If I could give less than 1 star I would. I rarely write reviews but feel compelled to warn people. I have been renting through Utopia property management for the better part of three years. I'm now at the tail end of my commitment and they have been extremely difficult. They seem to look for angles to hold you responsible for additional fees, the use of sneaky contract language and flat out refusal to acknowledge previous statements and emails. This is not an organization I would do business with or suggest anyone else to if they can avoid it. read more

I can't say enough great things about Vania. She's been responsive, friendly, and super efficient. I had a few questions and she got back to me within the hour. You can tell she really cares about the residents and goes out of her way to make things easy. read more

The service was amazing. Liyanna was very helpful throughout the process. She made me feel comfortable and was very sweet and patient with me with all my questions. Great service. Totally recommend! read more

this place is awful from start to finish. i do not recommend working with this company. they were so rude to my mother and she came home crying. read more

I'm paying over 4000+ in rent and I'm dealing with a nightmare with Utopia. They lie they don't respond. They do horrible things they don't take care of their properties and then they just act like they're gonna do things and they don't. It's insane they get away with it. I'm reporting them. Do not rent from any property they have I pay a lot of money and they're just taking advantage of me. They don't take care of the property. They don't follow up with you. They treat you like they're listening and then they do nothing for three years I've been fighting for them to handle stuff and they don't. Then they just raise your rent and they don't fix stuff which is technically illegal. I have now reached out to a lawyer because it's so bad with this company. Save yourself and do not get involved with this company! read more

This management are finding dead businesses, and they do false advertisement to find someone to rent the apartment and the house, then they will leave you with the owner. They have such a bad contract like scamming you, when you get in you can't get out. I don't recommend this company at all!! Avoid it at all cost! read more

It's the worst company I ever deal with. They are not professional, not respectful. After 2 years living in a Utopia property. They sent me a refund check late in time, not inside the law window permit time. And even I provided receipt about the cleaner made at the house. They still charged me. Not enough the amoun of the check I got it came with a wrong amount. read more

Well, it's been about a year since the fiasco at our rental property in Mission Viejo and still no sign of Utopia returning their 10% fee from the insurance claim they GREEDLY took from us. The review I wrote last year still stands! I hope certain people have been fired or quit since then! Here's my review from last year... If you want to be nickel and dimed for every little thing (misc fees, vendor fees etc),  then go ahead and throw your money and investment away! We inherited Utopia since our previous property management company decided to close up shop. After being lied to constantly by an incompetent property manager - Kelly Rigney and her team in Irvine, CA (local office), in emails and phone calls, my wife and I decided to end our contract with them and find a more reputable and reliable property management company to manage our home in Mission Viejo. Their main office management team in San Diego doesn't look any better. Our previous tenants were college age youth whose parents cosigned on the lease. Utopia not only not return phone calls and emails to them when problems arose, but neglected to tell the landlords (us) about them. The straw that broke the camel's back was when the the upstair's bathroom plumbing flood that caused over $30K worth of damage in March 2020. It was thankfully covered by insurance, but Utopia Management had get their greedy hands in on the claim and took their 10% (paid out of my pocket) for vendor fees. I had asked Kelly in an email about this early on and she wrote back stating that her managers would waive any kind of fee for this claim. THAT WAS A BOLD FACE LIE IN WRITING...which could stand up in a small claims court case! If Utopia wants this review to be taken off Yelp, you can sent the 10% fee you took from us in April and send it to our bank account. Until then, this review stays! Further complaints from the tenant's parents will soon follow. -------------------------------- UPDATE Kelly's response below is incorrect in that I have her response via email in writing that NO FEES WOULD BE TAKEN FOR THIS CLAIM. Kelly not only prevaricated about this, but said she had no clue of the conversation with her maintenance person Maritza and the tenant about rent credit. She was cc'd on the whole conversation. What comes around...goes around! And how come 21+ of 26 reviews give your company a 1 star rating or lower? Read less read more

Nothing short of amazing... Anytime any issues arise I never worry about a thing, I just send a quick note and within a day or two a technician arrives and problem solved. Just lovely read more

