Marina Harbor Apartments & Anchorage

Merp. Pretty disappointed with this place as a business. We moved in in November and there have been at least 6 or 7 different occasions where the power is out for long extended periods of time – and other times where we haven’t had running water, which is beyond frustrating. All good if it’s just a couple hours here and there, but this has been all day long events. On top of that, we were just notified that we have to start paying our water, trash and sewer… which is crazy because that wasn’t the agreement when we signed our lease and we wouldn’t have moved in if that was the case. It’s already crazy expensive and to add more while you’re 4 months into your lease is just not a good move and I’m not happy giving my money to this business. I am not the type to go out of my way to write a bad Unilocal review but this is truly frustrating and I sadly would not recommend this place to anyone, in fact-it’s a huge bummer that now we’ll have to start looking for other places to live.

This place has a great view, but that is about it. The walls are paper thin. I get woken up every morning at 5am by my neighbor’s blender. My other neighbor likes to play video games until 1am in the morning. I called in a noise complaint at least a dozen times, but management does not care. When we moved in they told us no dogs allowed. However, almost every person here has a dog and they bark all day long. If you move here watch your step becasue their is dog droppings everywhere. It is also extremely hot here. When we moved in they told us we didn’t need AC. That is 100% wrong! During the summer my wife and I have to wear our underwear around for about three months. Since it is so hot we have to keep the sliding door open at night, but the sprinklers come on every morning at 4am. So for the last two years I wake up at 1am (video games), 4am (sprinklers) and 5am from neighbor’s blender. This is on top of the constant dog barking and other marina activity. There is also signs posted weekly about stuff being stolen. Bikes, motorcycles, surfboards, and packages etc. Anyone from outside can walk into the garage and wait for someone to open the elevator door. Security is good at escorting vagrants off the property, but they always find their way back. We took a video of one drifter sleeping in a bush under our apartment. I will admit this place has a nice gym and pool area. However, I’m so tired all the time I can’t enjoy it.

If only I could give a 0 star review! After 8.5 years of living at marina harbor, dealing with constant power outages, having our water shut off often, living through the renovations where the workers actually used our bathrooms and didn’t even clean up after themselves, the constant smell of urine in the garage stairwell, shattered glass left in parking stalls, one elevator that was always broken, often finding glass bottles and more at the bottom of the hot tub, workers who actually entered our apt without us knowing (one incident in particular I was home when someone just came in)… these guys actually went out of their way to STEAL our security deposit by charging us ridiculous fees without any heads up AND then basically for the hell of it added a late charge on top.
We put up with a ton because we actually loved our neighbors and obviously for the location, but seriously!?! Why not take care of the people who reside at your apartments, or at the very least pretend to.
Let’s see what excuses they have for yet another horrible review!

If you like living by candle light, lack of internet for days, and long walks up multiple flights of stairs; this place might be for you.
Been here for about 2 years, had the power go off for extended periods at least twice a year for 1 – 2 days. And of course this means no internet; so for folks who try to work at home, this is a loss of revenue.
The elevator in our building went down in Oct. They say they will begin working on it in March the next year. When told this is unacceptable to not have use of an elevator for ½ year, they suggested we move, and stated they never promised the tenants an elevator would be provided.
My neighbors lease came up during this time and the moving company would charge more due to having to use the stairs for the three flights. He thought the management would work with him and give him a break or help; instead they increased his rent by 150.00/ mo. and told him that would be cheaper than moving.
I just received a notice that the water will be shut off in two days for most of the day. But at least they will tow cars they think have been parked too long. Visitors are always dealing with that.
Its a lot to put up with for a couple of hours of free coffee in the morning at the office. Think I’d rather have an elevator.

I will finally post this review after I’m no longer a tenant and am over the lawsuit. If you read the other reviews you will get the idea. Nice staff, bad management company with poor treatment of customers. No concept of long term retention or referrals.
After 5 years and common wear and tear they insist on charging for whatever they can to get the security deposit. Well guess what… judge Judy disagrees. If you have a security deposit dispute please take it to small claims. It is not right! Justice prevails!!!

I love living in Marina Harbor Apartments. All the amenities, the services, the response to any problems … Great!
Our apartment is very spacoius and comfortable.
We are not looking to live quietly, it’s the Marina. If you want to be alone, live in Brentwood!
Changed our mind, after paying rent here for over 6 years, we were threatened when a check was written slightly incorrectly. Not asked to rewrite it, just threatened to be charged more within 12 hrs of the notice. Who is managing this place! Returning a check for $ 3000 because it was $ 50 off from the parking fee. Stupid!

