California Construction & Management

I lived at 2415 College in Berkeley for 15 years so I can speak intelligently about the building and the management. worst building I have ever lived in, and I am old, so I
Have lived an a few.
The roof leaks any time there is a serious rain. I spent years trying to get them to fix it, to no avail. And I am a lawyer, i shudder to think of what a busy student would have to go through. At one point I was actually assaulted by The managers husband over this issue. He just lost his temper.
Before the owners hired them as a manager Cathy and her short tempered mean vindictive husband did odd jobs around the building. they would get angry when i would call the then manager nancy and make them remove the extension ladders they would leave leaning against the building for anyone to crawl up.
The carpets never get cleaned. if someone vomits, which happens in a college apartment, too bad.
Front door locks are frequently broken. One door on the first floor was broke For 10 years before they finally got around to fixing it.
The building is noisy as heck, due to the poor quality windows, carpet and doors. You can hear every step that someone takes in the apartment above you.
The elevator would break frequently. Once it was broken for over two weeks and i was told they were not going to fix it. i had to look up the Berkeley City Building Code and point out to them that by law under threat of substantial fines they had a duty to fix it.
That is how it is with them. You have to go to the matt everytime because they are so cheap and lazy.
The problem begins with the slumlord owners of the building who want to take as much profit from the building without giving students a fair value. I heard both managers nancy and cathy comment to me about the owners would not do this or that because the students will put up with it. They should bow their heads in shame. I bet their roof does not leak.
The home office management in Watsonville is equally bad. Any complaint was always met with if you are not happy move out. I told them I would enforce the lease the insisted on signing.
For those having problems, Im sure that roof is still leaking, continue to call theBerkeley Rent Control Board and consider suing them. Dont be affraid tonexercize your rights.
In sum, its noisy, dirty, unsafe due to broken or inoperative locks, leaky roofs, mean assaultive management, unresponsive management, greedy owners.

Granted, the true test of the quality of a management company comes when a problem or dispute arises, so my opinion could change in the future. For three years running, though, California Construction & Management has been very good in providing service and maintaining the apartment building I live in.
Both Cathy and Theresa have been very responsive whenever I’ve had any need, and maintenance issues tend to be few and quickly resolved. The building I live in is older, so certain nuisances, like poorly insulated windows and an older style elevator, come with the territory. None of these, though, have had a singificant negative impact on my quality of life.
My move in was over three years ago now, but I still remember how CC&M not only fully replaced the carpet, but also insisted on another cleaning after my tour to make sure the unit was in good condition when I moved in. When I indicated to CC&M that the refrigerator seemed old, they immediately checked their records, realized it was due for replacement, and gave me a brand-​spanking new fridge within the week.
CC&M seems to take pride in its buildings, and I think they expect the same of their tenants. Some of the older reviews complain about a previous manager, Nancy. Nancy is no longer working for the company, but in my dealings with her she was always very reasonable. She had a brusque manner and high standards, but as someone who tries to care for my space, I appreciated her fastidiousness. I can understand why someone would lose patience when tenants do things like leave a hot iron on the floor and then try to cover up the burn mark.
As I said before, the building is older and it shows in certain respects, but it’s still very comfortable and feels clean and safe. The colorful tile floors in the lobby and landing areas of my building are straight out of Saved by the Bell. But the management has endeavored to make the outdoor patio nice, and has even recently embarked on new outdoor lighting, exterior painting, patio planters, and replacement of the hallway lighting fixtures.
When taking care of business related to rent, temporary parking, and the lease, I have also had good experiences with the management team. Inquiries are responded to quickly, and when one of my rent checks got lost in the mail (yes, really) the managers were understanding and let me resubmit without penalty. Overall, I would characterize my relationship with management as one of mutual respect.
If you’re looking for a contemporary apartment with lots of modern amenities, CC&M’s offerings might not be for you. But if you’re looking for a comfortable apartment in an older but well-​maintained building, you might just find what you’re looking for.