Absolute garbage company! As a homeowner I reached out to this company and had a good conversation with Jason within the "local" office after some central call center connected me to him. Ended with asking for the contract to have my attorney look it over and they sent it through some weird portal that they wanted me to sign up for as a new client. Well, we weren't at that stage as I never sign a contract without my attorney first looking it over and I'm it going to go through signing up with some portal if I don't like the contract! So I tried to call the local number first thing the following morning and was again connected to some central call center and was connected to "Georgie's " voicemail. Never got a call back. Called again first thing the next morning and was connected to "Haley" and she was just as worthless as Georgie as she said I would have the contract by the end of the day. Not sure why it would take 7 hours to email a contract to get it by end of day but it's an extremely disorganized corporate set up. Nevertheless, I never received the contract. Enough red flags for me to move on to a much more reputable company! What a complete waste of my time but if this is how they treat a potential client, I can only imagine how my property would suffer and how difficult it would be for my tenants to get any service! Bullet dodged. Caveat Emptor read more

We had an issue that had been going on for a long time that involved a previous property management company. When Utopia started managing our residence I assumed it was going to be a business as usual kinda thing but I was wrong..Samantha was able to take care of my month long problem in just 2 hours!!!! She is awesome!! read more

Be wary about giving them your personal information. My Credit Card was hacked 48 hours after I sent in my application!

Utopia is awesome and Cassandra is nothing short of amazing! Had a roommate move out short notice and the Cassandra (admin assistant I believe) at the front office was able to walk me through the paperwork and gave me great advice and resources moving forward. If anyone is having any issues or questions, Cassandra is the one to talk to! read more

Wish I read the reviews before working with this company. Wasted my time!! A month long process of getting approved and bad communication just to tell me at the 11th hour my dog was too big. Stephanie was nice but unprofessional read more

I would like to thank Vania for helping me with the process of obtaining my rental apartment. Vania was very helpful, patient, and provided all the details I needed to submit my application and she made the process very smooth and hassle free. Thank you Vania for helping my family and I with this transition I appreciate you and your exceptional customer service. Chris. H read more

They had great communication and answered all of my questions. Very professional. I would definitely use this company again.

If I could give 0 I would. We viewed a property, liked and submitted application $45x2. They accepted our application and offered us a lease, but with a stipulation that it is "non-smoking" property. 1. The property was NOT listed as a "non-smoking property. (We would have NEVER viewed if it had) 2. We stated on our application that we are smokers. As soon as they reviewed our application they should have immediately declined us, and refunded our application fee. 3. I asked for our application fees to be refunded due to they did NOT disclosed this is a non-smoking property on their listing and they will not refund. read more

Horrible, horrible, horrible. I should have listened to the reviews prior. Everything went great until I actually moved in, once I signed the dotted line they turned their backs on my husband and I. The condo was filthy, microwave broken, toilet and bath needing caulking to seal ... don't Mgt companies take care of this stuff before the tenant moves in? You would think! But no The staff at Utopia Mgt would rather let you move in and sit and wait to get things fixed. They omitted info on parking regulations so on top of the hefty monthly rent we had to rent a spot for our second car for an additional charge. At no time did Utopia mgt release this information. We never received the association rules until after the lease signage (this should have been provided prior) Yes they indicated we received one assigned spot but they also said extra parking space for our second car would be available and never for an extra charge or for purchase! There rebuttal is that on the lease it indicates only one spot assigned... YES I know I can read, but then do not have your employee lie or omit info after being asked a question about were to park our second vehicle. Once we reported this and spoke to them hoping for a resolution they offered to pay for the rental parking charges and then retracted that saying their manager did not approve it. All while this was going on I have been living in stressful anguish of getting my car towed. (Because there were NO spots to rent) finally Kristen the on site association manager offered a solution and helped my husband an I find a person willing to rent a spot to us. (Btw Kristen does not work for Utopia Mgt,)she too, was baffled with their treatment towards us. She even told me she called them for us to get info on our situation and they were short and rude saying "if you want info on them call them directly!" As if they wanted nothing to do with us!! I mean we are your tenants!!! Ridiculous. I'm still waiting on a working microwave, caulking, and bathtub to work. It's taken them since July 14th to finally give us their manager Samantha's info. Will be calling her. Hi this is in response to Kelly Rigney, or Pete idk why another account is being used to respond... just an FYI AGAIN your staff informed me that there was plenty of parking spaces on the 1st floor for my second vehicle at NO charge. I was stupid enough to believe her. The property mgr of Stadium Lofts was appalled at her lie, since she knew that wasn't the case. Your company still turned their back on my husband and I when I notified them of my stress and anguish of possibly having my car towed every single day until I was able to find another tenant to please rent out their parking to me. FYI the caulking of the toilet still not done, the doorbell is still broken (making that WEIRD noise) the only thing completed was the bath tub nozzle and we got the microwave installed about a month AFTER we moved in . The air conditioning has been broken since week one of actually living here. (In contact with HOA for that). Give me a call Kelly I want to finish the repairs instead of getting Yelp comments. read more

