Elán Alicante La Costa

Our initial experience here at Élan Alicante could not have been better. We moved here site unseen and could not have been more pleased and Melanie the then property manager could not have been more helpful as well as David the maintenance man. Everything about our first year here was great.
We are now going on our third years and things have changed dramatically! After our first year they tried to raise our rent 16%. We complained and while the rent was still raised, it was raised 11%. The rent increases drove many of our very nice neighbors out, which was then all blamed on the previous property manager and not the fact that the rents were sky high for what is essentially an ill-​maintained, dressed up 1970’s built complex with bad wiring, terrible windows and the cheapest appliances and floor coverings available.
The climate quickly changed to large numbers of young kids living in the apartments and many single and low income families with out of control children. Our third year here the rent was raised again by another 3% with no new improvements or better maintained facilities.
Many have complained about the amount of noise, the traffic through here at all hours, the laundry constantly being displayed on outside walls and the unattended children and animals to no avail.
While we initially loved the complex and the area, it has quickly become filled with noisy tenants, strange cars driving way to fast through the parking areas all hours of the night and loud domestic disputes all hours as well. I don’t go out at night alone any more as many of the outdoor lights are in need of constant repair and just an unsettling feeling of not being safe anymore. We are in constant fear when another neighbor moves out, who will move in.
Unless things change drastically here, this will be out last year here and the long time neighbors that are still left feel the same way.

WARNING!!!
The Élan Alicante Apartment Homes has a VERY DANGEROUS MALE that is living here and has been terrorizing several tenants, randomly. This male has been maliciously threatening, making abusive comments and the harassment of both men and women here at the Alicante apartments. The Carlsbad Police Dept. # (760) 602‑2400, has been called several times on this male, for Domestic Violence, as many as 3 times this week, alone! They have reports and information regarding this male.
Call Élan Alicante Apartment Homes # (760) 431‑7575 to get more information. You have a right to know!
Several tenants have gone to Élan Alicante Apartment Homes requesting a temporary 24 hour security guard to protect us. THE MANAGEMENT REFUSED!!!
We requested they notify all tenants of this male and these events, so that we all are able to protect ourselves. THE MANAGEMENT REFUSED!!!
Be very careful of walking around the apartment complex alone!

My experience after only 1 year of renting was really bad. Within one year they:
1) Raised our rent by 15% (a three bedroom from $ 2150 to $ 2550)
2) Charged us $ 100 on top of that to go month to month
3) Allowed a young group of kids to hang out in our courtyard as late as 12am-​3am during the week. Even after multiple tenants filed multiple complaints. I wound up having to sleep on my couch during the week for over a month so I could get enough sleep for work.
4) Charged us carpet cleaning and paint fees of $ 120 for what was nothing more than normal wear and tear.
I guess it’s my fault for forgetting the old motto, «You get what you pay for.» If they had effectively dealt with the noise complaints, my opinion of this place probably wouldn’t be so bad, but the fact that they ignored us really upset me.

I found the Alicante apartments in between homes it was a great find. My first visit was positive and easy with Melanie the property manger. The staff was friendly and easy to work with. The grounds were always clean and quite. I highly recommended you go check out the property and Melanie. It was a great experience!

I was helping a friend find an apartment while she was looking for a home in North San Diego County. While driving in La Costa, we can across this gem hidden off of Alicante Road off of Poinsetta Lane. Entering into the complex, it was clear attention to detail was a focus as the grounds were clean and well groomed. Our experience only got better once we met Melanie who is the Property Manager. Melanie is awesome! She showed us several different floor plans with my friend settling on a spacious 2 bedroom unit. Melanie and her staff made moving in a breeze and the apartment was in excellent condition. Anytime service was needed, Melanie and her staff responded quickly to resolve the problem.
I highly recommend Melanie and Élan Alicante La Costa apartments, this is very nice complex that is well run. It is very quiet and friendly for pets too.

