PlayaLife I.V., goleta-cal

This company and the owner Richard appear to be a woman hater, pray on young collage aged girls. He will illegally place young women in unpermitted living quarters to make a buck. He has placed 4 young women in a garage with no ventilation, no access to bathroom facilities. He allows the other tenants in the property to physically alter the door to intimidate, bully and intentionally keep the girls confined to the garage. He has been notified of the situation and has responded “get a lawyer “. He is very aware of code enforcement and still he plays the bully king. Look at me I own the property you can’t touch me. His lust for money and disrespect for tenant and the law is uncanny. Purely motivate by greed and Satin. The resolution to the problem is to let the girls out of there lease, refund there deposits and move on. Get a lawyer is Richard’s response. He and satin possess a vast net work of Wealth at the cost of unsuspected collage students. My review is stay clear of Playa life IV. Playa Live IV will suck the life out of who ever challenges him.

Very disappointing experience with Playalife IV Management. We disputed a $150 garbage-disposal service charge because the disposal was still not working properly after the reported service visit. Management said it had video supporting the charge but did not provide it when requested. When I continued trying to resolve the issue, management responded: “Please stop communicating with this office as you are not even a tenant.” I am the parent of one of the tenants. I expected documentation, respectful communication, and a reasonable effort to resolve the dispute. Based on my experience, I would not recommend Playalife IV Management.

Richard Doherty is by far the worst landlord we have ever had. He will take advantage of you and make things up to keep your security deposit. We also had a severe mold problem. We got our house professionally tested and it came back with incredibly dangerous levels of toxic black mold. Even after showing him this he just brushed us off and did nothing about it. He also let random people into our house with no warning constantly. As young girls we felt very uncomfortable with this. We also came home from class one day to one of our bathrooms being completely destroyed with no warning and our stuff being thrown everywhere. We were then forced to move out of the room attached to the bathroom for over a week and when this was brought up to Richard he yelled at us and told us to get out of his office. This is not unusual however, because since he does not answer emails you are forced to talked to him in person and the conversation always ends with him screaming at you to get out, even when everything he does is illegal. We were always very nice to him but his anger issues are uncontrolled. Do not sign a lease with Playa Life!!

Playa Life takes advantage of the fact that they are one of the only management companies in Goleta with units in Del Playa. My daughter and 13 other girls crammed into 6555 which has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. On the day we moved in (mid-August) other roommates had already shown up and we were all surprised at the condition of the unit. Had we to do it over, we would have photographed all damage and poor conditions as well as the filth instead of just being so enamored with the location and view. What followed over the rest of the year was a series of issues (some major & some minor) all with the same theme of a lack of responsiveness and professionalism from the management company. One of the two showers was out of commission for two months. The washer and dryer both failed multiple times. The sink leaked. There was strange dampness on floors. Cabinets that were broken or missing shelves were never fixed. Refrigerators failed. Lots and lots of plumbing issues. When maintenance requests were submitted and unresolved, the residents living at the unit reached out to the management company and were met with hostile and threatening responses and always blamed the occupants for whatever issue occurred. If I had it to do over again, I would’ve done my homework. I hope those who are looking at the reviews realize that the 5* reviews are all spurious (written by accounts with 1 review etc). If you have other options, please exercise them. Or at the least, protect yourself and deposit with good documentation from the outset.

This company is horrible. The guy really ought to consider another line of work. Rude, unprofessional, and dishonest. Does not return phone calls, made up charges to retain significant portion of security deposit and apparently is forcing me to puruse small claims court. One star is generous. Updating this review to note that I am considering a class action lawsuit against this guy and his company. Seems pretty clear that the wrongful retention of security deposit funds is a common practice. We have a few named plaintiffs lined up but will likely pursue small claims court first.