ReNew at the Shops

Worse place I have ever lived in. I had a 2 bedroom apartment that I rented for 1710. They force u to have a smart lock that never works correctly and they charge you 10 a month to have it. Maintenance is horrible as your requests take forever to go trough. Parking is insane. If you have more than 2 cars you can’t live here because there is no 24 hour anywhere around the complex. If you plan to park inside than plan ahead because nobody can get the first come first serve basis. We had to have a car parked inside at all times or we would be forced to park miles away from the property. After my contract ended and they offered to renew, they increased rent to 1880. Right now even their studios are 1740. The studios! Don’t get scammed. Stay away! If you plan to have visitors plan ahead as they can’t get permits to park in the property often or they won’t have a spot ether.

. I had them change my microwave oven which took long time to get change but they did replace it with a new one. I was very happy about it. In that same day my play station 4 that I had for months in the living room went missing. I reported the matter to the apartment manager which seem very indifferent about my missing property. I call the police and they make a report. Now I can not trust them and on top I has to live here with roaches, rats and low lives.

Margaret and Jay have been amazing! I am so happy with the customer service I have received. They both have been extremely attentive and have resolved any baby concerns I have had with maintenance repairs.
I LOVE that washer and dryers are always clean like new.
I LOVE that my walls are already painted light grey-​it adds edge along side with the white baseboards.
The space in the apartment is great! I am happy with the layout :)
Parking can be tricky if you have friends coming over — however if you ask for a parking pass at the leasing office they will always give you one for your guest and they may park anywhere except under roof.
I love living here– Thank you Margaret and Jay !

DO NOT MOVE HERE!
*PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS*
Okay so… I moved here in April. Before you move in here you will think that they will always accommodate you & all they care about you is being happy. BUT ALL THEY CARE ABOUT US YOUR MONEY. The price you pay here for anything is NOT WORTH IT. I’ve had blinds rip, the bathroom window broken (the lock wouldn’t lock), screens broken, the side door didn’t have a lock for the screen & etc… I have so many calls in the office from me trying to get them to fix things. Not everything was fixed properly. PARKING, omg there is literally NEVER PARKING in this complex, for how many people live in this complex you would think there would be more parking spaces. Another thing that happen was the lollipop lamp went out by my apartment. Mind you I get off work late & im walking in the dark to get to my apartment with raccoons everywhere. Guess how long it took them to fix it ?! 3 MONTHS! I bugged them so much about fixing it and their were different stories as to why it wasn’t fixed.
The one situation that happen that was the last straw for me was ROACHES! Margaret the manager in the maintenance INSINUATED THAT WE BROUGHT THEM THERE. Instead of being concerned about how we were living she tried to blame us. We had to have 3 sessions of them bombing the apartment and they still came back. I literally had it and just wanted to be out of this shit hole. We needed up paying double the rent and left. Now that we’ve been out were still have problems with them. We were supposed to get out deposit back but now they are charging us $ 78 because they are trying to say that our water bill was passed due. EVERYTIME OUR RENT WAS DUE WE WOULD ADD OUT AUM BILL ON THERE & it was ALWAYS ON TIME. I called to get it settled and JAY was not being accommodating, he told me that we were being charged for the late water bill & paint job they did. Then he told my boyfriend we’re being charged for the water, paint job & the THE CARPET CLEANING. Like wtf now the carpet cleaning is being added on. BTW MY BOYFRIEND ASKED TO HANDLE IT WITH CORPORATE AND JAY CONSTANTLY TOLD HIM THAT CORPORATE WILL NOT HELP US AND SEND US BACK TO SPEAK TO RENEW. What kind of shit is that? If we want to speak to corporate accommodate us and let us handle it with them. THIS IS A SINCERE REVIEW GUYS. The only good thing about this place would be ROBBIN, she is honestly the sweetest lady ever & I wish her nothing but the best & I hope she gets a better job because she doesn’t belong in this nasty ass attitude apartments!!!

