Lykens Companies is by far the worst landlord company I've ever lived in. I lived at The Slate on 1050 N 4th Street. This isn't just a problem with this specific building though. The entire company treats their tenants terribly. I was extremely kind to the staff, always paid on time, and never gave them an issue -- yet the staff was unnecessarily hostile. The maintenance team looks for reasons to not pay for anything. They breached my contract several times by not fixing appliances when the issue was there before I arrived. It's very clear they see you as just a bank account they can extract money from with no discussion or good will, because you can easily be replaced. I've never posted a bad review for a building before, but people should know this company is terrible. They treat their tenants like paypigs. read more

Please be aware: this landlord constantly holds apartment viewings for potential tenants, even though you are currently living or even sleeping in the apartment you've already paid for. They require that you be prepared to let strangers into Your home throughout the day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. According to a letter from their representative, these conditions apply to All tenants who rent an apartment from them. This is happening even though there are vacant apartments in your building. Their private $25 parking lot near the building is not properly lit and is unsafe, so my car was broken into and robbed by thieves. Due to the building's location and the nature of the walls, it's constantly cold in the winter and constantly hot in the summer. As a result, the air conditioner runs constantly, drying out the air in winter and wasting electricity in summer. The neighbors' air conditioner roars like a tractor, which can be heard perfectly clearly from absolutely anywhere in your apartment. read more

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I have been and am a current tenant with Lykens Companies and at Fourth Crossing specifically since its establishment in 2019, and until recently, I had no complaints--no issues with my neighbors and vice versa. Unfortunately, my experience has drastically changed due to ongoing issues that the leasing company has failed to address or resolve. Over the past several months, I've experienced repeated noise disturbances from neighbors, which I initially reported to the leasing office. Despite numerous complaints, the response has been either indifferent or dismissive. Not only has there been no effort to resolve the situation, but the behavior has escalated to retaliation and harassment, even involving police reports, all of which the leasing office has ignored. There have been a plethora of videos and photos provided to the company documenting the situations, all to no avail. The noises far exceed what are to be expected in an apartment home and are experienced well past "quiet hours" often times until 2am or beyond. Additionally, the company is in clear breach of contract (3.6 Prohibited Conduct) by not upholding/maintaining that tenants not engage in the following activities; unlawful activity, behaving in a loud or obnoxious manner; disturbing the rights, comfort, health, safety, or convenience of others in or near the apartment community. However, when the request was put forward to terminate my lease early with no penalty due to their breach of contract, I was met with the typical response that I would have to find someone to re-rent my unit and pay Lykens to do so. It's incredibly disappointing that, after being a loyal tenant for so many years, I'm now faced with this level of neglect and disregard. I've never had issues with any prior neighbors, and my record here has always been exemplary. It's incredibly frustrating to see a once-respectful living environment deteriorate due to the leasing company's inability (or unwillingness) to address tenant concerns in a timely and appropriate manner. I sincerely hope the company takes these issues seriously and makes necessary improvements. Until then, I can't recommend this building or company to potential tenants. It's a shame that such a great building has been marred by poor management. *Attached is a photo of the dog feces my neighbor so graciously pulled their screen out for in order to drop down onto my overhang after receiving their first (and only) noise complaint. Also attached is a photo taken directly after, evidencing the neighbors window open without a screen present. Please keep in mind, management did nothing to remedy this issue other than send maintenance to remove the feces. read more

Lykens Companies - Real Estate Services Near Me - Columbus, Ohio

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Terrible company. Staff is a bunch of penny pinching bullies. Maintenance takes years. Took them 12 hours to let me in for an emergency lock out situation and then double charged me. Just one example of dozens. Do your future self a favor and look elsewhere read more

Renting a Lykens property has been the worst decision i've ever made. the property was infested with roaches before we all moved in. they have not been helpful at all with the issue, and have tried blaming the issue on us. they have charged us for fixing issues with THEIR property, like the garbage disposal etc. they half ass all maintenance requests. they are even trying to rent the unit out to new tenants after we leave, fully knowing that there is a raging roach issue and black mold covering the walls. it got so bad i've moved out 3 months early because i was scared for my health and safety. DO NOT RENT FROM LYKENS read more

