Carlyle

BEWARE!!! They will charge you just for applying!!! Then charge again to give you an answer if they accepted you or not. After looking at the apartment online, I applied. I called to let them know I finished the application process. They told me I would need to pay $ 375 (non refundable) before they would give me an answer. I moved on and found a bigger HOUSE for the same amount and no crazy outrageous application fee. They tried calling me for days saying that they will hold the apartment for me. I told them several times «no thank you, we found a house». A month later they sent me a «move out» statement. I called to let them know that we never moved there or even physically saw the place. They want $ 44 because I inquired about the apartment!!! Horrible customer service! Stay away from this apartment complex.

So been here for almost a yr. still a nice place to live. Door issue was fixed. The maintenance men came and installed a chain, so my 2 yr old cant leave without me lol. Noticed the walls are paper thin. I can hear my son screech down the hall. Smh. And you can definitely hear someone speaking at an elevated tone. Beside that. Great place to live. Rent is still high as hell, but you do get what u pay for.

I have lived at the Carlyle for about 7 months and only amazing things to say about this property. The management team here (specifically Brittany) makes sure that we have a real sense of community at the complex. She answers my emails immediately and her team is so friendly and warm. Every person who comes to visit our place loves where we live and we feel so lucky to be here! I’ve lived all over OC and have never had such a sweet responsive and efficient Maintenance Team. I swear I never see them go home! They are constantly working on keeping this place clean and operating perfectly. I can’t say enough about Nemo and how amazing he is at his job. Everything we need fixed is done by the end of the day we ask. Anything from a lightbulb change to hanging our chandeliers has been so quick and flawless! If you are looking for a safe, beautiful, well maintained, friendly apartment in Orange County I highly recommend moving to The Carlyle. You will not regret it.

I have been happily living at the Carlye for the past 4 months. I have a small dog and this place is extremely pet friendly. Before deciding to move here, I did my research, looked at many properties and this was the best. Everyday feels as if I am in a Luxury Complex. Brittany Keleman is the manager and she is awesome. She is approachable, listens and gets things done. the other staff is great too. All of the previous issues have diminished.
They have cabannas at the pool with TV’s which are complimentary, grills with tables and chairs which are covered with a tent to protect the sun and also have a TV, gym and pool room which can be rented. This room has a long table and full kitchen.
Having relocated from the East Coast my standards were high and this place does not disappoint. They are always making improvements. In addition, it is centrally located on the cusp of Newport Beach, Irvine. Close to the 405, Jamboree, Fashion Island, Southcoast Plaza Mall are just to name a few. It is also close to John Wayne Airport.
My recommendation is you are missing out of a great property by not giving them a call.

I just moved into the Carlyle and I love it! We love the staff the apartment and our location. We are on the 3^rd floor with a beautiful view. Lauren helped us move quickly and got us approved in no time. We have nothing but good things to say about the Carlyle.

I recently moved in to the complex and I have been nothing but satisfied. The property is super clean and the management staff has been wonderful. The communication has been outstanding! All of my questions are always answered. Brittany has been fantastic, she has painted a very accurate picture of what this property is about and it has lived up to that. Thank you

For the last couple of months, Brittany (and Nicole) has been running the place and it looks like she is finally getting everything under control. The staff is always friendly and helpful now.
I am enjoying my stay again and it appears the crime is under control.

