15-25-35 Oliver Street, Bay Ridge (Brooklyn), NY 11209. Despite four police reports and many other complaints against them, the violent and disruptive tenants are still living at this pretend "high-end" apartment complex. They not only continue residing there, but they keep multiplying. Originally, three moved in, and two years later; there are six of them in the same two bedroom apartment, just like in the projects! The fact that these people are still in the building clearly proves, how incompetent and useless this management company is. These tenants' "rap sheet" includes but not limited to: 1/ VIOLENT, BLOODY BEATING OF A TENANT IN THE HALLWAY OF THE APARTMENT COMPLEX IN JANUARY 2014. (1 police report) Many tenants, not surprisingly, moved out after they witnessed the assault. THE FIRST SERVICE BUILDING MANAGER KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON BUT SHE PREFERRED TO STAY MUM! 2/ THREATENING TENANTS WITH PHYSICAL HARM ON TWO OCCASIONS. (2 police reports) 3/ Crawling around the fire escape peeking into windows. (1 police report) 4/ Throwing burning cigarettes and other trash out the window onto the cars parked below. On one occasion, they threw a coconut out the window. No kidding! A real coconut. First they tried to crack it, by banging it against the pipes, when they got frustrated they chucked it out of the window. (General management memo, complaints from car owners) 5/ Flooding and damaging the apartments below them four times in eight months. (Maintenance records) The school has child services keeping an eye on the female member of this bunch for neglecting her autistic daughter. And there are many other serious issues too with these people and everybody can guess those without them being spelled out... Their landlord appears to be extremely money hungry. He loves to keep these people in the building because he charges them a really high rent. He also knows that the whole apartment complex is scared of these people and they will not speak up or complain. This landlord is also "a sponsor," and happened to own around 40% of the apartments. This means he does whatever he wants. He pretty much rules the whole complex, and First Service Residential allows this to happen. This place is really big on superficial things, things that a naive, prospective buyer/renter would see and fall for, at first sight, like: the manicured courtyard, holiday decor, hallway renovations... They do fail, big time, on the truly important things such as: proper screening of the tenants, having consequences for violent and unruly tenants, or keeping this sponsor in line. The coop by-laws are a mere formality at this place, it is a big joke that they even make you sign it with the rental agreement. They pick and choose to reinforce rules whenever it is convenient for them. And the sponsor always allowed to make his own rules. We payed $1,950 a month for a non-renovated apartment, to live in the same building with the kind of people described above. As an added bonus; our "luxury Shore Road" dwelling (in particular our kitchen) was overrun with cockroaches and water bugs. It was simply disgusting! (Our neighbor across the hall used to battle bedbugs.) Needless to say; we tremendously regret moving in here. We lived over 15 years in Bay Ridge and by far this was the worst place, ever! We wasted two and a half years and thousands of dollars in moving costs because we, stupidly, picked this horrible place over other nicer and better apartment options. (None of the other apartment buildings could have been possibly worse than this dump.) If you are smart, you learn from our horrible mistake and stay away from this place and every single property that is managed by First Service Residential. read more

Shockingly inhumane. As others have said, FSR's number one tactic is to avoid you, never reply to your email, no matter how serious the subject. We have an elected co-op board, but my experience in the past 18 months is that they defer to the non-resident FSR rep about matters that don't concern her at all, nothing to do with physical aspects of the building. The FSR rep is actually our Resident Manager's official "supervisor." This may explain why I've had no reply to multiple correspondences I've addressed to him in the past 15 months. My life in this building in which I've been an owner-resident for 20 years appears to have been turned over to FSR whose smug, condescending, duplicitous behavior is unlike any I've seen before. The last thing I need from a property management company is for it to be traded on NASDAQ as FSR is. FSR website says it partners with NY City government in the global warming, CO2 scare racket: 4/18/2016, "FirstService Residential Hosts NYC Retrofit Accelerator Event," "jointly sponsored by the Mayor's Office of Sustainability and Manhattan's Community Board 6....The event focused on the NYC Retrofit Accelerator Program, through which [co-op] board members and property managers have access to a team of building experts....The panel...covered retrofit strategies, rebate programs, and financing solutions available to help pay for improvements."...FSR Energy website mentions FSR Energy Pres. has "secured millions of dollars in grants and loans from quasi-governmental agencies to subsidize energy related construction for clients managed by FSR New York." FSR obviously considers this to be a great thing. Where did most of these "millions" of quasi-governmental dollars come from? Me and every other taxpayer. Sadly, in an Oct. 2020 memo, our FSR rep. said our co-op board will be working with "First Service Energy and other professionals" on a plan to reduce our building's energy consumption and emissions. Normal people always seek to be careful in their energy use, but that doesn't mean you become partners with deeply corrupt NY City government, its massive CO2 bureaucracy, cheer expensive "retrofitting" it promotes, or place credence in the scary "energy score" NY City posts on your building: Mon., 4/18/2016, "FirstService Residential Hosts NYC Retrofit Accelerator Event."...FirstService Energy is an Energy Star partner (US gov.)...FSR promotes "The NYC Carbon [Dioxide] Challenge...an initiative that helps organizations support the city's long-term sustainability agenda."..."As a NYC Retrofit Accelerator Partner, FirstService Residential has committed to developing holistic energy efficiency capital plans."...FSR's NASDAQ stock is doing very well from what I read. I guess the business model is to sell yourself as a big property management company then, once in the door, sell out defenseless building residents to things like the NY City government global warming racket. read more