From the looks of it your other clean company didn't know about it either. Plus, it was dirty when I moved my daughter on in early 2020. Leaves litter ect... you, as a manager Logan, should walk the property more. Not just to your car and to the office. Maybe don't make excuses, make it better! Oh, and the fire pull and exit signs need taken care of, is that your maintenance or you who handled that?? I was an an assistant property manager, this is your responsibility and Mr. Lykens, not a new cleaning company. read more

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I have lived here for a year and these are my thoughts: Currently live at 4th crossing. Great location - close to fox in the snow, seventh son and Budd's dairy hall. Didn't increase our rent after our first year. With that being said - we are actively looking into a different apartment complex to rent with after our lease is up. BE WARNED - bike theft is frequent and management does nothing about it. Our bikes are located INSIDE the "safety" garage that costs $75 a MONTH with a shitty "security" system that rarely works. My fiancés bike was stolen and they refused to give footage to the police to go through to recover the bike. Additionally, other individuals bikes have been stolen. Recently my chain was cut but bike was not stolen. Management refuses to better their security system or do anything about it. They take our signs down indicating to each other that our bikes have been stolen and will not let us add any extra preventative measure to make sure our bikes are okay. Furthermore, the windows leak during the rain onto the sills. Our oven has shitting conduction because of lack of management checking our apartment before moving in. Additionally, it is overpriced for what you get - 1.4k-1.7k for 650-700 sq ft. read more

Lykens Companies - Cut bike chain in the "secure" garage that costs $75!!! Literally ridiculous!! - Real Estate Services Near Me - Columbus, Ohio

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I've been a tenant for 13 months. Repeatedly charges more for water bills than what is on the billing statements. I've called several times requesting that they resolve the issue. I'm always directed to the lowest person on the totem pole and have never spoken with a manager other than once through email, which was unhelpful. Maintenance also will not address our A/C complaints and explain why we are paying $125 summer electric bills and $35 winter bills (we have been using ceiling fans to attempt to reduce costs). I asked why they have low reviews before we signed a lease and Trevor told me that the company shifted ownership. I'm not sure I believe that anymore. This company has hundreds of tenants and a small handful of employees. This results in poor customer satisfaction across the board. The maintenance team is very friendly and probably overworked. I wouldn't move into another Lykens property. read more

Lykens Companies - Electric bill for the A/C in a 800 square foot apartment - Real Estate Services Near Me - Columbus, Ohio

Worst management company Ever,TERRIBLE communication, they never keep up with their properties and their policies cost me and my girlfriend our whole deposit!!! Read the contract carefully IF YOU DECIDE TO RENT FROM THEM WHICH I PRAY YOU DO NOT!!!! I usually don't right reviews so that tells you how bad my experience was with this company. (They sent our money to the head of our account who want a disgruntle ex-room-ate and they never returned our money to us! It was this policy that cost us close to $600 and lykens was no help stating "we don't get into disputes between roomates" they do not care about anything but themselves"!!!!!) read more

I've lived in my apartment in the Short North since June and Lykens advertised my building as having laundry. The washer has been broken since June (its now October) and I've called multiple times, written multiple maintence requests and it is still broken. Every time I call Lykens with an issue, they turn the situation back around on me to make it seem like it is my fault. "Did you overload the washer?" "Oh, we just replaced the washer a month ago." My boyfriend and I have had multiple conversations with multiple people about what the issue with the washer is, and they refuse to fix it. I've filed other maintence requests and waited at my residence during the time they were supposed to be here (over a 3 hour period) and no one showed up. The people that work at Lykens are rude and incompetent and it is clear that they do not have their residents' comfort as a priority. My residence was dirty and many things were left broken as I moved in and the agent I was working with simply "didn't notice" these things when she checked our apartment before move in. Actually, our lease started on the 5th and we scheduled move in on the 11th, but ended up being able to move sooner and when we went to pick up the keys between those two dates, our apartment "wasn't ready." And yet I was paying rent already? They have entered my apartment without my permission, charge highly unreasonable transaction fees to pay rent, do not allow you to split rent payments on their website, and are unprofessional and doing things that are illegal. I would never recommend Lykens to any person, they rip you off and are rude when you have an issue. read more