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I'm sure the landlords that go through Utopia get great service; HOWEVER, I am not sure if they relay the tenants' messages/concerns/issues ever... whether it's the landlord or Utopia, this has been a horrific experience! The worst issue: REFUSED TO FIX/REPLACE CARPET! NOW HAVE SKIN ISSUES!! The tenants before were 3 adults and 2 kids in a 2 bed/1 bath apartment.... pretty tight space and probably a lot of foot traffic in and out of that place. We only asked for them to replace the carpet... but were refused and was told they clean the places "thoroughly" beforehand.. LIES!! 18 months of that place and both my husband and myself have issues with our skins. ***SEE PHOTOS*** Had to deal with 2 MAJOR floods/leak! Flooded our garage and our neighbor's garage (they actually owned their property).. so much back and forth between Utopia and the HOA, it didn't get resolved quickly and of course we (and the neighbors) had to deal with it... the water and apartment smelt like sewage backing up into the apartment and really.. still did when we left The apartment was old, and we rented it for cheap (for that area)... big mistake! You truly do get what you pay for! The apartment is originally from the 70s--the original stove, original AC (1973 manufactured), original everything! The age was NOT the issue, the issue was everything was falling apart and no one wanted to fix it! I ended up spending my own money to fix things up and still ended up with $230 less in my security deposit. CONSTANT EMPLOYEE TURNOVER--the original person that had us sign the papers soon left, and were left with another employee... that just nodded her head and never helped, they soon left... the only person to stay the longest has been Samantha. I understand that Utopia has protocols on how to handle things, but it's shit.. Utopia employees are trained to just be "script readers" and nod their heads... never really felt heard and no one took our complaints seriously. Well! Glad we moved far away from this place and would never recommend Utopia. read more

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Renters should be very cautious with this company. Our application had been accepted and we got a call on a Friday afternoon at 3 pm saying that they wanted us to make a decision on if we wanted the house or not by 5 pm that same day and that we would need to send them the deposit within 48 hours. They would not let us tour the house as they said it's tenant occupied for another month even though there is a law in California that says landlords/property managers can allow others to enter the property with 24 hours advance notice. Needless to say, we ended up passing on the house as there was no way we were going to sign the lease without seeing the house. The entire process made us feel like this was a scam. I understand the rental market is extremely competitive but forcing people to make a decision within 2 hours and not being allowed to see the house beforehand is unacceptable. read more

I have left several messages on a property I wanted to look at that was for rent I recently relocated to CA. No response whatsoever. If my management team in TX did this when I needed them to rent my home for me out there I'd be SCREWED. I feel sorry for whomever owns the property I was trying to inquire about. read more

