I've lived in my place since 2019, thru a few challenges I can say Anna has been amazing, kind, professionional and extremely understanding. My place is clean no problems with bugs infact I've not seen any, she makes sure if anything comes up they respond timely. Honestly if it wasn't for her I wouldn't put up with the unprofessionalism and flip flop moods of Leslie. I'll say this they should appreciate her because she's meaning Anna is an amazing person and our building really loves her. I give them 3 stars due to Anna and I hope Ms Councill realizes what they have and that our entire community loves her and the day she leaves we'll all leave honestly. read more

Went in to turn in my application with my husband yesterday and was told just because I was on disability my income wouldn't qualify me but they never took a look at my husband's income who makes 3x the amount they were asking for the apartment. Told them that they can just put My husband name on the application and was told ohh no I'm going to be living there too well yes I will because we're married. Forgot to add they asks for a marriage certificate just for us to rent a apartment who does that was it because I'm of a different nationality. Not a good company to rent from just I would run away far from this company and all the bad reviews on here Thank you Jesus we did not rent from them. read more

Worse management company I have ever encountered! Extremely unprofessional and unresponsive to the property owner and my tenants. Absolutely no excuse for their continious errors and accounting mistakes. It's beyond obvious, all they care about is the mighty dollar. Sad! read more

I lived there with my son for 5 years and moved out in the 6th. We had neighbors from hell sneaking their trash into our garbage can with 6 cars parked in a 4 car parking lot and nothing being done about it. When we moved into this nasty apartment, I didn't have a choice because i needed a place to live and unfortunately this place was it. It's located at 2700 Colonial Ave. apt A. Not only that, the person who lives across the parking lot, has someone who works for him and he also puts trash in the cans at 2700. Mr Grant is a very nasty individual who at first gave me a move in discount and $100.00 because I had to clean the apartment myself. I didn't have time to wait for it to be cleaned because I had an emergency situation and the former tenants left it filthy and it smelled. long story short, Mr. Grant stopped me from getting when I needed it because he said I took the place as is and the only service I got from then on was when wasps were making nests and a problem with ants coming through the bedroom windows. We cleaned the apartment as directed and the carpets and was told to get a receipt from the company who cleaned it. The carpet company said they didn't give receipts but sent me an itemized list of every thing that was done. It took about 2 months before I got a check for $500.00 and saw where they kept $140.00 because they didn't get a receipt. The information I sent for the carpet was ignored. I filed a suit against Mr. Grant and when I went to court I found that They had sent a lawyer instead. He called the charges petty and said Mr. Grant was hospitalized and the Judge said that I had sued the wrong person who is Susan Councill. I had already spent enough money to get this suit and decided it wasn't worth it to have to spend anymore. The Judge dropped the charges and I had to leave it at that but one word of advise is to not rent any properties of Council realty. I didn't mention the roaches and there were many. I took care of that myself but please don't move into their properties because if you do you won't be able to break the lease and you'll have 12 months of misery. I'll also note that the place I moved from is unsafe to live in. The building is falling apart. read more

Had I known how bad it would be to rent a property from this company I would have run down the street screaming in fear or lived in my car. If I had read the reviews a year ago I would have seen that Council Realty in Norfolk is the demon seed of a title loan and mafia shark who had a baby. The apartment at 1055 46th was a small, old somewhat dingy apartment with just the basics but in a great location close to the university. The place was a fire trap with wooden stairs and floor boards on 3 floors but I knew that going in so that's on me. The security deposit alone was astronomical so I thought, being a relatively clean person who wouldn't be there much I could certainly expect to get most if not all of it back as I had from other rentals. WRONG!!! They charged for things like replace drip pans under the refrigerator, a week of extra rent because apparently it is perfectly acceptable to rip off students by charging them a full month's rent but requiring them to be out of the apartment a full week before the end of the month or pay a daily occupancy rate (Say what??) in very very small print on the lease I was rudely told. Needless to say, despite my best efforts to leave the place clean without even wear and tear, I was apparently such a pig that they kept the entire $1200 security deposit and tacked on an extra $600 for things like repaint the whole place because there was a black mark on the wall, clean the stove and the refrigerator (I could have sworn I did that) take out trash - what this consisted of I don't know; maybe a piece of string or shard of toilet paper, and of course, $150 for "bathroom mold removal." Um, no. But there is no one you can talk to about anything who gives a crap about customer service. They are either overworked and underpaid and taking it out on renters, or they are all Nurse Ratchetts in the guise of property managers. Having rented successfully from ODU Rents and some other area property managers, I thought that this company would be comparable, but was I ever wrong. Oh Yelp, why did I not read your reviews first? I'd be at least $2000 richer in returned security deposit and fees alone! I know students can be a desperate group of people when it comes to renting apartments, but if this was close to a military base instead of a university it would be determined to be off limits to military personnel for their outlandish rental practices. But they have nothing to worry about and no reason to change because every year there is a new crop of unsuspecting students and their parents to rent their substandard properties. But if I can warn off even one person from this rental/property management company, then I will have done something good out of a very very bad experience. Yelp is here for a reason, folks, Read it and heed it! read more