Not worth your hard earned paycheck.
Gym needs help, black mold in my old apartment which got that bad cause it took them too long to address a leak. Ants every year we were there which was July 2012 to April 2015. Raccoons every night on patio. Rats in attic or in the roofing. Most of the people that live there are delinquent, not a place to try to raise two boys or any child for that matter. Dry rot on my patio my fence would literally waddle and they wouldn’t fix it said it was safe enough. Heater/​Air Conditioning broke once a month no joke. You will end up calling maintenance once a month for something. There was one day in particular when my wife was pregnant with our 2^nd son and some workers were renovating they next unit and the chemicals they were working with leaked into our apartment and she felt dizzy and lightheaded enough to call me and ask I come home to address the staff. She didn’t call herself because you have to be stern with them or they won’t care and she’s not the type to say anything. They told me I signed a lease stating I’m aware of the danger of smelling cancer causing chemicals they use. We broke our lease paid them 3k and left wasn’t worth our health to endure it any longer. This is my experience of three years much longer than three months like some comments listed here that are premature and uneducated.

Pros —
Quick and easy access to the Mission Viejo Mall.
The manager Margaret is very helpful and friendly. If you want anything done, don’t bother with the staff and go to her. She’s to only one who does more than stamp a guest parking pass and actually knows a thing or two.
Cons —
PARKING PARKING PARKING. I can not say it enough. It is largely the reason I am moving out. If you have a two or more car household you’re screwed. Unless you get to the complex before 6pm, you can forget finding a spot anywhere near your apartment. Some nights I’ve had to park a mile and a half down the road in a neighborhood off of Avery and walk back to my apartment because there was no parking available. Thinking about having guests over? Forget it. Your best bet is to have them park in the mall parking garage across the street but they’ll need to be out of there before they start to tow. ReNew can give you guest passes, sure, but the truth of the matter is, there is not enough parking for the tenants and guests.
I think part of the problem also has to do with assigned parking locations. My assigned parking spot was far away from my apartment, so naturally, as I’m sure plenty of others have done, I tried to take open parking spots closer to my apartment. Inevitably, this leaves less guest parking.
Shoddy work was done in the apartment prior to my move in. I’ve had door handles come off, cabinet knobs fall off, sliding doors come off the hinges, windows that won’t close, crooked and unstable counter tops, doors that won’t close, faucets with hardly any pressure, shower knobs that fall apart.
The leasing office staff is rarely helpful. I’ve reported things that needed attendance throughout the complex, such as a broken stair railway, and saw no action or action months later. They seem to not have any information or misinformation when asking questions or bringing matters to their attention. Not to mention, they never answer the phones or call back. Like I stated in the pros, the manager Margaret is the only one who can seem to help you past a simple guest pass.
I never felt safe living here. There was a night I was sitting in my car just around 10pm when I had two cops approach me with flashlights and asked me a multitude of questions as well as requesting to run my driver’s license. I answered their questions, and allowed them to run my license. Once I came back clear, one of the officers suggested I move out of this complex as soon as possible and stated that there was a lot of «activity» here.
Bottom line, for what they charge, it is absolutely 100% not worth it to live here.

Update: My girlfriend went in earlier today to try and resolve the parking issue that was the big issue before. To be clear, we aren’t necessarily angry about the one spot for a studio policy here. It is that we were lied to by the person handling our lease. We were told we were going to get two permits, which obviously didn’t happen. We were never informed about the parking policy and we assumed we would get 2 permits. We even filed for 2 permits at the time of our lease. I have the piece of paper that has my girlfriends car info on it at the top that states application for permit. And beyond being lied to, no one ever came forward to tell us that a mistake has been made. They’ve had multiple chances to tell us something.
Anyways, my girlfriend talked to a man named David at the leasing office and said that they would hopefully get back to us today… which did not happen. Although David did say he had not encountered this situation before so we will wait until Friday before going back into the leasing office.

Do not live here. There is not nearly enough parking for the amount of people that live here. We have had to leave our car in the parking lots of local businesses and walk home. There is mold in the walls. The water from the faucet smells bad. The locks on the doors jam. There is termite and water damage that we have reported several times, but nothing has been done about it. My stove broke too. None of the drawers in the kitchen or the bathroom work properly. I called them about my broken microwave a week ago and they still have not done anything about it. To use the washing machines and dryers you need a special reloadable card. But, there are only two machine to add credit to the card and they are both in the leasing office. For some reason, the pool, the gym, and the laundry rooms are all locked in the morning. So, if you need to do laundry or work out, your out of luck untill they unlock everything.

