Berkeley Apartments – Bachenheimer

Not worth the money.
It’s expensive, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that when you have any kind of issue customer service is the absolute worst. On more than one occasion since I moved in last August, I’ve needed assistance or had a question and could not get any response.
Phone call? Straight to voice mail.
Voice mail? Never called back.
Email? Send an angry follow up and they’ll respond.
Get locked out? Don’t try the leasing office.
Pay part of your roommates rent and need a refund? Fat chance. Oh, you need that five hundred dollars? Sorry, there is no way for us to refund you. You’ll get it back when you receive your deposit refund — two months from now.
Mention any of these problems to management? As you can see we’re on a small staff.
I would understand if they would try to help but couldn’t, or if they offered to do research and get back to me, but the staff is dismissive and not at all concerned about general well being of residents and doesn’t go out of their way to create a positive experience. It makes an already unpleasant situation extremely frustrating, and the loyalty to this company and this complex is absolute zero.
Not impressed.

Found my
Missing clothing today– it was with the cleaning supplies that the cleaning people carry with them.

The building in general is in run-​down condition. The walls in the hallway are all dirty and roughed up, the carpet is stained, and the yellow lights in the hallway didn’t improve matters. When we moved into our unit it did not look like they had cleaned the unit at all, which was disappointing (and gross!).
The apartment we had was a 2 bed, 1 bath corner unit. The windows were single-​pane, so even when they were closed we could hear the street noise and the crossing signals. The kitchen is super-​tiny. There is a balcony with nice seating, a bungalow-​type room, and there is a soda machine up there. That’s nice, but it can get kind of loud on Friday and Saturday evenings.
However, there seemed to be a lot of drama within this apartment complex. We lived there for 4 weeks and the fire alarm went off once a week around 2:00 in the morning. Why? I was told by other residents that sometimes high schoolers sneak into the building, sometimes people smoke in the hallway, sometimes people are hoping to find some unlocked apartments so they can grab stuff, and sometimes just for «fun». There was also a lot of very loud neighbors and fighting. We called the police a couple of times because we were legitimately concerned about our neighbors. You are supposed to have to use a key to get into the building, and several times we would find that someone had rigged the door in some way in order to get in without having a key.
That all being said, the management was very responsive to us, which was nice and greatly appreciated (IN PERSON is the way to go, e-​mail and phone communication will just make you more frustrated).

I’ve lived in these apartments for three years now, and couldn’t be more happy with where I live. I’ve found the prices to be roughly competitive with the other apartments that I shopped online, and the building is less than 2 blocks from campus, secure, has a prompt and attentive maintenance team, is mostly quiet, and is just an all around fantastic place to live. True that it’s downtown living and that there is some street noise from University if you live in the front of the building, but even that is not terribly distracting. Contrary to what a previous poster wrote about the apartments, there are double paned windows which work fantastically when they are closed, but there are some days in the summer when you absolutely must have the windows open. I absolutely love the rooftop gardens and enjoy bringing any guests that we have to the roof. This building is a fantastic place to live and by FAR outshines the Berkeley competition– especially in its price range.

I’ve lived here for two years and I love it. The building is new and clean and very close to campus. Lots of great restaurants around and an amazing view of the Bay from the roof garden. There is a secure garage, and the maintenance crew is fast and efficient.

Lived there for a couple of years and the cost to benefit ratio just doesn’t work. They charge $ 1800 for a less that 500 square feet one bedroom apartment which is comparable in prices to apartments in San Francisco. On top of that, they present the units as being top notch yet they have carpet not hardwood floors, linoleum not tile, plastic kitchen counters not granite and plastic bathtub and toilet.
Other issues:
* If you live on the top floor, there is no sound-​proofing between your ceiling and the garden roof. You can hear everything, even someone calmly walking on the roof. And the problem is that the roof is very popular, especially late at night.
* If you live in the front of the building, the windows are not double-​paned and you an hear everything in the street.
* If you live in the back of the building, you hear the garage door opening and closing.
* Management, especially the new people (Equity) are difficult to deal with and disorganized. It feels like that office is full of irresponsible young girls, trying to play grown-​up.
Comparing this building to the other horrible horrible apartments in Berkeley, they are definitely much better But the prize you pay is just not justified. If I am going to pay $ 1800 I expect to be treated fairly, I don’t want to be nickel and dimed and I don’t want linoleum flooring!!!