I'm a Bayside native with my husband. We were so excited to start our new life in Long Island City since we have such a long commute to Midtown. We thought it was time to splurge & live the posh life. We were all set to move in on September 1st to the new luxury condo in LIC, the QLIC at 41-42 24th Street just 1 stop from Manhattan. We gave our landlord a 30 day notice & found out during the lease signing the management for the building is outsourced to First Service Residential. I immediately did research & checked their rating on Yelp because our friends live in apartments managed by FSR & are very unhappy with the way they manage. To my horror, I confirmed it is FSR and saw the scathing 1 star reviews all over Yelp. We immediately decided to not sign the lease and decline the move. The sad part is, my husband and I were looking to start over, but my friends warned us In advance and told us some of the most unbelievable stories about FSR. I doubt paying 3K plus in rent would change their work ethic and professionalism and the amount of rent a tenant pays should not change the treatment a tenant receives. My friends warned us of unresponsiveness, messages left that go unanswered by the property manager, bed bugs, leaking ceilings that don't get fixed for 12 months, broken door knobs, un-attentive super, and so forth. The reviews and photos on Yelp are more than enough reassurance. My husband and I lost the money for the credit check ($100 each), but we thought it was best not to move forward. A friend of ours lives at 43-38 39th Place managed by FSR and there's been an eviction notice hanging on the building front door for over 2 months. Not an eviction for 1 tenant, but the entire building because NYC housing came in and examined the entire property which was deemed not structurally sound and up to current code and regulations. If that isn't the clearest form of mismanagement then I don't know what is. We will be starting our search from ground zero again, and will ask every luxury condo who the management co is, but we are so happy to be safe than sorry. Nobody should pay rent and be mistrested. Everyone deserves a peace of mind. read more

December 2018 update - I have started seeking therapy after my horrible experience with First Service Residential AKA (Zero Service Residential). I do hope the therapy works. I am in emotional distress, and my experience with them has been traumatic. I have never in my entire life been treated in such a way. I work so hard to pay my rent (which is NOT cheap), and all I get is this management company (FSR) taking advantage of me like a bunch of thugs whom have no regard for their tenants (clients), and no ethical moral standards to be professional enough to do their job as property managers. I don't understand how people get paychecks and do NO work. If that is case, can someone give me the application so I can sign up to be useless, but get a paycheck? I had so many issues with the unit and building I was living in and the property manager (Taylor Katz) refused to help me. This is from broken door knobs within the unit, leaky ceiling, BED BUG infestation, and a super that would never sweep/mop the hallways, and wouldn't even change the light bulb in the hallways so the tenants can actually see where they are walking in the evening. All my neighbors in the building had the same issue and got nowhere. All they did was continually collect rent checks, and never respond to any phone calls, voicemail messages, or emails. Utter unprofessional for years and clearly they are continuing to still practice this way based on all the zero reviews on here. I seriously question if that Chinese woman that responds to every Yelp review even cares about the tenants concerns, or just gets a chuckle out of every review, and thinks as long as she gets a paycheck, she will continually provide robotic responses to Yelp reviews with ZERO results. Absolutely a nightmare! As a precaution to everyone, AVOID them at all costs and do your due diligence. One must always ask who is managing their new building. RUN as soon as FSR is mentioned. read more

I've been living in a property managed by FSR for over 3 years. I never have any issues, but when I do have a simple questions, it seems like no one is ever there to answer them. When i ask the super a question the response is always: I don't know. He always ask that i contact the property manager so i do and I leave messages with the messaging service they hire, but then nobody returns my calls. I just have simple questions and want some clarity so I am so surprised that the property manager doesn't return any of my phone calls. I had a question once about the lease renewal as I did not want to fill out the form incorrectly or sign some place that I shouldn't. I decided to send emails for assistance and after 5 weeks, I got zero responses back. I am so confused. I was talking to my neighbor about our lease packet because we've sorta become BFFs and hers didn't include a bed bug form and mine did, but the managing agent failed to sign it. This guy didn't just start signing leases yesterday. He deliberately left it blank because he didn't want to implicate himself. Unbelievable. I am going to finish out my lease which is up in 2 months and just find a new apartment because the treatment that I receive which is "despondent" is ridiculous. A friend of mine has been going through a similar experience and one day over coffee we both were going on and on about our management company from hell and low and behold - we have the same management co. We both have FSR and it was no shocker. The same treatment across the board. For everyone else that is being taken advantage of or when they point the figure that you broke the lease when you had valid reason to, please know that FSR broke the lease first as stipulated on page 2 section 8 of the lease form under: Warranty of Habitability. I don't understand why they fall under 'property management' when they don't manage. read more