Do not under any circumstances move into this place! This is the worst place we’ve ever lived! The apartments are infested with pests and the plumbing went down 10 times during last 6 months. It is not a habitable place and they will penalize you with another full month of rent if you try to break the lease. It’s cheap because it’s horrible!
As for the comment below, no you haven’t! You’re also being investigated by the health department and they recommended us leaving all the furniture to avoid taking all those unhatched cockroach eggs! So no you haven’t done a single thing.

The place looks very rundown, it looks like the parking is a problem, it looked crowded at 11:00 am and, they didn’t even want to show me the apartment. If they don’t want to take time to show an apartment to a prospective tenant I can’t imagine getting anything done once you are living there.

Be careful when you are looking for a pet friendly apartment here as their advertisement is misleading. They state breed restriction only but when I told the leasing agent I had a lab he said «eew sorry, we have a weight restriction, 40# limit» Ok, don’t mislead prospective renters, you waste our time!!! #nothappy

OK I wouldn’t have even given this place a star but you half to at least give 1 star let me just say this place was horrible in the three years I lived there they never once repaved the pavement they never once repainted the parking lines I must have taken my car in about 20 times to get nails removed out of the tires because they never swept the f****** parking lot the maintenance workers were lazy they never emptied the Trash’s there was always trash in the parking lot there was never any parking either outside of the complex or in the complex my own friend got towed under my carport my own carport there were multiple foundation leaks in my apartment that I had to have maintenance people come over which took them forever to fix and there were always strange people walking around so if you want to feel unsafe in your own home this could be the place for you and in the end even though my apartment looked great for living there for 3 years with two small dogs out of a $ 500 deposit they took all of it except for $ 50 thanks a lot renew at the shops and there was always traffic it would take you literally 20 – 30 minutes just to get to the freeway and it was only 4 – 5 lights away and the gym if could called it a gym half of the crap in there was broken over three quarters of the time that I lived their and the pool was always under construction so I rarely got to use it so yeah you could definitely say it was a very horrible experience and I wouldn’t recommend this place on my worst enemies

A very good place to live
Overall Rating: 4.57 stars
Would you recommend to a friend: YES
I also do not agree with the negative reviews. They may have been true in the past. I cant speak to that. I can only tell you of my experience and it is recent. I think the biggest concerns when moving are safety, noise, and a responsive staff. You don’t have to worry about these things if you move here. I felt very safe here. The neighbors were all quiet and respectful. This sounds weird but the aromas around dinnertime are amazing. I was always like man I wish some of these people would invite me over for dinner Great landscaping and pool area. I went to the hot tub all the time. The office staff was always polite and responsive. One time we had a leak from our AC unit inside. It just made the carpet a little damp. When they came to fix it not only did they fix it quick but the guy steam cleaned the carpet. Not just in front of the AC unit, I mean the whole place Now that is exceptional service. I moved to Anaheim to be closer to work but I miss living there. And no. I am not some shill for the company. My name is Rob Fiore and I lived in 38 A for one year. I had an assigned parking spot and nobody but me ever parked there, not even one time. I never had guests so I don’t care about guest parking. But it seemed like slim pickings. There were some things I did not like but they are so minor its not even worth mentioning like no exhaust fan in the bathroom which made it kinda steamy. And yes, all apartments have bugs of some kind. I saw a few but never enough to even call the office and they offer weekly pest control anytime you want it. If you want a safe, quiet place then this place will not let you down. But if you want marble floors and granite countertops you may want to try Irvine for about 2000 plus a month. PS. We miss u Casey But David is still in the office at the time of this writing. He’s excellent too. If you treat the staff with respect and don’t complain about every little thing, the staff will treat you in turn.