We just moved out of there after a year. The most important thing I need to say here is that there is a consistent, regular problem with peeping toms crawling around in the bushes at this complex. The manager Melanie denies it, but I chased off a gnarly-​looking dude myself and then called the cops, and if you go on
you’ll see several posts about people seeing men looking at them through their windows. There are MULTIPLE peeping toms coming to this complex. There are several police reports on file recently about the problem here. I know another tenant that moved in a couple of months ago and has now caught a man looking in her window at night twice since she moved in. We made friends with some other tenants when we moved in a year ago, and they saw different men looking through their bedroom and bathroom windows a couple of times. For the sake of your own safety, first and foremost, I would recommend looking for a place elsewhere. The next step in the ladder of that crime is violence. It’s a ticking timebomb for anyone living at Élan Alicante.
For eleven of the thirteen months we lived there, we had downstairs neighbors that were loud and obnoxious pretty much constantly. They played loud music, threw trash all over the place, and generally just didn’t give a shit. I tried several times to get the totally useless property manager Melanie to do something about the noise, only to be told that basically it’s my problem. You know something pretty funny? I mean, funny in the same way that psychopath warlords are funny… I was told that if I had problems with the noise, that I should call the city and report it. The city of Carlsbad does not have a noise ordinance on the books. Even if the police came out, there’s nothing they could do, because there is no law. So that was awful, dealing with the kids downstairs and the paper-​thin walls.
Recently, the owners decided to try a money grab and jacked the rent up to $ 2450. They wanted two thousand four hundred United States dollars per month for this place. The apartments themselves are really not worth the $ 2150 we used to pay for a three bedroom, and definitely not $ 2450. A quarter of the tenants in our building moved out, and that seemed to be about average for the complex. So they started bringing the rent increase down, but it’s still too high for what you get at Élan Alicante. The rent the owners want for that place is astonishingly high. Especially when you consider everything else going on in the world (CPI and inflation leveling out).
The place was a fairly standard college student apartment when we moved in. Nothing to write home about, like you would think from the professional staged photographs. Well, the carpet was ratty, the paint was chipping off in places, and the dishwasher smoked the whole time we rented that apartment. Every time we used the dishwasher, it smoked like my grandpa. The property manager is not helpful, so there was really nothing to do but use a smoking dishwasher. I can’t begin to tell you how awful that is. It’s really a special kind of hell, having a dishwasher that smokes whenever you use it. It’s one of those things you never think about, but which are AWFUL when they happen. Like for example if your hands just smelled like shit, even when clean. Not that my hands have ever smelled like that. I’m just saying imagine if they did.
The wiring in the house was bizarre, designed by a drunk or stoned person. The air conditioning vent blows directly onto the thermostat, meaning it will always be too hot or too cold in your apartment. There are no lights in the apartments. Where most normal human beings put a ceiling fan, or even just a light fixture, these apartments have none. Instead, you get to plug your lamps into the wall outlet and then use the wall switches to turn lights on and off. Absolutely awful design.
From what I hear, the maintenance guys are helpful. That’s the only thing that doesn’t suck about these apartments. They were cool every time I talked to them, and our other friends across the way had some issues that were taken care of quickly by those dudes. Hats off to them. Minus, of course, not being able to replace our smoking dishwasher.
Finally, and second most important to the potential for sexual violence that exists at this complex, the actual company in charge of this place (Property West Residential, which is all I have to say for most people from the area to know what’s coming) wants to use your deposit as a move-​out fee. State law is pretty clear about what conditions landlords can use the deposit under, and Élan Alicante/​Property West have a laundry list of things they say are «standard» fees when you move out: Carpet cleaning, cleaning, and painting. Don’t let them do that. I had to get a lawyer involved. There is a reason the turd running this company has like forty different companies under his name.

I lived at Alicante Views for 3 years & it was a GREAT experience! The area is safe & the schools are top tier! The area is quiet & I never heard of a break-​in or assault. I never had a second thought about walking my dog late at night, or anything. They do allow dogs — mine is 60lbs & they never hassled me about him, just charged a $ 500 deposit & $ 50 pet rent. At the time, rent was $ 1850 for a 3 bedroom, but they do go up about $ 100 per year, which seems pretty standard for SoCal. The 2 & 3 bedrooms have a storage room that’s about the size of a space you would normally have to rent, so that’s really handy! Water is due at the time of rent & you get ’til the 3^rd to pay. Don’t forget, though or you will get a note & a late charge on the 4^th — no joke!
La Costa Meadows is the Elementary school here — check out their reviews, they’re great!
I found management to always be responsive & professional to work with.
There are some elementary school aged kids here that run wild, but that’s not the management’s fault. It’s just a family here who have a work from home dad & who has that 70’s way of raising kids, hahaha!
I would stil be living here if the rent hadn’t gone up so much — if you are looking for a quiet, safe area, you’ll want to check this out!

