Sunterra

I have lived here for 9 yrs. The apartments are more spacious than others. When these were bought, renovations started on the empty apartments only. If you wanted a renovated one, you either had to pay another deposit and move into a different unit or move out for 2 weeks while renovations were being done. Then move back in. Mind you, moving out and back in is only an option IF you renew your lease before hand. Which was jacked up $ 200.00. So, unlike the others, I moved out and back in to get my $ 200.00 worth without paying a deposit. Well my lease is up in a month now. They want another $ 80.00 if I do renew. Oh ya, and my electricity had more then doubled and I live in the smallest building here. Paying $ 1,475.00 now. Goes to $ 1,555.00 if I renew. If not month to month is $ 2,000.00 a month. OMG. People who can afford to pay that rent obviously have money and could not deal living here in the summer. It can be brutal. Actually miserable. There is no AC at all. Trust me, people were sleeping on their balconies last summer it was so hot inside. I have never had a problem with anyone. I actually like living here but dear god the rent is becoming insane. Especially for this neighborhood. It’s in the ghetto. Brenda is the manager and is the only one I will talk to when it comes to a problem. She’s very nice and personable. And I have no complaints when it comes to her. I will not deal with anyone else. Maybe it’s time to move out of state. California is becoming ridiculously over priced and over rated.

Only lived here for a few months. The first night I moved in they had my car towed (you’d think they’d have a little courtesy for new tenants)… three nights later my back window was smashed on the same car, with no response or care from management (or OPD for that matter).
After a few weeks you can cue the roaches, screaming unsupervised kids (not that I hate kids, this was just ridiculous), and water being shut off x15 (I understand renovations, but at least once a week without notice, is again, ridiculous).
This coupled with the neighborhood (drug houses just off property), and a gate that rarely works makes me feel way less than safe.
If you’re desperate, it’ll work, but I would avoid at all costs.

If I could give 0 stars it still wouldn’t be low enough. The management, if you could even call it that, is absolutely terrible. They will try to change stuff about your lease agreement (i.e. add rules ect.), give less than a days notice when the are turning off water to the entire complex or individual buildings (which happens atleast once a month) for the construction that has been going on for the better part of a year. If you plan on using the balcony dont even bother. They will make you take your stuff off of it cause it dosen’t «support the community.“And stuff is consistently breaking. When I moved in the aparment wasn’ t even finished. The dishwasher almost fell out of its compartment, the kitchen island is barely attached to the floor, door handles randomly fall off, light switches will stop working completely, the front door will stop locking, the springs break on the garage doors, preventing them from opening, the bad paint literally peels off of the walls. And I have only been here for 7 months. They also will crudely tape notices to your front door or your personal vehicles, when they could easily tell you in person. And don’t get me started on Brenda. She will talk to you like a child, and make it seem like she’s the good guy, when really she is just living with the customer-​always-​wrong mentality. Please don’t waste your time with this terrible excuse of an apartment complex.

D

I’ve lived here for 7months.
Pros: i live on the 2^nd floor. My apt faces college blvd and the ocean view to the right. Absolutely gorgeous
Con: you can hear everything from the neighborhood below.
Pros: apt newly remodeled. Spacious 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Living room and dining room have nice size space to move around. I even have a washer/​/​dryer in my apt!!!
Cons; no AC can be brutal in the summer. Use fans or portal AC to stay cool.
Pros: maintenance calls are responded too immediately!!! I promise within a day or so of my call, the issue is remedied whether its my apt or an issue on the grounds.
Pros: garage and 2^nd parking spot
Cons: limited parking for guest
Overall I say its a great starter apt or a place to live if you want to be close to the beach and close to shopping areas for an affordable price. Its also on the Sprinter train line. Just a 2mile walk. They have done an awesome job with the renovation and the property looks really nice. They also have patrol on-​site and he does his job of patrolling. There are people who break the rules but the property manager Brenda and her team do their best to monitor and alleviate the problem. I find it pretty comfortable living here. Don’t just take my word for it. Come see for yourself.