I would give this place a zero star! I’ve live in a lot of apartments in Orange County and this one is the worst shittiest, filthiest apartment ever. The only good person who works there is the girl, Kasey (FIND A NEW JOB KASEY). Everyone else are dicks and assholes, especially Margaret she is a bitch on the phone and in person!
No parking. Not even street parking. They don’t accommodate their PAYING tenants. They don’t even give their tenants parking passes nor do they give enough parking permits. The parking spaces are hella fucking tight. Per the City of Mission Viejo municipal code, every two bedroom apartment is entitled to TWO ASSIGNED parking spaces. Not here, you’re lucky if you get one!
On top of that, they are in violation is so many fire, building, and accessible violations. Paving needs to be repaved, sidewalks need to be fixed and cleaned, railings need to be added to stairs, parking spaces need to be re-​striped to meet the minimum requirements.
Don’t believe any of the «good reviews» as the apartments probably paid them to write the review or they made fake accounts to boost up their ratings. This place should be shut the fuck down.
For how shitty these apartments are, you would think their customer service would be better, but no, they treat their «tenants» like pieces of shits. TENANTS are what pays your checks idiots, if no one rents your shitty apartments anymore, guess what? No one gets paid :)
I’m calling the City inspector to report these violations ASAP. Violations up the ass.
I’m moving the fuck out of here ASAP.
DO NOT MOVE HERE! DRIVE, WALK, RUN AWAY FAST!

If i could i would rate this place a negative star. How can it be that you go tell management that your kitchen is flooding 2 days ago and they still don’t send someone to fix it. Honestly let me borrow the tools and equipment and i’ll do it myself. I work all day so i even gave them permission to come in when i am not home. Every night i get home i have to mop and dry my whole kitchen. I am about to let the water just run in to the managers office and maybe they will do something then. The sad part is every morning i see the groundskeepers cleaning out the display unit for hours but can not spend 20 minutes to help me? And i live right next to the display unit! I should’ve moved out a long time ago! People you’ve been warned! The managers here could give a rats ass about the people that live there

Horrible place to live management does not care I called management when rain water was going to flood my apartment they called me back a WEEK later. The management does nothing here not even smile when u pay the rent you will feel total used here. I would not recommend this place thank God 4 more months and no I will not renew at the shops.

I have been living here for nearly a year now and now have several friends through out the neighborhood both the upper and lower half of the apartments. all I can say is the right side, cockroach infested, left side, ant infested. for such price they should at least make sure they did a good job at closing all holes as any woman or non savvy person like me would not know how or be able to afford to do a job the apartment complex should be doing in the first place. when I moved in, I was told I was allowed to get off the lease with the signatures of my roommates, then I have a little «thing» with a roommate that got the cops involved and they told me I wasn’t allowed to get off the lease or take her off without a restraining order which took me forever to get. they then proceeded to treat us like we were pieces of shit and not living in their community like the customers we are. Not once did we miss rent or pay late, yeah, we had a few parties that the neighbors didn’t like, but if they just had the heart like any human should, they could have come knocking on the door asking us to keep it quiet explain why and we would have. that’s another thing, they are treating this apartment complex like it isn’t in the location it is in. Originally this complex was meant for those college students that just got out on their feet and needed a home close to the college but ever since ReNew took over, they have changed it and moved in older folk that just wine and complain all the time as if they didn’t consider the people that might already be living here due to the college. Parking is horrible, the way that the reserved spots are set up, I have to back out and re-​park my car EVERY TIME because of my turning radius and the way the poles are placed, the Non-​reserved spots are always filled because they do not limit how many over night guest passes they can give out. so if you’re a late night worker like me, expect to park at the mall over night and end up getting your car towed eventually. all in all, I wouldn’t even give this place one star. but since i have to, that’s ALL I will give.

