Harbour Lights Resort

I am a new resident to the Harbour Lights community. I am finally here after a year of waiting to sell my house and transition. Since this is my very first apartment I was very selective in where I wanted to live. I visited several times and requested just as many tours so my family could see where I was looking to move. Russell and Natalie were so patient with me and never made me feel unwelcome even though I am sure they thought «here she comes again!»
This place makes apartment living pretty nice. My 2 bedroom apartment is spacious and very nice and comfortable. I don’t hear any more noise than I would expect to living in an apartment.
The pool and Jacuzzi make me feel like I am on vacation and the gym and common areas are beautiful. Everyday there is a crew working to keep the grounds looking beautiful and they do a great job.
I really want to thank Russell and Natalie for making me feel so welcome and for taking care of my requests in such a timely matter.
Sincerely, Didi

After living at Harbour Lights for over a year, I learned to love it! The staff changed quite frequently, but there was one, Natalie, who was so helpful to me with any request I made and was constant and consistent. I’ve since moved, but I would highly recommend this community. Many activities for the residents, just an all around nice place to live. Is it perfect? No, but if you’re ok with apartment living, you’ll love it here.

My wife and I really like this place. Everyone in the office has been very helpful and professional. We have dealt with Russell, Faith, Adriana, maintenance Bob and Natalie. They have all gone out of their way to remedy any situation we have had. Grounds are well kept up. I think the «complainers» that leave bad reviews would have issues no matter where they live. Look up their other business reviews and you will see that they have problems all over town.

After moving out they charged us for several things that I had carefully noted as being broken and or not appropriate when we first moved in. After, no joke, 12 phone calls I simply gave up and tried to cash the remainder of the deposit check. Of course it was void. Now I am still having to deal with these people. The worst part is before I moved out I was warned they would do whatever they could to separate us from our deposit. This came from former employees. What a mess.

Well, it didn’t take long to understand why there are so many 1-​star reviews. I had a Saturday afternoon appointment to potentially lease an apartment. When I arrived, the office was locked with a «Sorry we missed you/​Will return at:» clock sign with the clock set for 15 minutes after my appointment time. I waited, plus another 10 minutes after that. Finally found someone walking around that works for the property, but not for the leasing office. She couldn’t find anyone that worked in the leasing office either. If they are this inattentive and discourteous to a potential new tenant, I can only imagine how bad they are once they’ve actually received someone’s money.

I’ve been here one year and just renewed my lease. By doing that I got my carpets cleaned for free! The cleaners were efficient and quick. The carpets look great!
I’m a bit shocked to read some of the postings here. So many unhappy people! While there are a few things I’m not crazy about — noise from the pool being first on that list — overall things are good. It’s a family– and pet-​friendly place so noise is to be expected. I haven’t been bothered by lots of noisy parties or dog poop on the beautiful grounds. And when I’ve needed something fixed in the apartment, the office staff and the maintenance staff have been very accommodating.

RUN! the WORST apartment complex I have ever lived at. It came with constant problems from day 1 with bath tube and sink clogged and mold in the bathroom which the maintenance painted to try to solve the problem and was impossible to have someone come to our place with putting in 10 tickets. The leasing office staff Faith, Adriana and Natalie are the biggest MORONS! they have no clue what they are talking about never able to give a clear answer on anything. They were very incompetent with their job and not being the least bit helpful. It looks wonderful on the outside but be aware of all the patch work inside. Do yourself a favor and look somewhere else they will rip you off with rent increase and misleading contracts.

Nothing but problems here. Its loud, the AC never worked, the drains were always clogged. The people in the office are incompetent and very rude. They never get back to you. Don’t bother ever calling them or leaving any messages or asking questions. You ask a question to one employee and each employee will give you different answers. The office staff are always changing. The place is over priced and run by people who don’t know how to do their jobs. Don’t waste your time and money on this place. It’s over priced giving you nothing but problems. The only great thing about this place was the maintenance crew.

I’ve been here a couple months and I really enjoy living here. It’s true you do hear loud music, people fighting, noisy Friday nights but that’s apartment living (I moved here from my house, so that adjustment was tough).
I have had nothing but positive interactions with the office and maintenance staff. They are friendly and professional. The office staff has responded to every call made by me. They’re very detailed in their leasing session explaining everything in detail. The apartment came with brand new carpet, brand new paint, and was very clean when I moved in.
They have taco Fridays and Monday pizza night (during football season). They have yoga 3 times a week, Zumba one day a week and it seems like a community filled with young families, single parents, or older couples. The school is right across the street, and the park is attached to it which we visit nearly everyday.
The grounds are well kept, most of the time people pick up after their pets but I have seen a couple times where that hasn’t happened.
The only negatives I have come across so far is the jacuzzi is green and has been even though I’ve seen them clean it a few times… and although they clean the hall carpet, I’ve noticed there’s still a few stains that won’t come out.
The laundry has 4 washers & dryers per building. Typically I don’t have a lot of wait time. The only setback is the laundry machines don’t seem to clean very well. A few times I’ve had to wash and then re-​wash items.
I work from home a few times a week so I’m here quite often and notice a lot.

