Birch Creek

So, coming up on year 3 here. I am hearing rent will go up another $ 300/​mo.
This has been a fraternity year, but they really do not like this area and quietness for very long.
There is no security to speak of and maintenance is mostly dedicated to the constant ebb and flow of their younger tenants that stay for a year.
I don’t want to move, because my spot is truly a gem. You don’t find places as pet friendly and quiet as here overall. The pet owners have been very responsible and considerate. I like that. Not that management enforces it, but because we are always out there.
My biggest peeve is the squirrel population. They have been quite destructive to my outside living space and are very bold. I bought Expel, a harmless, but smelly product for a few hours that seems to work.
Upshot is, this is an old, quiet place. Nothing fancy, but the grounds are amazing, the location is great. If you are looking for something more up to date and worthy of showing off to friends, pass. If you are looking for pretty much being left alone and a nice place to live, without being catered to and the latest new-​new stuff, because you are ok with that, then consider this place.

I think a lot of the reviews on here are a general reflection of the extremely high price of living in this area. You pay a high price for having an apartment in Mountain View; that’s probably 80% of the absurd rent of the apartments at Birch Creek. Like everyone on here, I chafe at the money I hemorrhage into rent every month considering the value we receive. BUT I am going to put it into perspective of what you could get for the same rent at another place in the same general location… So 4 stars for not being as bad as the other places.
Pros:
1. LOCATION — Birch Creek is within a 5 minute drive of the San Antonio shopping center; Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Target, and restaurants; it is also nicely placed between El Camino and California St for commuting
2. Beautiful pool and koi pond — our pool is beloved by many in the complex and heavily used on the weekend, I love to dip my toes in the hot tub after a long day at work
3. Laundry — I have NEVER had to wait for a washer or dryer, and I can do all of my loads at the same time. Also, laundry is card operated, not coin. Just refill your card in the Clubhouse with your credit card. No more collecting quarters. (That said, we don’t have an in-​unit washer/​dryer, but I’ve heard some units do have them.)
4. Allows pets — expensive pet rent, yes, but rare for rental properties to allow pets at all.
5. Space — our apartment has ample living room, bedroom, dining room, bathroom, and kitchen space. Also lots of counters in the kitchen.
6. Work requests — rapid and efficient. Work requests are easily submitted through their website, so everything is tracked.
7. Andrea — not everyone in the front office is friendly, competent, and efficient, but I have found at least Andrea to be super helpful and understanding when things don’t turn out well. (Other unnamed front office people, not so much, but that’s another story.) Fortunately, Andrea is usually the person who is in the front office.
8. Fitness center — decent
9. Parking — plenty of uncovered parking for you and any/​all guests
10. Pay rent through a website with your checking account, so you don’t need to write a check or go talk to anyone
11. Guest suites — You can rent a guest suite or 2 for your out-​of-​town relatives and friends for $ 95/​night. Includes towels, sheets, mini-​fridge, microwave. Cheaper than most nearby hotels.
12. Gas grill by the pool available to all.
13. Allowed to make changes to your apartment, as long as you change them back before moving out (paint, hanging up pictures, etc). I get the impression that they never give back security deposits anyway, so no harm done.
Cons:
1. No alcohol allowed in the BBQ or pool area or even the Clubhouse. This means that no one ever wants to come over to our place because there is nowhere for a group of more than 5 people to hang out unless you are drinking lemonade or water or milk. (Remember no fruit punch in the Clubhouse!) I understand that they don’t want people to get rowdy — «no rowdiness» should be the rule, not «no alcohol». Mature adults can handle having a beer or two and still be respectful of others and the community.
2. No air conditioning — but you are allowed to purchase your own unit, and they are considering offering AC in some future units.
3. Does not accept PayPal for rent, charges a $ 50 fee for using a credit card
4. Nickeling and diming: Pet rent is steep at $ 50/​month. Extra pet deposit of $ 500. Trash, water, and electricity cost $ 150+. AND water is not metered by the apartment, so any amount of conservation you do to decrease your water cost will go unnoticed and unrewarded. Storage closets are $ 25/​month. Extra covered parking costs more. Light bulbs in their light fixtures are not covered by the apartment complex. Reserving the Clubhouse (which doesn’t even allow alcohol) costs hundreds of dollars — no wonder it is ALWAYS empty. Laundry is $ 1.75 per washer, and $ 1.50 per dryer.
5. No gas grills allowed on your patio or balcony.
6. Not technically allowed to have anything in your patio/​balcony that extends up above the railing.
7. The matching puke yellow and faded red of all of the exteriors is dated.
I haven’t found the noise bothersome at all, except for the trash removal in the mornings. But noise from my neighbors? Not bad at all. I enjoy hearing children playing in the pool and people having a good time at a grill out, and I don’t mind hearing my neighbors walk up their front stairs. I feel like part of the community. The oppressive noise complaints from residents and people on Unilocal have stifled a lot of fun, and management really cracks down on people who make any noise at all. Here’s my 2 cents to management that I would rather live my life at normal volume and hear others do the same, then always try to stay silent and live in a silent apartment.
NOTE: I did not receive a message from management to write this review, nor do I receive any benefit from it, except that maybe management will take my complaints seriously.