Thought I would write a review since I just moved in 2 weeks ago. I was very hesitate to live here because A) the Unilocal reviews are horrible and B) its next to a not so nice neighborhood but they are pet friendly and newly remolded. I love the fact there is a dog park and it’s nice! I also like the gym…
There is no jacuzzi and that was a bummer to find out, nice pool and kiddy pool but no jacuzzi. Laundry rooms are nice and have all new machines.
CONS
ZERO guest parking, pretty much zero parking on the street after 3 so if u are planning on having visitors make sure to tell them to be prepared to walk a mile or 2.
They are doing a lot of construction to better the property but its loud and the workers are even louder. They talk about un appropriate things and don’t care how loud they talk (at 9am.)
Over all I’m happy I decided to move in, so far so good. I have not seen any rats or mice or cockroaches (yet anyway, knock on wood.) My neighbors are friendly and my dogs are happy. These Unilocal reviews are hash. Its not as bad as people are saying, but that was probably before the remoldel and new management.

After living in Sunterra for 3 years, I had my truck hit and ran by a drunk tenant. Then my truck was stolen in this gated community. In June of 2009 I had a bee infestation inside the unit and was stung multiple times. The management did nothing to fix the problem. I moved out after my lease was up, today 6 years later I ran a credit check and found the only mark was from Kim and St John DBA Sunterra apts for 38.00 dollars. Now I was never notified by this company. How could I even owe such an amount? These people are a bunch criminals and this was an absolute retalititory action without merit. After 48 years of having perfect credit these jerk-​offs did not even try to notify me instead marked my credit. I would not recommend Sunterra as a place to live unless you do drugs, dont care about your credit, steal cars, don’t sleep and enjoy bee stings and rat droppings in your living space…

I had to update my review to note that management has really been working hard to make residents happy, and I think it’s actually working. To anyone considering moving here, the renovations are a pain, but they’re practically done, and they make living here a lot nicer than it would be otherwise. I should note that no one encouraged me to update my review or anything– I genuinely have noticed changes and I felt like it was only fair to note them. And I’m kind of picky and hard to please.

I have been living here for about almost 3 months and I’m starting to regret moving into this place. At first it was awesome, no issues there. But as time went by, everything in my apartment was falling apart. I would put in request through their website and they would somehow never receive them. You have to constantly nag at them to do something and then they get annoyed because your nagging? Ok. Also, there’s never a quiet time here. You have the mowers cutting grass at 7am and takes them couple hours to get that done. So 2 – 3 times during the week, I have my toddler being woken up at 7am screaming. Then at nights all you hear are people partying, dogs barking, and couples fighting. You can never get any peace here! Not to mention all you ever smell is weed around here. Disgusting. Another thing is that they have turned off the water 3 – 4 times this month already and it’s starting to get pretty irritating. Yes I understand your renovating but you can’t keep shutting people’s water off with such a short notice and also that many times a month. I would expect it once every couple MONTHS but not 3 – 4 times in 4 – 5 weeks. Ridiculous. And it’s not like it’s only for an hour or two. We’re talking 6 – 8 hrs. And then there’s parking. You get one assigned spot and a garage. Seems like almost everyday I have someone in my parking spot. Wouldn’t bother me if it was an accident or they didn’t know but I’m talking about having the same resident welcoming his guest or even welcoming himself into my spot every single day. And so I will call and nothing even gets done. It still happens the next day. They seem to catch and tow the people who don’t mean to park in others parking spots and don’t know the parking rules here but the ones that do live here and do it on purpose, are the ones that are allowed to do it. They don’t care. The manager is too busy being noisy trying to see what people are doing and who their bringing over. She’s too busy getting into others people business instead of focusing on real, important issues. How about fixing up this place and providing a safe environment for those who live here. Get all the druggies and drunks out of here. You see so many kids running around here with no parents no nothing. Kids playing and destroying things in the middle of the night, kids cursing and fighting in the middle of the day. It’s always something here. And there’s no point in calling courtesy, they will just tell you they can’t do anything or that they will keep an eye out. At first I was impressed with the remodeling and with the employees but now I’m just counting down the days to move out. I don’t feel like my daughter is safe here. Everyone is pretty much allowed through the gate because people will sit outside and literally wait forever just for someone to drive by and open the gate, and so everyone takes the chance and gets in. The front gate stays open for about 5 mins once you open it. So there’s really no point in that. I even called about that, and all I was told was that there was nothing they could do about that. With that being said, I feel like paying $ 1,500 is too much for a neighborhood and apartment like this. It’s constantly hot, the remodel was done so fast in the apartment that they look unfinished and sloppy, parking sucks, no ac, no washer dryer, crackheads, drunks, seems like the kids here have no parents, and people with dogs never pick up their dogs shit. Don’t get me wrong I do see some people who do pick it up but most of them don’t. But then again, they hardly like to refill the bags for people to be able to pick up the poop. So who knows. So if you like a loud neighborhood, go for it. But if you have babies, please avoid this place. This is not the place for kids.