My roommate and I lived in their property for two years, and always enjoyed their staff. The apartment we rented had a severe roach issue when we first moved in, and Councill readily sent people to spray every two weeks (or whenever we requested). When we put in a work order to fix things, most of the time they were fixed (with the exclusion of our screen door, as well as a window in our living room. These two things were never fixed.). We were not told that we would have to have the carpets professionally cleaned before officially moving out until the check out list was given (I believe this was added at some point during the two years we lived there, but were never informed about it until we were checking out). We did, in fact, get the carpets professionally cleaned, but while we were waiting for our deposit check, we instead received a bill demanding $700 additional, on top of the deposit they were refusing to repay. We had to go to Councill, call them, and finally they told us that not only were the carpets not cleaned, the window was broken and the screen on the back door was broken (all things we asked to have fixed within our second year of living there). After we called with our concern of being charged over $1,000, we had to begin to pursue a lawyer, who then led us to the Small Claims Court paperwork. Only until then did Councill drop the money charges and a few weeks later did they send us our deposit check. After dealing with this and how shiesty they were, specifically Mr. Councill and his daughter (the front receptionists were always kind towards us), I would never recommend renting with them or ever rent with them again. We rented the apartment on 115 Delaware Ave, right by their office. read more

The representative assigned to my former property, Mr. Grant, was horribly unresponsive and seemed to have little concern or urgency in regards to maintenance requests I had submitted. Now that I and my roommates have moved out, we are being charged for deficiencies that we had noted upon moving in and conducting an inspection of the house. Some of these charges, we are told, haven't even been taken care of yet despite the fact that we were charged "service fees" to take care of them. Other representatives may be better, but overall it was a bad experience renting from Councill and continues to be. read more

If you need an apartment in Norfolk/Portsmouth, this is by far the best place to rent from! I love Councill Realty, and I'm sad they are not our current Property Manager. (i.e. Check out my feelings on Nancy Chandler Associates) Point #1: I lived in a one bedroom apartment at 1812 Core Ave. (Ghent) for 4 years, and it was by far, the nicest, most well maintained, reasonably priced apartment I had ever seen for that price in Ghent. Most of the affordable apartments in the Ghent area are very charming old buildings, with tons of potential and character, but they have not been well maintained and are managed by lazy companies who put no effort or money into maintaining/fixing/updating them. Before that, my husband had lived in one of their 2 bedroom apartments on Pennsylvania Ave. (Riverview). His experience was amazing, as well. Point #2: The staff and management is the friendliest, most accommodating and helpful staff I have had the pleasure of dealing with in my past home hunting. They let you check out the keys to the apartments you want to look at in return for a deposit, so you can peruse the locations without the annoyance of relying on a realtor. They answer work orders quickly and pleasantly. Each location is freshly painted and spotless prior to the new tenant's move-in. They recently put up a website, which is one thing I'd wished they'd had when I was hunting for homes in 2006! http://councillrealtymanagement.com/rentals/ Previously, all interested tenants had to go directly to the office to get the list of available rentals or drive around tirelessly looking for buildings with the Councill plaque on the building to call and ask if there was availability. Start here when you are looking to move! read more

