Timbers/El Toro Apartments

I’ve lived in the Timbers with my sister for a little over a year and have no complaints. As you can see when you tour the place it’s not the nicest complex in South County but it is relatively inexpensive for the area.
I love the size and layout of my 2 bedroom 1 bath. Plenty of storage, good size closets and a bigger patio (on the bottom floor) than most places around here. It’s also a fairly quiet complex, I live in the middle by the office and have never noticed freeway noise. The location is wonderful, probably the best part of living here. Practically everything you need is just down the street.
Anytime something went wrong or broke (which wasn’t often), maintenance arrived the same day and fixed the problem. As for the office staff, I have never had a problem with any of them. Ryan has been our favorite to talk to though, he always puts in that extra effort to help us out when we need it.
Parking isn’t good, but find me one complex that has abundant parking for guests. Seriously, let me know if you know of one. And yes, they will let you know right away if you are breaking a rule but you acknowledge these rules when you decide to move in. One day I had a towel hanging over my fence and later received a letter asking me to remove it. Was I annoyed? Absolutely. Was I aware that I was doing something I agreed not to do? Yep. But I accepted these rules when I decided to live here. And no, there is no gym or super gorgeous pools, but you are well aware of that before you sign the lease.
I have to move unfortunately but I can honestly say that I am sad to end my 13 month lease here. I never experienced any problems but that could be because I always paid rent on time and didn’t cause any damage so I never had to deal with any of those situations. What you see is what you get with this place so if you don’t like what you see when you 1^st visit, don’t move in. I had no surprises or bad experiences and would definitely recommend these apartments to a friend.

Great workmanship & Immediate response to work order/​repairs. Layout is comfy and spacious. Very large patio/​backyard. My toddler loves it. Community is nicely calm. Parking is not that bad, believe me, I’ve seen worse. And ok price too… Great job guys.

First off they losers moved my review to the «Not recommended pile» because it was getting popular! Well guess what Dianne? «I’M BACK!»
About the maintenance/​gardening routines. They have them do this every Tuesday at 8am to 1pm just to drive up the cost of rent (good luck sleeping if you work night shift).Sure nice grass is easy of the eye, but add some flowers and now they can justify charging you a couple hundred more then you’d normally pay because of the nice landscape.
Also Wendy is right about the chemicals. I never put two and two together, but I always suffered bad headaches for days during the week and they wouldn’t go away till Thursday or Friday. Yes no doubt about it, had to be the gardeners and the chemicals over sprayed on the grass. Since I left the headaches have stopped.
Talking about the grass and how it was normally used when I lived at the Timbers. My apartment faced Ridgeroute which had parking for maybe twenty vehicles and everyday the kids (when out of school) would play soccer or football next to the cars. Ignoring the potential damage to the cars, did maintenance or security once tell those kids «maybe the park down the street would be safer, more room to run around in?“Never did I see anyone tell the kids to move (parents at work?) and multiple times the ball would get passed the goalie and roll into the street and the kid would run right after it not even looking either way.
The children are LUCKY to have not been hit by a car. It is not a street, more of a road since it also leads to another suburbs directly across from the Timbers and is heavily trafficked. I’m not even going to mention the noise produced on the road since that can’t be controlled by the apartment complex.
I just noticed that in Wendy’s picture of the outside buildings you can see the unit I lived in to the far left of the picture. Notice how the balcony looks like it is «sagging» or angled like it is going to fall down or collapse. I couldn’t tell you how many times I told guests to go back inside because if you get more then four people out there you can feel the strain of the balcony. It felt like it was leaning and couldn’t handle the weight of four adults. I know it looks like you could fit ten people on it, but don’t unless you want a trip to the hospital.
This review should serve as a warning since the apartment reeks of mold and landlord acts like Judge Jury and Executioner if you are one day late on rent. You know what you receive on the front door for all neighbors to see if you are one day late? Thats right you guessed it! A giant PINK pay or quit notice!
Micheal C. How much did Diane in the main office pay you for your lame review? I bet it was 50 $ off your rent. How about you let the real reviews tell the truth about this dump and take down your «Propaganda» before more people have to suffer living at the Timbers.

