The Palms at Laguna Niguel

You people with your Unilocal reviews! Everyone’s a critic. You know, there are nice critics too; not all of them are mean, even the famous ones. And anyone with a good BS meter can see that most of this is just a bunch of exaggerated whining. Some things are legit, like the girl with the dog and the chemicals in the grass, but that seems to me just really specific and unusual. Furthermore, Essex bought the place and they have plans to renovate the entire thing, and notice they are responding sincerely to every Unilocal review from everyone and her mom.
Anyway, the place is nice! Rose Marie in the front office is the sweetest, and we all know what a great guy Robert the maintenance guy is, right? I want to thank the haters for alerting me to the dangers of the crazy lady who whispers in your ear, leaving the stove on, and cockroaches in Laguna Niguel. I’m moving in. Let me know if you find a better deal in the area.

My girlfriend and I have lived at the Palms since September 2015. It was okay in the beginning, although the leasing office woman we got stuck with was extremely scatter brained, rude, with a fake smile. When we went in the office to fill out our application, a mentally ill woman came in and kept whispering strange things in my ear and wouldn’t stop. I had an anxiety attack. That was the first red flag. Then we go on to do the first walk through with Rosemary, the woman I mentioned above. The apartment had a handful of some minor, some not so minor issues that we pointed out, as we are to do in an inspection. She completely disregarded our concern. To top it off, the keys they gave us didn’t even fit our front door, so we couldn’t even get it. They came and changed the locks, and ever since the entire door knob/​lock has been loose and wobbly. We noticed the toilet had several cracks along side the bowl running down to the ground. They said we would get a new one the next day. The next day turned into 2 weeks. And finally I called and addressed the issue and they hadn’t even placed an order for
A new toilet. It took us 1 – 2 months before we actually had toilet. The bathtub still looked dirty from the previous tenant, when I mentioned it Rosemary replied with «well that’s the best it’s gonna get». I have 7 more months of ridiculous, obsured, and truly disappointing stories about this place, I could go on for days. Not to mention, they took a deposit from us that was 3 times more than the average person, and we didn’t even have bad credit. The Palms is absolutely terrible. The neighbors are SO rude I truly forgot what genuine nice people were like. When I pass by someone and smile or even dare to say hello, they look at you like your Satan or just say F OFF. There is a crazy short skin head 45 year old grown man that starts fights with innocent people and says terrible racist remarks. Of course, I complained multiple times, nothing was ever done.
I fear for my car getting vandalized, because yes that also happens here quite a bit. I’ve lived in many countries around the world, many homes in America, and many apartments in Laguna Niguel. The palms is extremely decieving from the outside. When you get inside you find cheap 80’s blinds that fall off every two seconds, and cottage cheese ceilings. This is my first bad review I’ve ever left.EVER. I will say, the only workers that have been helpful are Jesher and Robert from Maintenance. They are too good for this place, but at least they provide one positive characteristic. We can’t wait til September when our lease ends. The Palms is the definition of what terrible employees and terrible people can do to ruin such a beautiful area we live in.

Ever since ownership changed hands to Essex, this place has become a pretty horrible place to live. The rent is just as expensive as anywhere else, but the wood they use is cheap and so all my cupboards are falling apart, they constantly shut off the water, they added a defective smoke alarm that woke me up every night at 2am, and it took them 3 months of complaining about the lack of hot water for them to figure out it was the entire building’s water boiler, which I feel like should have been fixed before it was completely broken… Also, earlier in the month the entire complex’s gas and electricity was shut of for 9 hours and there was never any explanation as to why! Some of the food in my fridge went bad!
I’m also imagining they’re not treating their employees well as I see a new person in the leasing office every time I’m in there, and they don’t act very happy.

Move in here as fast as possible! This is the best place I’ve lived in Southern California. Management is exceptional

Not a great place to live. There’s always new people working in the office. I don’t think I ever saw the same person working in the almost 2 years I lived there.
My dog was having major allergies and skin problems from something they were putting on the grass. He developed sores on his skin and now that we’ve moved down the street to another neighborhood he is totally fine.
They were constantly shutting off the water! It was so horrible and was happening a few times a month which can become quite annoying.
The worst part was the fact that there were 5 or 6 people living in the one bedroom unit directly below me! The amount of kids can get annoying when they’re being really loud.
Overall I don’t think I would ever live there again. It’s not worth the money.

This community has the least attention from the management I could have expected. I had actually one day forgot to turn off my stove while heating up a soup and I guess my alarm has gone off for the whole afternoon and till I finally got off from work around 7pm to realize about this. No action taken and no one even noticed!
2^nd, the pipes are old and our garbage disposal in the sink broke several times and I requested for maintenance and it just broke again after couple of weeks! I was terrified when it happens the first time so I seldom use it and it still breaks when I only wanted to get rid off some garlic skin or onion skins. So we stopped using it completely… As well as the dishwasher because the pipe is connected.
3^rd, there was a power outage last night till 9am this morning. I went to the office in the morning and on my way, all fire alarms outside of the apartment are ringing (probably because the electricity just came back), and there it was, a notice on the door: Office closure due to company event.
Last, I sent out my move out notice by email as requested by one of the staff and never heard back from them again when I also asked how much should I pay for the last days before I move out when it’s not a full month period.
I just wanted to move out as quick as I can and get it over with. Never been so frustrated by an apartment before.

