Axiom La Jolla

Beware move-​out charges! We were charged over$ 900 for paint, cleaning, and carpet replacement for two years of normal wear and tear. We are nice, respectful, female grad students — take our shoes off inside, no parties, no pets. Obviously the security deposit is long gone, and we are paying $ 525 on top of that!
No part of our apartment was of the quality to warrant that kind of charge. We lived in a non upgraded model and suspect that they are upgrading on our dime. These are standard, crappy, college apartments. Perfect for our purposes of getting to and from UCSD on a grad student budget, but absolutely not worth over $ 900 in move out charges.

So I don’t really understand all the negative reviews on this place. I’ll start with my negatives and end with my positives.
Negatives–
1. Parking. Yes, you get off street, gated parking. The parking is tough. If you don’t get stacked parking, you might end up with a teeny tiny space that’s pretty tricky to get in to. Unfortunately, there are a few discourteous parkers that make this endeavor worse. Bonus is, you’ll get really, really, really good at parking your car.
2. Water use. The landscaping is pretty nice around most of the complex. however, there are a few forgotten corners that get watered. The only reason I’m listing this is a. the drought b. water is split amongst the residents. So you do get a small charge for watering dirt.
Neutral–
1. The apartments are small (I mean, they’re apartments) but they are very cleverly designed with good storage space and well put together kitchens. I really enjoyed mine while I was there
2. Noise. The walls are decent, I didn’t hear neighbors that much. But you are in an apartment complex, and as you would be anywhere else, you can hear your neighbors if they’re not being super courteous.
Positives–
1. I can NOT believe there is hate on the office staff. They are nothing short of courteous and helpful. Usually, I would dread having to go to my leasing office to get something sorted but never with these guys. Every visit I had was positive and productive. They are NOT hard to get a hold of. The office is open SEVEN DAYS A WEEK. It was easy to stop by for a visit to ask questions or get something updated. The office staff are really great-​they helped with naughty parking people, paperwork from my insurance, anything and everything. Fabian, Nick, Sarah and Shayla have been wonderful to work with. I had to rush my deposit to ensure my roommate heading abroad would get their portion in time. It was no problem for them, they made it happen over calls and emails. I really think these people care about the community and care about making your living situation the best it can be.
2. The maintenance staff are also incredible. They are super fast, they communicate really well on any updates to whatever fixes you need. I even had a situation where the garbage disposal needed to get fixed. That was done, and the staff improved our water faucet flow without even being asked. Seriously above and beyond.
3. The grounds are pretty nice-​the pool and hot tub have great furniture and are really nice. The gym is small but super functional and has everything you need for a basic work out. It even has on demand classes you can take.
4. Location-​these apartments are so well located. Walking distance to some of the best eats in UTC-​Regents, Rubicon Deli, Draft Republic. Walking distance from the mall, multiple grocery stores, coffee shops, bus stops. It’s pretty nice.
5. Pets! Pets are allowed-​some breed but no size restrictions
Honestly, I would recommend living here if you’re looking for a nice apartment. I enjoyed my time there-​the staff were amazing, I loved my apartment and the space I could make with it. I was happy there.

Great location and view, nice apartments for the price. Furnished too. Great for roommates and or a family! Parking isn’t great for guests, but the made a lot of space where they could. Could easily have a game night or group of friends over without feeling crammed.

It’s a fantastic apartment complex. Great services and it has 24 hr access to the gym. What? That’s awesome

Where do I begin? Moved in while it was under the name of Trieste Apartments and it was pretty bad then, and now it’s awful!!!
Workout room: most days (4 nights a week) you will have all of the treadmills down leaving the workout room with just free weights and a smelly yoga/​cycle room. I actually hurt myself running one day because the treadmill cut off in the middle of running at 10 mph. Should have given them the medical bills.
Pool: the only nice thing about this place. It’s actually pretty gorgeous. Always filled with kids and couples making out on the jacuzzi at night, but still nicer than most other apartment complexes.
Laundry room: finally fixed the washers. They would leave your clothes completely soaked, making you need to run 2 cycles on the dryer to dry your clothes.
Customer service: awful! They never pick up the phone and when you finally go inside they treat you like a freak for not making an appointment. They emailed us saying our lease was ending. We had already found a MUCH better place and was anticipating this letter. We signed it the day after and emailed asking how much would be due since it would be a prorated rate? We had received no email back! We figured they would let us know on move out day when we gave our keys and pay then, but we figured we should check now sooner than later and did so. Turns out we got charged a huge late fee. We have NEVER been late in rent, making over $ 200,000 collectively. Their leasing office lost our email and didn’t respond and now we’re stuck with paying late fees.
Something tells me this won’t be the end of the horrific story. Our inspection is bound to result in them keeping our deposit as it has for multiple other reviewers. Really not looking forward to my exit process with them, but luckily we’re leaving!!! Check out the place across the street. Much nicer leasing associates and seems to care about you. Can’t wait to move downtown and leave this area as well.
Few more things…
They didn’t tell us that we were living next to the piss Park! The tour guide did not say that was a dog station and said it was quiet and had no traffic. We hear dogs barking and it smells like piss all the time. No major issue, just wish the tour guide was upfront when he told us there was no traffic and not a dog area.
The damn bathroom sink. It would get filled with sand monthly and need a service call. Basically washing my face and brushing my teeth with sand water. We would take the filter off ourselves and see a few ounces of sand coming through and into the water.
Overall, pretty awful experience. Which is a shame, being a Chicago transplant I was hoping for my first San Diego experience to go smoothly.

