The Element Apartments

I lived at the element my first year as a student in Sacramento and personally, I wouldn’t recommend it. The front of the property and buildings near the leasing office are well manicured and well kept, however my apartment was in the back of the property (where parents/​students don’t see when they sign a lease) and it was always very dirty and seemed overlooked by the staff. There was even a hobo living in the storage room next to my apartment and peeing on the floor right outside my bedroom window. After numerous calls to the element office (we’re talking a couple of weeks), someone finally came and locked the storage area door. Aside from the hobos, I also had issues with the office staff misplacing rent checks which caused quite a bit of confusion. Positive things to note are they always have free juice and candy in the office and every once in awhile the leasing office will have free meals, which is always great for college students. Also, the maintenance staff is great and always responds to issues in a timely manner.

So this is my third and final post about this place. I moved out last week then and the apartments have decided to give me three 24 hour notices of entry this month. One was for FOB locks which are a total pain in the rear end. The next one was for new furniture which could have waited until we move out. The majority of the new tenants don’t move in until the 16^th of August and we are set to be out on July 31^st. The third notice was to put in a new mattress two days before my move out date which also did not make scene to put in two days before me moving out. I couldn’t believe that they actually waited until two days before I moved out of the place to change the it out because the original mattress that I had gotten was old and stained. They refused to change it at the beginning of the year when I had informed the leasing office of the issue. I actually had to cover the original one with a plastic mattress cover.
Don’t be surprised to find rats on the premises. A few days after I moved in, the roommate came in screaming at the top of her lungs because she had seen a rat on the doorstep by building 12. She is a very dramatic person and I thought she was making up story’s until about 2 months later when I saw a rat by the pool. I spoke with James in the leasing office he told me that the apartments had no intention of calling an exterminator. They could have maintenance set up traps. About 6 months later we saw a rat in the pool and we have a video of it which I will post later when I get it out of my boyfriends phone. The kids that lived there were trying to scoop it out with a target bag. That big ugly thing was actually swimming in the middle of the spool where residence swim too. When I went to tell the office again, they seemed to not care still. Someone could have gotten bit. We also had a bat that took up residence on our doorstep the week before we moved out and the apartments said that they would not be able to take care of him until the day we moved out. The whole time we were moving we were praying that we did not disturb the bat on our way out. Bats carry rabies.
We got the move out letter and according to their instructions, they wanted us to leave the apartment in better shape then it was when we actually moved into it. When I called after moving out to try to get my final bill for cleaning so I could resolve the issue right away and be done with the place once and for all, they refused to give me any information over the phone and they are making me play the waiting game for the bill. That’s odd because they are always so quick to take my rent payment over the phone.
My roommates did not clean the whole time I lived there and the kitchen got disgusting. Piles of plates and an awful stench that filled the apartment with the aroma of raw meat, mold and garbage were often a factor in the common ares. They also did not start packing or cleaning until two days before our move out date and every time I went to clean something to prepare for move out, it would be a mess 10 min later. Because I had to leave a day before I was supposed to be out and now reside far far away, I wont know until the final cleaning bill comes if they actually finished cleaning the common area or not. It’s not really fair for me to be billed for the negligence of the roommates and their lack of being prepared. I tried to clean the place the best that I could with the given situation.
Car– I moved into the element with a $ 15,000 VW beetle that suffered so much damage in the parking lot from my psychotic ex roommate that it had to be salvaged. She egged it, she popped all 4 tires, cut my break line, keyed it, cut the hood and basically destroyed it while I made every attempt to avoid contact with her. When I went to the office even after she had banged on my door threatening me the final time with her little sister, the office did not seem to care about the situation. The only thing they did was switch my apartment to get me away from her two months into my lease.
One night at 2am I was awaken to a knock on my upstairs neighbors door by security. They had asked them to turn their music down because it was disturbing otter tenants, I had to call the police department because the neighbors assaulted the on site security guard by throwing a table at them and yelling and screaming extremely loud. The police came in and actually had to kick down the door and physically remove the upstairs neighbors from the apartment.
I’ve had to call the fire department to remove hypodermic needles from the outside of the apartments on the walkway leading up to the gate. This suggests that the bums were probably shooting up outside of the apartments.
The pool area was also closed down a lot for about two days after students would throw a party beacuse there was glass in the pool and was not safe to be used. I’m so glad to be done with the place and out of there. Im a much happier person after leaving the element.