This place is the nosiest community in the world. The building style is more like a recreation area than a normal residential community, there are pool and tennis court or outdoor gathering between all buildings everywhere and therefore there is not a quiet place anywhere in this complex. As all the buildings are in a long block and all are parallel to each other, the noise is echoing and becomes louder, this can be experienced in a firework time in 4^th of July which is close by and sounds repeating multiple times in each court yard because of echo effect. There is no even a quiet moment in this complex, early in the morning the waste trucks are everywhere, during the day (from 9am to 10 pm) people are in pool area and everywhere, the very old style Jacuzzis which are original with the building (over 50 years old) are super noisy and they work like a diesel engine. After 10 pm until morning the very loud sea lions start screaming until morning.
These crappy apartments have no air condition and even in the fall season inside the unit is very hot. Also there is no natural ventilation inside the apartments as one side are windows and the other side is a super long corridor and you always feel hard to breath and uncomfortable. By the California mechanical code (CMC table 402.1) the corridors have to be ventilated for 0.06 cfm/​sq. ft but the only exhaust fan in corridor at each building that could create some ventilation for corridor and inside the apartments are illegally out of service to save some money for the owner. New security company is horrible, every time you call them for even an emergency situation, they ask you tons of questions which takes about 15 min to go to actual subject, the only thing that they don’t ask you is your social security number, and then they connect you to the guard in duty and again a lot of questions and finally they never show up. There is only one security in entire 500 plus apartment complex which causes a lot of robberies all the time. The previous security company was much better but as usual management for saving more money they have switched to the crappy one.

First, I am writing this as a past tenant who spent about 5 years at the Tides. Beautiful marina views and one of the nicest campuses. What put me over the edge were a few repeated things. One — Guest parking. My boyfriend was towed to one of the most disgusting and scary towing places in town. Do NOT ever leave your car past the allotted time. This is a real problem if you like to have guests over. Second is general maintenance — while they are quick to fix, some of the things just need replacing — sliding doors in particular, dishwasher. Third is a bad smell that they could not identify. I think it was a sewer or mold problem. Really nasty and would come and go but they denied any problem. And finally the package issue. I got many, many packages stolen and there was no way to send to the office for pick up. That was the deal breaker.

This review is not for the apartments, Galen is amazing and they are very friendly, courteous and professional.
This review is exclusively for the Anchorage office. The people who run the anchorage are probably the most rude pretentious employees I’ve ever come across. I walked in and was greeted by the pretty red head girl without words. She simply looked up as we were clearly an intrusion on her day. I asked «can I speak with you about your policies and availability?» To which she replied «nothing available, 70 ppl on the waiting list. All your questions can be answered in those hand outs over there». She then turned and sat back down and waited for us to leave.
My advice, if you don’t like your job then you should quit and go find something more fulfilling.

My husband and I have lived here for almost 2 years, and the only thing that is still keeping us here is the beautiful view of the marina.
The first year living here was great, however, in the last 6 months, we’ve received so many letters from management asking for us to change the most random things. Here is the list of things we cannot do when living here:
— No Coolers — You are not allowed to have a cooler (i.e. beach cooler) out on your balcony. Why? — no sweet clue.
— No Lights on Balcony — We had strung some little light bulbs on our balcony to light up the balcony at night — after spending an hour putting these up very carefully to not damage the walls, we received a letter from management asking us to take them down — however, when you drive down the street, I can see that there are at least ten other balconies with lights out as well.
— No Storage — We bought a nice wicker storage bin that looks like a wicker bench to hold some stuff (we didn’t want to clutter up our balcony with these things so thought putting them in this would make it look much nicer). They sent us a letter asking us to remove it.
— No Door Mats — We have a small black mat outside of our front door for people to wipe their shoes on — it’s been there for literally the entire 2 years we’ve lived here. I come home this week to a new letter asking us to remove the mat within 7 days.
We have done everything they have asked of us as we don’t any issues, however, I think these requests are getting a little out of hand considering we pay $ 2,700 for a one bedroom apartment.
Other than these issues, the place is beautiful. not the most modern of places, but you have the marina view from your living room and bedroom.

Beautiful, well kept and modern. I’ve been here for four months and rarely ever hear footsteps above me or voices next to me. The walls are solid. Washer and dryer in some units.
Guest parking is only for 24 hours so that is an issue when friends visit.
Management is friendly and helpful in my experiences.

Mort that expansive for this level of services! Have to call and wait for the security 30 min too many times to have to pool gate open…

I’ve been living here for 10 days. I’ve already had 3 major headaches I’ve had to deal with and resident services couldn’t care less. Unwilling to help or even return calls. I’m very dissatisfied and regret moving in.