²⁴⁄₇ noise
At night:
The walls are so thin that you hear your neighbors have sex, turn on the faucet, and get a shower. When you dog scratch his ear when he is leaning against the wall, you thought so one was banging against your wall. The Caltrain horn will wake you up at irregular hours.
During your day:
It is the early garbage collector, the constant construction noise, the lawn mowers who take entire days to do his job, etc.
You don’t ever get a break. A recent positive reviewer said she loved this place and did not understand why everyone else seems to hate it. She simply hasn’t stayed here long enough, and is still in the honeymoon phase with the outward appearance.
Sometimes, beauty within is what it counts. Everyone I know is trying to get out. Some have been successful. The management is soliciting positive Unilocal reviews by spamming us all. Beware.

Worst experience ever with an apartment complex. Mold issues due to poor seals on the old shabby windows. Along with that you can hear everything outside that’s going on. Dumpsters being dumped every Monday, dumpsters being scavenged, crows crowing, obnoxious people late at night. We had a neighbor upstairs who sounded like a herd of elephants all night long. Lots of plumbing problems from faucets not running properly to leaky pipes and flooding. Don’t expect your deposit back even if you pay someone to clean the place they will take every penny and still charge you for something. Horrible horrible place to live at and management to deal with.

We had a great time working with Stephanie and Andrea and are very satisfied with our current apartment for the price we pay. Stephanie and Andrea gave us a very good deal and were always available when we needed something. The apartment complex has a beautiful and well-​maintained community. The tenants here are also very polite and quite in general. I’m surprised it has such a low rating. I highly recommend you ignore the poor reviews and check out the place in person.

If you are planning to rent an apartment here, PLEASE DON’T. Unprofessionalism at its best. Scheduled an appointment at 2:00 PM and reached there at 1:59 PM. But guess what? No one was there in the office. A notice saying «will be back at 3» was there on the door. We called the number given in the appointment confirmation mail and they rescheduled at 2:30 PM. We reached there again at 2:25 PM and again found no one in the office. We waited another 15 – 20 minutes and no one showed up. Simply wow. I believe they have only one employee and that person doesn’t care being so unprofessional. Not only us, found other two guys also waiting in front of the door. Then decided to go back and never come back again.
P. S. Community is not clean too. Found lot of dog poops on the pedestrian inside the community. That’s uncouth.

I don’t live here and now have no intention to live here anymore. My wife made an appointment at 2 pm. After we came here on time there was nobody in the leasing office and it was locked. My wife called the number in the email confirming the appointment. They told her to wait for 30 more minutes. I wanted to leave right then because this is already too much unprofessional but my wife insisted and so we stayed. 40 minutes passed and still there is no sign of anyone coming for us! Unbelievable!