First off, when inquiring about this place, it takes weeks to get information. When you do receive information, you have to sign your lease the same time you apply! That should have been my first warning after speaking with 4 different people in the office. So I went to the office on my move in date which was May and my lease ends July… short term lease needed. No one tells you how things work… they took my check, gave me keys and we like bye bye. I drove all over looking for the building… found it…3^rd floor, no elevators to move my stuff!!! So I get into the apartment… dirty! Stink! Dirty plates everywhere!!! I can’t find my room out of 4. Didn’t know which keys worked where… nada! Figured it out after 20 mins when no one in the office answered.
Key FOBs! I had to go ape **** on miss Evelyn in the front office. She probably thinks she is dealing with some college kid. She told me I would be charged $ 25 if they came to open my door because I had to work during the 4 hours they would be available to hand out keys! What kind of foolishness is that. Took 2 hours and talking to 3 different people to resolve that issue. Stupid key fobs are a pain to use anyways and no instructions on how to use them the first time.
Moving out: so my nasty roommates burned the carpet in the corner of the dining room prior to me moving in and I did not see it. I emailed Evelyn on Monday morning at 8 am. It is now 10:06 on Wednesday evening and no reply from her to find out if I am going to b responsible for the burned carpet that these little girls destroyed. Kate however responded and said I am responsible too because I did not note it on my damage sheet upon moving in. Evil people these people!
Bottom line, if you have nasty roommates, you will be responsible for their irresponsible behavior that damage the property! It is a bunch of college kids running this place so expect college mentality.
I can do nothing more but pray from these nasty little girls and the people in this office

I lived here for 3 (almost 4) years and loved it! I wouldn’t recommend any other apartment complex to those looking to rent near Sac State. It’s very convenient! It is within walking distance to Sac State and I loved that it was right across the street from Target! They have a computer room and game/​meeting room, but I loved studying outside by their pool… just pull up a chair on a nice sunny day and relax with a textbook in hand! The Element is definitely the best student housing option near Sac State!

This place has given me the worst and best of times during my 2 year stay for my first 2 years going to Sacramento State. Great location, fully furnished, staff is friendly, shuttle is convenient, and a lot of people to meet.
There are a lot of negatives as well, though. The management is very slow and if you request any type of repair, it will take them forever to get to you (unless, for some odd reason, you are a very attractive, young, female), or they will over charge you for such a simple task that you might as well do yourself.
Parking was pretty awful too. There is no designated parking for residents/​guests unless you PURCHASE a reserved parking spot. Be careful not to get towed.
The pricing for living here is waaaaaaay too expensive. Each year, the prices were raised and probably are out of the sky right now.
Pretty much, if you can afford overly priced, shitty housing filled with dirty furniture but don’t want to drive to school, then this is the place to be!

Great place to live! The office staff is helpful and the maintenance team is very good as well. It is close to campus and their private shuttle to and from CSUS is super convenient. This community is clean, new, safe, and beautiful. I wouldn’t recommend anywhere else but here!

Disrespectful. On a day of remembrance the two poorly educated individuals running the office refused to lower the flag to half staff for ⁰⁹⁄₁₁.