First, a breakdown of the rating:
Building and apartments: 4-​star
Management: 1-​star
Security: 2-​star
I lived in Carlyle from mid-​2014 to mid-​2015. The building is new and the apartments are spacious and have several upgrades. I lived in an apartment that faced Martin street and I liked the view. Since it is close to JW airport it has constant noise; if you shut down the windows the noise is acceptable, otherwise the noise sometimes is bothering (particularly from recreational planes). The clubhouse, pool and the fitness center are in very good condition.
The maintenance crew are really nice people and my few requests were mostly addressed within a day or two. The management team is a whole different story.
The first management team rented many apartments to a Chinese entity with maternity tourism business. There were two of those apartments in front of mine. Walking pregnant Chinese ladies in the morning and evening was an everyday scene. Even worse, there were other Chinese maids taking trays of food to those apartments, in hallways and elevators. The apartment that was cooking the food for the birth tourism residents was two apartments away from mine. So you can imagine the scene, noise and constant cooking smell … It was truly a cheap apartment experience for paying premium rents in a luxury apartment building. The management clearly knew about this; I personally told them about this unusual activities, but they did not do anything about it. Until about March 2015, FBI tracked the maternity tourism in southern CA to this apartment complex and several others. So whatever other reviews say about this fiasco, the hassle and unpleasantness of such activities for the residents, and media crew camping in front of the building … are all correct. I wish someone has expertise to take a legal action against this apartment complex management/​owners for knowingly renting the apartments to maternity tourism businesses and causing an unpleasant experience to the residents.
About May 2015, a new management team came. There was a new associate every week in the management office giving you information that they were not sure, hence possibly affecting you later on. For instance, they did not tell the residents that the online rent payments would not work anymore (hence late payments for the reasons they were responsible for). Their management style cost me several hours to convince them to reverse charges that was their own fault to begin with. It took a couple of months for this team to settle and e.g. not loose delivered postal packages etc. They charged me for a fresh paint when I moved out even though the apartment did not have a fresh paint when I moved in (there was patches of paint on walls). The move-​out clause in the contract does not say that residents are responsible for such move-​out charges (such as fresh paint), but they charge you anyway because they have your SSN and … FYI, this is from the move-​out obligation clause: «… (d) deliver the Residence to us in the same condition as received, reasonable wear and tear expected; (e) clean the Residence to the level of cleanliness as received …».
All the previous reviews regarding the security of the building and the parking lots is correct. While I was not affected personally, I heard stories first hand from my neighbors. The worst thing is that the management hid all that from the residents.
If you have to rent an apartment there consider: (a) recording in writing or whatever possible the things that associates or managers say; their associates and managers change regularly, (b) take before/​after pics of your apartment; they do not hesitate to charge you as much as they can, © ask the management about the crime statistics. Take the security of your vehicle and your apartment seriously; don’t expect much help from the management unless statistics show a significantly declining rate.

I don’t write reviews but I decided to write one since I came across few comments about Carlyle and I happened to live here now. We moved to Carlyle Apartments starting October and the experience has been great! The property is beautiful and super clean with very friendly neighbors and staff. The units are gorgeous; nicely designed with stylish cabinets, countertops, stainless steel appliances, large and specious bathrooms, showers etc. The property management are great too. They’re super friendly — they go out of their way to make sure our needs have been met in a very timely fashion. In my opinion, they deserve 5 stars particularly Brittany. She is amazing! So is Albert, the maintenance manager, and the security officer. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name despite speaking with him 2 times. My apologies!!!
Now I don’t know anything about the former property management team when it comes to handling residents’ questions or concerns, but I do know about the Chinese pregnant women crises and fraud. Unfortunately this was not isolated to Carlyle. This has been a common problem in many communities. It happened right in front of us when we live at the Park Apartments owned by the Irvine Company. The deal there was even worse since one was dealing with Chinese and the Arab pregnant women all over the place, among other issues with frequent travelers treating the community like garbage being inconsiderate. I don’t want to turn this to another review about another community, so I’m going to stop here.
We decided to move into the Carlyle apartments despite knowing the history. We decided to give the new property management a fair chance since our experience from the first encounter was very positive and they were honest. I think we should judge the new property management team based on how well or bad they do from the time they have taken over, and not based on the mess the other property management left behind.