Made an appointment for visit at 2.00 p. m and found the leasing office closed. Called the office, they made another appointment at 2.30. We went there again at 2.30 and waited for 15 minutes. No one showed up and I don’t think they even bothered to be shown up. They could show this kind of unprofessional attitude to a visitor, I wonder how they serve their renters with so much unprofessional mentality? I would give them negative rating if Unilocal had that option.

Stay away from this apartment. Not only its pricey for such an old apartment — all appliances are old, the flush wouldn’t work, doors get jammed all the time, they don’t even hold the packages past 72 hrs and list goes on. I lived here for an year and decided to move out as rent was increased — didn’t want to pay that much for an old apartment.
Move out process sucks here — even though the apartment was clean they charged us insane 412.50 $ for carpet cleaning and painting. We had to move out on 1^st of next month and when we communicated this they said they will charge us for one day — I never dreamt that they will charge us on month to month basis rent which was freaking 8089 $. That was never communicated to us. I get the final settlement and they charged me 261 $ [8089/​31] for staying a day more. This is clearly incompetent management who just want to rip off people’s money. Entire blame is put on resident even though it was majorly their fault of not communicating charges upfront.
Unless you don’t want to end up paying 1000 $ on your move out I strongly recommend to stay away from this community. I will never ever lease with UDR again.

We lived here for 3 year. The biggest reason that we chose this place instead of other apartments in the area is because it’s dog friendly. Even when we moved in, we read about how this place is overpriced, but we moved in any way. After 3 years being here, I can tell you they will charge you anything that they can charge you for.
And after two years in a row of more than 10 percent rent increase, we decided that it’s not worth it.
While we looked for a place to buy, we contemplated on whether we should go month by month, or sign the lease and pay the penalty when we leave. In the new lease, the month by month rent is $ 6000 for a one bedroom! Not knowing when we will find a place, we went with signing the lease. But the penalty to break is one and half month, which is not great either.
Just recently we moved out. And in the last month we paid a lot to the apartment, the penalty and all. And because of the hassle of moving, I somehow assumed the big payment in March covers everything in forgot to check the April payment. When they reminded me, there was already $ 100 late fee which cannot be waived even given the situation… When I asked, they said that if they waive my fee, they will have to waive everyone else’s fee.
Overall, the place is very dog friendly, the staff is very friendly too. I think my dog likes the place for his morning walk. And we enjoyed the amenity like the hot tub. However, just remember. This is an apartment complex managed by a larger organization, that will not hesitate to increase your rent, and charge for everything that they can. In the three years that we lived here we noticed that our neighbors have moved in and out a lot. I think they probably don’t have any issues finding new tenants though, given the location of this place.

We lived here Oct 2013– Nov 2014. I would NOT recommend this place.
The rent is high as well as the utility. They give you a renew rate at 15% increase. We were charged two $ 25 for ‘trash not disposed of properly” one week before we moved out. They gave me a picture of my package box. Actually I put the box into the bin. I wrote a email to the manager Michelle and didn’t get response after 3 days. After I went to the office and asked why they charged me twice for one box, they changed the charge to One $ 25. I’m not satisfied with the result. There are always trash pickers. Maybe they pull my box out. No sense of security! I called UDR company about the issue and they said we would get a response in 1 week. No response after about 1 month!
The office was closed on our moving-​out day. We put our keys in the apartment as the manager told us. But we notified we were charged $ 109 for one day rent. We had to go to the office again after we moved out. We wasted a morning to solve the problem. God bless, we don’t move far. Otherwise, it must be a big hassle to deal with the officers through emails and calls!
They charged cleaning, carpet cleaning, and painting no matter what you do! They upgraded our unit to hard floor but they still charged us for carpet cleaning. Ridiculous!
Overall, they take money out of your pocket every way they can!
The landscape is beautiful and the neighbours are nice. The service request is quick respond. The location is good. It’s a walk distance to the shopping center. The apartment is big. But there is no AC and W/​D in the apartment. The walls and windows are thin.