DO NOT STAY HERE! This complex will say anything to get you to sign. I.E. before signing my lease in 2008 I spoke with management about painting one of the walls in the apartment to make a «more homely» and they told me that it would be perfectly fine as long as I painted it back before I left (I agreed). After living there for about 2 months, I was on vacation and decided to listen to my voicemail during a layover at the airport and received a message stating that during a routine maintenance check they noticed I painted one of my walls. They now stated that this is not allowed and said they have already painted it back to original color and that I was responsible for paying them $ 200 for doing so (I was only gone 3 days and could have done so for 5 dollars as it only took a quart of paint to color the wall in the first place). Very aggravating but I decided to fork up the fee to preserve my credit in the future. Upon leaving this place (only stayed here 6 months) I go through the usual walk through, all is well and everything is completed. I speak to management once again before leaving asking if I owed anything else before leaving (moving 4 hours south) and they checked and assured me that everything was paid in full and that I owed nothing. Left the premise and went on with my life for 6 years…6 Years, and I find out that in 2014, I have been sent to collections for $ 197 dollars. 6 Years, not a call, not a letter, no form of communication (my phone number has not changed in 16 years) that I owed money which I was assured would not happen. I have no idea what it is for but the big 3 credit companies don’t ask questions before destroying your credit. I would avoid this place at all costs. Not only will you be treated poorly whilst living there, they will haunt you for more than half a decade (who knows when this will be resolved) after you leave.

**DO NOT MOVE HERE!!**
1) Amenities are a total joke! «billiards room» looks nothing like the pictures, and there is never anyone in there «having fun.» The gym is extremely small and the windows make it so that everyone is staring at you when they walk by. The computer lab is never working and even when it is, the printer is down. ALWAYS. The pool looks gorgeous, but it is only 3 – 4 feet deep all the way around, which makes it so that you cant even swim. Cable is basic, but the «Free internet» is a joke. You still have to by your own router to have wifi and a majority of the time it is very slow or not working at all, and if you call the office to address the issue, they say it is «rebooting.» I find that hard to believe since it is almost every day.
2) This complex is extremely noisy. There are always parties which include yelling and stomping, which is very annoying if you are on the 2^nd or 1^st floors. The ceilings are so thin that i can hear every step of the people above me, and on the weekends it sounds like they are throwing furniture. Pictures even fall off of our walls and our whole apartment shakes when they walk heavily. On top of that, the patio doors are always slamming and it is so loud that it can be heard AND felt throughout the entire building. Another extremely loud noise comes from the landscapers, who are here a majority of the day (whatever day they come) and are extremely annoying, as well as the loud garbage trucks, and tow trucks (which i will get into in a moment)
3) THEY STEAL YOUR MONEY! Recently my roommate and I paid early for the next months rent, and were surprised to find that we had been credited back a portion of that for pre-​paying. We called the office to see if this was true and the person working at the desk confirmed that we had that credit on our account and we were pleasantly surprised. We then proceeded to ask the (very young) accounting manager how this came about, and without any further discussion, she immediately erased the credits from our accounts right before our eyes and said it was a «system glitch» which i find terribly hard to believe, seeing as how it was only reported from my roommate and I and they were different amounts. We then asked for a ledger (written records of our accounts) and they showed that we both had credits still! But since it was just a «system glitch» according to the accountant, it is not being addressed any further, which is infuriating.
4) Parking is insane. You are not allowed to have a guest park inside the complex without a requested written pass from the front office, which is only good for 24 hours. And when I say this, I do not mean that you are just not allowed to have someone park inside overnight. It literally only take about 10 minutes for the tow truck to be here, towing your guests car away without any advanced notice. On top of that, there are not enough uncovered (free) spots for the residents who actually do live here. It is terribly hard to find parking during the week and if you come home after about 10pm, prepare to park across the street in the Target parking lot. This is something that the office workers never mention before you move in, and I find it extremely aggravating to come home after work and have to park out in the open when I pay SO MUCH MONEY to live in a gated community, mainly for that reason! So unless you want to spend even more money per month on a covered parking spot, dont expect to always park behind the gate.
5) Security (AKA rent-​a-​cops) does absolutely nothing to improve the safety of this complex. They will let anyone through the gate who says they «forgot their fob» or «forgot the code,» and they are friends with mainly all of the party people. On the weekends if you submit a noise complaint about a party or something of that sort, the security will either do absolutely nothing about it, or if they do actually go to check it out, they JOIN THE PARTY AND HANG OUT! Aside from that, the little sorority girls in their short shorts and crop tops, are ALWAYS crowding around the security guard’s shack, attempting to flirt with him because he is young and good looking. My roommate was once physically assaulted by a previous roommate’s boyfriend (who was illegally living with her) and when the security guard was called, it was then found out that he was friends with the girl’s boyfriend and again, nothing was done about it.
6) One of our appliances is ALWAYS broken. The outlets are faulty, the fridge leaks, the stove burners go out often, and the alarm system DOES NOT WORK. Recently our fridge was leaking a large amount of water all over inside and outside of the fridge and when the maintenance guy came (who barely speaks English) he wanted to use MY PERSONAL blow drier to defrost the freezer, forcing us to throw away all the food in our entire refrigerator and after it defrosted, he then proceeded to leave it off overnight and said it would be fine by the morning.
to be cont.