The manager (shayla) called me and she was very professional and interested to help and fix all the issues that I had in my apartment. Is totally understandable to have problems sometimes. Thank you

Even though we had 5 people for a 2 bed/​2bath apartment costs still exceeded 600/​month that we were trying to avoid due to redundant costs and even poorer management. The phone is an ancient relic never to be picked up no matter how many times you call. By living here, you are guaranteed a regretful experience (parking is pretty bad btw) as well as feeling as though you have been robbed (tiny rooms for a HUGE price). Even though this is very close to school and convenient, DO NOT fall into the trap called Axiom La Jolla aka Trieste apartments (as it was known before before changing names to avoid the bad reputation)!! Look at other options before choosing this, this should literally be the last of all options.

After the takeover, I can say there were a few bumps in the road. The manager personally called me to resolve an issue. She handled it very professionally. I am updating this prior to her follow up. Will update again as time goes on.

It was bad decision in going to this apartment. I have faced almost all the bad reviews that are commented in Unilocal.
Don’t think about getting back your deposit. Since i was new to US and didn’t have credit history they had taken almost 1 month of my rent as deposit but returned only 72 $ stating various reasons. Even after sending mail to the managers i am not getting any response from them. It’s been more than 3 months i vacated this place and still didn’t get proper response on why i didn’t get my security deposit back.

Axiom has improved over the time. The new managment is better than previous one. Still there is lot of room avaliable for improvement. New gym and pool is awsome

Many of my friends/​peers have asked me about my living experience here, and since I wouldn’t advise any of them to sign a lease here I thought I’d also do the same favor to the general public.
I lived here during the complex’s transition from Trieste to Axiom, and to be completely straight forward, nothing changed. During the 1 year that I lived here I experienced far more frustration than anywhere else.
To be fair the complex overall had few positives: The individual apartments were nice and decently new inside, it was heavily gated so safety was rarely a concern, and it was convenient as a student of UCSD.
HOWEVER, I honestly believe the cons were not worth those pros.
1) The parking is awful
Most units are assigned tandem parking, and by most I mean everyone who is not living alone. Meaning, if you and your roommate have conflicting schedules, you better believe you will have to re-​park your car every time they leave or come home. I wouldn’t necessarily blame it on the management of course, it’s just incredibly poor design. Oh, and there is very limited street parking surrounding the complex.
2) The management/​leasing office team is ridiculously unreliable
There have been multiple incidents where the team deemed unreliable. For one, if there was an issue (big or small), we’d reserve a time span where a team member would come to our apartment to check it out. ³⁄₃ times, no one showed up until the last minute of their 4 hour window AFTER we called to make sure they were still even coming.
And if you need to talk to someone real quick about a concern, don’t even bother calling the office. No one’s going to pick up. Also, you might not even want to make the effort to walk down to the leasing office because ⁹⁄₁₀ times, no one will be there and you’ll find yourself waiting outside like I did many, many times.
Thirdly, this wasn’t an issue but I found it wildly supportive of the team’s inability to be dependable. When we first moved in we were told the complex was undergoing remodeling to be completed in November. It wasn’t until about May. Every month following December, we’d get newsletters saying «we’re excited to say the construction is almost complete!», not. But the real problem was we’d get notices saying someone would come by to do something, like paint our doors and so we’d need someone home at a specific day and time. Yes, 1 of us stayed home and no one showed up. Typical. Even worse, someone showed up to paint our door when I was getting ready for work, leaving me taped up in my own apartment. There was no noticed for this, and it happened probably 2 weeks after the date they assigned someone to come.
3) The water bill is over the top
Now, before you think «that’s probably because you used a lot of water», don’t. I lived across the street in CV the year prior with the same roommate and same water usage habits. Never once did our bill exceed $ 60/​month. Yet, at Trieste/​Axiom, our bill came to almost $ 100/​month from the very start. At first, we thought maybe it was our fault. Until winter break came and we both left the apartment for over 2 weeks and received a HIGHER bill than usual for the month of December. Confused, I contacted the office and they simply replied its because we share bills with the entire building. THE ENTIRE BUILDING. And I understand that that isn’t unheard of, but it was to us up until this moment. We were also informed by a neighboring resident that it was bc we also paid for the facility’s water use, aka the pool. Now, that’s just speculation but with the amount of shady business I’ve experienced here I wouldn’t be surprised. Lastly, mind you that the pools were under construction ⁸⁄₁₀ months I lived here. Just like everything else.
4) You won’t get a fair amount of your deposit back no matter what
My roommate and I pride ourselves in how clean our apartment is for 2 college students. IT WAS SPOTLESS. When someone came for a pre-​inspect, he walked around in our apartment for less than 5 minutes and said that everything looked great and we should be receiving most of our deposit back. We were returned a whopping ³⁰⁄₅₀₀ $ back for some bs cleaning the inspector NEVER mentioned. When we received the breakdown of the charges we received, it seemed like things they made up just to get money from us. So unless you never step foot in your apartment, you can trust they’ll take as much of your deposit as they can.