Luis Rodriguez, Leasing Consultant was very helpful, as well as Rosalio Rodriguez in maintenance. Only use Luis if possible.
Other staff had major attitude problems. Believe me-​major.
They brought customer service to a new low.
Luis was the only saving grace for this large complex.
Please note there was an episode of several apartment burglaries. Do not use ADT for protection whatever you do. Use Frontpoint. Frontpoint is a great company for apartment or home protection. ADT is horrible.
My other issue is lack of air conditioning which I would have been less concerned about, if I had not been paying top dollar. Why pay top dollar and get no air conditioning?
WMerrill

Confirming most of the negative reviews. We’ve been living here for 3 years. It might appear like a great place (location, amenities, etc.) but do your homework well. Their track record on theft and break-​ins is horrible. This is a result of no gates, ineffective entry locks, no cameras, and very few security patrols (at night, only one young patrol for over 600 apartments!) There are now many new and updated apt complexes nearby that are much more secure and modern — pls consider all of those before choosing to rent here.
Re amenities, if you look a college-​like environment, then feel free to hang by the pools. Although there are rules for noise, security patrol makes absolutely no effort to keep it under control. Not a relaxing environment to say the least.
Bottom line, not everything that shines is gold. So do not get distracted by the shining when you visit a few remodeled apartments. Ask insurance companies for their track record + look for reviews of tenants on Twitter, Unilocal,favebook, etc.

I too am taken back by the posted reviews but I am in the anchorage not the building so 4 of 5, not 5 yet.
Everyone I have talked to has been kind and helpful, knowledgeable in every way.
For those that even hint at the cost of a unit…
You are in Marina Del Rey. Not Venice Not Century City not anywhere that has rent control. Stop the whine as I have run out of cheese.
MDR is expensive PERIOD. No one made you move or live there and for everyone that never tries to change things, another will move in behind you.
Boats pay by the foot plus hook-​ups. Sure great view but Apt residents can live anywhere, not the same for a boat. It’s not like I can move a boat to Century City. I pay over $ 1200 for the slip BUT I OWN the boat! You don’t own your Apt
You get what you pay for and if you are not receiving it… form a group and bitch about it. Safety in numbers. Complain all you want about the complex most of the issues are the voting practices of elected officials that run the district.

Update: When we moved out we requested a move out inspection which was denied to us. Three months after moving we received a collections notice. Marina Harbor sent us to collections 45 days after moving out, without sending a bill, for «repairs» that never needed to be done. We spent months attempting to speak with someone about the charges and mediate the issue out of court and were ignored. I had photos of move in and move out day etc. Long story short we fought it in court and were award our court fees and the full security deposit. If you move here you will 100% have to take them to court to get them to be reasonable.
Literally the worst place in the world to live:
We have lived here a year and for 6 months our oven hasn’t worked as they have refused to come fix it.
The shower door broke in an earth quake and they refused to come fix it so every shower floods the floor and you spend 10 minutes soaking up water every day.
Their plumbing is bad. One night our sink started filling up with gray water and they didn’t not deem it important enough to fix immediately until we called four times explaining the sink had flooded over into the kitchen. Maintainence’s solution was to use a bucket and suck the water out and then dump it into our toilet to drain it. (Spilling all over the carpet while he carried it across the unit) They never fixed the actual problem. We were forced to do it ourselves.
People are kind of shady apparently too. I’ve had packages stolen that were delivered. The USPS mail person has started piling up packages and mail all over the garage area near the elevator so anyone can literally just walk over and take stuff. It’s not behind any kind of lock of anything.
It’s bad here. Real bad. I’m literally counting the days until we are able to leave this place. This isn’t even the half of it to be honest. The management will mess with you every chance they get.
If you’re planning on moving here I would suggest you seriously reconsider.
Edit: When we moved out they claimed we had trashed the unit, refused to return the deposit and sent a bill for hundreds of dollars. We refused to pay it as we have photos of move in and move out and the place looked better when we left then when we got it. We are now attempting to recover some of our deposit and make them stop trying to collect the extra charges. The lawsuit is currently in action. I’ll try to update after. :)

Marina Harbor HATES the environment, and they HATE their tenants.
I pay $ 2,550.00/mo for a 1 bedroom apartment. I ride a zero emissions electric motorcycle, to help the environment. I always charge at work, well except once. I got home and my battery was too low to charge elsewhere, so I plugged in at the apartment garage. When I came back in the morning I had a nasty note stating that if it happens again they will tow my bike, and under no circumstances should an electric vehicle be charged on the property (keep in my they have a fleet of about 20 electric vehicles). Of the $ 2,550.00 per month I pay … they cannot spare 90 cents in power. Absolutely … ridiculous.
They are quick enough to complain about this, but they won’t respond to my requests to fix anything in my apartment. I called weeks ago to have someone fix my garbage disposal, stove, and shower door. I can’t even cook dinner in my own apartment. The sink started bubbling up sewage, and I called immediately. They didn’t consider it important enough to fix until it was about to flood
UPDATE:
They installed chargers for ‘resident usage’. That’s great, except the pricing is the most outrageous I’ve ever seen. $ 2.50/hr for the first 4 hours, then $ 7.00/hr thereafter. When I made a comment on the community message board about the pricing, it was ‘moderated’ and removed, stating that the chargers are for convenience. Convenience? Sounds like they are there as a money making machine. It would cost about $ 30.00 to charge my motorcycle, which costs less than a dollar.