Me and my wife rented in an apartment from councill and lived there for 4 years. We was such in a rush to find a place we overlooked how terrible the duplex condition really was. Being that I remodel homes I figured I could work with the landlord and repair a few items in the home. Needless to say when I called for things to get done, he took his time and I ended up doing repairs myself. Me, my wife, and our 2 kids moved out July 2018. Hired a professional carpet cleaning company and regular cleaning company to clean the place when we moved. Now councill management is saying that we left the place trashed and owe them over $500 and the carpet was ripped up with hardwood replacing it. We spent over $100 for that carpet to be cleaned and the same for the cleaning which councill told my wife that we were ripped off. I called the professional cleaning service that cleaned all the remodeled homes that I've worked on and for them to say that me and my wife left the place trashed was a smack in our face. I put a new stove, ceiling fan, vanity, and installed a hose for the water heater when it was leaking. I wouldn't recommend anybody to this property management. Thee worst ever!!! read more

While living at a property in Portsmouth, managed by Councill, I had the absolute worst living conditions and the least assistance ever from a property management company. During the 4 years I lived in the property, our ceiling caved in three times (two of the times also involved water flooding down into my things from the ceiling), there was constant spider bites and other pest issues, there was mold, we once had our front window busted and they taped a food lion bag to the window and left it that way for weeks. There are lots of holes that lead inside the walls. When you try to contact them they do not help. One evening our lock stopped working on our front door and we couldn't get into the apartment. When we called, we were told "im sorry it's after hours and that is not an emergency". Not being able to get into my apartment due to their cheapness was not an emergency? After all of the things we went through, after my $800 dollar piano was ruined by their incompetence, they still tried to charge us for cleanup etc when we moved out. These people do not properly manage their properties, they do not care about their tenants, and they're just all around worthless. Do not use any property managed by these people read more

Prior to moving in the AC seemed to work upon initial inspection. Once we signed the lease and moved in the AC was not working at all and to make things worse they didn't consider it an emergency. Eventhough we have a disabled person in the home, two minor children and it's the middle of summer they still treat it as a regular work order. It has been nearly a week in our new home with no AC. Staff seems to be nice but this is unacceptable and an awful start. Hopefully things will improve. read more

The apartments in 1049 49th st., are severely infested with bed bugs and management doesn't seem to care that much. One of their employees, Leslie Councill (which happens to be the owner's daughter as well) is probably the rudest employee that I've ever seen in my life. In response to my legitimate complaint about the bedbugs, she told me that "I don't want to listen to you BS anymore" and she just walked away. Don't let the cheap rents lure you into this hell-hole, it doesn't worth the everlasting torment of living in this dark abyss. I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. Update: I talked to a few of my neighbors, and it seems that they all had similar experiences with the management and unfortunately their problems haven't been resolved either. I'm going to take this issue to the court! read more

One star because can't give 0 star. They have rude management. They are never ready to listen to your problems. And of course when it comes to give you back your security deposit they are going to eat your money for no reason and when you gonna ask for reason they gonna start ignoring you. Never deal with these people. read more

My biggest mistake in my life was to rent an apartment from council Realty & Management. I cannot say how bad my experience was at 1049 w 49th st. building. Poor building and construction from one hand, rude, impolite irresponsible staffs on the other hand. !! The whole apartment is infested by bedbug !!! We had suffered 9 months from bedbug to finally convince management that we had bedbug in our apartment and they had to take an action to pesticide there. They easily break their word so keep everything written. read more

I had a good experience renting an apartment from Councill Realty. I thoroughly cleaned the apartment and recieved my full deposite back. All communications with my landlord and other Councill Realty staff members were professional and positive. read more

Councill helped me out in a dire need for housing! I was able to get an affordable 2 bedroom/1bath in a 4plex in a quiet neighborhood in Portsmouth. I felt completely safe, and knew my neighbors would look out for my son and I. Pest control was provided whenever I asked for it, and work orders were completed in a timely manner. Leslie and Glori in the office were always accomodating to my complains. My only complaint is that my AC would ALWAYS go out on a holiday weekend, and I would be without AC for a long weekend. I really wish they would have constituted that as an emergency in the summer when the heat index was well above 100. I always refer people to Councill when they are looking for affordable housing! read more