The wonder bread lifts are spectacular. I stayed here for just a night at a friend's and I was totally blown away by the beauty of the place. The size also was quite shocking as I had no clue just how big it was until walking around. The design was spot on and all the appliances were new. Doing laundry here was a breeze as there were washers and dryers in the apartment. I'd HIGHLY recommend this place to others. read more

Lykens Companies - Real Estate Services Near Me - Columbus, Ohio

I found this to be a horrible company. They have no respect for their tenants or properties. They took over a complex I was living in and let it degrade to absolute ruin while increasing the rent. They refuse to put any effort into upkeep, will not shovel snow or salt the common use sidewalks, leave the common laundry room in disgusting condition, and the biggest problem was they would not keep up with the garbage overflowing out of the dumpster (pictures attached). I was living in an actual landfill for about a year and half under their management. Notified them of the issue and complained many times to no avail. They refuse to put tenants into contact with anyone who can make decisions in their organization. I was always stuck with speaking to a paper pusher who had no authority in the company and usually could not help me with problems. They are simply interested in collecting rent and have no interest your well-being or satisfaction. I will go out of my way to encourage people to rent from other organizations in the future. read more

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Ok company to rent from. Thy have lots of properties in the short north. Rented from them for a couple years now.

This company is AWFUL. Maintenance is lazy and inattentive, they will likely cause more damage while attempting to fix something. Rodent issues will go unnoticed as maintenance will tell you that it is not an emergency issue and then will take actual WEEKS to address the issue. The water in my building was shut off basically once a week minimum for pretty much the entire day with zero to no notice given. Leasing staff are incompetent. Trenae has no idea how to do her job and you basically have to threaten her with legal action to get a reply from her. They WILL enter your unit without any notice. My experience was a living nightmare. DO NOT RENT HERE. read more

Do. Not. Live. Here. Kevin Lykens is clearly a great designer. The Wonder Bread apartment I lived in was beautiful. But unfortunately, that is where the good comments end for this company. And the negatives greatly outweigh the good. The most disappointing thing about living at Wonder Bread was the management. They are unresponsive, poor communicators, don't keep promises they make, and threatened tenants with eviction unnecessarily. Response to maintenance requests were also an issue. Sometimes it would take over a week to get any response (even though they guarantee a 48 hour turn around) and sometimes no one ever responded to the request. If you're thinking about living at Wonder Bread you should also know that the insulation is very poor. This causes two big problems. 1) I could hear and understand every single word my neighbor said whenever they were in their living room or kitchen, which shared a wall with ours. 2) The apartment does not retain heat AT ALL. My heating bill in February was $400, and many mornings during the winter I would awaken to find a layer of frost on the INSIDE of my front door and windows. There is also a big security concern with the adjoined restaurant that is in the apartment building. Every other door to the building requires a key fob to get in. But any time the restaurant is open, anyone can walk out the back door of the restaurant and get to any apartment in the building without a key fob. My Wonder Bread apartment was the most beautiful place I have ever lived in. But beauty only gets you so far. Poor management and customer service, unfulfilled promises, and terrible insulation make a place that no one should live in. read more

The absolute worst rental company I've ever experienced in the 20+ years I've been a renter in Columbus and New York City. They "took over" the building that I was in that was under a great management company that not only cared but was always willing to work with people. They stopped plowing the parking lot, not a driveway, not a stoop, but the ENTIRE parking lot that houses about 30 cars. They said it wasn't their responsibility. Who does that? Their staff is rude and completely unwilling to work on anything, the communication is sub-par at best, and they clearly only care about money not how their renters feel or conditions in which they live. AVOID this company at all costs they're ripping people off with their price jacks of over $400 per property they've recently acquired in Italian Village. read more