I've been renting a condo in Covina for a little over a year now, yesterday when me and my wife got home from work my hallway and carpet were flooded with water leaking out of the downstairs bathroom sink. When I called my property manager "David Montafej" to report the leak and let him know that I needed immediate assistance, his reply was "Well what did you do things don't just break for no reason." Tired and frustrated from work I let him know that we hardly even use that bathroom and if he sent a plumber over to assess the problem,he would find out that in fact nothing was done on our part and the flood would be due to an old nozzle underneath the sink. I sent him videos of the water and let him know that not only was my carpet soaking wet, but the entryway where we take off our shoes so we don't ruin our carpet had also been soaked and ruined a pair of my shoes. When I asked what the home owners insurance covers since I had been trying to clean up the mess and dry my carpet, DAVID Montafej said they would not cover anything but replacing the part under the sink that was leaking and I was on my own with everything else, as he was still trying to place blame on me he complained that it would cost money to get a plumber out to me. After hearing all this I said "Fine, I'll clean up the mess and try to turn the water off, if they can get a plumber out ASAP the next morning to fix it. The next morning I woke up and the restroom was flooded again from under the sink. This time It was only the tile in the restroom and my throw rug on the restroom floor soaked up most of it thankfully. However I called the plumber and they said they couldn't Make it until anywhere between 10am-2pm to which I said I had work and couldn't be around. I tried to call David and sent him text messages but they all went unanswered. Finally I called my renters insurance company "AAA" and asked if they could help with carpet damage and replacing my shoes. AAA was extremely helpful and let me know that those problems were all my landlords responsibility to take care of, and that if David tried to place me at fault, to just go ahead and contact them and they would handle it all for me as it was not our fault this happened. Angry at all the information I had just received because David had been lying to me and ignoring all of my prior maintenance request that are unrelated to this matter I had decided I had enough and went ahead and called the Utopia main office based out of San Diego. The secretaries were really nice and heard me out. They informed me that a guy name "PETE" was his higher up and I would have to speak with him to let him know what's going on. They transferred me to PETE's voicemail where I left a brief but informal message. Twenty minutes later I get a call from DAVID MONTAFEJ. Calm and collected, I simply wanted to let him know what had happened this morning. Before I can continue speaking, DAVID cut me off by yelling at me and saying "What the fuck is your problem? Why are you acting like a little bitch? You're calling my fucking office and telling on me." Those were his exact words! At this point I lost my temper and said "who the fuck are you talking to like that? If you have a problem you have my address. Pull up." Once I went off on him he tried to accuse me of causing problems for him and said I was making things difficult. I have put in multiple maintenance requests for other issues with the property that have all been ignored. The upstairs bath faucet was busted when we moved in so I bought a new one and put in a request that went unanswered, so I fixed it my self. I sent the receipt for the 20$ bathtub faucet I paid for and was never reimbursed. Anytime anything goes wrong with the house I have been the one to handle my own problems. So I didn't see any other choice but to contact his boss PETE. After hanging up on DAVID for the way he spoke to me I called the office and spoke with the secretary again who was just as shocked as I was when I let her know what had happened. I demanded to talk to PETE, however the secretary told me he was already on the phone with David and would call me back. 10 minutes later DAVID called me back, I told him I would no longer speak to him after the way he spoke to me and hung up on him. I called to speak with PETE again and left a brief message explaining what DAVID had said to me. Part 1 read more

Utopia Property Management Company of Orange County is the worst management company I have ever dealt with. They are awful to applicants and once you sign that lease, they become your worst nightmare. They won't fix problems, they shuffle you off and ignore you. I lived in two rental condos, both of which were under property managers and never had a problem. I could go on and on and I have only been in their property less than a month. Run Run. The poor owner has no clue how bad they are and apparently that is why they have had 5-6 renters who only lasted one year. Big issue we had was the walk through. Utopia indicated that the dryer worked good. No, it didn't work at all. Called maintenance and the office told us that was not their problem. I would need to fix or replace!!! It was rented with washer and dryer in working condition and now thevrenter must pay to fix or replace the dryer after first 6 days of moving in??? read more

I'm so surprised to see so many negative reviews with this property management. The entire team has been absolutely amazing to myself, my boyfriend and cousin. They have been very prompt in responding to our emails, they making signing documents to lease the property VERY convenient. They even have an app for your phone to help you upload insurance information, pay your rent, view your documents that they upload, and even file for a repair request. This was our first ever time renting a home and this was the most pleasant experience for something so new and foreign to us. Kelly was absolutely wonderful. Samantha was so amazing, kind, and we really would not have been able to get our home if it wasn't for her flawless customer service!!!! I see people complain about their protocols and procedures, but they are really making it a bigger deal than what it really is... The application process was so easy. It makes sense that everyone living in the home needs to apply, because they are ALSO going to be paying for rent and the management has a right to know who is going to be living in the home to make sure the property is protected. Also, if you're really worried about a $45 credit check, you probably aren't ready to move out and pay your rent. I mean come on, you spend that much if not more going out for dinner.... The pet policy and rent is VERY reasonable, and we were approved for a Great Dane (mind you, she is a sweet angel baby girl!). We have had 0 issues with the services we have received from Utopia Management! We are so so happy to have a wonderful hard working management team on our side and look forward to working with them during our lease agreement. Thank you Utopia Management!! Keep up the amazing work! (: read more

