Huntington Breakers

I've lived in the Breakers for 3 years, and like all apartment complexes, this one has its pros and cons. The short of it is... Pros: Location, well maintained facilities, pets allowed, and extra guest parking passes (for a day). Cons: Thin walls and floors, termites, office staff, and (possibly) underground parking spaces. The long of it is... I've always like the location (it's just a five minute walk to the beach), and the grounds, facilities, and apartments are maintained very well. Living here, I've never had a problem finding parking either, and the leasing office is very nice about letting you borrow extra guest parking passes for a day, if you're having a few people over. There are some cons though. The buildings themselves are not the best craftsmanship. The walls, and especially the floors, are VERY thin. I've lived in a studio on the ground floor and I could hear the people above walking around and even just opening their closet door. I've also lived in a townhome, which is located on the second floor, and I could hear the creaks I was making walking around, which made me very self-conscious. I imagine, having a party would surly upset downstairs neighbors, and playing Wii or Rock-band also seems iffy. I could also hear my next-door neighbors walking around and at times it sounded like they were in my own home. (And remember the Breakers allow you to have dogs, which is great, but you can also hear dogs running around in the apartments too.) Personally, I can live with noise, but not everyone can. Another con is that there are lots of ants (that's Southern California for you though) and TERMITES. When living in the studio I had termites infest my bathroom and closet. I had notified the office when I had spotted a few, and they told me that was normal and they were harmless to me. I came home a few days later and found my bathroom floor and connecting closet fairly covered with termites. I stayed in a hotel and brought pictures to the staff to get someone over there right away. It took a day someone to look at my apartment, and then an exterminator came about 4 days after I showed the pictures. The office staff is friendly, but they don't seem to want to take care of problems (which, I realize is a common trait among most apartment landlords and staff, but I still find it bothersome). When I first moved in, the person before me must have had a pet, because I received 56 fleabites my first night. One of the office staff told me that the previous tenant never mentioned having a pet, so I must have dragged the fleas in from outside. (For the extra rent one must pay for a pet, I can understand not mentioning it to the office. AND I found it a little rude for an office staff to blame me for a problem that occurred before I moved in. Just take care of it, and it?s all good.) My last word here is about the underground parking. It could be a con for some people with larger vehicles. Before you move to the Breakers, ask which underground spot you will be assigned. Unfortunately, at one point, I was assigned a spot with two large pillars on either side, making the spot just a little bit tinier than the others and bit more difficult to turn into. In short, my car didn't fit. Not a big deal because I can always find an uncovered spot within the gates, but perhaps something to think about if you prefer covered parking. more

My wife and I lived here for a total of about 3.5 years. We each had our own apartments, and then when we got married we moved into a 2-bedroom. Collectively we've lived in three buildings: I - studios, lots of students, can be fairly loud especially in the summer. R - 1-br, young families, etc. I never had a problem with noise. U - Quiet as can be. Families, kids, etc. We had a 2-br on the corner unit and LOVED it. We liked the staff, the location, and the price was comparable to other places in the area. The location is great though, so that tipped the cards in their favor. The staff was very friendly, but we did get the feeling that they'd tell us whatever we wanted to hear to make an issue go away. That's assuming of course, that you can get ahold of them in the first place. They're very nice, just not that effective. None of this was enough to prompt a negative review. In fact, we've posted reviews and responses to online reviews defending the Breakers. It's been a great place to live. ...but then we moved out. Our deposit was $1250. Out of this they are returning to us about $67. The reason' They want to replace the carpets. Why do they want to replace the carpets? Cat piss. In their defense, cat pee is incredibly difficult to clean. Our issue is with the fact that there was no cat urine on the carpet. Never has been. Not here, not in my wife's apartment in the I building, not at her last apartment, her folks' house, or any other place the cat has ever been. This cat has never - not ONCE in the four years we've had her - peed on the carpet. They saw a stain caused by a leaky trash bag, saw an opportunity, and charged us to replace the carpets. We know which stain it was, they called to tell us about it. They listed all the reasons cat urine is cause for carpet replacement, without actually checking to verify that the stain was urine. For example, they said cat urine has a strong odor. Not in question - but this stain didn't stink because it was from a trash bag we used to empty the fridge of food we weren't taking with us (i.e., the food wasn't even bad). Cat urine shows up under a black light. Again, that's fine - did they shoot this stain with a black light to verify it' Nope. They saw a stain, assumed it was cat piss, and took a huge chunk of our deposit as payment for fixing it. A couple other things to consider. When I moved from my 1-br in the R building to this unit in the U building, they replaced the carpets. They told me I'd been there for a little over a year and it was time to replace them. They did not charge me for this. We stay in another apartment for the same time frame, they replace the carpets, and charge through the nose for it because we had a cat and they can use that as leverage to have us pay for their normally scheduled repairs. You can tell a lot about a landlord / property manager by the way they treat their outgoing tenants. If we still lived in the area we'd be telling everyone we knew to avoid this complex. As we've moved to a different part of the state, this review will have to do. Pros: Great location, price is okay, staff is nice Cons: Cheated us out of our deposit. more

My Roomate & I had a leak in our ceiling about a month before we moved out. Breakers took care of the repair, but neglected to tell us that they were charging US for it, despite the fact that we did not cause the leak at all. Furthermore, staff failed to notify us until 6 weeks after the leak, and over 3 weeks after we had moved out. No phone call, no visit before we left, no notification when we visited the leasing office, no notice at all until a ""payment past due"" letter was issued. We tried to argue the charge, but staff forced us to pay by threatening sending our account to a collections agency, thereby ruining our credit. As a part of a large corporation, Huntington Breakers has property insurance -- even so, they insisted on forcing us to pay even though they could have billed their insurance for the sum. The operators of this apartment complex seem to savor screwing over the little guy, and it's very evident in the way that they conduct their business. I would not recommend renting from them at all, total nightmare. Truly disgusting people. Pros: Pool & jacuzzi, Well-kept grounds, adequate parking Cons: Shady/Profiteering staff, Ramshackle units, Often noisy more

staff is friendly when they want your business, but once they've got you, they're very rude. They don't take care of their current tenants. They're impossible to contact unless you walk into the office. Then they'll tell you all kinds of conflicting stories to get you out. Most of all the manager. Prices are much more than most of the nicer places by the beach. Try downtown HB first. There are lots of smokers, so we get the fumes in our apt all the time. We have a HUGE theft problem. Cars are always being broken into, storage units, locked bikes stolen, computer was stolen out of my neighbors apartment a few months ago. You don't get much use of the ammenities b/c the hours are a little inconvenient. There is a lot of noise at all hours of the night, any day of the week. Laundry is a scam. $5 for an empty card, and they usually break after a couple uses so you have to buy new ones and you lose however much money you just put on it. The worst is the price gauge. They use every tactic they can to keep your rent high. Beware if you're thinking of moving in here. Talk to tenants who have been there for at least 7 months first. Pros: friendly/quick maintinence,grounds nice, many ammenities Cons: overpriced, rude staff, badly built, noisy all nigh, smokers more