Do not rent from Lykens. They are not tenant-friendly, take advantage of renters, breach their lease terms, and charged all of their tenants more in rent than their leases stated. Lykens is a prime example of a bad landlord and management company taking advantage of a hot market. They are not tenant-friendly, do not respect tenant rights, and demonstrate nefarious behavior. The staff are generally unhelpful and not knowledgable about basic issues. Email communication is slow. Seriously concerning issues: 1) Lykens staff entered my unit without notification. This is clear breach of lease terms. I have read other reviews indicating this is relatively common practice. This is an example of their lack of respect for tenants and disregard for their rights, beyond being a legal issue. 2) Lykens charged me, and all of their tenants, more in rent than we agreed to in our leases beginning September 1, 2016. Lykens changed the method by which renters could pay rent in the middle of many lease-terms. Previously renters could pay by dropping off a check, or by an electronic payment (the renter was responsible for the transaction fee). Suddenly, Lykens alerted tenants that payments would only be accepted via credit card or ACH. Checks no longer accepted. I inquired as to whether Lykens would be assuming the cost of the transaction fee for either or both methods. I personally welcomed the opportunity to pay electronically and automatically, but opted for check as I could walk to the office in 90 seconds from my door to pay without incurring a fee. I was told that the tenant would be responsible for the transaction fee each month. When I asked how this was possible - to be in the middle of a lease, and be told that in order to pay your rent you would need to pay an extra fee that was not agreed to in the terms -- effectively increasing my rent - I was told this was because their company was growing and they needed to do it. The issue was ignored. Consider how much money Lykens saved by pushing these expenses to 100s (1000s?) of tenants each month! Had this been in our lease, I would understand. It was not. The right thing to do would have been to wait until leases renewed and changed the language. This is a prime example of Lykens skirting both good practice as well as contract law and avoiding the cost of doing business. 3) I entered my unit by subleasing from the previous renter. I assumed the lease through the end of the term, and then entered into my own lease. When I had to move out of the city after multiple years as a loyal renter I contacted the office to let them know I would begin working to find a subletter for my unit. The first response from the office was that the company did not allow subleasing of this unit and thus I could not move forward. I was confused. When I told the staff member that, in fact, I had entered the unit through a sublease they were surprised and promptly told me they would get back to me. The next communication was "Well, the owner changed the policy, so now we don't allow sub-leasing." I stated that I was not notified of a policy change and that in fact my lease stated that I could sublease the unit, but I needed to get permission from the owner first. I noted that when I chose to lease with Lykens, the ability to enter through a sublease showed flexibility for life events. I had options to rent elsewhere, but this demonstrated flexibility that I might need some day, so I went with them. At no time was I notified that the policy changed. As I noted, my lease contained a clause that allowed for a sub-let with the owner's permission. When I pointed that out, their manager looked me in the eye and told me they would not give permission. When I asked why - I needed to move out of the city and would find someone to take over the lease, plus I had done the same thing a few years before - she told me she wasn't going to discuss it any further. My options: pay a hefty ($X,XXX.00) termination fee, or pay multiple months rent that I would not be in the unit (and would be paying rent in my new city too). I asked them to acknowledge the fact that their lease gave them an opportunity to give me permission to sublet, but instead they were choosing to shoulder me with thousands of dollars in expenses. Again, the manager would not acknowledge this but restated she was not going to allow a sublease and that she would no longer continue the conversation. In many ways Lykens is a typical bad actor in the property leasing/management market. In other ways their behavior is questionable from a legal standpoint and takes advantage of renters. read more

12/14/2020 Beware signing a lease with this company. They have an unforving lease extension policy and make you sign up for another long-term lease despite over a years worth of good tenancy. In the middle of trying to break my lease because we were lucky enough to find a house in the area at a decent price. Now watching them go through the motions of trying to find a new renter despite paying 1700 for them to advertise. This has been going on for the last 5 months. Apparently what 1700 buys you is to list for multiple months less than half of the sites they list their other rental units, one posting on Craigslist that they renew every 5-15 days, and a description and pictures for the unit that's over 4 years old. They can't even afford to put up a 5 dollar sign in front of the apartment. I'm assuming its because why work hard when you have guaranteed income for the remainder of the lease terms. It's a shame because prior to this we had a good history with lykens and loved the unit but they are more concerned with their bottom line rather than making sure to do right by their tenants. And with this new COVID world we live in and it being around the holidays if this is how a company would act I would avoid them like the plague unless you know that you will have lease terms that end and start perfectly between your future housing situations. read more