I would give 0 stars if that was an option. My husband and I were interested in a property for rent we found on Zillow. We called on it three times and never were called back. We emailed and after a few emails we heard back. We were required to both fill out applications with all our personal information. I thought maybe it was a COVID-19 policy to be sure we were for sure interested. It's not. It's there MO. We toured the place and liked it and asked to move forward. They ran our credit (after charging us $45 each!!) and accepted us. When we received the lease we read that it was for an INITIAL FOUR MONTH TERM and that after that the rent would be raised 5%! We were floored. We immediately emailed the person we were in contact with and they told us that the "showing specialist" told us that at the viewing. THE SHOWING SPECIALIST NEVER MENTIONED THAT NOR DID ANY AD MENTION THAT. We explained that it was the first we were hearing of that and that we wanted a one year lease. They went around and around with us swearing she told us--which she did not. So clearly she lied to her boss or they're both lying. We told them we were no longer interested and that they need to refund our application fees because they provided false information. They refused and continue to stick to their narrative. Oh and then offered us a year lease and continued to stick to their story of their showing specialist telling us about the four month lease. I'm sorry, but in what world is this "customer service" acceptable. Praise God we didn't move in and rent from this company. They are liars and unhelpful. Do yourself a favor and save a headache by never working with this company. read more

Excellent Customer Service !!! they always take care of Residents, work orders, and they very professional on any issues that residents may have. read more

Hide your wife. Hide your kids. I imagine having this property management company must be horrible for tenants. After an online application, they reveal additional costs for pets; not just a deposit, but monthly rent. Then, your housewife or househusband will also have to file a separate application and pay a fee. With the opening salvo of grifting; should you trust them? I don't, I hope you won't either read more

Just applied for a house using this service and the company made my husband and I both pay to submit an application. After stringing us along for two days and on our way to see the place for the first time, Dina Abuhadawan called to tell us we won't be accepted because our dog is too large (40 lbs) And our money won't be refunded to us for the application. We weren't even allowed to see the house and were rejected immediately. The least they could do was refund us our money but I feel like they completely took advantage of us. Do not rent from this group!!! read more

Impossible to get in contact with an agent once you've moved into your apartment. They'll forward you to voicemail and never follow up.

The most unprofessional property management company I have ever experienced. Poor follow thru Zero accountability Zero regard for tenants rights If you have a choice, rent from anyone other than this company. I am seeking legal recourse now after they allowed my unit to be gutted and left that way for 19 days I have been both a tenant and a landlord and I would ever choose this company for either service. read more

Somebody did not do their homework...Utopia should be dismantled as a management company. They shouldn't be allowed to form under another entity. They have bad reviews and service because they earned that reputation. They will not repair anything from day one. They do not answer emails. The only advice I can give is to not do business with this company. Pay for repairs and take out of the rent. Renters rights is real...use it. If you say good things about this company then you must be related or you are having a once in a lifetime good experience. Lucky you. read more

My wife spoke with a lady at Utopia and I will not name her on the website. We wanted to look at a property in Mission Viejo to rent as I have drove past it and it looks nice. She said she will only show it to us M-F either 9 am OR 5 pm. Those are the times she drives to and from work and it is on her way. She does not like to leave the office during the day and does not work weekends. Sadly this is real estate and you need to allow more then 10 hours a week to show a home. I am sure the full real estate commission is collected once it is rented but if you want to give me half I will work around your commute times. That is just lazy and there is no excuse for it. Reposting since either Yelp or Utopia removed it before. I thought Yelp has a disclaimer that they cannot be paid to remove reviews. Everything I stated in this review is fact. read more