Worst place to live in Orange County! Stay away! There is nothing special about this complex.

First off let me say that the universe is vast and there are billions and billions of apartments across the cosmos. Avoid this one and pick another.
If you want to feel like you are living in prison then this is the place for you. In all my years of renting I have never felt like I was being watched for petty and minor violations constantly. Not getting a notice on my door for some sort of towel hanging violation was like winning the lottery. One of the main reasons why hardly any of the residents even bother putting anything on their patio or balcony.
While I understand rules should be enforced… there is no flexibility at all here. Bow down or possibly face eviction, especially for something as stupid as hanging a towel for an hour…
Now I am not a troublesome resident and I have kept to myself but this was absolutely ridiculous. I would get calls from the office for violations some of my neighbors have caused. A noise complaint was made to myself when in fact I had my neighbor’s children running up and down the stairs pounding and thumping constantly. I felt like the office staff was constantly harassing me.
The office staff is the worst part of my living experience. Question any of these women’s logic and you get a ratchet attitude and overly defensive tone. There is no point in reasoning with them. You can never meet them halfway. Power tripping so called business professionals is exactly who they are. Fire them and hire reasonable office staff. Especially the resident manager, Dian Thompson, who seems to indoctrinate every person hired on the premises… She is the worst of them all. I feel like she’s very insecure about her position as a manager and just does not have the capacity to receive constructive criticism.

Miss Junita. First off, everyone knows those Timbers apartments are horrible… Also, you just created your account in February of this year and made 1 review, being your Timbers Apt review… which makes it obvious that you’re a Timbers employee and trying to make your place seem awesome…
which it’s not. Thank you

I absolutely love it here, just wish they had a gym, but I found 2 gyms close by with walking distance, my experience so far with the office team and the maintenance has been amazing, they are very quick to response and recently I had a part order for an appliances and it was delayed by the vendar, the manager Deon came to my door with gift and was able to get me the part the next day, the maintenance guy able and Deon seem to work very well together, and her staff always seems upbeat with a good attitude and always waving to me and saying hi. I dislike that the city made us stop parking in the housing next door, but they have the guest parking by the fire gate, I notice they are removing reserve spots which has been a great help when my husband gets home, the parking is not to bad, I notice the office tagging cars for violation a lot and those people that like to take 3 spots, and dont renew their tags, I think that is good and keeps the place organize and fair. I have lived at other places and they were not as responsive as the people are here by the timbers, i agree with jorge c, I have been happy here and already plan to renew my lease.
As for John L, you just sound miserable period, since I have been living here I have seen Deon pass employees stop by the property, and my daughter has already spoke to deon about applying with the company, and i know for a fact the office promotes people, and your an idiot to tjink just because they dont work there, it is a bad reason, you probably could not get back your deposit for a good reason to, you just mad maybe because you were told no for something they do their work good, and you are such a liar that night club and been shut down way early last year, and your silly because you cannot stop a cop car from coming around lake forest has police cars driving through properties as a service, i never had an issue since i live here, and i think the timbers entire team is great, and they have been very attentive

Pros :
–close to freeway
— maintenance staff very friendly
Cons:
–you can hear the freeway
–parking is horrible
–have fun getting your deposit back
— The same day the gardeners wake you up early is the same day the nightclub next door goes off all night
–seems like all my neighbors smoked cigarettes
–Diane, the property manager is very condescending and just a phony person. Seems to run through her employees like water.
— If you are one day late on your rent you get a piece of paper on your door.
–it’s been two months since I moved out. Still having issues with my deposit check.
–cops are always in the complex
I lived in a couple different complexes in Orange County, this is by far the worst in every aspect. Read other reviews I couldn’t be the only one.