The Palms at Laguna Niguel has been my home for the last year. I have nothing but good things to say about this community. The staff in the leasing office has bent over backwards to help with any questions or concerns I may have had. Rose Marie in the leasing office has personally helped me out so much. You can tell the staff here cares for their patrons. I would recommend this community to anyone looking for a place to live in the beautiful OC.

We love our outside walkways we have so much fun playing around our home! Having so much space and the playground is great for the kids!

I love the excellent service I’ve received from the maintenance team, especially Robert.
He’s so kind and friendly to talk to, almost like a dad! Even helped with giving tips on how to do some stuff to save time and headaches! Whenever I have a question he’s so willing to stop by and check it out for me. It’s very clear that they are experts and have a fast turn around in service.
Also, shout out to Jesher and Matt at the front office for being very accommodating and friendly when we were frazzled about signing the new lease.

Don’t even think about living in this place. It has the worst management I have ever dealt with. This is what they do:
1– Enter your home without prior notice!
2– Shut off the water for NON emergency repairs without any notice. Then they lie to you and say that the city shut off the water to the complex. After contacting the city I found out that the city never shut the water off, but that the management was doing repairs and had shut the water off
3– They will say that they can fix it when you talk to management but they will be lying to your face every time.
4– If you need to accomplish anything you must write a complaint to Corporate (Essex) and then usually things will be taken care of promptly.
5– Once all management and the scum that are in this complex are removed, it could go from 1 star to 5 star

If your looking for a place with great and fast maintenance service, this is the complex for you! Just to give you an idea, we have had problems with our toilet, and so I put in a request this morning around 8am, and it was fixed by 11am (this is a Saturday, and the hours are from 9 – 6) !! Fast! So then I mentioned the lights in the kitchen, and that one wasn’t working, but I had to leave, and Robert told me to put in a request when I got home and call the leasing office… well that was at around 3pm later that same day, and it was fixed in about 30 – 45 mins! If that not service I don’t know what is!!! This is a great place — awesome people work here, and it’s in a great location!

I dread coming home now every night. I do not work a 9 – 5 job, and every day is a struggle to find parking! It’s a NIGHTMARE! And it ruins my day! Normally when you sign a 2 bedroom lease, you get 2 parking spots, but not here. And there’s nowhere even close to park when there aren’t spots! I end up having to park across Moulton Parkway and asking my roommate to come pick me up. If she’s awake she does, otherwise I have to walk home from there. Management keeps promising car stickers, but how much longer before that happens is a guessing game.

I recently moved in and so far I am loving it! The staff have been so helpful and the maintenance workers have been very nice and willing to fix anything needed. I have had no issues in regards to parking (its OC the place isn’t going to be a ghost town) and to the people complaining about the kids being loud and playing outside, we should be thankful that they are not inside playing video games!

Again the palms have FAILED ! Targeting people who leave negative reviews on Unilocal.They tagged my truck because it had cobwebs on it ?? It was moved 3days ago and I cleaned it ! Does everyone in that office really not know that it’s spider season here? And why didn’t they tag the green dodge that is filled with newspapers and cans. The guy recycles his stuff once every two months and that’s the only time that truck moves ! They waited til I walked my dog by the office before even tagging my truck. Your entire staff in the office is uneducated and ignorant. Hire people who know how to conduct business and actually DO go out and check out the property ! And get rid of the damn shopping carts everywhere. This place is nothing but an over priced ghetto slum !

This place is awful !!! I cannot wait to be out of here … No one picks up after their own dogs and we have been infested by cockroaches in our kitchen we have been sprayed three times we even bombed with another company and nothing has changed !!! Oh and don’t even get me started with parking that is ridiculous. Besides the fact you get no where with the office staff. Rude stuffy unfriendly people ever since Essex took over.

We have the nicest apartment at The Palms! Its so sunny and the floor plan is great and practical! I just wish there rents would be cheaper one day. but other than that we’ve been having a splendid time at the Palms! The maintenance guys are great specially Robert! He’s so helpful and professional! Hats down. Keep up the good work guys!

I have been living here since May 2014. I have not had the same issues that I’ve read on here (fingers crossed). My main complaint is not with my unit or neighbors its quiet in building 12, but the dumpster area and the other tenant’s laziness! There no real way for the office staff to correct this issue I just don’t understand how someone would want to leave trash so close to the dumpster… just put it in! At least once every 2 weeks someone will dump the kitty litter on the ground in front of the dumpster… just gross its so embarrasing when I have visitors. The positive to that is that its never dirty long the grounds keeper cleans it up quickly.
The maintenence crew is awesome! They respond to my online requests promptly and sometimes they’re ready to repair within 2 hrs. I never have to wait more than a day and when I arrive home they will leave a notice letting me know exactly what was done.