Much better now that I have been living here for awhile. Move in was absolutley terrible, so they didn’t necessarily leave the best first impression. Maintenence is awesome though! The improvements to the apartments and amenities are nice. Parking is still tight (compact or tandem) and the water in my building is constantly being shut off due to some sort of problem. They have also been charging me as if there are two people living in my apartment (for amenities) even though they know for a fact there are not. They keep saying I am going to get it credited back, but I still have yet to see a credit. Other than that we haven’t had any real problems since we moved in.

I lived at Axiom when it was called Trieste Apartments (a much better name IMO) from June 2014-​June 2015. I’m assuming that the reason for changing the name was to distance themselves from bad reviews, but they would probably be better served by changing management to tell you the truth. What started out as fine upon move-​in turned into TERRIBLE by move-​out. I’m not sure what the heck happened, but there was a major drop-​the-​ball moment by management there at the end of my residence at this apartment complex. I can only hope and pray that they have managed to fully train everyone on staff by this point so they can avoid the confusion and frustration that my roommates and I experienced while trying to move out.
But, to be fair, Trieste isn’t the worst place in the world. It mainly suffers from poor management. It’s hard to get a hold of anyone in the leasing office unless you actually walk in and corner somebody. Plus, there was about a seven-​month period where the gym and the pool were closed for renovations that kept getting extended on a month to month basis. And they gave us no break in rent or anything while that was going on, so we essentially got ripped off on the amenities that we paid for. Everything opened back up for my last month there, so I bitterly got the use the new gym (which was nice) for a short amount of time, but that still didn’t make up for the MONTHS of not getting to enjoy something I was still paying for.
Pros:
–Washer and dryer in unit
–The apartments stay cool during the summer
–Location is good (especially if you go to UCSD)
–The new gym is nice and hopefully they won’t shut it down to remodel again any time soon.
Cons:
–Management is crazy. Hard to get a hold of anyone and they blame the resident for everything. Our paperwork process for moving out was so disorganized and they never answered our emails or phone calls.
–The smallest parking spots you will ever see. I have a sedan, and there were times where I didn’t think I was going to fit in the spot. Also, if someone parks on the line next to your spot, you are screwed.
–Maintenance could be hit-​or-​miss. Sometimes they came and fixed something right away. Other days, it would be FOREVER before we saw anyone.
–Our apartment was right on La Jolla Village Dr., and OMG the traffic noise prevented me from ever getting a deep sleep. Walls are paper thin so you will hear your neighbors partying.
–They say that they have security to monitor the complex at all times, but this is a lie. The complex is open for anybody to walk into at any time.
–We never received any compensation for our amenities being taken away for at least seven months. NOTHING. Just a notice every couple months that construction was taking longer than they thought. Thanks…
So, overall, my time here was okay but definitely not great. Not even close. It served its purpose for the time being, but I was really glad to leave. It felt like a sinking ship there at the end.