Lived at 2415 College Avenue for one year. My one-​bedroom unit was excellent in terms of the proximity. The unit itself had a strange layout. People must go through the bedroom in order to use the bathroom. The windows are very old, so the cold winter air invites itself into the room.
Nancy is stuck in limbo with her job, and takes her frustrations out on students just trying to find a place to live. Upon move out, my roommate and I hired 2 professional cleaners to take care of the apartment so that we received our full security deposit back. I took pictures of the spotless apartment for my reference, and even sent them to Nancy. She still decided to bring in someone for «general cleaning,» which cost us around $ 225 of our security deposit. With an item so vague, I couldn’t refute her claim. So, she made off with $ 225.
After renting from other agencies in the area, I would choose CC&M last.

I lived in a studio run by CC&M for two years and I had a really great experience with them.
–The apartments aren’t super special but they are great for a college student and were always well maintained.
–Every time I had a maintenance issue I talked to Teresa or Cathy downstairs and it was fixed within 24 hours.
–Not many apartment complexes around Berkeley offer month to month leases from the start and CC&M does. This is really convenient for the schedule of college students.
–Everyone I encountered was really friendly and took very good care of my place when I was there, from Teresa and Cathy to the maintenance guys or Jeff, the key keeper.
–The building has good security and I was able to get packages and not have to worry about them being stolen.
–The security for parking a car was great too. I never had to worry about break ins, but my car did get a little dirty in the garage.
Overall it was a great experience with the best managers i have had in my experiences with apartment complexes in Berkeley. I highly recommend living here!

Don’t be fooled by the new «team» — they are still a pathetic excuse for a management company. A couple of key notes:
1) In my building, the elevator inspection certification had expired by almost a year, and so it ran correctly about 50% of the time. As a student, it’s fine. As a student moving in/​out, it’s a hassle. As an elderly person living on the second or third floor… unacceptable.
2) Don’t bother cleaning your place before moving out. We spent 3 days scrubbing our apartment clean and were still charged for 10 hours of cleaning services, even though we left it in better condition than when we had arrived.
3) One Saturday night, I forgot to IMMEDIATELY take my laundry out of the washing machine and move it to the drier. I figured it was no big deal, considering it was 12AM and I was only about 30 minutes late — who does laundry this late on a Saturday night anyway? Laundry hours end at 10:00PM on Saturdays, so I figured I would dry my clothes in the morning. Well, in a bizarre series of circumstances, Nancy (the former manager) drove by the apartment, saw that I had left my laundry in the washer, and decided to punish me by stealing all of my clothes and taking them home with her. That weekend was my birthday. I had no clothes for 2 days and assumed they were stolen. 48 hours later, I see a crumpled note taped to the laundry door that says there are clothes to be claimed. When I found out Nancy had taken them, she demanded that I give her $ 1.50 because she dried them for me. I couldn’t believe the nerve of this menopausal train wreck. I eventually talked her out of making me pay $ 1.50, and she wrote it off as a «birthday present.» Well Nancy, this review is my birthday present to you.
I wasn’t going to write a complaint. I was at peace with all of this until I saw the ridiculous charge on our security deposit. For the record, all of the maintenance workers are extremely respectful and friendly. But in today’s world, that’s just not good enough.
Not worth the energy.