Wouldn’t even give a one star rating. Let me start off with; there’s nothing special– no gym, no built in washer and dryers, no garage. Let me start off by saying the parking is ridiculous, especially on the side street parking, there’s a lot of inconsiderate people who don’t will park in the smallest of spots and hit cars in the process of doing so. People don’t care and there’s a lot of rude and trashy neighbors. You will not go a month without seeing cop cars in the apartment complex. Also, it’s pretty cool when the gardener come around and don’t even clean up the sidewalks and if you’re parked near any grass, expect your car to be full of grass from the gardeners blowing the leaves and everything all over the place. Also, the the grass and flowers are full of flies and other bugs. The staff is probably the worst I’ve ever seen, the maintenance is slow, they leave a mess, and expect to not get your call answered for possibly days, because they don’t really care. The people in the office are so unprofessional it’s pathetic, Diane is probably the worst manager I’ve ever spotted. As other people have stated, she is like a judge, it’s almost like all of the residents are people on trial. The laundry room is awful, people like to leave their clothes in washers and dryers and leave it in there for hours. Also, watch out people will steal your clothes, the second and third laundry room have easy access to break in. People will open the window and stick their arm through and open the door, therefore they don’t have a key and may not even be residents for all I know. It’s actually even better, to top it off, there’s a good amount of kids that like to roam around without parents around. It sure doesn’t feel like Orange County, it feels more like the woods plus a bunch of criminal neighbors. Do yourself a favor and don’t move here.

I lived there for 2 years, and would have given 5 stars the first 9 months of living there. I think the staff were very polite and the maintenance crew did a decent job keeping things in order. My big complaint was the theft. I had my license plate stolen 5 days after renewing it. The license plate was completely stolen so I had to replace them with DMV at a cost of $ 20 additional dollars. Then 7 months later my car was broken into in the back area in my assigned carport. Things were stolen from my car. My main complaint was that staff made it seem like this was an isolated instance when I found out from the police when making a report on the theft that I was the 5^th car that was broken into that night. Then 3 weeks later another 6 cars were broken into in the back carport area, smashed windows, missing stereo’s, etc. Again, staff acted like it was only one car. Then items would go missing in the laundry room. For me it was becoming to expensive to live there. It was not worth the price. Residents had asked for patrols or cameras, anything to help stop the thieves and we were told no. It seems like they are just too concerned with $ than you safety. I do also want to mentioned that I had severe sinus problems while I had lived there. I suspected mold, but it could have been the chemical spraying. I have not have sinus problems since moving. The barbeque area is sufficient, I love to barbeque, but there was a period of 7 months when the barbeques near my apartment were not working at all. I was told they were being replaced with new ones, however it took over 7 months to do so and then only 1 worked somewhat adequately after 3 new ones were in installed. A big disappointment! The huge increase in the lease each year is unjustified.

Great place to live! I did my homework before moving here in October and I’m happy I made this our new home.
— Best prices around for 1 and 2 bedrooms.
— Recently updated throughout apartment
— Pet friendly
— A real backyard in an apartment is unheard of. I inserted a doggie door in the slider and my pup is very happy.
— Office and maintenance staff are always attentive and friendly.
— The grounds are well maintained.
— Community BBQ gas grills right outside my door. I don’t have to refill a propane tank any more.
— Neighbors have been very nice.
— Aside from rent the only additional charges are light/​gas (no water or trash bills).
My only 2 complaints that I can deal with are no laundry in the apartment and no dedicated 2^nd parking (without paying an additional fee).

On the contrary, this idiot who wrote the last review obviously had a grudge… The staff is warm and friendly, the maintenance guys (Sean and Abel) are professionally, friendly and ALWAYS respond promptly. The grounds are beautiful and amazingly well-​kept. The pool is beautiful, the neighbors are mainly hard-​working people who are for the most part quiet and friendly. The ten PM curfew for noise is observed, and the place is peaceful at night. As far as the storage bin in the carport: it is only intended as an overflow area. Apparently this fool from Beverly Hills expects to be able to store her whole life there. What a joke! The apartment complex is undergoing constant improvement: repairs to the carport roofing, new trees and landscaping, new asphalt, etc. The TWO pools are kept in immaculate shape, and there is a beautiful cabana area with a great barbeque kitchen right there for parties. The location is great: two blocks from lake Forest and easy freeway access; three blocks from «downtown» with all the newest shopping improvements; and a nearby park with a duckpond and another cool little strip center with a great local Pub (Our Place) and shopping. I guess «Wendy» had her panties in a wad when she wrote this… Maybe if she would have paid her rent on time and taken a small effort to get to know her «low class» neighbors, she would have felt more at home. Dumping on a group of hard-​working professionals like this is cheap and heinous.