I rented a 1 bedroom apartment for the summer and have mixed feelings about my experience.
The apartment itself wasn’t that bad. The bathroom was kind of small, but had a nice closet. There was a TV, which was nice, but no microwave.
The staff was very friendly, but the policies are awful. I’ve lived in apartments before but the deposit police of «we’ll charge you no matter what condition you leave it in» kind of pissed me off.
Despite only being there for such a short time, and honestly not really there aside from sleeping and weekends, I was forced to pay for the entire apartment to have professional cleaning and carpet cleaning regardless of the cleaning I had done. They were kind enough to give me some touch up paint to go around the apartment to fix any scrapes I may have caused, but still charged me $ 75 for a «spot» that I missed.
They have a guest room for the complex, but you have to book it pretty far in advance. Which I did. But even though I booked it a month in advance, they still double booked it and called me a day or two beforehand after my guests had already made plans to stay there and told me «Oops, sorry. We’ll refund you I guess.»
Again, not to make the people out to be bad guys. They were friendly and eager to help, it just seemed like the policies were a bit constricting.
I probably would not recommend this to someone. The complex and apartment is okay, but it’s too much of a headache and hit to the wallet to move out.

Big-​dog friendly!
My biggest problem finding an apartment in Mountain View was finding a big-​dog friendly complex. Birch Creek does have breed restrictions (so read carefully) but Boxer-​mixes and Lab-​mixes and other bigger mixed –breed dogs are welcome. They have free poop bags located all over the grounds and most people pick up after their dogs.

I rented a 1 BD apartment about 3 years ago. The price was a little steep at around $ 1600 ish per month but the deposit was only $ 400 so I figured it a good deal. The interior kitchen layout is nice. The unit came with a flat screen T.V. and a nice wooden drawers in the bedroom closet. This is the only reason why I even give them 2 stars.
After 2 years they had raised my rent to $ 2000 a month which basically forced me to move, that’s $ 2000 per month (plus trash, water, rental insurance etc) for a 1BD apartment with NO AC, NO WASHER DRYER, REALLY???
The walls are PAPER THIN. I constantly would be frustrated by noise from the neighbors,. I know that i can’t blame the apartments for inconsiderate people, but it was just subtle sounds that could be heard as if they were in my apartment.
The staff rarely answers the phone and you will often find a «be back soon» sign on the office door as they apparently only employ 1 person in the office at times.
The neighborhood is pretty «ghetto if you make a left on El Camino, all the businesses are closing .
I had to call security one time because someone parked in my space and they told me that there was nothing that could be done.
The grounds are very well groomed and the Koy fish pond is very pretty but I would not recommend you move here at all.

Great location, but super high rent cost.
Positives:
— Apartment location is great, near to El Camino Real, Central expressway, freeways, Target, Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Safeway and etc.
— Apartments are old, but well maintained, they fix issues in a day or two, which is nice
— Apartment floor plan is really big (because they were built in 70’s), 1 bed is 800 sq feet, which is impossible to get in newer apartments.
— Safe and peaceful.
Negatives:
— Rent is unbelievably high, and it is always going up (but this is same everywhere in mountain view area)
— Utilities are very high here — trash, water and sewer is 125 USD for 1 bed apartment, and PG&E will kill you in winter because the heaters are old style and consumes a lot, so consider 150 for PG&E in winter billing cycles. (Non AC units, and so summer should be not costly in PG&E)
— Old building
— Shower Water — Pressure is very low, not enough for a pleasant bath, and the water temperature is keep on varying, makes it very difficult during winters.
Additional comments:
— Community is usually peaceful, with all decent people living in here. Lately I observed few students started making late night noise.
Overall — I would consider living in this community, as long as I can afford higher rent, want bigger floor plans, okay with old appliances and apartments. I would live here because of one main reason — LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