I moved here in April after a horrible experience in another complex. I LOVE IT
The staff are very nice and all the neighbors are friendly. It is quiet and peaceful I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My experience at Alicante View’s was outstanding! My wife, dog Mollie, newborn baby briefly, and me lived here for 2 years. The only reason we left is that we purchased a condo in San Elijo Hills… The bedrooms are spacious, with washer and dryers inside of the your apartment (which was necessity for us). The grounds are always well maintained (i.e. grass trimmed, sidewalks swept, clean all around). Lots of kids live in the neighborhood if you happen have kids, in a very safe area… and close to great schools. We also had a storage unit outside of our front door which was a life saver for keeping the inside of apartment less cluttered.
Melanie the complex manager was always extremely friendly to my wife and I, and asked how our newborn baby was doing when we would see her. She kept us in well in the loop of how things worked when we moved out, and how to best maximize our return of deposit. And scheduled a walk through the unit to see if there was anything we could fix on our own before moving to save some money.
The maintenance manager David was always courteous and asked how I was doing in the morning. He works hard, and was always prompt to reply to any maintenance issues we had. We only had minor issues, but was prompt and professional with each one. I saw him almost every morning on my walk to my car and he was getting things together for his day.
We made friends with some of our neighbors, and enjoyed the pool/​spa on occasion with friends and family. We have a small dog and so did one of our neighbors so they got to play together frequently. Maintenance even custom installed wood planks on our patio so our dog could not get out from underneath the wall.
The location is awesome overlooks La Costa Resort, we got a free firework show on a couple occasions from the Resort. Close to lots of great hiking (Batiquitos Lagoon just down the road), entertainment, grocery stores.
Cant think of a bad thing to say about our stay there. Would highly recommend to anyone.

If you’re even considering checking out these apartments, DON’T! Run as fast as you can away from this rotten excuse for apartment homes.
I recently signed a new lease here & I am DEEPLY regretting my decision to stay. Management is lackadaisical & disinterested at best. I’ve lived there for almost two years now & up until recently have enjoyed my home. That is, until the neighbors from hell moved in upstairs. Initially there were five of them, there are now 8+ people living in the apartment above mine. If I didn’t know any better I would swear they were all giant professional wrestlers. They stomp & pound on the floor so bad that the windows shake. I’ve tried addressing this with the neighbors only to have the door shut in my face. Naturally, my next step was to call the apartment manager. What a waste of my breath. She claims to have addressed the issue with the offending neighbors, yet the problem persists — late into the night as well. So, we are left with a less than peaceful environment; being woken up multiple times at night.
I suppose someone else might have a better experience, but I would NEVER recommend this place after my experience.

One of their apartments in got flooded and they contacted me to help them out to move some furniture from that apartment. We worked for two days packing and moving their stuff for a promise that they pay us within 2 weeks.
After sending them a bill they never contacted me. I spoke to Evelin, the property manager, but she was no help. All she told me is to call Candi at Property west Inc.
I tried to call Candi many times. Left many messages, even spoke to here secretaries. However, she NEVER called me back. Then in 2 months I received an email that I won’t get paid and I should try to contact some insurance company. Of course the insurance company had no idea what I was talking about.
3 months later I visited their office to talk to Candi, the regional manager of property west inc. She told me that she is fully aware of the situation, yet couldn’t even remember when the move took place and who signed the contract. She didn’t believe that her employees signed it.
Long story short, I still didn’t get paid and it’s been already 3 months.
Stay away from doing business with Alicante apartments or Property West Inc. Their management is a bunch of liars who have no interest in their clients.

Alicante view apts in Carlsbad was recommended to me by one of their sister property’s, Playamar in Encinitas. I was told to go their because like Playamar they allow dogs and have no breed or size restrictions (a friend of mine lives there and can attest to this). My first question upon entering Alicante was «do you have any breed or size restrictions», I was told no. I completed an application which states the size and breed of both dogs. Three times they moved the apt I would rent, the last time 5 days before I moved in, so I had to reroute my mail via the post office. Three days before moving in I was told my dogs are rather big and instead of paying $ 50 for both dogs I would have to pay $ 50 per dog, also my pet security deposit would have to go from $ 500 to $ 750. I refused to be thrown a bait and switch 3 days prior to moving. I spoke with Candi Pacheco, regional manager on Thur and she said she would see what she could do. She called me back stating that they have a breed restriction and could not take my German shepherd. My dogs are not here from the east coast yet. Candi offered to find an apt in one of their properties on a month to month basis while I found something else because my current apt had been rented. She called me at 0830 on Fri morning (24 hrs before I need to vacate my apt) and said she could put me in a one bedroom (700 sq ft) for $ 1600. When I asked why so much money she said because it was month to month «and because of fair housing laws I have to charge you the same as everyone else». Well why is it OK to go up on my monthly pet rent and security deposit if everyone needs to be charged the same? It was also OK for the size of my dogs if I were to pay more but then they had a size restriction when I refused? I asked for a copy of their pet policy, it was a piece of paper that the manager typed while I was sitting there that states «25lb max and breed restrictions» but doesn’t state the breeds they restrict. I was told the 25lb was lifted to 50lbs but of course that isn’t in writing. If you plan on renting here GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING FIRST BEFORE THEY CHANGE THEIR MIND AND TRY TO CHARGE YOU MORE!