Well i agree 50% to what other reviewrs said but i must say that the staff listens to u at one call .
as the residents park dere car in guest parkin so dats y guest pasrking is missing.
the neighbors can be called criminal. bt only some.
yes some amenities lyk gym is missing. bt it doesnt makes it incomplete.
the kitchen has less space to keep the stuff.
but overall i find it ok ! not that bad as ‘m living here i f9 it ok.

The worst appartments i have ever seen in my life in south oc. The apartments are joined right next to each other. You can hear people yelling at each other. One of my bathroom was not provided with a shower and jhust a tub, After my numerous complaints i was given hand shower for on year lease. The worst thing about this appartment is that it does not have any guest parking. Guest has to park on the street which is never available. These people give you one parking per appartment and charge you additional $ 25 dollars for each extra parking apot. So if you have three cars in the house you have to pay additional 50 per parking. Worst apartment ever. Dont ever come here.

This place is horrible. It is unprofessionally run, the construction is old, the staff is rude and unprofessional, maintenance tardy and responds late, the neighbors are loud and low class, it has pretty much next to zero amenities other than the pond sized pool in the middle that birds swim and sh_​t in. The location is also terrible — it is a dark spot — the sun never shines through and they keep spraying pesticides into the soil for gardening that creates such a toxic stench that even closing the windows doesnt keep it up. I dont know how they are getting away with that from the EPA’s and OSHA’s standpoint and maybe someone should report them. Here are some of the specific issues:
— rude staff. I once went it to ask the leasing person who did our lease, a Diane Thompson, a question and her co worker said she wasnt there, even though I could see Ms. Thompson’s feet behind her desk. (!) Speak of unprofessional. If she is not available say so. To lie and say she is not there when I can see her, is unprofessional.
— the storage area consists of tiny bins above the street parking area (there is no garage) which run under the freeway and they cost 75 dollars. yes, 75. Moisture goes through, though, not to mention the several inch layer of soot from the freeway, ruining your belongings. 75 dollars for a small overhead bin where dust, soot and water seep in — Seriously?
–rent is due on the first and unlike most places you dont get the grace period to pay until the 3^rd. Late fee is 75 dollars (most places 50) and they harass you with notices on your door on the second. My neighbor was an older lady who complained to me several times crying about how the leasing office constantly harasses her with things and outs signs on the door about rent being late, even though her grand-​son ad paid it already.
— there is no complimentary parking for at least one sport. They want you to pay 50 dollars a month per parking spot and if you dont pay, you have to park outside on the street — which is hard to do since Ridge Route is not a street. The street leading to the apartment is a tiny semi dirt road leading to the complex and guess how much parking you can find there.
— given the sh_​thole that it is, the rent is way too high. 1800 for a one bedroom with asbestos ceiling and tiny closet space and no AC. Another 75 per disgusting storage bin, 50 for parking… unbelievable how little they give and how much money they want. For a dump.
— Rude, incompetent and unprofessional staff — especially the main leasing lady Diane Thompson.
— the name Timbers is accurate as this place is old and made out of wood — you wont know you are in orange county but will think you are in some backwoods area with criminal neighbors.
I would genuinely not recommend this place to anyone and was glad to leave. There are so many options in Orange county, even in Lake forest and irvine with new complexes that give special move in deals etc. No one should have to live in this dump. Be forewarned. I hated every minute of it. am surprised at how they manage to stay in business.