They used to be resort apartments. Now it’s a joke! Thieves come in at night and break into your cars and management does NOTHING! There have been 30 break ins in 2 months time! Items stolen include wallets, tablets, phone chargers, change, jewelry, and almost a car or two. There is no security walking around to make sure this doesn’t happen even though this has been going on for MONTHS! The last straw for me was when my car was broken into and almost stolen! Thank god their shaved down key did not work. It broke off in my ignition causing me $ 150 in repairs, and guess what? STILL NO SECURITY! And management could careless! Don’t be fooled by this place. Dirty pool, laundry machines don’t work, and common areas are filthy! You also see dog feces all over! Beware!!!

The residents are not allowed to have barbecues on their property. They require you to use common area barbecues which are not maintained and don’t work! In order to cook a meal you must know how to disassemble a barbecue clean the burner properly and reassemble (about 30 minutes). Once you have refurbished they’re BBQ it takes about 30 minutes to preheat and you still won’t get it hot enough heat to get grill marks. I would recommend putting a grill in your parking spot and wheel it to the parking lot (If it doesn’t get stolen)! This is our community grill brush!

I’m starting with 4 stars and will update as I go. when looking for an apartment in this area, it seems the reviews are love-​or-​hate and that is terribly unhelpful for someone seeking input to a decision. so I did my own searching and found Harbour Lights apartments. I sat with my daughter in a common area and asked people how they liked living there and for how long they had rented. I got what seems like reasonable input from a nice teacher who had been living there for three years, a retired man who was polite and informative, a couple of young college aged ladies who were friendly and talked to me about the maintenance staff and security, neighborhood, beach nearby. Natalie, who met me in the renters office to show me an available apartment, was professional, serious-​minded, and informative. the grounds, hallways, parking areas were better than well-​kept. the gardens are beautiful as well. A ⁹⁄₁₀ top rated elementary school backs up against the grounds and beyond that is a nice park. it is possible to walk to the beach in 15 minutes and the surrounding neighborhood seems quiet, although I was not there after dark. When I asked, Natalie explained to me the steps they take against loud renters and there is responsive security for complaints. the young ladies I spoke with later backed up that statement. the apartment available was clean and well designed with three sliding glass doors leading to a long balcony. this is much more than you get elsewhere and the glass doors allow for a nice amount of chearful light. this appeared standard for all the apartments as far as I could see. at the pool, it looked clean and well maintained. there was a nice family swimming and playing in the water. now, unless this was all a fantastic set up to get me to lease an apartment, my initial impression is that this is one of the few complexes (and I have seen dozens during my house hunting trip in huntington beach) that impressed me at that price range. if I sign a lease, I will update this review.

This is the worst place I’ve ever lived at! The staff all suck minus 1 onsite maintenance guy who is very friendly and helpful. They sqeeze every penny out of you. Don’t help with issues. Never return calls. And take years to get ride of hazardous neighbors. We lived there for a year and had a giant noisy dog who did nothing but crap on their patio all day long. It took A YEAR to get them out and the only way they did is finding out they were illegal. (Not sure the office people should be releasing that information). When they finally got the people out the whole apartment was covered in dog fecal matter. That’s what was constantly above us. My child got an infection on his leg and the people in the office didn’t care at all. They wouldn’t EVER let us talk to the manager which is ridiculous. I’ve thought about taking this place to court on many occasions for having horrible living conditions. Everything falls apart. The paint is peeling off the walls. The closet doors fall off. The bathroom drawers fall apart. The toilets and showers all clog constantly. They paint the inside of the microwave to get away with not buying new ones. They rip out your carpet when you move no matter what the condition is and take it out of your deposit. A friend of mine was sent a $ 1000 bill from this place. She’s currently in a lawsuit. If we don’t get ours back we will be joining her. Save yourself some stress and just rent a townhouse or condo.

