Berkeley Central Apartments - Berkeley, California

Stephanie N.

Been here for a few years now and I love living here. I am always happy to call this place home. The office and maintenance team are always kind and helpful. They keep the place very clean and safe. This is a really convenient and close to everything you need. I never have to drive my car and can walk to so many places. It feels like my own little town. Delivery carriers mishandle package deliveries all the time but that's everywhere you go and it is not Berkeley's team's fault. They actually strive to help me find anything I need. I'm so grateful!

Christina P.

As others have mentioned in their reviews $400 was illegally deducted from the security deposit, claiming it was for apartment cleaning, repainting and carpet cleaning. it took more than 21 days for the security deposit -400 to be returned and despite sending many emails about the illegal deduction they did not send a response. I am disappointed by the improper and unprofessional handling of the security deposit.

Jonas V.

EDIT: Downgrading from 5 stars to 1 star. Berkeley Central has owed me $4,439.67 (security deposit plus overcharged rent) for over two months and has been unresponsive to my emails. In California, landlords are required by law to return a tenant’s security deposit within 21 days after the tenant has vacated the rental property. Based on the reviews, it seems that several other tenants have run into the same issue.
EDIT #2: They've now refunded my deposit after several emails and had a reasonable-sounding explanation for why it happened. Still not great though.

Old review for reference:

Have lived here for two years and am very satisfied overall! Would recommend.

- The community manager (Precious) is by far the most competent one I've experienced, really stands out positively compared to other apartment complexes in Berkeley.

- The 4th floor smells bad, but house management is doing what they can to address the issue.

- If your apartment faces the street and you're on the 5th floor or lower, the beeping from the garbage disposal truck at 7:30am several days a week will be pretty loud.

- Maintenance requests are usually addressed promptly but not very competently. E.g. they said they couldn't repair a gas strut for a kitchen cabinet because the original producer doesn't sell them anymore, so I bought a suitable one off Amazon for $10 and fixed it myself.

bn

Do not stay here, at all costs.
Pros:
Maintenance people are nice.

Cons:
- Elevator was broken for 6-8 months while I was there.
- A/C on the 2nd floor was broken for 6 months up until I left.
- Management charges you a $400 painting fee for no reason, didn't damage the paint whatsoever.
- Extremely overpriced, should be around $1500/mo (not 3k)
- Walls are pretty thin for such a tall building, you hear tons of noises from neighbors & the 1 working elevator when it isn't having issues

I HIGHLY advise anyone reading this to look for housing elsewhere, you've been warned.
Even if you absolutely have to live in this area, there's plenty of better choices.

Fro F.

Management has held my security deposit for over a month after move out. I still have not received it.

Elevators are almost always broken, fire alarm randomly goes off, the list of complaints goes on.

DO NOT rent here unless it's a life or death matter and you absolutely must stay at this location.

You get better service & quality at complexs in the 1k range then you do here paying 3-4k for a 1bd.

Whoever is in charge of this property should resign and have new proper management put in place.

Chrissy

I’m experiencing the same situation as another rating in the comment section: it’s been a month since I moved out and my deposit has not been refunded. California law requires landlord to return the security deposit by the 21st day of moving out. I tried to call them many times to ask about it but they keep putting me on hold. When they pick up the phone, they keep saying they have 30 days to return my deposit, and they have approved my deposit but I NEVER got my deposit back. They never replied to my follow up email nor pick up my call. Be ware!

As a side note, during my two-year stay in the apartment, my neighbor has been consistently yelling and cursing super loudly
during midnights and kept waking me up either in the midnights like 2-3 am and early morning like 6 am. I’ve filed “millions” of complains, emails, and in person conversations to the apartment since last May up until this May, but they didn’t give me a solution.

Miss J.

Toured this property and as pleasant as this community is the team here is great also. Brittany the manager here very accommodating and answered gave a wonderful run down of the community. Great amenities and great staff, what more can anyone ask for.

Lisa T.

Management is really disrespectful and unreliable, I recommend against living here.

I had been really excited to move into my unit, tall windows and beautiful dark hardwood floors. After I moved in I noticed there were a lot of dents and gaps in the flooring and when I reported it to management, after a lot of wait time they told instead of fixing the spots the entire flooring would need to be replaced. First, after we scheduled a date they told me on the day of that they'd need to reschedule to the next day. Next, they told me on the day of the work, that I needed to move out of my apartment while they did the work, even though nothing of the sort had been previously mentioned and no work was being done in the bedroom and bathroom. They refused to cover for last minute hotel expenses. When the worker crew arrived, they had been given a key and entered my apartment 40min earlier than the agreed time, and I was still in the shower. This was honestly really uncomfortable to hear a bunch of men unlocking my door and about to enter my apartment.

Worst of all though, when I returned to my apartment the second day, I discovered they had instead of replacing the flooring changed both the material as well as the colors quite drastically. From dark pretty elegant hard wood floors they had replaced with a cheap plastic material and a light color, which felt flimsy and uncomfortable to walk on compared to the wood.

When I contacted them about this, they were unwilling to offer any kind of replacement or solutions, even though they had neither approved this work with me nor informed me that it would be happening at all. I would have much preferred they had let me know a material and colors change was planned (which also makes the apartment worth less) and I would have asked them not to go for it.

I feel like I've been really wronged, and now need to handle the stress of sorting this out on my own. I feel really sad and screwed over, since this new setup really doesn't work for me and the amount of disrespect and disregard for my preferences as a customer in how this situation has been handled shocks me.

This is my home which I've felt really happy in, and they've gone and ruined it.