I moved into the Promenade (Renew at the Shops) about 3 months ago and wanted to post my experience of moving and living here as I feel the previous reviews are not a proper assessment and seem to be more from a angry point of view.
Parking: Granted the parking situation is tough to deal with but it is manageable. I have my own dedicated spot and if I have guests, I simply need to get a permit from the office. It does require a bit of forethought, but what aspect of life doesn’t require that?
Bugs: I have experienced some ants in my unit, but some good ant killer and some calking to close up entry points has solved my problem. Having Orkin come into my residence and arbitrarily spraying it down is not how you handle a pest problem. Get on your knees, look under your sinks and behind your stove and get to know your unit. Hearing about experiences of cockroaches tells me that those tenants were probably dirty people and/​or lazy to secure their own residence. Identifying where bugs could enter and closing those gaps is a great way to keep any critter from your unit.
Move In: My experience was standard than any other move-​in. There wasn’t anything that made it hard or anything that made it a breeze. Moving is what it is. One thing that Renew did do was recommend me to a great contact at AT&T U-​Verse who helped me leave the Cox cable empire and get a solution that is much, much better and cheaper.
Speed bumps: They are tough, but with long straightaways and the large population of college kids that live, stay or visit here… they are functional.
I am not saying that this is a 5-​star facility, but it is reasonably priced for south Orange County. They offer amenities that you would pay extra for elsewhere like a dishwasher, central air, own patio, etc.
I know Unilocal is used as an avenue for people to vent and try to discredit businesses that they feel they were wronged by. But the scenarios that they are describing are all ones that as a tenant, I can participate and control. If it was a bigger problem, then I can move to Irvine and pay double.

I’ll start by saying I’ve lived here before they changed the name for almost 2 years now and here’s what I’ve got to say. First thing I’m sure every one notices is the amount of speed bumps, not only that, but none of them are aligned to the street so you need to turn your car to hit them just right.
–1 star for damage to my car and annoying people who don’t know how to drive over them so they stop, creep over with the first 2 wheels… Stop and get the last 2 over. (4)
Another thing that I’ve noticed is the wood rot in the patio covers and railing. There was an inspector that came around before the acquisition who only briefly checked certain areas. In doing so, missed an area of my patio cover that is splitting and has become very dark. The wood railing is also split on every unit I’ve seen, I actually got a pretty big splinter while trying to wipe them down once at our first place here.
–2 stars for bad aesthetics and overall foundation neglect. (2)
Then we have maintenance. I forget his name but there’s a bald gentleman with good ethics and a good personality, also gets the job done quickly and there’s also they guy who doesn’t speak too much English but sweeps and cleans the walk ways. Nice guy that always has a smile. I had them when I lived closer to the leasing office. Since then I’ve moved and recently, I guess there was a leak in the unit below me so an older guy came and cut a hole in my bathroom, it’s a pretty big hole that I could climb into. Which he then discovered that the leak wasn’t coming from our unit. He left his mess and the hole exactly how he made it, didn’t even bother to clean up all the dust and crap he managed to get all over the floor. After about an hour he came back up from downstairs, told me that he fixed the problem from down there and said he will be back IN A FEW Days to fix the wall… And still didn’t clean up. Seriously? Now were going on day 4 with that same hole in our wall. **UPDATE apparently he never reported the hole in my wall. It took just over 2 weeks to fix it. They were also supposed to fix my bathroom sink which I mentioned to him personally, and that still hasn’t happened after 2 more additional service requests for it, one made by phone and the other in person about a week apart. To top it all off, during the last few months, especially during the heatwave, I was told that my apartment stays at around 85 to 90 degrees even with my AC on 65 degrees literally all day because I’m in a corner unit and get direct sun all day. Some one also told me they were busy fixing other people’s AC units so they couldn’t fix my wall, sink, or even bother to check my AC unit.** I guess the one bed one bath apartments are low priority, corner units even more so.
–2 stars for all that and +1 for the 2 guys that I like. So we’re at one star and I’m not done yet
The parking, if you have one car is great. If you have 2 cars, be prepared to walk from the mall if you’re out late. If you’re in the ¹⁄₁ bed and bath units then that can be a decent 15 to 20 minute uphill walk. You also cannot open the 2 side gates from the outside, vehicle exit only. Even when walking, unless you want to climb the wall or go through bushes by walking to the college
–1 for exit only gates and not enough parking.
Which leaves us with 1 star only because you can’t go lower. I hope this new name. Renew at the shops, actually is the start of a better apartment complex. But so far I’m disappointed and you’re REALLY far from being a «luxury» apartment complex.