Thanks to the review system, I’m not moving in to this place! It looks good on the pictures though and it’s close to the freeway, but I think I’ll listen to everyone.

I’ve lived here 3+ years & the workers in the office have been so kind each & every time I’ve came in.
Pros:
Close to CSUS (~5 mins)
Free shuttle to & from sac state
Free internet & cable (as of now)
Gated community w/​security
Pool & jacuzzi
Gym
Half basketball court
FULLY furnished (Bed, desk, drawer, couch, table)
Lease by room
Directly across from Target and next to Starbucks
Cute little activities in the office from time to time (sometimes free food!)
Offers covered parking (like $ 20 but the normal parking spots are just fine)
Maintenance (usually free, you just have to put in a request)
Cons:
Expensive — But you are literally paying for the convenience. Especially if you go to sac state & don’t have a car.
Hours of the shuttle — I frequently have night classes & the shuttle ends at 6:45 so i have to find my own way home.
Office hours — The office recently changed their hours so they open later & close earlier. You have to make sure you get in there at the right time to get your parking pass for the night or packages in the mail.
Overall I’ve enjoyed my stay here but unfortunately I will not be renewing my lease because I am graduating! Woohoo.

*WARNING* you will be scammed.
Worst apartment complex I’ve ever lived at! This place looks nice but it’s a rathole once you move in. The staff does a really good job trying to block all the reviews on this place to «keep a nice image» but look for yourself \/​\/​\/​look at all the reviews that have been removed.
Everyone hates this place once they move in.
*YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*

Just don’t move here!
The ONLY highlight about this place is that its near SacState, there management is horrible and you get fined for almost everything once you move out.
False advertisement on a lot of things for example they say you can print for free as long as you bring your own paper… except they are always out of ink & and there’s a limit of 10 pages per person. There shuttle service is nice but, there are way too many people trying to ride it, and you almost always have to wait for the next one (still rushing to the front of the line just to get a seat). Too keep it short, the apartment appear nicer than they really are, take my advice save your money and live somewhere else!

They’re renovating and maintaining the facilities here. It’s not as bad as everyone says it is. Maintenance here fixes everything in a day, and when I first moved in, everything looked brand new. I think they’re under new management but all-​in-​all, I don’t mind living here. They have a pool, workout area, and a common room for all the residents. The staff basically knows you by name and they’re all extremely helpful.

Why I chose to Live in The Element?
Before I moved into The Element apartment complex, there were only three reasons that caused me to choose to live here: it is close to CSUS, is a reasonable price, and has a clean environment. Now I have more reasons to tell about why I am perfectly content with this place. In addition, I like the security because the security can arrive at my house in less than one minute, which could help me when an emergency happens. Concerning this location, the Element is close to a Target, a railway and bus station, and some restaurants, which is convenient for me to buy stuff, to take buses or trains, and to solve hunger issues. Furthermore, there are many free things that residents can use in the Element. For example, apartment printers, the gym, the basketball and volleyball courts, the ping-​pong and pool tables, the swimming pool, the hot spring, and barbecues. There is one thing I should mention: it is awesome that the office is responsible for free fixing of house stuff such as lights, faucets, laundry facilities and everything in the room. My favorite thing in The Element is the shuttle bus because it only takes 6 minutes to arrive at the university Union, which gives me a lot of convenience because driving to school takes me approximately 20 minutes to find a parking place and walking to school takes me 30 minutes. Terribly, riding bicycle is hot in Summer and cold in Winter. So the shuttle bus is the best choice to go to school because it goes directly from my home to Union. On the other hand, many college students live in The Element, and they also take the shuttle to school, which gives me a good chance to talk to them everyday, and I may get unexpected benefits such as new friends and new English words. Also, I like The Element so much because the staff is so friendly to me, and they help me with everything even school stuff and life stuff. I do homework and enjoy the life here everyday because I like everything here. The Element gives me the feeling of American home and I’m perfectly content to live here.

