Trailhead Apartments at Tam Junction - Mill Valley, California

Andres S.

Where do I even begin with this place?

Let's start with the only good thing. Federico the maintenance man is INCREDIBLE! He is honest, timely, and knowledgeable about his job. It is a shame how he is treated by the complex manager.

That being said, the complex manager is horrible she will sweet-talk you and stoops to new lows by lying about utilities to close deals. She will conveniently omit crucial information, leaving tenants blindsided by unexpected bills. You will be sharing utilities (trash/sewer/water) with the whole complex not just your building as stated. The complex "uses" a RUBS formula to figure out your portion but good luck trying to get an explanation on how your portion is actually calculated. She will feign ignorance.

She will "forget" to mention that since the utilities are shared you will be paying the utilities of the the 21 grandfathered apartments in the complex that are mentioned nowhere in the contract.There are many tenants here that have mold in the apartments, see previous post, and they will "fix" this as slow as possible. One of the tenants moved out recently because their building got water damage from crack in the building caused by a tilt in the apartment. BEWARE!

People in this community have left because they are left with no choice due to the unforeseen high cost, lack transparency and accountability.

Avoid renting here if you value honesty.

Ellen L.

Antoinette is terrific, capable, quick to respond, friendly, professional, knowledgeable, gets things done, apart from her which is all good, the utilities here are astronomical.

Faith P.

I am so thankful and delighted that I have been given the opportunity to live and start a new chapter of my life at Trailhead Apartments. It is so refreshing and reassuring to be able to live in a place that has such dedicated and caring people as tenants and along with the outstanding people at Trailhead Apartments properties. So blessed are we to live in this little heaven on earth. With a goodness that can grow from the harmony and respect that one has grow and cares.for. Any things is possible with the will of our Lord's love to guide us.

F.Proctor

Lyonell L.

If I could give a rating of 0 I would without hesitation. Me & my family have been renting for a little over a year. Early in our renting journey, Trailhead changed management. The new landlord has been nothing but terrible in so many ways. These have been witnessed first hand or witnessed/included another individuals and then told to me directly. I am extremely unimpressed with this new landlord as someone who is supposed to be "professional". For her, business is business and nothing else. She doesn't realize that this is where people live and it's part of our livelihood. She lacks empathy, compassion, & professionalism. Below are examples of both quotes of things that she has said as well as situations that have occurred.

-"I don't care if anyone likes me, it means I'm doing my job."
-incident w/ another employee where individual was sick/not feeling well (blatantly looking very unwell), denied him leaving early because she didn't want to fall behind on work around the property, denial led to sickness worsening drastically and resulted in hospitalization; my husband was standing there when individual was denied after asking to go home and rest
-will say one thing to one tenant and something else to another; inconsistent
-didn't want to give me new closet doors for my daughter's room despite the mirrors being in a safety hazard state; frame of mirror doors were broken, glass was exposed
-didn't want to give me wooden sliding doors despite being safer and wanted to continue to replace the current doors with MORE mirror doors because it was cheaper for her budget
-has made racist/discriminatory comments to prior neighbors before they moved out; "I don't know about where you're from, but here in America we pay taxes."
-talks about tenants behind their backs
-overheard by my neighbor speaking about my personal finances with higher ups to the extent that's none of her business; "What could they be spending their money on?" and "They get paid and spend it right away."

She has made this property uncomfortable to live on. No one should have to feel this way when trying to call a place home.

B B.

DO NOT RENT HERE!

BEWARE OF HARASSMENT, INTIMIDATION AND BEING LEFT ALONE IN VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION of unwell manic neighbor.

After living here quite a peaceful life for some time, new ownership took over at the end of 2019 and started using slumlords techniques to push all old tenants out. First they disregarded the "grandfather" law and tried to charge all tenants for parking and storage units that came with the original apartments' leases ... Many tenants had to hire professional legal help to fight back!
Hidden utilities cost: They started charging for water, waste water and garbage - in a way that is absolutely not well calculated and you end up paying for your neighbors usage of water/wastewater. Many people travel for work and still pay exact the same amount for utilities as everyone else who never leaves their place. Yet, everyone has their separate meter .. This is on top of your PG&E and Internet. It is few hundred dollars extra for very outdated mold infested units that have not been fixed or updated since 1970s. The foundation of many unit buildings are failing, water damage is hushed and they use caulking on everything to temporarily fix it. There is serious mold issues in each unit and building and causing illnesses and diseases to many tenants. If you have children or you're an elderly person - this is very unhealthy and unsafe environment!
For example - we lived for 9 months with a hole in the wall that was connected to neighbors' apartment. Thankfully, our neighbors are very nice and friends, but not having any privacy from your neighbors for 9 months is absolutely surreal! The management decided to "fix" it with a caulk ... WOW.
Management is almost impossible to reach. Usually no one gets back to you for weeks or even months. Yet, they are suppose to be live-in and the office is located in the complex - hardly anyone is ever here! If they are, you will meet with very rude attitude and being brushed off.
One of the newest things is paying rent online ONLY via very suspicious account with a 60 Dollar processing fee on top of your overpriced rent! If you can't afford to pay extra $60 for the processing fee, there's no other way to pay rent! You have to chase down the "manager" and make sure they will accept your check and make sure they won't lose it and actually process it on time!
I would highly NOT recommend to rent here at all! Investment companies like this is what makes California unlivable place and pushes hard working middle class out of the area!