I don't normally write reviews for companies, but I felt as though I needed to express my gratitude for Lykens. I moved into my first apartment at the end of last year with Lykens Companies and it was everything I expected and more out of an organization. They had ample properties to view in various price ranges and every property was up to date with the latest trends in home decor - even the apartments that were more affordable. The service I received was outstanding. They worked with me beyond their hours of operations to view all properties I was interested in. Even throughout my year lease, their response time was more than sufficient - often responding within a few hours to any questions or concerns I had. You can find great properties all over Columbus - but it is extremely hard to find great properties with a GREAT rental company that genuinely cares about your interests, needs, and wants. My maintenance requests were always completed within one business day no matter what level of request they were submitted as. I worked mainly with Trena and have nothing but positive things to say bout her. When she was unavailable, Nicole Fuller also helped me and I experienced the same level of detailed care from both parties. A HUGE thank you to Lykens Companies for making my first apartment experience a great one. I would recommend anyone to rent with Lykens. read more

Please, please do not give Lykens your business. Do not let their fancy facade and initially-friendly employees fool you. This company is an absolute sham that takes advantage of tenants. Their small handful of employees are nearly impossible to get ahold of, and they can't even begin to take care of their many many tenants. Yet they focus on their blog and continue to build fancy new apartments. They not only charge much more than their properties are worth, but they take money from you in other shady ways. You don't see your water bill, you just get mysterious charges from them. They expect a lot from you in terms of documentation and timeliness, but they can't even return a call or fulfill a maintenance request. When you sign a lease with them, you are giving them permission to enter your home at any time without notice once you make a maintenance request. This means that if you make a maintenance request and they take three weeks to fulfill it, you have to be ready for them to burst into your home at any moment of any day for those three weeks. Things that happened while I rented from Lykens: - Filed a maintenance request with the specific request for them to call me when on their way to warn of their arrival. They did not call and a maintenance man walked right into my studio apartment while I was in bed. - Lived with a mouse infestation. Pointed out a gigantic mouse hole to the maintenance guy to which he said he would fill in the hole. After one month of waiting for maintenance, I had to fill in the hole myself. - Apartment advertised "parking" on the website. After move-in, I learned that this was just a retail parking lot with no designated spots for the apartment residents. Had to park blocks away at night in a not-so-safe neighborhood on many occasions due to the lot being full. - Left voicemails for weeks with my "property manager," only to finally call the office and have them tell me "Oh she hasn't worked here for months!" No one let me know. - The list goes on - unanswered emails and voicemails, cracked and missing bathroom floor tiles, window screens with giant holes, an unplowed parking lot Save yourself a lot of frustration and find another rental company. read more

First of all if I could give Lykens zero stars I would. We were lied to by management multiple times. Management has continued to feed us lies so that we stop bothering them. For example we are renting in victorian village and have a small private parking lot that they charge $50.00 per car every month. On any given day there are people parked there that shouldn't be and what we were advised to do was call towing and report the non-residents. As time goes on the truth comes out that we can't actually get anyone towed out of the spots we are paying for because they can't give out the towing code even though we have passes. And to top if off, today there is a food truck parked and multiple people are out of a spot. That is only the surface of the nonsense lykens will put you through. The person we had that was in charge of our complex knew absolutely nothing about where we lived and when we asked questions on things such as why we weren't getting mail due to lykens not giving the post office a simple key we were fed with the "we'll look into" line. Of course they would never get back to us. This company is poorly run and they avoid every issue brought to their attention. Never rent from them! read more

