The Aspens South Coast

The landscaping is an artform. Keep up the great work!

Staff is good about keeping the place clean and safe.

I have been living at the Aspens South Coast over 8 years. The main reason for such long stay has been the green forest-like peaceful surroundings, club houses, gym, and the central location next to South Coast Plaza. This used to be a place worth of 4 star review, however, since then things have changed a lot. In the past two years beautiful trees in the property have been obsessively trimmed down and this has made the apartments exposed to heavy traffic noises of both Bear and extremely busy MacArthur. The apartments are very outdated, kitchen and bathroom need a desperate update. Years of paint comes off when you try to clean the bathroom/kitchen cabinet doors, and using carpet as a floor material is not a practical choice even for rentals in this day and age. This is a gated community, however this brings no security to your belongings - There are car brake ins weekly basis reported outside at the guest parking and inside of the property. The Far West Management company has shown no interest of addressing the issue by changing the gate key codes or adding some security cameras at the entrance points. This has been a long term problem going on and on even before the pandemic. The biggest reason for a one star review; We used to have functional and respectful communications between the leasing office and residents until recently. The Aspens changed the whole leasing office staff and the new crew / management company seem neither care about the quality in their customer service nor keeping paying residents around. As today, the residents still have no access the amenities during normal open hours 9AM-10PM. A person working at the office has told that the limited outdoor pool hours 10am-6.30pm are not because of covid-19 but the noise complaints from few residents living at the apartments near the pool. This discriminates anyone with a full time job what comes to enjoying the amenities we pay for.

Our pool, gyms and clubhouses have been closed for about one year now. Even though OC has been almost fully reopened from the Covid restrictions for 3 weeks, the leasing office staff continues to keep our pool closed after 6pm!!! For 8 years the pool has been from 9am to 10pm and now they just told us that they are closing it earlier because of noise complaints!!! The rules are being bent and it seems like now we as residents have very little to say about anything and that is making this place not as good as used to be to live in. The main reasons for living here are the amenities because the apartments are old and outdated, so if that becomes way less accessible for no good reason, living here is definitely not worth it anymore. I would not recommend this place nowadays, even though I definitely used to.

We had problems with the hot water heater that went on for weeks. Several times they shut the water off during most of the day to repair the problem. Finally, one morning there was no hot water at all, cold showers in the morning. That got them to replace the hot water heater after another day of no hot water. Although they eventually get around to fixing their problems, it is the tenant that has to deal with the situation while management diddles themselves.

This complex allows smoking and smokers have free reign. If management chose to, they could adopt a policy of no smoking in the complex. I've spoken with Michael about this and he has said the owners are not going to do that. Most likely it comes down to their greed versus caring for their tenant's concerns. Smokers walk around the complex and the smoke drifts into our apartment and then they toss their butts on the walkways and driveways. Worst of all, management rented to someone across the walk to a smoker and now the stench drifts in through our windows whenever we are home. I don't like having my windows closed but I cannot live with the stench. I told Michael previously that if he wanted me gone, to just rent to a smoker next door. He did. I'm sure he lives in a none smoking complex and doesn't have to breathe someone else's stench.