Lynn E.

Annette was totally helpful in guiding me through the visit to the unit and the application process. My temporary situation created unusual problems and she smoothed things out and made it possible for me to be able to leave my house for the sales prep process. I have been here for almost 2 weeks and everyone I have met has been super friendly and helpful. I especially love that it is a diverse community with a level of welcome and acceptance that I have rarely found in the past. Annette and the community are highly recommended.

Gabriela A.

Please do not move to this apartment complex, the management team is the worst. The first thing they lie to you, the school district your kids (elementary and middle school) will be attending is Sausalito, not Mill Valley.
Second, you will be paying for water, sewer, and garbage; they will sell it to you saying that the bill will be between $150 and $200. We were paying $475 and for the last 3 months $525. All the apartments have mold, my apartment has water intrusion from one of the walls, the floor foundation was rotten, the kitchen cabinet was moldy, and the bathroom and bedroom have water intrusion and mold. They moved us to a 1 bedroom apartment while they fixed the apartment when we paid for 3 bedrooms, they were supposed to pay for PG&E, Internet Service, and meals during the time we were out (28 days) we moved out yesterday and the manager told us to contact the corporative office to ask for the check, on January 28th-2024 she told me the check will be ready in two weeks. Please do not move to this place if you do not want to deal with all the stress we have. This happened to multiple tenants, this is not a good place to live. 0 stars for sure!!!

Meghan H.

We lived in a 1 bedroom lower unit at Trailhead for less than a year. The location and community is great, but we would not recommend living there. We now live in a beautiful 2 bedroom standalone apartment/duplex in Mill Valley with a private backyard, a front yard, and ample storage and parking for less rent than we paid for a 1 BR at Trailhead, and substantially lest when accounting for monthly utilities. Below are some of our issues with Trailhead that you should keep in mind if you’re considering moving in!

1. Final Security Deposit: When we left the apartment, we were charged for the cost of routine cleaning, paint touchup, etc - even though our lease terms specifically indicated that the security deposit is not to be used for normal “wear and tear” and routine cleaning, pursuant to the law (Civ. Code §1950.5(b)(2)). Trailhead never disclosed to us any to these policies of needing to pay for routine cleaning and painting, and we are still trying to push back today, with almost $800 deducted for routine maintenance that was absolutely no mentioned in our lease.

2. Horrible Noise Permeation: We lived in a lower (first floor) unit. We have lived in many, many apartments in our lives - including very old buildings in San Francisco - and have never had such poor noise insulation. We could hear truly everything from the above unit, and as residents with residential architecture/construction experience, it became very clear that there was no sound insulation in the floor plate. Not only could we hear footsteps, jumping, and music incredibly loud- but we could hear full conversations and talking. It was unbearable. We recommended multiple times that they need to consider insulating the plenum space, because we had heard the renter turnover rate in the lower level apartments was incredibly high. But the property managers showed no interest.

3. Mold: If you consider moving in and have any sinus or other health issues that might make you sensitive to mold, please make sure you ask the property manager to test your apartment for mold in the walls. We never were able to get someone in to test the walls, but there was a very strong smell of mold in our apartment that got worse whenever it rained (in particular in our bathroom/around the washing machine). We kept the apartment incredibly clean, and we knew other tenants who moved out because of mold and poor natural ventilation.

4. Servicing: Our washing machine and dryer were incredibly loud - they shook the whole apartment whenever we used them. We asked multiple times to have someone come take a look a them, but no one ever came.

5. Utilities: Make sure you ask about the cost of utility before you move in. They were exorbitantly high compared to all other properties we looked at, as Trailhead uses a single company to charge water, sewer, and trash and it cost over $200 a month. This, of course, doesn’t include gas/electric and internet.