there is something deeply wrong with FSR, their executive level and most certainly their HR department. My building has had 4 property managers in 3 years (WHAT?!), one was clearly mentally unstable, the next was a wanna be low level mob enforcer - replete with threats and harassing emails, the next one quit (possibly too sane and stable for FSR) and the current property manager seems to be fine but fairly useless. I can't imagine what sort of vetting process goes on at that company. The HR dept is staffed either by toddlers or mental patients. Stranger still is the attachment FSR seems to have in threatening to sue their residents - what the hell is that about? Why would they be so eager to sue and pass along the costs to their shareholders? There is never an attempt to rationally discuss or mediate - the second a complaint is made a letter comes from FSR threatening a lawsuit. This seems like the less effective, most polarizing and expensive way to solve a problem. The manner in which FSR is run truly leads me to believe the board of my building will soon be rid of them - 4 PMs in 3 years? That speaks volumes. Based on the bulk of other reviews here, if FSR is still a factor in a year I would be shocked. Get your shit together FSR, people talk and boards share info., you cannot continue to do a piss poor job and go unchecked. You are fucking awful and I'm so glad Yelp exists to warn others. I will never buy an apt in an FSR managed building ever again. And don't believe what their rotating cadre of PR chicks say when she replies to these reviews, she's a liar just like the rest of them. They couldn't tell the candid truth if their lives depended on it. Crooks and liars, the lot of them. read more

My building at one point was self managed with a board. We decided to get a management co. Which some of us didn't want to spend the money. The first company we hired was ok but being President I constantly had to be on their backs. The second company we hired was first residential. When I saw the manager they gave us I was a little skeptical because he was young and my super was in building 30+ years and really didn't like being told what to do but....Tomas Rodriguez turned out to be an excellent manager. We worked hand in hand on everything. If I had a problem I called him and he worked on it until it got resolved. He always answers his phone and if he can't because he's in a meeting he'll text me while phone is still ringing saying in meeting call you back when done. He always called back. In this day and age when everyone just wants to sit home and get paid he literally works his butt off. Mind you mine is not the only building he has, he has about eight different buildings. And I'm sure every one of them gets the same amount of attention. He cares about his job, buildings,and people that live in these buildings. He has the patience of a saint because some of these people are arrogant relentless a$&?!";s. Sorry for that but there's no other way to explain them. Tomas handles them with kid gloves. I've seen it with my own eyes and have been amazed because I couldn't do it. I'm sure he's not getting paid enough for the work he does. I hope the higher ups read this because they need to know exactly what a prize they have in Tomas. Thank you for listening Give that man a raise Sincerely Jodie Abruzzese read more

I have lived at my Queens co-op since 1990.  For many, many years, we have had the same Management Company, and the same Manager.   Last year, our Manager was promoted and we were assigned a new one: Manny Lopez.  I am writing this review to praise Manny for being the kind of Manager that everyone would want to have for their property!   From the very beginning, Manny demonstrated true concern and commitment for the co-op's welfare.  He displayed respect and civility, while maintaining an upbeat attitude and a fun sense of humor.  Manny observed co-op conditions, offering improvement ideas to the Board, and he listened politely and attentively to everyone who approached him; he respects us, and we respect him.  Manny is definitely a 'good guy,' and we all appreciate it. When the Board asked him to get business proposals, he followed through ASAP; his suggestions have helped us a lot.  He gets along well with our Staff, and they readily respond to his supervision.  However, running a co-op is not always easy or trouble-free.  When tough occasions arose, Manny willingly stepped up and pitched in.  When he needed additional guidance or expert information, he has sometimes conferred with his Supervisor (our former Manager), in order to obtain and apply the best and most customized solution for difficult issues.   Manny's energy and dedication have empowered us, reassuring the Board and our residents that our co-op will not be over-looked or neglected.  I am grateful for what Manny does, and I hope that he will continue to be our Manager--for many, many years to come. read more

