Casa De General Apartments

I’ve lived here with my family for almost 13 years. The area is secluded and quiet. My neighbors have changed through the years, but they’ve always been respectful and considerate. All requests to management have been handled quickly and without any fuss. The units are constructed with lath and plaster walls, so they’re far quieter than the newer wallboard type of construction. I’ll take older, solid construction any day ahead of newer, loud construction. I could not have asked for a better location to raise my children and they agree.

What is the big deal with all the negatory reviews?
I’ve been a resident here with my parents and one older brother for most of my life (9 years). I’ve never had any BIG complaints.
1) This place has children. Big deal. If you can’t tolerate children, how can you expect to even be a part of society? I admit, the screaming children is a little annoying, but recently the property manager sent out notices to prevent the screaming from happening again. So far I have yet to be disturbed by children at all. Children will be children, stop denying them their right to be happy.
2) Casa De General could use some maintenance within it’s buildings some times. The apartment I’ve been living in has been in pretty decent shape, but a couple of fixes on broken windows could really help out.
3) The manager is not a prissy person. I don’t understand where all of these horror stories are coming from. She comes off to me as a nice person who is very understanding. Even to my parents she’s a pretty swell lady. I don’t get anyone who tries to defame her by saying mean crap.
I don’t swim in the pool here so I can’t really care about it. The carports are good but I only have a word of warning, there are many blind spots so if your walking be vigilant, a car can come out of nowhere!
Overall, this place is a pretty decent apartment complex. It shouldn’t be a hassle to live here unless you hate bugs, this place has a TON of stink bugs, but I don’t mind. I usually catch them and let them free again. If you squish them they smell like ass in a can. If you ain’t afraid of some tiny bugs, this place is a decent place to live in.

Unlike the earlier reviews, this one-​star rating has nothing to do with management. Both the landlady and the management company have been responsive to complaints and have been quick to fix any problems within a couple of days upon receiving the maintenance request. They have never given me an attitude or been condescending. Further, the location itself and the actual apartment is ideal and spacious. And there is tons of guest parking.
Rather the neighbors, in particular the parents and their screaming children, are inconsiderate and oblivious to others around them. There are a lot of ill-​behaved, unsupervised children running around for hours at a time. Where to begin? Well let’s start in the morning. Every weekday morning the kids are outside screaming to start the day at 7:45 before school begins. This sucks for me because I like to sleep in. So I have to sleep with a large box fan on all night (facing the wall because I’m not using it to cool down, rather I need to use it to create noise to drown out their screaming so I don’t wake up before my alarm goes off). Why they have to be so loud so early and why their parents can’t explain to them that other people may be sleeping is beyond me.
Since I know that I will have quiet from about 8:30 — 3:00, if I want to take a nap or do laundry without running into half a dozen kids blocking the stairwell and walkways, I know that I have to do it between those hours. Come 4 til about 8 (way after the sun goes down), most days I try to leave my apartment so I’m not aggravated by literally 8 – 12 children, ages 3 – 10, chasing each other all over the damn complex. Playing is one thing, these brats run so hard and scream so loud that you can hear them over your TV, AC, fan, and whatever else you may use to drown out the noise. I’ve even tried wax earplugs, which help with the noise but not when the kids run up the stairs and slam their doors and shake my apartment.
Some weekends are OK, others are just plain intolerable. Groups of children just outside my window screaming and Unilocaling because they saw a salamander or whatever. I’ve tried to be nice and asked them a few times to try to play somewhere else or keep it down. They do so but only for a few hours. I then tried to be mean and scowl and yell at them. They go away for a few hours and then come back. WTF? When I was a kid and the grouchy neighbor yelled at me and my friends, we were petrified to go near them.
I get that kids will be kids but what is frustrating is that their parents are not supervising them most of the time. So you have very young children running around, hitting each other with sticks, and playing in the pool unsupervised. Even when an adult is present, they do not do anything to teach their kids manners and the concept of community-​living. Yes, this is your home too but your enjoyment (or your kids’ enjoyment) should not impinge on my ability to relax in my own apartment. When I’ve tried to talk to the parents (most of whom I don’t think speak English well), I get this blank stare and «kids will be kids, there’s nothing I can do» response. Well actually, it’s called discipline and respecting your neighbors. If you want a place where your kids can roam free and be loud without complaints, buy a damn house. Most of these kids live with their parents in a one-​bedroom apartment, so I don’t blame the kids for being stir-​crazy.
I’ve lived in undergrad and grad housing. The last place I lived at was a bad neighborhood next to a mechanic and I never got this much agita over any of my neighbors or the sound levels. It’s gotten to the point where I have to strategically plan to not be home, which really sucks because I am a homebody.
I expressed my concerns to management a few times and they were sympathetic and did put notices up on everyone’s door that expressed the sentiments above. The complex would be nice and quiet for a day or so and then the yelling would resume as if nothing happened. I can’t blame the people in charge because they can’t really do anything about it. They tried to remedy the situation but ultimately it is the shitty parenting and obnoxious, undisciplined children that are the problem. It’s a shame because I really love the apartment itself.
Disclaimer: Yes, I dislike children, always have and always will. But I’ve lived around well-​behaved children and it’s never been a problem. After living here though, definitely looking into getting my tubes tied, as this whole situation has increased my anxiety and my disdain for children (and their parents). However, if you yourself have a screaming child for whom you want to neglect parental responsibility, you’d fit in well here, as you can just throw your kid into the herd of screaming children and go inside and relax, while your neighbors curse they day you and he/​she were born.