I wish I could give 0 stars but this app doesn't allow that. Renting through Councill Realty was literally a living hell. None of the repairs we requested upon move in were addressed, we had an ongoing debacle with the AC working and not working when it felt like it and them adequately fixing it, and our security deposit situation was handled VERY poorly!! My roommate is from the Eastern Shore so when she graduated she went back there, meaning when the security deposit check was sent back to us it should have been two separate ones for the both of us or made out to me AND/OR her on the check so that I (the local one) could cash it and reimburse her half. They were not at all willing to rewrite a check citing that because we both paid the security deposit there could only be one refund check. DUH we both paid the security deposit! But even that was paid in SEPARATE money orders so why can't our returns be separate also??? Not to mention they are still writing checks with Heritage Bank who has been taken over by Southern Bank since 2015.. UPDATE YOUR CHECKS IT'S 2016! I pray that this issue can be resolved for the sake of my roommate because who wants to drive all the way from the Eastern Shore just for an appearance when the issue could have been resolved in another fashion?? MORAL IS... Save yourself a headache and rent elsewhere! read more

We've had experience with several property management companies in several cities over the past ten years as we've moved out of Norfolk. Councill is by far the superior group. Councill has unfailingly been able to find good people to "share" our old home and also to keep it in good shape for our tenants'​ sake-- and our's. Councill staff are experienced, skilled, honest and impeccably fair. They know their business and they know the area they serve. Recently, we ran into a problem with a check from Councill (caused by Wells Fargo, not Councill.) Councill's bookkeeping staff, as represented by Ellen, saved the day, providing just the kind of knowledgeable service that made the difference. read more

Rented an apartment in Portsmouth that was clean and maintained. Throughout the time, they were quick to address a few concerns I had with neighbors. Fortunately, I required no major maintenance issues in my apartment. The staff was always kind to communicate with, and they allowed me to extend my lease for a month with no issues, as I was waiting to PCS with the military. It would be nice to be able to communicate with them via email or a simple phone call, but all communication and requests had to be sent in writing a mailed letter. I am a clean person and left my apartment clean when I moved and received a full refund on my deposit (which is the first time ever and I have been renting for many years!). Overall I would rent from them again. read more

They were great ,rented a house from them and never had a problem in the 3 years we where there as tenants , Mr Councill and Leslie Councill are true gems as landloards .I highly recommend them and there office staff was so professional John James read more

I have lived in Council 's property (1049 49th st.) for almost 4 years and do not have any complain. Work orders were completed on time and pest control did their job on a timely manner too. read more

Even writing this review is somewhat unpleasant for me, because it's bringing back all the bad memories that I experienced in that awful place. The only reason that I'm writing this review is that I truly feel sorry for all the poor new residents (most of them ODU students) that are moving into 1049 each year. In my point of view, without any doubts, 1049 is the worst possible place that you can find in the area, and this is why: 1) Management is rude and unprofessional: it's true that they make a nice first impression, but wait until you experience your first interaction with them AFTER signing your contract. Furthermore, they are literally stealing from their tenants' security deposits. Each year they charge the tenants that are moving out based on the problems that management never fixes. Because they just know that the new residents usually miss those problems in their primary evaluation of the apartments (e.g., ancient stains in the oven, bathtub, and even around hood filter!!!). 2) Neighbors are loud, inconsiderate, and have low concern for their own personal hygiene: in 1049 it's very common to see your neighbors yelling at each other at 1 am in the weekends, walking in front of your apt barefoot, washing their clothes in their homes by hand and laying them in front of their apts to dry! Furthermore, many of the apts seemed to be over occupied. 3) The apartments are cheaply constructed and poorly maintained. Everything in the apartments is really old and is breaking apart. You'll hear every little noise that your neighbors make (and so will they hear yours). When one of your neighbors take a shower, your whole apartment will start to shake (due to the vibration of the pipes in the walls). 4) The laundry room is always grossly filthy and most of the time over-crowded. 5) If you have a nice car, you might want to park your car as far away from the building as possible, because some twisted sick people enjoy leaving key marks on the cars! And 6) BED BUGS: many of the apartments are bedbug infested, and some neighbors and the management don't care about them!!! Long story short, 1049 is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE place to live. If your care about your physical and psychological well-being, please stay as far away from this place as you can. read more