We lived at Marina harbor for two years. Initially seduced by the attractive, seemingly serene surroundings, it soon became a toxic, unpleasant place to live… while paying premium rent. Beware potential tenants! Do not fall for the fake façade, especially if you visit on the weekends. If you do, you will not have any idea of what goes on during the week.
The management is basically clueless, and does not give a tinker’s damn about you, the rent-​paying tenant. The owners and management (although professing otherwise), do not consider it part of their responsibility to provide a pleasant place to live. This place is all business. Something like a car rental place; the same churn and all about the bottom line — collecting rent. And if you have an issue and complain to management — good luck!
Though some of them are sweet, the people working in resident services are basically collecting a paycheck and totally disinterested in helping tenants. There is no accountability – no one really seems to care about anything. If you have a problem they will take a message, but no one will get back to you and nothing will come of it. There were countless times I requested a service online and nothing was done, yet the people in charge marked it «complete.»
1) The walls and general structure of the buildings are very light and thin. You will hear EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. Forget about having a quiet, private peaceful time here!
2) The water «problem» as mentioned by others here: it will be turned off without warning at any time… if not water, how about the gas? If you are lucky, you might get a notice the day before… but don’t count on it and it happens frequently.
3) The dogs. The place, in spite of an official «no dogs policy» is overrun with dogs (get a prescription and the management is powerless to prevent it) and their obnoxious owners who think they are entitled to let their pets use the grounds as a latrine and make as much noise as they want, whenever they want. Have some respect guys! There are hundreds of other people living in this complex.
4) The disruption of daily maintenance which obviously needs to be done, but it is constant! People are fleeing this place which means more carpet cleaning, upgrading, banging and so on.
5) Their constant ‘upgrades’ (meaning they can ask for more rent), which… okay, maybe you need to upgrade once in awhile, and maybe the city demands it, but CLEAN UP AFTER IT’S DONE! Compensate the tenants who have to live through the torture of constant power tools, drilling of concrete, banging, dust…
If you decide to move in, be careful. Remember you will be paying premium rent. Ask to read the fine print in the lease because you will be asked to sign all kinds of waivers and everything is tilted in their favor. In short, you pretty much have no rights as a tenant at Marina Harbor.

Renters beware! These are several FAKE reviews posted by Marina Harbor employees so make sure you check their history before you buy into the review.
Here’s the honest truth:
The place is beautiful and the grounds are well maintained but you need to be careful of the bureaucracy they’ll pull to frustrate you into surrendering your cash.
During the lease signing:
They’re very flexible with negotiating at this point — don’t just accept the apartment at face value. Push! At the very least they will drop the security deposit amount by $ 500 but you need to keep pushing the sales agents. They will play the game that they need to leave the room and check with their manager but stay persistent. Honestly the occupancy rate at the place is low so they will not want to lose you.
When you’re living there:
The walls are thin — you realize the construction is a bit cheap — the appliances look good but don’t really work too well and the electrical wiring and light switches don’t make sense. But honestly the view of the marina is just awesome.
They warned us about the construction (both across the street at Bay Club and at Marina Harbor Apartments) but they didn’t tell us having a washer + dryer installed would take over 6 weeks.
The apartment and amenities are nice and yes service is responsive I’ll give them that. Other residents are either 60+, divorcees or temporary transients. No neighborhood vibe at all.
When you try to leave:
Despite dozens of negotiations with the resident services office — they promised my lease break fee would be waived because a family member was injured — they did not clean up the apartment after construction (grandmother slipped on plastic and paint they left lying around).
I phoned ahead several times to make sure my balance was clear and if I had the carpets professionally cleaned I would get my deposit back without a fee. I paid for the carpets to be cleaned. They will nod and lie and tell you what you want to hear.
On your last day when you «check out» they will take your keys and tell you any lie to get you out of the door. «your balance is all clear» «expect your check in under 21 business days!» all bull.
Then you get a letter.
It doesn’t reflect any of your discussions with any of the resident service members.
You will get charged a cleaning fee of «$ 155» and instead of a phone number you will be driven to a blackhole website:
— where you’re asked to fill out a vague form and wait for a response while credit score hostage.
This isn’t the first shady housing management department and certainly won’t be the last but everyone deserves to know what they’re getting into and the frustrating process.
Don’t bother cleaning because you will always be charged your deposit to leave — kiss that $ goodbye the second you sign the lease.