I wish I didn’t have to give a star at all. Just stay away. Don’t live here. You get what you pay for in the «cheap» (as compared to the rest of Orange County) rent.
We had a constant issue with roaches, loud neighbors next door to me… I could hear them snoring overnight and the vibration of their alarms on their phones in the morning though the walls.
Water was randomly turned off without notice multiple times. Let alone, the grounds were constantly muddy and had little annoying bugs all over the place.
Also, apartments were overcrowded with families of 5 – 6 per unit, OR college kids throwing parties multiple nights a week. Many calls to the cops were made for noise complaints at 2am.
The management did nothing when the above complaints were made.
Also… FLEAS. The «dog park» on property was infested with them, wouldn’t be surprised if the other grassy areas were as well. I walked my dog off property multiple times a day for her to relieve herself.
Let’s talk about parking — I had the pleasure of calling the tow trucks multiple times to get random people out of my spot. My favorite incident was the sleeping gardeners at 8am. I had left my spot open for my roommate the night before because she was going to be home late and trying to find open parking after 7pm is a joke, it turned out she never made it home so the spot was vacant all night, until I came down to that in the morning when I left for work.
Also, after move out, I received a nice bill for $ 400 that makes no sense whatsoever. — –Some things I could understand with (like needing to re-​carpet a bedroom because my roommate locked my dog in there and she freaked out and clawed up some carpet — luckily I paid for Pet Damage on my Renter’s Insurance so I could potentially file that).
–Not to mention, the carpet cleaning charge. Why would my carpets need to be cleaned you ask? Remember that muddy grounds comment I just made, that’s why. While I wiped my dogs paws every time we came back from a walk, that doesn’t mean they were sparkling clean. This could have been avoided if they actually took care of their grounds and didn’t let the water continue to leak all the time. So much for California being in a drought. Very irresponsible management.
–I called the leasing office to discuss and left messages 5 times and never received a call back. I also emailed them, and didn’t get a response. So I left the statement unpaid.
Well, guess what? It’s been now 3 months since I moved out and I’m just now getting notified from their Collections Department regarding my outstanding balance. My Renter’s Insurance ran out of coverage after 30 days from cancellation of the policy (move out) so there will be no chance of filing a claim with them.
So now to enter the next battle with this place that I’ve been trying to rid myself of. I will update again if there is a positive resolution. Wishful thinking with this company.

I really wish I didn’t have to renew my lease at this place. Most of the apartments have multiple families living in them (which means tons of kids). I get embarassed to have friends over because they say they feel like they are walking through some ghetto playground when they walk up to my unit. There are anywhere between 7 and 15 kids playing directly in front of my apartment every single day. They scream, yell, cuss and kick a soccerball against the walls till way after dark. Both my hubby and I work from home and it is impossible to concentrate with all the noise. The parents of these kids don’t care and just let them do whatever the hell they want. They ride bikes and scooters in the parking lot and have scratched up my car in various places.
We have to share utlity costs with the other people in the complex. It doesn’t seem fair when we are just 2 individuals and other apartments have 4 or 5 adults and tons of kids living in a two bedroom unit. Think about all the water they use for showers, washing clothes and dishes compared to us.
The pipes are old and the water is shut off without notice one to three times a month. There have only been a few times when management actually gave us any advance notice.
Another issue is there is never any parking! I guess that’s what happens when you allow 5 adults who drive to live in one apartment. My guests can never find a spot, even during the week. Management keeps saying they are going to get parking permits but I won’t hold my breath.
The gym is small and dirty. The other day there was a huge trail of ants along the wall. We have had problems with roaches and gnats.
I wanted to live in a complex with a pool but have never even used the one here because it is always filled with kids.
When we moved in a year ago, the apartment had not even been cleaned or fixed up. There were spots on the carpet, the sink was yellow, holes in the walls, etc. It took over two months to get everything in decent condition. We never even got an apology or discount on our rent for having to deal with so much drama when we initially moved in.
There is some guy who digs in the dumpster almost every morning and I have gotten startled when I went to throw my trash away. Plus there is a crazy lady who sits on the sidewalk and talks to herself all of the time. People sit out in front of their doors or on the stairs (instead of on their patio) and just stare. I seriously can’t believe I pay $ 1,725 a month and feel like I’m living with the worst parts of society.

This is a place you can call home. Olimpia and all the staff in the office are very friendly and they welcome you at all times. they take care of service repairs right away. apts come with a full side by side washer and drier… office has free wifi. internet. printer.fax. Pool, Jacuzzi, 2 Cabanas to keep under the shade, and two gas grills, Little playground, dog area. plenty open parking and assigned carports