I wish I could give them a zero. Councill is by far the worst leasing company I have ever rented from. The staff is extremely unprofessional and rude. My husband is very forgiving of bad service, but after he went in to sign the lease he was upset at the way he had been treated. The women in the office are very snappy and act like their tenants are not an important part of their business. The apartments are subpar. The one I lived in had cockroaches all over outside, extremely cheap cabinets in the kitchen, no disposal, no recycling, old carpet, and the worlds smallest bathroom. To move out you have to give them 60 days written notice (even if your lease is ending! They automatically renew it). What joy it was to find out that they had lost my move out letter and told me over the phone they were "unsure" if I would be able to move out at the end of my lease. The worst part about move out was that we were responsible for getting our carpet steam cleaned. I have lived in a half dozen apartments, none of which have required the tenants to pay to have the carpet cleaned. I found this not only peculiar, but a pain in the rear. I would suggest to stay away from councill realty. They are very rude and exceedingly unprofessional. Renting from this company was the worst decision I have made in regards to my living situation. If you do decide to rent from them, make sure you get everything you do with them in writing, in person, seeing as they tend to lose things! read more

This place is absolutely terrible!! When I called in something wrong it would take weeks to send someone out to fix it!! Their employees have terrible attitudes and are rude!!! They have a military clause but make you pay full months rent when you move out even if you only lived in the house one day of the month before moving! !!! read more

I have been a tenant for over a year and I'm quite disappointed. My dishwasher never worked, carpet was dirty when i moved in and the paint job was horrible. This summer (2016) I've had maintenance service my AC over a handful of times and now I'm in the process of having the whole unit replaced but management or staff have yet to reach out to me for a solution while i wait for a ac replacement. The front desk staff is HORRIBLE, Ive had several encounters with Glory & Leslie . None in which i can recall have been pleasant. They seem to never have answers its always , I have to talk to Mr.Council or I can put you to his Voicemail; but of course I've never received a phone call back. Overall; Horrible company to rent from. monthly rent is affordable but customer service and quality of property sucks read more

Cockroaches. Contacted management about it a few times and they sent people to spray. Every time, within two days the roaches were back. Finally bought some raid myself and sprayed cracks in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. I was unpleasantly met by an onslaught of large roaches crawling out of the walls. I couldn't eat in my own apartment from disgust. Thankfully moving out within the month. read more

I would not do business with this company ever again. When you are leasing you are bombarded with a flood of paperwork that shields the company from almost any responsibility for the old, antiquated appliances, cabinets and vanities. They do a poor job with maintenance and I had an air conditioning leak for 2 weeks before it was ever repaired in the middle of the summer. I experienced having water bugs and have seen roaches in other units I was given an opportunity to view. The company does not honor its own pricing list with respect to how your security deposit is withheld. I was a tenant for years and returned my apartment very clean but did not receive any of my deposit. The lease does not convert to a month-to-month lease as one would expect at its conclusion, instead it renews for a year unless you submit a written 60-day notice. This business is not Better Business Bureau accredited. I would strongly suggest anyone who is contemplating doing business with Councill Realty to look and look again before entering into business with this company. read more

Well, I'm not sure where to start from. One thing that I'm sure of is that this company along with its administration are the greediest people that I've seen on planet earth in whole of my life. If you're planning to waste a good amount of money of yours in their rentals, please take a couple of minutes and read what I'm about to say. I rented from them in their building in 1049, only because I was on a budget at the time and it was in the walking distance of ODU. Oh god, do I regret this decision..., this place is shabby, dirty, full of roaches, neighbors are rude, noisy, filthy (they used to hang their underwear, yes bras and panties!, in the hallways to get them dry!!), and most importantly this place is infested with BEDBUGS!!! Ok when we found out that BEDBUGS are attacking us from our dirty neighbors unit, we contacted them, they didn't do anything, and when we asked them to end our contract sooner they asked us for penalty fee! How I regret not taking these nasty people to the court. Long story short we moved out of that hellhole throwing out our brand new sofa, dining table, study desk, TV stand, because of the fear of moving BEDBUGS with us. Also we cleaned that hellhole HARD, because we wanted our deposit back. And surprisingly, after 45 days, we receive a check from them, saying that they've deducted (stolen!) a portion of our money for not cleaning the bath tub and oven!! I was SHOCKED! The condition that we handed over them the tub was waaay cleaner compare to the situation that they gave us the apt. I still cannot believe that they did charge us for that. For now I've reported them to Health Dept. and I will not give up on these greedy people! read more