I really liked this apartment disregard of the manager Yvonne’s rude attitude when she was showing me the apartment. She didn’t even allow me to take pictures of the apartment, which I found quite ridiculous. Few days later, when I called Yvonne about getting an application form, she said she doesn’t have time to give me the form this weekend, and ask me to go pick up the form during my lunch time at work after I’ve told her that i work in downtown LA! Anyways, I somehow managed to schedule my time and pick up the application form one week after. However, when I was about to turn in the application, Yvonne started to tell me all the random policies and treat me like an idiot! I was about to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, and my housemate won’t come until 3 months later. Then she told me she will need to charge me $ 500 to add one more person under the contract. After 10 minutes discussion on this issue with her, she was still not willing to negotiate with me. After that, she told me my income needs to be 4 times higher than the rent, which is $ 8000/​year, to be considered as a qualified applicant. She also throwed up all the random policies and treat me like I know nothing! Okay, even if I don’t know much about leasing process (not like i’ve never rent an apartment before), I do know think the manager should assume I know all these details. I was really pissed about how she told me all these policies after I drove all the way down to Pasadena just to check out the room and fill out the application form! I’m a recent graduate from a quite prestigious college, and making pretty good amount of money. I’ll have to say she’s the first person humiliated me since. whatever time, I don’t even remember. I swear this is my first time writing a review on the Unilocal!I really liked the environment there, but that manager, Yvonne, made me changed my mind, and I WILL NEVER EVER GO BACK TO THAT PLACE AGAIN!!!

I’ve lived at the Casa De General Apartments for almost a year now. Location and setting: lots of trees, private (can’t really see it off the street), and close walk to the park. The apartments are designed by the same architect of the beautiful adobe homes that surround it. I found this out from his granddaughter, who owns the home in front of my unit. Other than beautiful homes around it, there’s not much more to like about this place. Overgrown shrubs have crawled into my balcony and block the staircase that leads to my front door. The carport areas have thick, gray cobwebs and trapped bugs covering dim light fixtures, ceilings, and walls. The pool area is small, gross, with a couple of old rusty lounge chaises. Adult neighbors yell at all hours of the night, children and teenagers yell and bound up and down the outdoor stairs and common areas, making my unit shake. Nonexistent guest parking. The on-​site manager, Yvonne Lat, is condescending and talks to everybody like they’re idiots. Her answer to everything is «According to your contract…» How convenient that the contract is thick on tenant responsibilities and slim on those of the management. The day of my lease signing, Yvonne says, «if the toilets or kitchen sink backs up, you will be responsible if we find tampons, paper towels, spaghetti noodles, or anything else that should be placed in the trash.» (Thanks, mom.) A couple of weeks later, Yvonne’s disclaimer becomes all too clear as the toilets refuse to flush and the kitchen sink starts to back up. For anything in your unit that needs the management’s attention, you have to fill out a «Service Request Form,» which, Yvonne will tell you, she will respond to within a couple of days. Not true. I moved into my unit with inoperable electric outlets, towel bars falling off the walls, and toilets backing up – all within the 1^st week. I have filled out a few request forms, and some of them were ignored for 5 months; when I called to remind her yet again, she returned my call after 2 days to tell me the handyman and electrician were coming on Monday@10am; she calls me on Monday@8am as I’m rushing to go to work and tells me she has to be somewhere so she won’t be there to supervise the workers: «You didn’t submit a Service Request Form permitting the workers to come in so I assumed someone would be home.» I replied, «I’m sorry, I thought the original Service Request Form would suffice.» She gave me a look as she walked away, saying nothing. Remember the woman in the house in front of me, whose architect grandfather designed the Casa De General Apartments? She held a family member’s funeral reception at her home; Yvonne had the car of a guest towed away because it was parked incorrectly. I’m all about neighbors working together to maintain a standard living environment; however, I expect the management to walk their talk, and to act like humans. I recently called Riegel Property Management to ask if they would consider waiving the $ 108 late fee because my direct deposit was delayed after switching over to another bank. Brian returned my call promptly and asked me to write a «proposal» that explains the basis of my request. I get a call from Richard Riegel, who says, «I had a talk with my manager Yvonne,» and on this basis determined that he would not grant my request. He says, «If there’s further questions, give me a call, but not if it’s the same question. I don’t like questions repeated over and over. The company has already made an answer. You can call me and let me know you’re going to fight this and then we can go on from there but it’s not worth fighting. Some people just want to go ahead and fight, hopefully you’re not that type.» This response from Richard Riegel is typical of the manner in which this management company treats their tenants — condescendingly and arrogantly. Apparently we should just be glad they let us rent from them. In the meantime, don’t be a nuisance by trying to bring up a concern with management. In the meantime, the toilets continue to back up, and there is still a gaping hole in the bathroom wall from where the towel bar fell off (after it was“fixed”). I’m sure the powers that be will find that it is somehow the tenant’s fault and not the poor plumbing and cheap fixtures they’ve installed. And I guess it’s only a «fire hazard» if you put a small bistro set by your own front door — and not if the shrubs and landscaping are overgrown and prevent you from walking up to your door without feeling like you’re in the rainforest. I’ve lived in So Pasadena for the last 20 years and have rented from various landlords and property mgmt companies (including Beven&Brock, Bryant Co, etc.). This is the first time I’ve ever dealt with such hypocritical and pompous management. I can’t wait for my lease to end soon. It’s not worth the $ 1800 I pay every month for a 2-​bdrm. Trust me, there are so many other places in So Pasadena where you’ll be treated with more respect.