Birch Creek

Move here from the east coast. Had an electrical issue the first night. Which could have resulted in serious injuries to my husband if he didn’t know what to do. The place was so gross when we moved in . Smells awful like cat urine in the whole apartment. Spent a $100 in cleaning supplies. Would not recommend it. So very disappointed .

Birch Creek management team LOST my rent check and served me with an EVICTION LETTER from the court. They even made little effort to try to find it and communicate with me when it happened. After torturing me for days( missing school, losing sleep, and being scared to lose all my things), when they found the check, not even a word of "sorry" was offered. just "you're good now".

While living here. A silverfish crawled in my ear. A crazy amount of bugs have gotten in. My refrigerator broke twice! I was out of plumbing for 3 days and sewage was coming up through my bathtub. Management does not try to work with you and there are a lot of hidden fees. Save your money; the scenery is not worth it.

I called this apartment asking for a breakdown of deposit, application, and rent costs. The person who was on the phone: someone called Tracy was extremely unhelpful and rude. She condescendingly told me to read the email and subtract one number from the other and tell her the differance. I think we can all agree it's bad customer service if the staff starts asking questions and making demands from the customer about how much money is due in a bill.

We are the current tenants living at Birch Creek, so far we think all the amenities in here seem okay. HOWEVER, there’s a big issue about losing packages!!! Every time the packages deliver to the clubhouse, if you are not able to get the package at the same day as it comes, the package will be GONE or Stolen!!!!! It seems like someone knew when the packages arrive and wait to see if there’s no one come to pick up, they will take away the packages. We’ve been to trying to reach out the Birch Creek management office through phone or email several times but got not luck to response! This is UNACCEPTABLE since we only live in here for about eight months, but we’ve lost our packages for like 7-8 times!! We are feeling extremely UNSAFE to buy items and ship it to the apartment right now. I’m writing the reviews here and hope the management office will see it and give us some RESPONSES. And bring attention to the security issue!!

Dirty and old building. I never felt so poor before living here.

Living at Birch Creek.... We will start with the highs. - beautiful, mature landscaping. grounds maintenance man works really hard in his weekly visit to make it very nice - good location - fairly good layout of space - staff is QUICK to respond and act (I would give most of the staff HIGH marks) - fitness center and community room now the MANY lows ... - VERY expensive based on what you get - very OLD property with the original single pane windows and plumbing - electric floor heaters, NO a/c (extremely cold in the winter) - low popcorn ceilings - NOISE, NOISE, NOISE - You WILL hear almost EVERYTHING from your neighbors. If you are on the bottom floor, it is not pleasant hearing your neighbors walking above you, when they take showers, having sex, etc. If they water plants or pour out water, it will rain down to your patio, same with dirt. - Most bedrooms are on the parking lot side, meaning that there can and will be some noise, and when your windows are open pollution and dirt debris. - There ARE rodents on the property. RATS AND MICE were a frequent sighting, even though there is a pest control service. (rodents love the ivy) - Students WILL pile into apartments over the limit (and not on the lease) - You pay high rates for their water/electric fee (based on how many live in your unit), as well as pay the other required electric in another bill. There are no individual meters, so the cost in split amongst apartments based on occupancy. This is where you get a bit screwed paying for apartments with folks NOT on the lease. - It is true that quite a bit of your deposit will not be returned, but they are very UPFRONT about that fact. - It IS a SMOKING property. There is a city ordinance to protect non smokers in community areas, but that rule is CONSTANTLY broken with zero consequences.

Really bad customer service. Arrived at the office a few minutes before close after booking self-tour through the call center and the agent refused to let me in. I moved on with my search

The staff (Sierra) is nice. Other than that, everything else at Birch Creek added to the ultimately negative experience we had. First, apartment quality is horrible for the price. Paint flakes off from ceiling, walls and doors, the apartment is dirty even after move-in. There is no circulation and the vents are faulty. We had to spend our last two months of our lease with doors and windows cracked open to get fresh air. Bugs were everywhere, ceiling and walls were not sound-proof. The ceiling is very low also. Second, the amenities are horrible. The clubhouse is constantly occupied by community college students (because the apartments weren't fit to stay in for any extended period of time). The gym doesn't have ventilation and the attached restrooms are disgusting. They have mini-saunas, but their construction workers make full use of the amenities and there isn't much space for tenants. Third, they are fraudulent with their move-out billing. They offer an express cleaning charge so that we can avoid paying cleaning fees after the inspection. After they billed us for the express cleaning, they billed us again for the regular cleaning fees. They billed us for repairs for damages that we identified when we first moved in. My roommate suggested they keep the scratches/etc there so they can bait each new tenant into paying for the repair fees... I highly recommend looking at any other place. While this may be a cheaper option, one or two hundred dollars more can give you a place where you don't dread coming home. (A place in Sunnyvale or Redwood City would give better access to Caltrain, even.) We originally thought we could live here because we could just sleep there and escape it during the day and even in the evening. Instead, even just sleeping here has made us regret the decision we've made.

Living at Birch Creek definitely has lots of highs and lows. We will start with the highs. - beautiful, mature landscaping. grounds maintenance man works really hard in his weekly visit to make it very nice - good location - fairly good layout of space - staff is QUICK to respond and act (I would give most of the staff HIGH marks) - fitness center and community room now the lows ... - VERY expensive based on what you get - very OLD property with the original single pane windows and plumbing - electric floor heaters, no a/c - You WILL hear almost EVERYTHING from your neighbors. If you are on the bottom floor, it is not pleasant hearing your neighbors walking above you, when they take showers, having sex, etc. If they water plants or pour out water, it will rain down to your patio. - Most bedrooms are on the parking lot side, meaning that there can and will be some noise, and when your windows are open pollution and dirt debris. - There ARE rodents on the property. Rats and mice were a frequent sighting, even though there is a pest control service. (rodents love the ivy) - Students WILL pile into apartments over the limit (and not on the lease) - You pay high rates for their water/electric fee (based on how many live in your unit), as well as pay the other required electric in another bill. There are no individual meters, so the cost in split amongst apartments based on occupancy. This is where you get a bit screwed paying for apartments with folks NOT on the lease. - It is true that quite a bit of your deposit will not be returned, but they are very UPFRONT about that fact. - It IS a SMOKING property. There is a city ordinance to protect non smokers in community areas, but that rule is CONSTANTLY broken with zero consequences.

This is absolutely the worst renting experience we have ever had. The quality of the apartment does not worth the renting price. What's worse, the management group is very dishonest and always tries to make money by tricks!!! We are experiencing an moving-out issue with them and it really suffers to communicate with the managers, their attitudes are bad and most of the time, just yell at you and make you leave the leasing office! If I had ever opened BBB and saw all those complaints against Birch Creek and UDR (to which birch creek apartment belongs), I would never ever chose this place!!!!!! My suggestion for future residents: RUN AWAY FROM THIS PLACE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! This is absolutely for your best!!

I love my home. The staff are super nice and will go out of their way to show you that you are a Valued tenant. Great community for young couples; single parents; seniors;single people & safe for children. It is culturally diverse and management takes every opportunity for us to mix and mingle.

I've lived here for several years. The staff are generally friendly; the maintenance staff in particular are great. My only complaint is that rent keeps rising because of the demand for the neighborhood. If you move in here, just be prepared to pay more each year. Otherwise, the apartments are big, they welcome pets, and the trees and creeks all throughout the complex are awesome.