
LEASING OFFICE — During our stay, the staff changed several times, but most of the interactions we had with the staff weren’t friendly or helpful. We often felt confronted when trying to ask simple questions. The office is only open from 8 AM — 5 PM on weekdays, making it difficult to reach anyone outside of work hours. Because the rent payment policy changed so that you had to either mail in your rental check to the leasing office (seemed like a waste of a postage stamp) or hand it in person (they took away the drop-​off box), I had take time out of work to hand in my rental check at inconvenient times. I wished they had direct deposit like other apartments.
«GATED» COMMUNITY — Although the complex has a remote-​controlled gate, be aware that the gate is open between 6 AM and 6 PM and anyone can come in and out during those times.
In summary, if you can afford a couple hundred dollars more to live somewhere else in the area, it’ll be worth it.

Lived here in 2007. New management took over during our lease. When I went to pay rent the ladies in the office (new ladies of course, after new management fired everyone and hired their own people), made me submit a copy of my lease as they wanted to charge me 100 dollars in rent than agreed upon lease terms with prior management. I did not get my security deposit or my deposit for extra clicker back. After new management took over things looked like they were going down hill.
Pros: (before management changed), quiet and safe neighborhood.

THIS PLACE WILL TOW YOU AS A GUEST WITHOUT ANY NOTICE!!! Even in their open spaces where guests are supposed to be allowed to park, they will tow your car. There are NO signs anywhere on the property stating this rule. BEWARE!

My one biggest complaint in the few months of living here is that its very hard to get a hold of the leasing office. I have never been able to talk to someone in person during my first attempt because there is always a sign saying they’ll be back soon. There have even been a few times where I go back at the specified time, and they decided they’d come back later.
Appliances are old, but thats what you get for one of the lowest priced apartments in the Vista area, so I’m not particularly picky about it. For minor repair problems, the maintenance man is pretty quick to come around and fix the problem (of course, after I’m able to get a hold of the office employees).
The parking isn’t the greatest, but my husband and I arrange it so that whoever gets home first has to park in an uncovered spot so the one who comes home last can for sure have a spot to park.
Luckily, we live in a quiet section so we have nothing to complain about in that area. Plus, its nice that after your lease is up, it just moves to a month to month lease.