The elements.
I had a great experience at the elements, for I have been living here for 2 years without any problems. When anything broke on me the maintenance came to fix it for free within a reasonable time and with my consent. I love how we have Comcast for FREE and Internet services for FREE. For the students who attend Sacramento state there is a shuttle to school and it is only a 15-​minute walk, which is supper CONVIENT.
Don’t judge the reviews that you read down below or above me. Do your research and determine within that if this is a suitable place for you.

Lived here for 2 years, got 2 bikes jacked, my apt got broken into and nothing was done about it. I honestly didn’t feel safe living here. The management is a complete joke & the manager was straight up racist & hostile. I always had to call for maintenance because the apartment literally always fell apart on us especially because is built with the cheapest material possible.
The parking here is terrible, if you don’t have a parking pass or a guest pass, YOUR CAR WILL GET TOWED. It costs around $ 200 to get the car back too. You can only get a parking pass at the front office during office hours. So if your friend decides to crash your place to study (or to party) they should park on Redding Ave between 4^th Ave and San Joanqun St. It’s RIGHT next to a park.
The amenities are nice, IF you can use them. The gym is pretty small and usually packed. The pool and spa is nice, if the gates weren’t locked. You get crap from management for putting stuff like a chair or bike on your balcony/​pouches. The maintenance folks are able to come in and out of your place and usually would give you a «24 hour notice» sometimes not, just to ‘check’ on things like your fire extinguisher or to see if your unused room in the apartment was occupied, when you weren’t at the apartment.
The security is quite a joke. Like I said, I got my bike stolen 2x and my place broken into. Where was the securities when I needed them? Nowhere. And the intrusion alarm doesn’t work.
I would not suggest the assigned roommates option. I did that 2x and I had a terrible experience. YES, it is convenient that you just pay the rent by the room, however, splitting on the SMUD and gas bill is a pain in the ass with other housemates, especially those who are cheap as hell.
Some pros (I’m not here just to bash the entire place geez):
— The place is super close to CSUS. It’s like a 15 – 20 minute bike ride OR 30 minute by walking.
— It’s RIGHT across from Target & a Wing Stop
— There is a shuttle that brings you to and from CSUS, but it’s almost always packed and you can’t always rely on it
— The amenities are nice, BUT only if you can use it.
This place needs so much improvements to make this place better, but under the management that they have, it’s a lost cause. Why do you think they had to rename the place hella times and change the management so many times. It says something about this place. I wish THE BEST of luck to those who chose to live here. If you have the money to pay to live here, you should try to get a few friends and rent a house for cheaper and save yourself some headache.
BTW, at the bottom of the reviews there this button called «FILTERED» in grey! CLICK it for MORE reviews about The Element. There aren’t just like 5 up on Unilocal

It is one of the best student properties close to Sac State! Very convenient for CSUS students. Apartments are furnished and you get washer and dryer inside your apartment. Going to campus is easy with the shuttle, although it gets busy on some days. The office staff members are constantly holding fun events. Whenever I had any problem at the apartment, it was solved within 24 hours. Plus it is right across the street from Target which makes everything very convenient.

Close to sac state across the street from Target and near freeway!

This place started off as Jefferson Commons, then it changed to The Verge and now its The Element… regardless of the name change this placed represented my first and last job in student housing.
Just writing this review is giving me nightmares. Most of the students who lived there when I worked under JPI as the Residential Manager were sheer terror. Not all the students were contrite but 85% of the first time freshmen partied too hard, got caught up living the life and got robbed while they slept or at gun point and would often come to the office to complain about their negligence.
I personally think the whole sharing a bedroom lease is a recipe for disaster and some cases in proved to be fatal. I hated working at this place and if you are a serious student looking for housing this is NOT the place for you.
K.J.