I recently moved out of this Apartment building as I had an absolute TERRIBLE time living there. Would have moved out earlier if possible. The last two months of my lease there was basically no management to handle any issues or concerns with the building.
My biggest complaint was the lack of security (even though they had 24 hour security guards and cameras all over the building). My car was broken into and over $ 1,500 of items and damage was done while parked in my normal spot in the lower and gated parking structure requiring a key fob to get into at all entries/​exits. While this is not a significant amount stolen, the biggest gripe was that cars had been repeatedly broken into and two cars had actually been stolen over the past few month — all with NO notice to the tenants from management that this was occurring. It wasn’t until I started speaking with neighbors about my break in that they mentioned they had been broken into several times over the past few months and management had nothing to do about it.
Had I know this, you can bet i would not have kept anything of value in my car. Not to mention that there are no security cameras in the lower structure that is gated and requires a key fob, only cameras in the visitor parking. Much safer to park upstairs in the un-​gated portion than downstairs in the gated lot. Management handled my car break in extremely unprofessionally and ran through hoops with them to get updates around the break ins and conversations with the police.
Pregnant Chinese ladies dominating the leases and the entire apartment grounds as you may have recently seen on the news around birthing tourism. I was one of newer tenants to move into this apartment complex and ¹⁄₃^rd of the building had already been rented out to these ladies. Speaking to people around the local area it sounds like the building worked with local real estate agents to source these Chinese tenants and decrease their vacancy right off the bat.
While this wasn’t a huge issue besides the grounds being consumed by Chinese ladies at all times during the day, all signs were not only posted in English, but also Chinese and they still remain there to this day. This should have been the first give away to not live here when I was touring the property. It wasn’t until the raid occurred on this complex that they started staying inside and barely interacting with the outside world. The pregnant Chinese lady problem has not stopped even after the raids.
Some of the units are being used purely for kitchens, daycares, etc. You’re constantly seeing chinese cooks and women push carts around delivering meals to all the rooms and leaving their trash all over the hallways.
You will constantly have police at the units. They were there once or twice a week for a variety of complaints but most commonly domestic assault, theft, trespassing, etc.
The units are very nice and spacious with great amenities, but I was the first owner for my unit so I can’t speak to how they look overtime with several tenants. The walls are thick, but the floors/​ceilings seem like cardboard. You can hear people above you walking and running.
Some other issues we experienced were corporate and other parties being thrown in the common room until late into the night with lots of people not even living here partying on the grounds. Lots of loud kids and people in the pool area in addition to people letting their dogs swim in the pool. Hopefully this place figures out how to get this under control and avoids turning over management every few months. I wouldn’t count on it though.

There are still problems here and the notes on our cars for parking in the guest parking have become annoying. Sometimes it is not convenient to go through the gate and park inside. If we are paying the price we pay to live in this place, then we deserve to park where it is convenient for us. Also there are some people in the building who are very rude and complain about things that are completely irrelevant to them.
P.S just a tip, don’t move into a dog friendly building if you are afraid of dogs.

Every thing Nathan K. said is true. It’s a beautiful property and the apartment are nice and spacious, but pregnant Chinese woman everywhere. I rented a furnished apartment there for 3 months, since the beginning the process in May till September 4 different management company took over and it took them about 40 days to send me my security deposit check. I have to say the recent management company, specially Brittany is being very helpful and nice. It’s a shame such a nice property has no screening for their tenants.

We have recently moved here and can’t complain about anything. It’s been wonderful! The units are very big and spacious with nice appliances, the noise level is minimal if that. I don’t see any pregnant woman roaming the halls or around the perimeter of the building. I believe that issue has been resolved. Nicole is amazing and Everett the security guard is always there ensuring our safety. The grounds are kept up beautifully and the pool and jacuzzi are clean. Despite all the negative reviews in the past, The Carlyle is on the right track to receiving excellent reviews. In summary, we are very happy to be living here!

Lived here for 6 months and it was a huge mistake. It is now 4 weeks since we left and still no deposit has been returned. I have called everyday and get the same stupid response by an obviously unprofessional and unqualified management staff.
Nobody can explain to me where my deposit is and how I get it back. They have breached the terms of the same contract they expected me to uphold, but don’t want to be held accountable…
Outside of the Chinese baby factory, the weed smoking in the stair wells and the stolen cars from a «secured» garage, this place is worse than you read.