Absolutely the worst place I’ve resided in. One year could not go by fast enough. Over-​priced and was given misinformation from the beginning. I was told before I moved in I would be in a renovated unit. I believed it to be likely and reasonable due to monthly rent. I then moved in to an NON-​RENOVATED unit two weeks later. I wasn’t given notice that my living arrangements were changing. Without the prior notice I had no choice to settle. Otherwise I’d gladly continue for something more suitable. Instead, management told me I’d have to stay in my unit for a year then they would gladly «upgrade me» for addition monthly dues. Moving into just a few details to explain my Hell, the water was always being turned off and would remain off for the entire day. I understand emergencies/​maintenance but so frequently? Parking is awful. No guest parking; Luckily, I knew which spots were used by maintenance. «What do you mean this is a fire lane? I can’t park here? Well I’ll only be a minute. *12 hours later…*» My neighbor recently had an older child (10±years-old) enter her home while she had momentarily stepped out and he went back to his friends threatening to rob her. My neighbor notified management and I personally heard the manager say «He wouldn’t do that» and blew off the situation like it wasn’t a problem. Granted she did come to take statements from everyone once the Oceanside police showed up! August-​September 2014, I had been having troubles with my garage door opening randomly or closing but popping right back up once it hit the bottom. I had submitted multiple service tickets to have this taken care of however the problem persisted. September 15^th, my garage door opened in the middle of the night and my car was broken into. In a gated community! In my own garage! One that should’ve been locked of the equipment had been proper taken care of! I filed my statements through the local police department however, the complex showed no remorse something like this would happen. The same day they finally ordered a new motor for my automatic door. Thanks but you’re a tad too late, you cheap jerks. I would not recommend to anyone I care about to stay in these apartments.

Update: our lease renewal notice came in and they are raising the rent another $ 200.00! We are now being asked to pay more for the old style run down apartment then our neighbors with the freshly renovated apartments.
But the wiring is still subpar, the weeping oil paint still here, the asbestos in the ceilings still present, the bad management still around.
Sure they painted the exterior of the buildings but there is only so much lipstick you can put on a pig.
FPI manages many properties in California and if you look up their other complexes you will find very similar problems with them all. This one is just a very special rotten cookie. Do yourself a HUGE favor and stay away.

I have since moved out of this apartment complex. It was the best decision I have made regarding my living situation. I still hate the place. The male staff member who answers the phone is honestly the rudest person. He is completely un helpful and unprofessional. It has been several encounters that he has left a bad impression on me. They don’t care about you once you’re locked into the lease they will take your money and don’t care about you or your concerns. The place is run down I would not pay for the the amount they have jacked the rent up to. Bug infested. The other thing is watch your utility bill. I went from paying 40 to 60 a month to 130 then 178! I was calling everyone saying it wasn’t right and they told me there was nothing they could do after calling for weeks I finally got it figured out and it went down to 60 again however I cannot get back the other months I over paid because there was no more proof… I found out their system though. They pay sdge themselves and the take a 3^rd party billing company to bill the tenants and Jack up the prices making a profit. It’s seriously horrible how the treat the people living there. As if they weren’t getting enough money when they raised the rent 500 $. Long story short save yourself a miserable 15 month lease and do not rent from here. I moved out a month ago and I am still having issues with the place.

