I lived at the Peak at Sonoma for a little over 3 years in their Bristol floor plan. Overall, I had pretty good living experience. However, the move out phase was handled astronomically poorly and recent management changes left a really poor taste in my mouth. I will never rent from any ODDO property again and I will advise friends and family to avoid their properties as well. I would give zero stars if I could.
Pros:
- Great kitchen
- Good sized bathroom
- neighborhood has lots to eat and shop, great highway access
- maintenance crews are awesome and respond quickly
Cons:
- For the most part everything is fairly cheaply made and uses low quality materials. For a location that wanted to charge me roughly $1800/mo to extend my lease another year, you'd expect better.
- Very cheap vinyl flooring, constantly coming up, even in low traffic areas. In higher traffic areas there were many squishy spots. These conditions existed upon moving in.
- The apartments seem to have very poor interior insulation. In the winters my apartment would constantly hit 75+ degrees despite being set at 65. I never had to pay for my own heating, but I also had a hard time sleeping without turning my AC on. In the summers, my AC would run constantly.
- The highway noise is ROUGH. I lived in a top floor apartment and even with blackout curtains up and all doors closed, the noise was constant and loud. It wasn't worth sitting on your balcony because you couldn't hear anything. I eventually got used to it, but they've done very little, if anything, to address highway noise.
- At some point, management changed. They became much more stuffy and corporate. Any issues were met with corporate speak and was typically very patronizing. Conditions in and around the buildings deteriorated. Rules became arbitrarily enforced. If they could find a way to charge you for something they would. They are 100% profit focused and could care less how you as a person are treated so long as they are making money.
- I heard from multiple people that managment was unwilling to negotiate rent when lease renewals were coming up so I didn't even try. When I failed to get my notice to vacate in on time (entirely my mistake) I asked for some assistance from them and was staunchly denied until I mentioned it soured an otherwise nice renting experience, to which they quickly folded and did not charge me the month to month rate for 33 extra days on my lease, but I still paid the same rate I was already.
- I've attached a picture of where my desk and office chair were. Again, I lived here for three years. Management charged me $175.60 for carpet replacement because of the chair. This does not, in any world, go beyond normal wear and tear for three years of living in the same location. When I asked why this went beyond normal wear and tear, I was given a nonanswer and told that I should have used a floor protector under my chair. The 175.60 was the prorated amount based on the useful life of the carpet (which they had rated at 7 years). That is a direct quote. As an accountant, that is extremely laughable and very unreasonable. I asked if they would rescind that charge and they were clearly unwilling the move on it. Upon noticing my frustration, management attempted to appease me by saying "well we don't want you to have a bad move out experience" but I cut her off as I was tired of the corporate speak and being treated as a number on their bottom line. I simply asked where to send the payment.
- I was proactive in making sure my apartment was well cleaned upon moving out. I caused no issues as a tenant. I always paid rent timely. I expected some good will for all of those things, but received none. I do not recommend renting with ODDO. read more