One of the biggest mistakes we’ve ever done is move here. I was advised by a friend not to give details but it is from experience living at this place. Never again.
Pros: The maintenance people and security guards are friendly and professional and we wish them the best

Do not move in to this place!
I’m not even going to go into the nasty hallways, the ghetto, laundry that is always packed and the rude angry management that obviously hate there jobs.
Even though we read all the horrible reviews we gave it a try anyway. 2 ½ years ago we looked at these apartments. We own a home in San Diego, but needed to be in HB for a few years for family reasons.
We had a small motorhome and asked them If we could park it there. They looked at it and said it wouldn’t be a problem and they gave us a parking sticker for it and an apartment next to the very last parking lot so we could park it near us.
We lived there for over a year and they were completely fine with it. We travel a lot for work so we didn’t mind dealing with all the trashy people smoking on the stairways and on their balconies and fighting and playing loud music all day.
Then management changed. They were even less friendly than the former management and it was a very unpleasant experience to even go in to ask for any type of maintenance.
We had sold the motor home and bought a smaller brand new sprinter van. It’s smaller than many of the trucks that were parked in the lot and much smaller than our old motorhome, but one day we got a pink notice on the back that said if we didn’t move it they would tow it.
I called and asked what was going on.
They knew we had the van and we had a lease. They said it was in the rules. No recreational vehicles.
There was a beat up old camper van next to ours with no notice on it. We later found out that it belonged to a cop that lived there. He must have some privileges that others don’t.
Long story short. We had to move. We had to get a lawyer. It was a mess.
Then long after we moved into our awesome new place we get a letter saying we owe $ 160.00 for keys. I gave them all the keys except for 1 that I couldn’t find. Now a collection agency is sending us letters saying we owe them money.
Harbor lights is like a nasty disease. Even when you get away from the dingy, loud, rude, overpriced, lying ghetto they find ways to haunt you. Now we will have to get another lawyer to get this fraudulent money sucking mistake to take this off our credit.
I had heard several horror stories from tenants that were trying to get out of their leases while we lived there. I hoped I would be one of them, but I was.
Stay away!

STAY AWAY!!! The office staff is a bunch of clueless people who are never helpful! The hallways are stained with dog urine, feces in the stair wells, and an elevator that’s license expired in 2012! The pipes are constantly clogging, water leaks everywhere in the garage, and the balconies are destoryed. Don’t be fooled by the «MODEL apartment» it’s nothing like the one you will be living in.
Not to mention the loud obnoxious trash dumpsters every Fri and Saturday @7am.
DON’T LIVE HERE!!!

Do not base your decision to rent here on the model that they show you. That building and model are kept pristine compared to the other buildings. Be sure to actually see the apartment they intend to give you before signing a lease. These agents, as all agents are, earn their money by getting new tenants. The day I signed the lease, I asked, «Shouldn’t I see this apartment before signing this lease?» Two of these agents supporting each other saying that it’s just like the model. It was not.
An agent Ashley walked me over to the building. The entrance way was filthy. The interior of the elevator was filthy. Walking to the unit I was going to rent, the hallway was all dinged up. Unmatched paining all over to cover up these damaged walls and doors. I bring this to Ashley’s attention and she replies, «Oh maintenance will take care of that.» Don’t believe that. If maintenance were doing their job, none of these deficiencies should have been so prevalent.
We enter this apartment and the first thing I said was, «What’s up with this carpeting? This is not new carpeting!» They tried to convince me that it was new. New carpeting doesn’t show seam lines. This did. There wasn’t a fridge and when I asked about it, I was told, «Oh you have to provide your own fridge» No where in the lease does it state you need to provide your own fridge.
The bathroom was a mess with water damage on the floor and an awful dark brown linoleum flooring.
On to the walk in closet. On the floor I see this long aluminum rod with an electrical cord. When I asked what the heck that was. I was told, oh, you need to plug that in when anyone takes a shower. It eliminates the moisture to prevent mold.
Are you kidding me!!!
I go back to my current home and was upset. I called my bank to ask if anything could be done regarding those cashier’s checks that I gave them and was told yes. All you need to do is go into the bank.
Question, they run a credit check on everyone, for which you pay for. They’re willing to rent to you. But they insist on cashier’s checks for the security deposit and first months rent? Why?
BECAUSE once they think they have you locked in when they have your cashiers checks and a signed lease. Don’t Believe That. Insist on seeing the apartment they intend to rent to you before giving them a dime. They’ll ask for a $ 200 deposit to hold an apartment for you. Don’t do it. See the apartment before hand.
Good Luck. You’d be doing yourself a favor by not renting here. Buyer Beware.