We lived here from Oct ’12 until Oct ’13. Although Birch Creek is overpriced and I didn’t love the place, I’ll give it 2 stars because: there were no bugs, our cars never got broken into, for the most part, we were left alone, and the koi pond and trees are really beautiful. I’m a good person and despite feeling taken advantage of, I won’t crush this place when I see potential.
Buut.here’s the low down peeps:
— The rent is absurd and they raise it by 10% even for new tenants like us. For an 800sqft 1 bed, we were paying approx. $ 150/​mo in garbage and sewage, $ 2,088/mo for the rent including $ 35/​mo pet rent for a grand total of: approx $ 2,238 before electricity. At the end of our 1 yr lease, they wanted to raise the rent another $ 200! Bringing the grand total to almost $ 2,500. Yes, almost $ 2,500 before electricity including the hidden water and sewage fees for a very average 1 bedroom apt with thin windows and a bedroom view of a dumpster! Our livingroom view was nice but sorry the noise from the bedroom due to the thin walls was unacceptable.
— The neighborhood SUCKS! We would go for walks at night and the surrounding apartments are all poverty stricken. I have nothing against poor people (which we are too after losing our money to this place). it’s just not inspiring to go for a walk and see poverty and empty businesses everywhere. Even the restaurant on the corner has a huge OUT OF BUSINESS EVERYTHING MUST GO sign. To say that our walks were so depressing is an understatement.
— THE GARBAGE/​RECYCLING? IS COLLECTED MONDAY AND TUESDAY MORNINGS AT… GET THIS. 7AM!!! (times vary. it’s been earlier and sometimes later)
Do you hate Mondays and not an early bird? Well, thanks to the super thin windows, you’re in for a major kick in the butt while you’re already down. Your Monday mornings (and Tuesdays) will be UNBEARABLE! You’ll hear metal clashing and banging and screeching for 30 mins from 7am-​ish to 7:30-ish. I could still hear it WITH earplugs as the bedrooms face the trash! Lovely I know. Oh, and yes, several dumpster divers can be found going through the trash early in the mornings as well. All true and the noises they make by going through the bottles is another annoyance.
What else? Whenever I go to the front desk there’s a «be back in 15» sign that is suspiciously always up whenever I drop by. Seems like they only have 1 person on site at a time.
Well, they not only wanted to keep our $ 500 deposit but we were billed $ 244 upon moving. Thankfully, I have a lawyer and was able to get him to bring down the moveout fee to what is in my attached pic. Remember. whatever you see in the attached pic is probably your best bet for what you will pay WITH a lawyer. The revised my final statement. and $ 391 of our $ 500 deposit was kept.
UPDATE: The statement I attached on Unilocal has been removed by Unilocal.Private message me if you would like to see it or have any questions!
Apparently they charge $ 75 for moving back the TV. The TV was in such a useless place (opposite to the window which would mean it would glare from the reflection outside). So, fine. whatever. take the $ 75 and the $ 135 cleaning fee. I cannot believe they were so petty to charge us for drip pans and light bulbs! It’s really in my pic see for yourself. The thing that REALLY annoys me though is the $ 164 patch nail and partial paint fee. No apartment has ever charged us for this??? We BARELY put up anything! We should have fought to get that taken off but alas we decided to cut our losses and just take what we could get back and be done with this place.
My advice to management:
— — — — — — — — — — — — — –
— Lower your prices! The high garbage and sewage extra fees really add to the monthly rent prices. Stop trying to maximize profit and offer a fair price! The product you offer is nowhere near close to what you are offering so either lower your prices or increase the value to the tenants.
— Add double pane windows and have garbage collection AFTER 9:30am.
— Get ²⁴⁄₇ security that watches for bums going through the garbage. I never saw an on site security guard the entire time I lived there!
— Have more staff at the front desk. For as many apartments as there are, you are SEVERELY UNDERSTAFFED! STOP BEING CHEAP AND GREEDY!
— Be more generous with your deposit policy.
— Be more generous with your current tenants and don’t hike the rent by 10%.
I’m glad to be out of here :)

