The Villas at Scenic River

Having lived at the Villas for 15 months now, I’m a fan. I have a lovely apartment with 2 roomy bedrooms and 2 large baths. The doors and hallways are nice and wide. The kitchen and dining area are generous, adjoining the living room. I have a nice covered patio adjoining the living room with a regular door that has a narrow screened doors on each side of it, so I can open that whenever I like. Visitors to my apartment remark about how nice it is. My apartment is quiet, and I seldom hear any kind of sound from the apartments near me. My work orders have always been taken care of in a timely manner by a very nice, courteous maintenance man. The club house, mail area, exercise and computer rooms are really nice, and the pool is lovely. My former home was a 2,400 square foot 4 bedroom with living and family rooms. I do not feel at all deprived here! There are some nice activities should you choose to join in. The manager, Julia and her husband live on site and are really friendly, helpful people. My plan is to live here a long time!

Wow! I feel exactly as the first reviewer Anne M (especially, the last few sentences). I lived here for over 2 years and I cannot believe my leaving experience.
Overall, the Villas is a nice apartment and better design than many old available apt in town. The rent is a slightly above average when comparing to a general market.
In general, neighbor is really quiet and relatively safe as it is in a gated community. The wall is a bit thin as I could hear my neighbor snores at night. But that is really minor. I just live with it. They also have an online payment so that is a plus if you like to pay bill online.
The only 2 things I would warn current tenants and future tenants are:
1) don’t spend too much time cleaning the apt when you’re moving out because they will still charge you ²⁄₃ of your deposit even if you clean and clean. Their reason is you just don’t clean it good enough.
2) I can’t believe I gave them more than 30 days notice in person when I extended my lease 90 days before my move out date. I told them that I won’t be staying after the lease end. When I walked in to set-​up a check-​out date with the assistant manager, she told me that her manager told her that I won’t be renewing my lease. But because I did not give them a 30 day notice in writing. They said that did not count and I will be charged for additional prorated rent for the $ 400s and probably $ 300 or more cleaning fee. I thought the purpose of the 30 days notice was to give enough warning to the landlord so that they have enough time to find a new tenant. But 90 days is now too long in advance.
The whole moving out process will cost me $ 700-​$ 800s. Unbelievable! don’t make the same mistake.
Because of the above reasons, I have to give a 3 star. I’m very upset and disappointed about the entire moving out process, I want to give them a 1 star if I leave it to my emotion.
This is not meant to be a bad review but I just want to give others a head’s up so they can be on a look out.

The Villas is the best shorter term rental in a gated community that Bakersfield offers, but is still unloved by most of its residents. Ask around and you’ll hear that the nicely appointed apartments are marred by lousy plumbing, the HVAC system is unbearably LOUD and ineffective, and that the staff is inflexible on the most simple requests. Let me give you one example. A guy was asked to do some more cleaning after his final inspection. By the time he’d finished re-​cleaning the empty apartment, it was past 6 pm. When he gave in the keys the next day, he was charged for that extra night (though he obviously couldn’t have stayed there). The staff seems to be under a lot of corporate pressure to scrimp and save but, considering the monthly lease on this place, that’s not a great choice. That said, it is safe there, the common areas are clean, etc. — it might be as good as you get.