Coming from the Bay Area I was skeptical about who to trust but I found Utopia management and the manager Samantha took great care of me and put me at ease and guaranteed to take great care of my property. I will refer Utopia to anyone, ask for Samantha she won't let you down!!!! read more

READ THE REVIEWS. Unfortunately I did not and am paying the price for it. Like clockwork, I paid each and every fee required and Kaylie told the home would be clean by the time I moved in. Like many other reviewers, once they took my money they refuse to act accordingly. The house was filthy with broken appliances, broken plumbing and the air ducts were so gunked up with dust and dirt that my little one with SPECIAL NEEDS is now ill. John Newcomb told me to pay for it myself at my expense. The courtyard was so nasty with filth as I cleaned it I found a large illegal smoking device and took it to their office. When I complained about the living conditions I and my little one were exposed to, Samantha Middleton's bigotted comment that I, a black man, was being aggressive. Looking at all of the other reviews here she is confronted with MANY complaints yet she referred to me as facts from many interactions with bigots as aggressive. Each of their attitudes were unprofessional and unjustifiable. Now, I must deal with these unconscionable idiots for the remainder of my lease. The WORST decision I ever made. read more

Should be no star at all but it won't let me do so. Sarah, come here to argue with me please, I am waiting. Too bad I did not read the reviews here before I hired you, big mistake! No wonder you got such terrible reviews, because you are truly the worst! First of all, it seemed to me that you don't care about how to improve your business by listening to people's complaining but only interested in argue with people who post negative reviews and ignore the facts. Secondly, you acting very unprofessionally by hang up/refuse to answer my phone calls, and refuse to call me back. Thirdly, professionally speaking you failed on us on every level, you wasted more than a month of precious time which means money, yet you want us to pay for your failure. If you said you will agree to terminate the contract then mean it by actually doing so, do not trying to rip us off by holding our keys and remote control, give it back! We did not asking you to pay for the damages so you shouldn't go too far! One more thing I need to correct you and you know the fact in regarding the rental price, we lowered it twice to make it easier for you to rent it out despite we will take a lose, our unit is much better and bigger but we agreed to rent for same price as another lower end units but you still couldn't rent it out. So tell me what are we supposed to pay you for? read more

This is a terrible management company. When maintenance is requested, they are extremely slow to respond, they rarely answer their phones, and when they send someone to fix the problem, the work isn't done satisfactorily, so repeat requests to fix the same issues need to be made. It's extremely frustrating and a waste of time and money to have to have the same issues over and over again. read more

I just noticed that this terrible company has taken down all of my reviews (I wonder how many other one star reviews HAve been deleted...) so I'd just like to write another about how unprofessional this company is. They have an office full of incompetent people that won't respond when there is an issue, and I guarantee you'll have them renting through utopia. I've been hung up on, ignored, etc. My complex finally terminated their contract last month and utopia decided to cancel our trash service, rather than transfer it, so we didn't have a dumpster for a few weeks. Very mature guys. Glad I never have to waste time calling your office again just to get voicemail. Maybe if you guys actually addressed people's concerns on Yelp rather than arguing and defending yourselves, you'd have a half way decent business. It's comical reading these reviews. read more