I lived here from 2012 –2013. This place is generally OK. My apartment was on the end of the building so noise (except garbage trucks) was not bad. Some partying on weekends, but not really a big deal.
The comments about management support are generally correct. They never answer their phones or return calls. They do respond to repair requests within a few days. Rebecca in the office was great and tried to be helpful when I would go see her. The real problem is UDR management. They don’t seem to care much about the tenants.
The pool was closed for many weeks because of repairs to the pump that management couldn’t seem to get right. The jacuzzi had some similar problems. Though, I DO like the fact that the pool/​jacuzzi are open 24 hours and all year long which is nice.
The real problem with this complex is the nickel and diming on the rent and utilities etc. I had an issue with them right off the bat when they gave me a rent price on a Friday, then tried to jack it up by $ 100 when I confirmed my interest to take the apartment 4 days later. They did give me the original price when I complained. Utilities are basically $ 100+ per month so plan on that n addition to your rent.
When you leave, take note that you will be charged for cleaning, carpet cleaning, and painting the apartment NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO. These charges are $ 135, $ 70, and $ 140 respectively. Additionally, I left the apartment on the 30^th of the month and went to drop the keys off the next day. They charged me $ 94(!!!) for one day late on returning the keys. No one EVER told me that I had to return the keys the day of my move (Sunday). Even during my departure check out with the onsite manager, he never said anything and it wasn’t on any of their paperwork. BEWARE! The bottom line is that don’t expect to get any of your deposit back. They just nickel and dime you to keep it. The place has potential, but the price is just too costly and UDR doesn’t care about treating their clients with respect and integrity. It’s an OK place to live, but plan to spend more than other locations.

I lived her from oct 12 to oct 13
I am writing this review because Birch creek is nothing but a HORRID place to live.
They only care about your money! Nothing but your money!
2k for popcorn ceiling??? No thanks!
They will try to charge you for anything and everything!
No sense of security I had things stolen from my patio and they didn’t give two shits!
Oh and Michelle in the front office. No sense of help from her. I am very glad I didn’t renew my lease from company that only sees you as a number.
Please do not waste your money living here!

I lived here Aug 2012 — Aug 2013. Mostly, I wanted to reply to the last review that is really strong on the negatives, which I disagree with. I would hate for people to miss out on a great complex because of it.
There are no weird people in the parking lot. People do collect the plastic bottles, but they’re never ever rude and this happens everywhere in the Bay Area. There are no gang members or people stealing clothes in my experience.
The Pool
Sometimes it does feel like randomers use the pool, but very very occasionally. We’re right in front of the pond (which is beside the pool) and to be honest it’s one of the best features about Birch Creek — squirrels, coy in the pond, big old beautiful trees — you couldn’t ask for more! I’ve never found it to be loud or have drunk people in it. I havent been able to find as nice a complex yet for where we move to.
Noise
We’re in an upstairs apartment, so have no one above us, but we’ve never had or received any noise complaints. My biggest noise complaint is on Monday mornings the trash gets collected and it’s thunderously loud, but I mean, the trash has to be collected and it’s once a week, so no big deal.
Rent
The rent is very high, and does increase year on year (which is why we’re moving), which is a total shame.
Overall, the service from the staff is great, the location is great, the facility and complex are just wonderful and really make a huge difference and I would recommend Birch Creek (if you can afford it!).

TERRIBLE NIGHTMARE DO NOT LIVE HERE WORST 6 MONTHS OF MY LIFE.
They will screw you every way they can.
Dishonest liars will say anything to move you in. .THE NOISE IN THE AM IS TERRIBLE FROM THE GARBAGE AND THE BIRDS FIGHTING OVER IT. Pool and jaccuzzi are always filthy and broken. .when u move out they will charge you for repainting and carpet even if you had it proffesionly done. This place is a ripp off there are much better places at much better prices keep looking…