This is the third review I have written on Unilocal ever, so this shows how frustrated I am with CC&M under new management.
I read through all the previous posts about how the apartment is overall very nice, but the interactions with Nancy are horrible — Here is my take on the whole situation.
My roommate and I initially felt the same towards Nancy, we thought she was very difficult to work with. She was very intimidating and talking to her feels like I am being scolded at constantly by my own mother. However, now that she has retired and CC&M has been under new management this past 6 months, I wish Nancy was back.
Why CC&M was good with Nancy — Although she always sounded mean, she was still very accommodating. My roommate and I signed the lease to move in mid-​November 2009, but when we asked her if we could move in January 2010 (we had some issues with our old lease), she allowed us to move our move-​in date in spite of the lecture she gave us. One time, I needed to jump my car but couldn’t find any cables. I saw a maintenance guy and asked him if he had any, he said no and told me to ask Nancy. When I went into the office, she scolded at the maintenance guy for not carrying around cables and scolded at me because she doesn’t like loaning her personal items out. However, ultimately she lent me her cable. In short, Nancy was mean in words but she was very nice and accommodating in actions.
Why CC&M now sucks — This new crappy management is not accommodating at all, my calls are always returned late, and things don’t get resolved quickly. We had a random leak from the faucet in the bathtub, I called CC&M on a Monday and left a message. I also called back about 5 times in hopes of someone picking up the phone. No luck. On Tuesday, I called about 5 times. No luck. Do they just take random days off? Theresa finally called back and she said they’ll get to it «today or tomorrow.» Four days passed by and nothing. Not only were my roommate and I annoyed about the sound of the leak, but we were also very concern with wasting water. My roommate couldn’t take it anymore and left then a mean message, in which pushed them to get this issue fixed.
My roommate and I are moving out of this apartment (we’re moving to SF) and every encounter I have with Theresa (and now, another person named Kathy) is just unpleasant. We are moving out on June 6^th and under some Berkeley rental ordinance, we could schedule for a someone from management to come by and check the state of our apartment and give us feedback about the cleanliness of our apartment — since they pay $ 33/​hour for someone to clean our apartment and some other ridiculous amount of money to clean the carpet, which comes straight out of our deposit. I have called them 4 times regarding this and they still «don’t have time» to stop by. I just got off the phone with Kathy and she was being really rude.
The apartment itself — The only issue I had with my current apartment at CC&M is that my roommate and I cannot have both of our heaters at the same time, or else the electricity would go out. That has always been such an inconvenience since the apartment always feels cold for us! Also, the walls are pretty thin, thought I feel like most apartments have that issue. Now, with all these communication problems with the new management, we wouldn’t even recommend the apartment.

Super close to UC, which is a huge plus. But I like it when people are up front with me. They said they cleaned the carpets before I moved in, but every time I walked without shoes on the floor the bottoms of my feet were literally black with dirt? They said they painted the walls too, but there were nails sticking out of the walls? They said they also cleaned the windows, but there have been streaks outside for 6 months, that not even the rain will get rid of? I don’t think they were completely honest with me. Also be aware of the fire alarm, they go off from building water or making toast, super sensitive.
Another incident that upset me, was a fire alarm that sent everyone outside for about 30 an hour. I wasn’t upset about having to go outside, but about how they never told anyone why. I asked the firefighter and he said the elevator motor was smoking quite a bit.
Sometimes they come into your apartment to do random stuff. The first time they did not give us notice that they were going to come in. The second time, they gave us a 24 hour notice, but left my front door unlocked. They came into the apartment about once a month to check or do something. Super annoying, they have ridiculous windows of time, 9am until 5pm. It felt more invasive than living in campus housing at times.
They have «strict» noise rules, 10:30pm is quiet hours, but they are pretty hypocritical about them. The maintenance people are loud during quiet hours and one night at midnight a car alarm went off in the garage, echoing throughout the building an hour. It was horrible, couldn’t sleep, I guess the battery must have died before it finally stopped. It was almost as loud as a fire alarm for about an hour…
Besides all that, the building is generally quite which is great for studying and I mostly feel safe. Can’t wait to graduate so I don’t have to put up with renting a place for convenience.
I was happy that I wasn’t charged when I moved out for anything, besides the carpet cleaning they do. Nancy was always nice and the company always returned my calls. Out of all the crappy places in Berkeley this one isn’t so bad but not the best.

I lived there for 3 years and my patience couldn’t handle Nancy anymore. Yep, I said it… Nancy.
The apartment was decent;
–occasionally there wouldn’t be any hot water (the maintenance didn’t know how to fix it).
–pipes would be super loud whenever someone took a shower
–windows were glass blinds that didn’t have screens; issues of bugs and ventilation.
–SUPER THIN WALLS
–Quite hours are enforced
–Walk-​in Closet
–I had original counter tops but others were newly renovated.
Management:
— I kind of feel sorry for Nancy because she is constantly bitter, unhappy, and finding excuses to give her tenants a hard time. I would highly recommend calling the management office number listed in your contract/​lease if you have issues with her. Don’t call the Berkeley office.
— I can tell you stories and horrible encounters with Nancy dealing with Deposit, Rent, Parking, and Maintenance but all in all you shouldn’t live in a place, where you feel disrespected and have to put up with their personal issues.
— I thought I could avoid her and brush away her constant negativity but DAMN … good luck to the current tenants!
Resources ALL TENANTS SHOULD KNOW:
–I’ve had issues with yearly rent increase and if you’re not familiar with The Rent Stabilization or Tenant Rights this can be an issue. Please know your rights. I wasn’t aware of these until I moved out.
THIS PLACE IS NOT WORTH DEALING WITH THE MANAGEMENT

