As I sit here in my overpriced, small, one-bedroom penthouse-level apartment, taking in the toxic…read moreand disgusting fumes from Wingstop, I write the following. I have lived at The Charlie WeHo for about a year and a half, and it has been one of the most miserable living experiences of my life. Let me save you the time and the heartache.
To be clear, I was extremely patient and reasonable about all of this for months. I tried to work with management, gave them time to fix things, and remained respectful throughout. It is only after getting nowhere that I am writing this.
First, the Wingstop directly below the building has an exhaust system that pumps cooking fumes directly into the apartments. I am talking about bathroom vents, kitchen vents, and dryer vents all filling with fast food exhaust. This went on for months--multiple maintenance visits, multiple repair attempts--and it was never fully resolved. To this day, I cannot comfortably use my patio or open my windows during business hours.
The HVAC design in the unit is genuinely broken. There is one vent in the bedroom, one in the living room, one in the bathroom, and none in the kitchen. The thermostat is located at the front door, which is the warmest spot in the apartment and receives no airflow. Their own maintenance supervisor, Tremaine, acknowledged this was a bad design when I submitted work orders. There is consistently a 4 to 8 degree temperature difference between rooms, regardless of the thermostat setting. You cannot leave the AC on overnight without waking up freezing in one room and overheating in another.
There were also ongoing issues with smoking in what is supposed to be a smoke-free building, as well as repeated noise disturbances. I made multiple complaints to management, and nothing was meaningfully addressed.
When I finally asked to be let out of my lease due to these unresolved habitability issues, management initially indicated it could be worked out. Shortly after, they sent a letter from their property management law firm, Karsaz Law, formally denying my request and claiming none of my complaints could be verified.
This is a building managed by Greystar, one of the largest property management companies in the country, and their response to months of documented issues was to involve lawyers. They are now asking me to repay a concession in order to move out. I do not consider this a legitimate concession, as the Wingstop opened months after I moved in (around August 2025), and the exhaust stack they attempted to repair multiple times clearly shows they were aware of the issue affecting residents. This situation was not caused by me, yet I am being expected to pay for it.
After I pushed back with documentation, AQMD complaint records, and written correspondence--including acknowledgment from their own staff--they eventually agreed to early termination. However, I have still not moved out because they expect me to repay an $8,000 concession, which effectively leaves me stuck.
The location on Santa Monica Blvd is convenient, and the building looks nice from the outside. But if you actually have to live here and something goes wrong, you are on your own. Management will ignore you, deflect responsibility, not meet you in person, and escalate to legal action before resolving legitimate issues by a simple chat. The lawyer still has not replied to me when I asked for a discount or prorate on the overall concession.
In addition, the units facing Santa Monica are loud due to traffic and the shotty windows they installed. I wanted this to be a 5 year+ home but they ruined it with Wing Stop, overpriced units and bad attitude. Look elsewhere.