Lets see… where do I begin with this HORRIBLE complex?!?
From the moment my roommates decided to live in this apartment, the leasing office was completely unreachable. We would call them every hour on the hour hoping someone would answer the freaking phone so we could get everything set up. However, NO ONE EVER DID, so I’d be driving down to SD at least twice a week trying to put all this together, mind you that I live two hours away and it was completely inconvenient for me.
Another thing, from the first day we moved in, they have been doing construction. (It’s been about 8 months now). Every morning I wake up to drilling or banging of some sort. And as the leasing office said, it was expected to be done sometime in January… IT’S MAY.
Third note, there is no parking available. None. Half of the guests spots here are full of machines that they use for all the B. S construction. My roommates and I emailed the leasing office a few months ago about buying another spot (since each room only comes with two) and they responded saying they couldn’t give us one because they have to do an audit. Okay whatever, but then when there’s no parking, so you think to yourself, «hey, maybe i can park in this spot that NO CAR IS EVER PARKED IN EVER AND MOVE IT RIGHT IN THE MORNING» BUT NO. They tow your car and you have to pay $ 365 freaking dollars to get it back! So what? Does the apartment complex make deals with towing companies of what spots should not have anyone in it in order to make more money? Cause that’s some bull freaking Sh*t right there. The parking that comes with each apartment is tight. My roommates and I have both ruined our cars due to the tight spots.
One of their hot tubs doesn’t even work. It took 7 months for them to finish construction on the main pool area, so tenants were basically paying the same amount of rent the entire seven months without being able to use the amenities. For already being a poor, struggling college student, I’d say that totally pissed me off.
I lived in Costa Verde last year and had a much much better experience there. DON’T RENT FROM TRIESTE. I will never be renting from here again; I’d rather go sleep in my school’s library each night if I have no other option.
UPDATE: we received our bill for our last month living there and they totally charged us over $ 300 for utilities. My roommates and I all moved out in mid June, how on earth is it possible for utilities to be $ 300!!! So we called and management told us we didn’t pay for our May utilities so it all added on. I’m sorry but each month we pay rent, utilities are included in that so we know for a fact that was a lie. They literally try to ding you for as much as they can so you get nothing back from your deposit as well.

Would not recommend this place. The hot tub is disgusting, they did renovations for 7 months and still haven’t changed the water in it. Its like a murky pond of scum. Try not to get a staff infection if you go in it. * update: they finally cleaned hot tub. And they claim it’s not in their budget to fix the 2^nd hot tub they have, but apparently have enough money to paint the entire complex a different color (and its not like it NEEDS to be painted… the paint was flawless).After moving in and expecting 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, and a gym, we got none of it for 7 of an 11 month overpriced lease, and were never even informed of renovations. On top of it all our rent went up!
I am stuck here because they are pet friendly and many places aren’t that are this close to my job. But i just wish someone cared more about pleasing current tenants than attracting new ones.
Oh and don’t try calling then because they never answer the phone, and rarely return voicemails.

So far, so good here in Trieste. I have had better, and I’ve had much worse accommodations. I moved in a few months ago from the east coast completely sight unseen so I did not have much time to select a permanent home. The leasing and all communication was done smoothly online and via phone. Here are a few comments:
PROS:
— Quiet neighbors for being so close to University.
— Dog-​friendly.
— New gym/​health club.
— New carpet, kitchen appliances, washer/​dryer, bathroom surfaces upon move-​in.
— Stacked washer/​dryer in my unit.
— Two (somewhat tight) parking spots.
— The maintenance staff took good care of me the one time I had an issue. Specifically, a hose came unattached to my washer on a Sunday morning and caused a bit of a mess. I walked down to the office, spoke with the Manager, and within an hour of my visit I had two gentleman in my apartment fixing the issue.
— The staff is fantastic and are always helpful. Perhaps I’ve not had the same experiences as some other reviews which suggest otherwise; but Stephanie, Dusty and Brad have always been cool to me prior to move-​in and throughout the duration of my short stay.
CONS:
— The parking spots are very compact, but it is better than parking on the street.
— Pool is a bit dirty, but I understand they just fixed it as well as the hot tub.
— Elevator is a bit dodgy so use the stairs.
— Only one pet waste station I’ve found so far, I think a second one would be helpful and encourage people to pick up behind their pets.
All in all, I am satisfied living here but will most likely move when my lease is up to get closer to my job (and the beach). The location is nice, walking distance to practically everything you would need.