Lived there for 3 years until they raised the rent $ 200 due to new ownership and money hungry owners. I had a constant problem with roaches, they have fleas all over the place during the summer. I never had problems with fleas with my dog but here I would get infested inside the apartment because my dog would bring them in from outside. Everything in the apartment cabinets, walls have been painted over and over and they chip and flakes of paint come off the walls and doors the drawers in kitchen and bathrooms even wood it’s like flaky wood you can’t put anything in there without it getting that wood stuff all over it. The carpets started having nails poking through on the corners/​edges where you walk from the fake tile to the carpet not long after I moved in. Cars have been broken into, I’ve seen tweekers walking by when I used to work night shift. There’s a drug house around the corner with about 10 suv’s with rims lining up along the street. When you park on the street there’s a chance you’ll be hit I’ve seen it many times. There are no guest parking unless you get a pass even though there’s no guarantee they’ll have an extra spot and when you do get a spot there’s no guarantee someone else won’t park in it and the security patrol is non existent. Anyone can get in this complex because the gates are always open. Nobody picks up after their pets so don’t let your children walk or play on the grass. They advertise a high tech pool area with a fireplace and that doesn’t even exist yet. No high tech laundry rooms or gym like the advertise either. They upgraded the gym recently but the machines all look used and it’s so tiny and hot you can’t get into a machine anyways because it’s to crowded with like 5 people already. The maintenance are on top of things but usually the easy fixes don’t last long. They constantly shut off the water with very little notice. I believe they rip you off where the electricity is concerned… no sdge here. They have their own company that charges about $ 90 a month for just 2 people (in my case) who are hardly home. There is kids constantly yelling and screaming outside all the time starting as early as 730am on weekends. The blowers and landscape start up about the same time on Mondays, that’s not cool when it’s your day off. This place is not a good place to live save your money and get a decent place don’t fall for their cheap specials that’s how they reel you in.

I have been at Sunterra for over 3 years… it was the normal apartment living until the complex got bought out and now there’s new owners… the rent is now going up $ 300 because the new owners want to recoup their investment. What about the families who live here?
CONS:
No visitors parking
Drunken marine fights
No place for kids to ride bikes/​skateboards
Grounds crew starts at 7 am even on weekends
No BBQs are allowed
The dumpsters & surrounding areas are DISGUSTING
Water shut off with insufficient notice multiple times
Cars being vandalized
Security gates don’t keep anyone or thing out
The walls and ceilings do not line up
Kids running wild all hours of the night
Large dogs off leashes
No one cleans up their dog’s waste
I do have to say that the office manager, Brenda, is one of the kindest people you will ever meet and is an asset for any property management company.

Lived here for two years and these are the pros and cons of the place.
Pro: Spacious two bedroom apartments with a sizable walk-​in closet and tons of storage space.
Con: Poorly designed kitchen except for a neat kitchen island, but it’s filled with cockroaches and water bugs.
Pro: Wonderful ocean breeze that keeps the apartment cool.
Con: Summer is awful because the breezes die down and there is no circulation in any rooms.
Con: $ 1.50 for a tiny awful washer and $ 1.25 for a not actually drying dryer. The machines are run by a card you preload. There is only ONE loading machine in the front office that is open from 9:00 am — 6:00 PM. It’s often broken.
Con: Screaming children, barking dogs, loud rap music that echoes through the entire complex, and a barbecue station that sits right in the middle and wafts smoke into the apartments.
Con: The gates almost never work.
Con: Assigned parking, but the assigned numbers are very difficult to see at night. If you park in the wrong spot you’ll be towed and have to pay $ 350 to retrieve your car from San Marcos. THERE IS NO VISITOR PARKING. (They’ll give you a visitor parking pass, but that doesn’t mean the spot will be available.) Plus on parking: you can have two spots. One open spot and one garage spot. The garage has extra storage in it.
Pro: Management is nice.
Con: Leaf blowers start at 7 am on the weekends.
Pro: There is a newly remodeled and refurbished gym that is really amazing. Great machines plus it has air conditioning!
If you’re desperate, or not too picky, this place is amazing. If you’re neither of those should try to find somewhere else.

