UPDATE AS OF 1/14/2015
In response to Craig T., I'm sorry if I didn't get back to you right away, and that you used that as an excuse to claim that my post is either fake or I've confused you with a different company, but sorry to say, those are both FALSE. I also apologize if you were frustrated in how long it has taken me to respond or contact you, but you can imagine how frustrating and difficult it was for me to correspond with LBPM with their lack of response. I did live at one of your properties, the one located on 8353 Cedros Ave... It wasn't until this past weekend when I received a balance from my initial deposit, mind you I've moved out 3 months ago and in order to even receive it, my partner and I had to constantly bug our previous landlord since the management at LBPM wouldn't respond or cooperate... Not only that, you charged us to replace a "shower door" when we never even had one to begin with, thus having to contact the landlord again to fix the appropriate amount that was returned to us. Bottom line is, we FINALLY received our deposit 3 MONTHS LATER, CHARGED FOR SOMETHING THAT WAS IRRELEVANT TO US, and all because we were the ones who were so persistent in contacting you. Should never be this hard or take this long.
I recently moved out of one of the properties managed by LBPM where my partner and I lived for the last 3 years. Needless to say, our landlord was very nice, helpful and took care of anything we needed. Although the apartment complex wasn't located in the safest of area, I believe our manager did a good job at ensuring her tenants were happy and making sure the cleanliness, upkeep and repairs were taken care of in a timely manner.
While living at our apartment, we never personally experienced anything horrible besides several car break-ins, but those weren't accountable to the landlord or property management itself. We were extremely good tenants, ALWAYS paid rent on time, followed good tenant etiquette, kept to ourselves and didn't object to anything they needed on our part. We truly enjoyed living there for the time we did and we wouldn't have moved if we weren't looking for something a little bit bigger and more central to or jobs. We even referred our closest friends to live there as they recently moved in.
My review is quite a bittersweet one, because while living there, I felt like I was home, which is essentially the best part about being able to find a great apartment. I really credit our landlord and her husband though, because if I could rate the company based on their service, it would be 5+ stars.
My 2 star rate is basically on the LBPM management team. After over 3 years of good tenancy, I expected the same respect from the company as we instilled as a tenant. When my partner did our final walk through, we initially agreed that we were going to kiss our security deposit good bye, HOWEVER, when he and the landlord walked through she informed him that we left the place in normal, wear and tear condition and that we were most likely going to receive our FULL deposit back unless they decided to shampoo the carpet.
Fast forward a little over a month and no itemized bill or security deposit. My partner has been in contact with the property management company for the last 3 weeks, where they either send him straight to voice mail or tell him they will call him back and don't. The receptionist at one point even told him "this should have been taken care of already." I work at a Law Firm and have done research on the California Tenant Laws. It states:
"A landlord can withhold from the security deposit only those amounts that are reasonably necessary for these purposes. The security deposit cannot be used for repairing defects that existed in the unit before you moved in, for conditions caused by normal wear and tear during your tenancy or previous tenancies, or for cleaning a rental unit that is as clean as it was when you moved in.(216) A rental agreement or lease can never state that a security deposit is "nonrefundable."(217)
Under California law, 21 calendar days or less after you move, your landlord must either:
Send you a full refund of your security deposit, or
Mail or personally deliver to you an itemized statement that lists the amounts of any deductions from your security deposit and the reasons for the deductions, together with a refund of any amounts not deducted."
It's been over a month and he have yet to receive either of these items from LBPM. I'm not super upset with it, but just expected something in good faith as I have previously had no complaints until moving out. My only concern now is I have read previous and current reviews and see that they are notorious for not returning security deposits and I now regret having some of my closest friends move in if this happens to them as well. If I didn't have such a great experience with my landlord, I would really be looking into this, but to whoever reads this, just be cautious and know your right read more