Lol I like everyone’s reviews about Nancy
Nancy was a bit hostile towards us when 2 of our friends were moving out of a unit and myself and another friend were moving in. We had a little argument but she was actually quite plesant to work with after being her tenant for a year.
The unit was really nice and they were very legal and legit with all forms and procedures. They were always very on top of service requests and usually were able to send a maintenance person down within a day to fix something.
They also cleaned the carpets in the hallway and kept their units very well maintained. Nancy was even able to provide a very nice letter for my applications for a new apartment after I graduated for my other prospective landlords. We had a very smooth transition out of our apartment and got the deposit check within 21 business days as promised.
I would suggest anyone to go in cautious at first when talking with Nancy but I think CC&M was great.

Yes, CC&M’s apartments are fairly nice. They’re definitely nicer than most apartments near campus. BUT that is soooo not worth the crap the management puts you through, in addition to general rudeness of NANCY. Although we have several favorite «I hate Nancy» stories, this is my personal favorite.
When my roomie and I were moving out last May, Nancy called us to arrange several viewings of the place for prospective tenants, which we were fine with as long as we were there. Nancy said that she would prefer taking people there when we were gone, but we’re really picky about this sort of stuff. So the group gathered outside at the alloted time, but Nancy was no where to be found. After about 15 minutes, my roommate came home and saw them standing outside so she let them in. We were just going to let them look around and ask any questions because, ahem, it was our apartment. Then Nancy showed up and scolds us (in front of the crowd) for letting them in. Hey, I thought we could let whoever the heck we wanted into OUR apartment. So then Nancy literally herds the people into a single file line and proceeds to lead them through the apartment, one room at a time, with the standard speech: «This is the bedroom with a walk-​in closet. This is the bathroom with a separate shower.» Whenever a person tried to pause to look closer (at the windows that didn’t close all the way or the oven that didn’t really work) Nancy would push them along, saying that she didn’t want to intrude on us. My roomie and I said several times that we didn’t mind and would answer any questions they had, but Nancy wouldn’t let them speak to us.
Now, I understand that we can’t answer questions about rent or anything, but we could have told them how long it takes to walk to campus, or how safe the building is (not very!!!) or whatever. But Nancy wouldn’t let them! She lead them around for a grand total of 3 minutes and them forced them out, saying she could answer any questions in the hallway.
I thought this was entirely unprofessional and rude and generally uncalled for. We had some other person (don’t remember who) show us around when we first moved in, and she didn’t treat us like that at all– we were allowed to, you know, look at the place. Essentially, Nancy acted like she knew that at least one of these people would apply for the apartment no matter what (kids straight out of the dorm always do), so she could weed out the «troublemakers» who would cause extra work for her. Just my opinion.

I will agree that the apartments are nice and kept in rather good shape; however, I do not think dealing with Nancy is a treat in any way, shape or form. I found her to be defensive from the start of any conversation I had with her and she did not follow through on things that she said she would. I got completely screwed over in getting my deposit back because of the way they handle returning deposits, not because I had destroyed the apartment. While the buildings may be nice, there are many other nice places where you don’t have to deal with the added stress to your life by the management. Do yourself a favor and avoid any CC&M apartment building like the plague.

Many Berkeley apartments tend to be in pretty bad shape, if only because no matter what they look like, someone will show up in August from out of the country needing an apartment immediately for UC, and paying whatever is asked.
CC&M maintains their buildings well, and treats their tenants with respect. The building they manage at Hearst and Spruce is the fanciest, nor does it have the most character, but in addition to CC&M’s great service, you get Nancy from CC&M living in your building, a fantastic location for students, and very reasonable rental prices for the location. It may be a tad much for undergrads, but for graduate students or visiting faculty, they are a great option