If I didn’t have to give them a star I wouldn’t…
STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE – DON’T RENT FROM THEM
Beware bunch of air heads and clueless people working in the office… The first week we moved in they tried to unlock our door and show the apartment to someone else @ 7 p.m. The turn around of the office staff is huge and at best they can deceive you and take your money.
The rent goes up by 100 – 200 dollars every Year. Even if you pay your rent early and you are a great tenant they just try to take as much as money they can. You can’t even chose an option to go Month to Month as you have to pay 200 dollars a month more if you don’t sign their new lease on top of the new Monthly Rent they are making you to sign up for!!!
Apartments are over priced for a tiny closet you get to live in. Pipes clog up every other day. There are always Leaks in the garage. Inside of the apartment has been painted a million times, there are water damages that they just paint over it…
These are very OLD apartments that needs to be redone i.e. electricity wires and pipes but they just keep fixing the outside area and pain over every thing!!!
I WOULD STAY AWAY FROM THESE APARTMENTS!!!

Harbour Lights has made sure that I won’t ever be a tenant here. I have been looking to move to Huntington Beach from the LA/​Marina del Rey area, aka, not close to Huntington Beach so my time in searching for apartments is limited. I called and found out about their apartments and it all sounded great on the phone.
So I take a day off work just so I can drive 40 miles to Huntington Beach and tour the complex after calling Harbour Lights that morning to confirm that I could come by. When I arrived at the office around noon there was a sign saying they wouldn’t be back until 2! If they were planning to be gone for 2 hours and knew I was driving 40 miles to get there why wouldn’t they say something? When I called earlier in the day they said they had a staff meeting but said it would be fine to stop by. I left a message explaining I’d stopped by and no one was there and I wasn’t able to wait as I’d made other appointments.
I happened to be in the area again yesterday and called the office again… apparently they were just closed on a Thursday. They finally called me again today with no apologies just a voice mail explaining that they still had vacancies which doesn’t surprise me at all since just getting an appointment at this place is a herculean task.
If you actually want to see the apartment, don’t bother. Staff does not seem to care for anyone’s time but their own.

I’ve been living at Harbor Lights for almost 1 year now, it’s probably been the best apartment complex I’ve ever lived at.
Outside: The place stay’s clean and maintained like Disneyland. The flowers are bright and colorful, the grass is always green, the pool/​spa area is always clean, the BBQ’s are nice/​newer ones. There are plenty of trees and plants & other touches that really give it a resort feel including the bridge leading to the main entrance. Every morning I see maintenance workers up-​keeping the property. This year they have repaved the parking lot, jet sprayed the parking garages, a few more things that I can’t think of right now?
Inside: The place is huge, about 4 – 5 buildings? I haven’t even seen/​walked the whole property. Each apartment is dorm/​hotel style (you enter in from hallways) I stay in a 2 bedroom/​2 bath that is spacious, balcony faces the sunrise/​sunset. Each room has sliding glass doors to the balcony. The kitchen has Granite counter tops, average white kitchen doors but not dated or silly looking. Every time I have guests over, they feel as if they are staying in a hotel. The complex is very pet friendly.
Staff: All the property managers are nice, attentive and professional, I believe there are 4 – 5 of them? To my understanding they revamped their staff. The maintenance staff is courteous and do great jobs, they come usually the same day I call in an issue. Security walks the property at night.
Safety: Never had any nor noticed any break in’s of apartments or vehicles. The place is safe and feels safe. No vandalism or graffiti.
Other perks: They always hold special events for the tenants. Monday night football with food, drinks, and the game hosted on their projector screen. TV Series/​Movie nights for the families to enjoy. For last years Christmas party, they chartered a yacht to view the decorated homes on the harbor. Took us down to the harbor in a limo. Free Yoga & Dog training classes. They are always offering something. They even have a Mexican food caterer come on Friday’s now in the pool area. You are a short walk to a big near by park with tennis courts and a mile away from Sunset Beach/​PCH.
Neighbors: I have yet to meet a rude or troublesome neighbor. Actually made two friends my age at the complex. My wife ran into one very rude, verbally abusive, & antsy older man in the laundry room but not sure if he was a tenant or visitor. The complex did a good job of trying to find out who it was to prevent that situation from happening again. The noise in the hallway echos but once you are inside your unit, the noise levels aren’t bad at all.
Parking: We get one under ground garage spot but ⁸⁄₁₀ you can find a parking spot in any of the lots, especially the main one. There is always plenty of street parking unless there is a big event/​holiday weekend going on.
My only complaints are:
Whole apartment is electrical so the stove is electric and not as convenient as a gas stove. The Heating and Air can get costly since it isn’t gas. We have just learned to deal without A/​C or Heat to keep costs down. Also recommend changing out the watt hogging bulbs that are in the unit with CFL’s, easily saved $ 100 off my electric bill a month.
The key/​door lock system is electronic so if you lose a key its anywhere from $ 50-​$ 100 to replace.
The gym area doesn’t have any free weights or a weight bench. Other than that, this place is great and I highly recommend it!