I've just made my 10th anniversary as a shareholder at University Towers, Brooklyn, and really wanted to share what it means to me to be so lucky to enjoy what UT has to offer. I truly enjoy living here and when I walk through the gates or drive in there is an instant feeling of being really safe. I especially love to sit outside during the summer months and enjoy the sun surrounded by our beautiful English gardens in such a peaceful environment. I have also met the nicest residents here at UT. They are friendly but also respect your privacy. What I also love about my home is our location. We're right in the midst of all the wonderful things that are happening in downtown Brooklyn but when you come through our Gates it's like an oasis and you forget about the hustle and bustle of this vibrant community. Summer is around the corner and our awesome barbecue area will soon be open!! Over the past 10 years, I've seen what our Management has accomplished in making UT more comfortable for us and the ongoing projects are also to be commended. I should mention that if you come by now to visit, please don't be put off by our scaffolding. We're in the process of installing new windows that will make our homes very attractive not to mention much warmer for the rough winters we've been experiencing. But come back when this project is completed and you will see what I experience every day - walk or drive in to a really well maintained, secure, peaceful and beautiful environment. For me, this is home in the true sense of the word! read more

This review is specifically for Property Manager Catherine Chahine and her associate Keith Werny. I've been a real estate professional for over 17 years now and in that time I've worked with literally hundreds of executives at numerous management companies like FirstService. And in that time I can tell you that Catherine and Keith rank up there right at the top in terms of their professionalism and response times. In an industry known for not replying to your calls and emails, with Catherine and Keith get back to you as fast as anyone I know in any capacity. In addition they get the job done, and go above and beyond their own personal responsibilities to do so. If they can't solve something they try to find another way to get the answer, or put you in touch with someone else who can help. Lastly, and probably most importantly, both Catherine and Keith are wonderful people. It's very rare to receive emails from people you work with that brighten your day, but when you're dealing with kind people who not only care about their jobs, but about the people they're working with, it makes them a pleasure to deal with. Catherine and Keith are exactly those type of people. I only wish they ran FirstService and any other management company in NYC. They are the best. read more

Saudi Arabia government is one of the worst governments in the world and uses police, secret police, and military to crush any activists and human rights movement. The FirstService Residential has worked so hard to accuse one of residents as a member of ISIS because he challenges their old, obsolete, non-transparent system. When the first Saudi Arabian woman drove the car she was arrested and labeled as a terrorist because she challenged the old and obsolete rules (bylaw or deed restriction) of Saudi Arabia government. Long Live with the Women of Saudi Arabia and their Struggle for Equality. The Saudi Arabia government has build a lot of mega Mosques around the world but it has never build a single park, a library, or an educational place for the Moslem and citizen of the community. They drink, take drug, having relationship with prostitutes and they still pretend that are religious. They have bought most expensive houses in the Europe and the USA and some of them have never visited these houses and do not know the exact locations. (Saudi Arabian prince sells Aspen ranch for $49 million) The people of Saudi Arabia will rise up one day and get ride of the stupid government like the citizen of any community will get ride of the stupid FirstServie Residential. read more

This is NOT a rating for FS Residential. Rather, it's a 5-star rating for the one employee who exudes professionalism, and that is Farrah Prashad. I'm compelled to write this review because my building is getting a new property management team. So let me offer credit where credit is due -- and this story is emblematic of how Farrah consistently demonstrates *real* service: When I was trying to refinance my condo last year, Farrah was the only FS rep I could count on to respond to my requests. Nobody else lifted a finger to provide the documents that the bank needed. In fact, people higher up the chain at FS repeatedly erected roadblocks. (So much for getting what you pay for.) Truth is, nothing moved ahead without Farrah's involvement. Even at the last minute, it was she who did the heavy lifting to get me the final paperwork. FS Residential is extremely fortunate to have Farrah on staff. Last year, I wrote Marc Kotler to tell him so. He never replied. Now I'd like the rest of FS Residential to know that, from my perspective, Farrah was the company's saving grace in 2020. I hope 2021 will see a renewed commitment to the word that this business proudly touts in its name: service. read more

I am a Realtor with Nest Seekers International who has had, and continue to have, the privilege of working with Margoth Carvajal, application processor at First Service Residential, on the process of multiple co-op board application packages. Given how complex and demanding the board application process can be, having Margoth's guidance has been nothing short of a blessing. Throughout our work together, Margoth has consistently provided clear guidance, steady support, and a reassuring presence for my clients and agents alike Margoth's professionalism, patience, and attention to detail truly make a difference during such an important and sensitive process. Thanks to Margoth's expertise and dedication, all of our buyers co-op applications have been successful, helping our clients achieve their dream of acquiring a place to call home. Margoth's assistance has been essential in making this possible. Margoth carries out this role with integrity, warmth, and an exceptional work ethic, and is outstanding not only as a professional but also as a person. Five stars are simply not enough to reflect the quality of Margoth's work and the positive impact Margoth has on everyone assisted. read more