Update: the response below is laughable. Your team is incredibly subpar. You never offered to send cleaners back. The sulfur smell was nauseating. We were unable to use the master shower unless we wanted to vomit from the smell. The electricity was out to the hall bathroom, part of the kitchen, the garage and the outlets in the backyard. That is not one wall as you state. You know I could go on and on Samantha. But I appreciate your attempt to make it seem like your company doesn't suck. There aren't enough negative words in the dictionary to describe this God awful company. I have no idea how they are in business. From day one, they have been a nightmare to work with. They do not take any matter seriously or urgently. If we had known what we know now, we would've never rented from them. We loved the house and neighborhood but it was highly tainted by working with Utopia. From day one spending $75 per person to do a credit check when everyone knows that's an inflated price, I should've taken that as a red flag. The day of move in we were told the house was being professionally cleaned. It was not. It was filthy but they did nothing about it. Within the first few days we had plumbing and electric issues. There were holes in the walls throughout the house as well. We continued to have a plumbing issue with the master shower. We fought with them for months to fix it but they never did. In the 2 years we lived there, we weren't even able to use our master shower because it smelled like sulfur/rotten eggs. Any time we needed something done, it was a fight. We were left without electricity to 1/3 of our house for 10 days because they only had one electrician they use as a vendor and he wasn't available. The house came with gardners who did a terrible job and broke a window from the outside. They of course denied it. Utopia tried to blame us for the broken window even though it's on the side of the house and we don't even utilize that area. Mind you, we paid our rent on time every month and were perfect tenants. We gave them no reason to not believe us. It took weeks of fighting for them to finally fix it. There was a fig tree in the backyard that attracted rodents and even coyotes. We asked them to please have it pruned. Utopia refused to do anything about it so we had to trim the tree ourselves to prevent rodents from coming in the yard. Any time I called, I could not get through to our rep. Samantha Middleton was so unprofessional and rude. I wish there was a way to give this company zero stars. I implore people to never rent from this company. I'm assuming owners have a completely different experience because I'm sure they cater their company to owners. Whoever owns this company should be ashamed at their unprofessional and incompetent staff. I'm so glad to not be working with them anymore. read more

I was extremely turned off by my interaction with one of the property manager at the main office, so annoyed that I crushed my application and walked out. The lady at the front desk was very pleasant. I walked in and told her I did a self viewing the previous day and I'm ready to close on the apartment at #15 at 421 Mollison. I also told her I had recently returned from deployment and I had no place to live. She immediately gave me an application and told me she'd get a property manager once I was done. I was aware that I could apply online but I told her it's better sometimes to show up in person because some things can be expedited. The property manager came out and she was extremely impersonable. She had a very robotic tone and no empathy, as if I was talking to a automated system. Her willingness to assist was very poor. She browsed my application for literally 5 seconds and as she attempted to walk away said she would enter the application and it wouldn't be processed for 72 hours because of the holiday. I stated again that I needed the appartment immediately. She then asked me what was my means of employmentment and do I have a paystub?..."Your income needs to be twice the amount of the monthly rent", she said. I had already clearly stated my employer on the application as well as my monthly income which was 5 times the rent but clearly she never even looked. Her tone and questioning gave me the impression that she didnt care for my business because I couldn't afford it anyway. I restated to her I'm active duty Military. She then responded her robotic tone, "well that's income, we can use that. Do you still receive payments from them?". WHATTT... Was it because of the way I looked, dressed or was it because it was Christmas Eve and she didn't want to work. I don't understand why she was so cold and unconcerned. She didn't care to assist me at all. For apartments I've had before I had no issues closing the same day. I understand that you are an EOP management company so I shouldn't get any special preference because I'm in the military; However, being in the military means I have secure income, more secure that most employers. I also have great credit, a perfect tenant record a college degree which makes me more than qualified. The final straw, was when she told me to go get my pay stub and come back on the 26th, she'll process the application then. I said "Ma'am I can pull that up online for you right now, I don't understand how you're in San Diego and have no experience closing with military tenants." She then responded, "well can you get it right now". But I was was already extremely annoyed so I thanked her, crushed my paperwork and left. This experience is after calling and leaving multiple voice messages with no response. If this company wants to operate remotely there needs to be better remote customer service. My deductions are one of two things; This lady did not want to work on Christmas Eve or she saw how I was dressed/looked and immediately assumed I wouldn't be able to afford it. Both are unacceptable the latter is discrimination. read more

I highly recommend Utopia Management Company, specifically Property Manager Kelly Rigney. She is extremely thorough, professional, kind, patient and focused on the task at hand. Being an out of state property owner, I relied on Kelly, who always provided excellent customer service. She always returned calls and/or emails promptly and with great detail which was most efficient for both of us. This is a person you definitely want to represent you and your home. I know she also has an amazing team supporting her as well, everyone in her office was spot on with providing replies, documents etc. If I ever have the need to rent a home, I would certainly look her up. Kelly also has vast contractor resources which helps in deciding who is best for the specific repair. I miss working with Kelly, I hope our paths cross again. Thank you Kelly, you will not be forgotten! read more