Do NOT move here! I originally gave Trieste 3 stars but it was a huge mistake. I lived at Trieste for 10 months and while the first few months were fine, it went downhill fast.
The walls are paper thin, the parking spots are tiny, but most of all, the employees are awful. The employees never answer the phone — I’ve tried calling as many as 10 times in a day never to get a response. Good luck if you have a maintenance issue or billing question. You will have billing questions too, by the way. They lost my rent check a couple months ago and put a delinquent notice on my door then argued with me claiming I never paid. Long story short, I had to put a stop order on the check and write a new one then a few days later they found my check in a drawer.
The apartment shut down all the facilities including the clubhouse, gym, and pool for 6 months of remodeling. No one was given a discount despite the original lease stating we would have these amenities.
Finally, to top it all off, I just moved to the Venetian condos across the street (a much better place) and trieste kept the majority of my deposit. I had my apartment professionally cleaned and steam cleaned before moving out (even though it was in perfect shape from only living there 10 months) yet they kept over $ 200 for cleaning and carpet cleaning. They also kept $ 60 for painting. They didn’t even allow me to be present at the move out walk through because they scheduled it after my move out date and told me I couldn’t go.
Try the Venetian complex across the street or other complexes in the area. Trieste is overpriced and awful customer service. Even if you think you are getting a good deal, make sure you factor in all the additional fees they will scam out of you in the end.

Do NOT move here.
If you do not have time to read our lengthy review, then just know that this place is only the place for you if you want to be lied to and pay way more for rent than this place is worth. If you think luxury is having walls so thin that you can hear your neighbors peeing (we are not joking), then this is the place for you.
There is something really bad going on with the company, they have replaced all staff and managers 3 times in the past year that we lived here.
They have been telling us they are updating all the amenities so they closed everything and keep extending their finish date, who know when it will actually be done. We WISH we would have believed the Unilocal reviews before we moved in, but thought it was just some disgruntled tenants and disregarded to our dismay.
They are increasing our rent by 800 a month, they are increasing all tenants rent here because they decided they need to be on par with all the other apartment buildings around here, the problem is the other places actually have clean pools and jacuzzis and you get more for your money.
Their plans are to repaint the façade of the entire place and rename it AXIOM, this is so they will have an entire new business listing an escape the horrible reputation they have. The problem is, all the paint in the world, and a name change will not change the fact that the floors make so much noise that your only option is to find a top floor apartment, though you’ll still hear all the neighbors around you but you won’t have the additional noise of your ceiling from your upstairs neighbors’ floor… AND…
don’t let them fool you, only 1 out of the 2 pools here is «heated» but that’s also a joke because they never have it warmed and that one happens to be the one shut down anyway, who knows when it will reopen. None of this matters anyway because almost all of the times we attempted to go swimming in the year we lived here, it was too dirty. We complained, they never did anything. We did see the pool guys coming occasionally but they skimmed it and sometimes vacuumed, it was gross. The Jacuzzi was often green and one time it was so bad there was an inch of nasty muck covering it entirely.
It’s very poorly designed, everything echos loudly outside to the point of no relief even with all the doors and windows shut.
Don’t plan on parking here, we are not exaggerating, unless you drive a golf cart your car will not fit into 99% of the spots they have. The person who designed the lot forgot it was for cars.
2 good things — the maintenance guys get things done (but only when they are allowed to because they are still under complete control of the messy management). There is 1 nice person who is helpful but she is a leasing agent and also has no real say.

We had to move in on a short term lease, and Dusti in the leasing department, is nothing short of AMAZING!
She has made countless phone calls to our housing agency and been incredibly sweet and forgiving through it all.
Three cheers for her !

I have never had such a discouraging experience, coming to VIEW and apartment! They couldn’t even get that right.
Rude lazy unprofessional people and an ugly building with dark, dirty frontage. Unhappy residents.
Bad lay out and you are met with signs telling you it’s a dangerous area with noxious chemicals hazardous to health that you can read about at the following web link if you are a resident!
Parking spots fit only a compact or less. I was out there 15 mins trying to get into any FUTURE RESIDENT spot with a midsize.
Signage lacking, you need to go around a corner under a stair way and take an elevator up to the leasing office which was technically OPEN but actually CLOSED /​pretending to be closed. I had to try the door over and over before a rep came out and that was with an arrangement!
She was totally unprofessional and actually stated ”O well we’re not supposed to show the apartments after 5pm anyway so… ”
Their email to me, their website and voice mail messages says they are available until 6pm. I was told ”We’ve got a lot of paper work to catch up on so… ”
Clearly they do not even WANT to rent them.
That’s how you are treated as a prospective tenant? I don’t want to see what its like when you actually live there and need anything taken care of.
Should all be fired.
In point of fact four residents let me know it was a horrible place to live before I even got to the office — so I am passing it on. It looked like a prison to boot. Yuk.