This is what happens here,
Rats in the buildings, They turn off the lights and water with last minute notice and then when you go to the office for assistance nothing happens. All of a sudden they want to do maintenance right around the holidays when people have already bought their turkeys and groceries for the thanksgiving holiday they want to shut off the electricity on us so our food can go bad, all that money in the trash! When they put a notice on my door saying the water and electricity will be back on at 2pm they really mean 2AM! I had to spend the night before my birthday laying on the floor dirty with no shower after having worked a nine hour shift. Extremely disappointing and rude management over the phone. Tons of loud screaming kids running rampant at the parks. Neighbors slamming doors that literally shake the windows in my apartment. These people have no courtesy what so ever. Absolutely ridiculous and on top of that they raised the rent about $ 300! Terrible complex.

Check my check in

Oh, where to begin? I have had every encounter, experience, and adventure possible in my 14 month lease at this location. Here we go.
Roaches in the walls — check
People ODing on their balcony — check
Landscape crews with leaf blowers working at 7 AM — check
Malfunctioning electric heater ramping the bill to $ 200 for the month — check
Tow company on contract with management at all hours — check
Smashed car windows — check
No security or police response to property crimes– check
Water shut off with last minute notice (x10) — check
DEA raids — check
Supply house with fleet of 15 SUVs with rims just off site — check
Gates that don’t keep anyone out — check
Clear signs that the front door had been kicked in before — check
Oil seeping paint — check
Three different management companies in less than a year — check
Walls and floors out of square — check
Shower door falling out of tracks — check
Unattended children until 11PM — check
Apathetic management that refuses to resolve or assist with any of the above — CHECK
You will get blank looks and no accommodation or advice whenever you bring a legitimate issue to the attention of the office.
The new management company is repainting everything blue and attempting to renovate into a higher rental bracket, which would make sense, if not for the first entry on this list: ROACHES IN THE WALLS. There is no renovation for that. New appliances and tenants cannot correct for an infestation. Completely avoid this place unless you are like many of the neighbors whom need to shelter their 6 screaming kids, or have to go 5 ways on rent because the majority of their time is spent cooking and using.
The only redeeming feature here is the garage bay you are given, and you WILL be needing it, as theft and property destruction are rampant. Don’t worry, you will be reprogramming the remote for the door at least once a week since it won’t hold the codes. This is where I would give one half of a star, but Unilocal requires a one star minimum so there it is.

We’re moving at the end of the month as new management took over and they are awful. Our rent is going up to $ 1,500.00 a month (from $ 1,200.00 a month) when our lease ends. When we searched for a new apartment on Craigslist, we saw Sunterra advertising rent at $ 1,300.00 a month for the same apartment we are living in now. Um… what???
The complex is noisy and annoying. Neighbors party at all hours with no regard or consideration for others. My boyfriend politely asked a tenant who was (illegally) parked next to our building to turn down his stereo as it was past 10:00pm and he was just sitting there blaring his music. The guy pretty much told him to eff off, then turned up the music. Nice. Our downstairs neighbor has been asked several times to keep their music down. The last time we asked, they got snotty about it. The music was so loud, our floor was vibrating with the bass and we easily could hear everything they were playing. We complained to management, but all they could say was to call courtesy patrol.
And speaking of courtesy patrol… they never, EVER come out when you call them. We’ve had more than a few after hours issues here, called courtesy patrol, and have not seen them show up. They’ll tell you they’ll send someone out «in 15 – 20 minutes». It doesn’t happen. The police are far more responsive, which is probably why they are always here all of the time… as well as the police helicopters. I’m guessing it must be the gang activity that is springing up around here.
There are a LOT of issues with noisy and reckless children running unchecked all over the place. It’s 8:30pm now, and I can hear them tearing it up outside. Isn’t this a school night? Also, major issues with dogs constantly barking, ESPECIALLY the poodle in one of the apartments I will not name. My bf and I (and several other neighbors) have called the office repeatedly about the incessant barking (the dog is left alone on the balcony all of the time). As usual, management does nothing about it. One of my neighbors called the cops once because the barking was going on all day AND evening. They came out, but couldn’t cite the owners as they were not home. Management STILL does nothing. People have been leaving here in droves. Wow… what a shock…
They don’t care anything about making this a pleasant place to live. Rules are not enforced. All they care about is taking your money. We managed to find a far, far nicer and quieter place for $ 1,400.00. If you want to live in Oceanside, you can get more value and quality for your money someplace other than Sunterra. There are plenty of better complexes that aren’t nearly so ghetto. Overpriced and just plain awful here.

This place has changed for the worst in a bad way. I moved into this place back in 2009. Back then this place would have gotten 3 stars. I have stayed because my cats like the place, but I am now planning on moving out. The place has been bought by new owners and they have raised my rent by almost 400 dollar (without the legal 60 day notice of the extra 10 percent) The new owners need to recoup their investment, and don’t care about loyal renters. They also got a cheaper security service that does no patrols and only comes out on request. 20 to 25 minute response time.
So why the one star?
The neighborhood around here is ghetto and has frequent gang activity and is sadly getting worse. At night there is usually about 15 to 20 people mulling around out side the complex down the street near the corner of Marvin and Sherbourne drive. The park across the street has had police activity about once every 2 weeks. The complex itself has police units visiting on a regular basis due to warrants, and domestic violence. You will get woken up by that. The occasional gun fire is loud, as is the police helicopters flying over speaking on the loud speaker looking for suspects. That will wake you up for sure.
If you have children, you might want to CHECK the Megan’s Law Website before moving in.
Read the line above again.
Just in case check out.
www dot meganslaw dot ca dot gov
Park on the street at your own risk. Cars that even look slightly nice are frequently vandalized and/​or broken into. My ex-​girlfriends car was busted up a few times. In hindsight, that might have been a plus. There is irony of a thief having her car broken into. Oh that reminds me, lock your doors, and balconies.
The security gates to this huge complex are NEVER locked and frequently broken. People constantly follow cars though the front gate and park in other people’s «Assigned» parking. For a few years you were not allowed to tow people, because of the fear of stabbing or shooting. They allow towing again, thankfully, but people still have the rude habit of parking in your spot.
If you like to sleep DO NOT LIVE HERE. When I first moved in, it was somewhat tolerable, they allowed cats, and the pet rent was not that bad. A couple of years later they started allowing dogs and jacking up the pet rent. They say no dogs above 45 pounds but they don’t weigh the dogs. The last time I checked Pitt bulls and Dobermans weigh much more. All these dogs barking get loud. People leave these innocent dogs out on their upstairs patios, and they bark all night and all day and management does nothing about it.
Ear plugs and box fans for white noise are life savers.
These apartment have no air conditioning. That is only annoying 4 – 5 months out of the year.
There is a pool, but no hot tub. What looks like a possible hot tub, is actually a pee soaked kiddie pool. If you enjoy looking at extremely overweight people in skimpy bathing suits, than you have hit the jackpot. Grab one of the 2^nd floor apartments with balconies overlooking the swamp and enjoy the whale watching.
The picture of the gym in the office is not the picture of the gym in the complex. That gym has a few treadmills and a very lame weight machine and smells like the sweat of a 65 year old man wearing depends who uses the place.
The place has onsite laundry mats, with machines that are constantly breaking down. Use at your own risk, oh and you have to use plastic pay cards to do your laundry that never seems to add up correctly in funds. For some reason people like to smoke in there, so you can get the smell of cigarettes in your clothes for free.
If you like killer attack bees from hell, this place is awesome for that. Entertainment can be had from watching them send in whatever rookie maintenance man they may have recently hired to take care of a new hive. Don’t worry they give him a make shift bee keeper outfit and a can of raid.
Other fun things there seems to be a lot of wannabe tattoo artists living here. You can walk around and listen to the buzz of the tattoo needle as somebody makes some side income money doing cheap tattoos. For some of you that might be a plus.
If you are a drug addict, than Sunterra apartments is a dream come true for you. People are always nice enough to offer to sell me crack, meth, ketamine, marijuana, and even heroin once. No cocaine though. You would have thought that somebody would have offered it at least once.
Your mail box key will work in other’s peoples mail boxes and vice a versa. Check your mail fast before somebody else does it for you.
One last thing, if you are in the military and you sign the lease with somebody not in the military and you have to ship out, have the other person get off the lease FIRST. That way when you show your orders you can break the lease, but not force the other person to adhere to the lease. My guess is the Jordan M person below didn’t. 4 stars my ass, you are looking for a sucker.