By far the most terrible landlords I have ever dealt with, they are unprofessional and belittle you when communicating. I wish I would have read reviews before to understand that this is how they do business and they are as far away from professional or even considerate. When we moved in first they screwed us over by the apartment not being ready for an extra month (although they said it would be). Lesson 1 - get everything in writing, because their word means nothing. Then when we moved in they utilized the "bait and switch" tactic on us. They showed us the right side which was beautiful and assured us that the other side would be exactly the same. It was not anywhere near the same, it was old hardwood floors and about half the size kitchen. When we confronted them about this and asked for reduced rent due to the situation, they said absolutely not and offered no means of making it right. Several months went by and spring came along. For 2 months, they did not cut our grass. The neighbors literally were telling us that we made the neighborhood look bad. We reached out 7 times to which they replied it would be done by the end of the week. Needless to say, it was not done by the end of the week. We hired somebody and asked Lykens to refund us the price of that service, since it is in our lease. We sent a total of 5 emails regarding this to 2 different people on their staff.....not a single email got a reply. I have lived with several different rental companies and have never had even the slightest issue. Moreover, I have never left a yelp review, because honestly I am not the type of person to condemn an entire company online. However, I think that people considering renting from Lykens should know the truth and I hope that they get new staff that is trained in customer service. read more

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY They do no care about there tenants. I has a carbon monoxide leak my detectors were going off. I called the landlord & the landlord emergency line. No response. I then called Colombia gas and they came immediately and confirmed the gas leak and placed a red do no use tag on the oven. The landlord finally contacted me after 3 days and sent his own "tech" out and said there was no issue or leak. He is refusing to pay for repairs/replacement or offer any compensation for the issue.... THEY SUCK! read more

This is the worst run company I've ever encountered. The house was dirty when I moved in, multiple problems with things in the house that myself and my roommates had to fix ourselves because they wouldn't respond to our maintenance requests. Had a problem with the electrical outlets and asked for their electrician to come out, sent us a landscaping guy who told me he had no idea what was going on and to wait for the electrician. Water was supposed to be included but 4 months in they sent me a water bill. Forget about getting in touch with these guys, had to chase them down for a week to figure out why I got charged an extra bill, no explanation was given. Overall not a well run company and don't recommend renting from them, not worth the headaches for an overpriced rental house. read more

Rented from them for 2 years, never had any issue. They were always prompt for any maintenance requests (all were fixed within less than 24 hours). Everyone at the office was easy to talk to and helpful. I received my full deposit back within 30 days! Would definitely recommend them! read more

My wife and I were a little nervous at move in with some of the reviews we read (after signing the lease of course). But we've been pleasantly surprised. The Management staff has been professional and responsive to all the issues we've presented them. read more

I've lived in the Wonderbread Lofts since it opened, which makes it three years now. I've been happy with our space and happy with Lykens Companies. Our rent has pretty much stayed the same, and they've been very responsive to maintenance requests. The building is a cool structure, and there's always tons, even for guests, of parking which is great for this neighborhood. read more

This is the worst rental company I have ever used. The two times I have had issues, and requested a call back from the company they ignored my calls and emails. I was yelled at by the leasing manager, Tranea. We had to take over a previous leasers contract (only a month) and the situation was horrible. She called and accused me of refusing to pay the deposit and threatened to evict me, when all she had to do was request the deposit. Yes, it was a strange situation, but yelling at your tenants is just not how you treat people. I tried to file a complaint about Tranea to the owner, and he refused to call me back. I live in a townhouse 4-plex. All the other tenants have reported similar treatment. As soon as you sign the lease, they stop treating you with respect. I would suggest to anyone to lease elsewhere. read more

I rented an apartment at the 29 West 1st Avenue building. The building is old and generally uncared for: multiple members of the maintenance team has shared their complaints in being unable to update the building to improve the quality of living of the tenants. For example, after working with the maintenance team over a month in winter to seal drafts, they told me they've wanted to replace the windows with newer, well-sealed windows, but they are unable to. The heating in the building is reliant on an old boiler and radiators, with the sole thermostat on the second floor, and the maintenance team would like to update that system so that the first floor isn't frozen out and the second floor isn't melted, but that sounds like it won't ever happen just because the company would have to revise to rent. On top of just these winter problems, the building's walls are incredibly thin: brick and poor plaster separates the apartments from outside, which let's you hear a casual conversation from passersby clearly, and thin walls and ceilings/floors separate the apartments inside. They have the same problem as the thin walls outside: you can hear any rise in volume from any of the neighbors. Just these two problems are enough to make this location undesirable, not to mention the myriad issues with old plumbing, old electricity outlets, old appliances...the list goes on. The complete lack of upkeep between tenants is also problematic. There is a clear focus on profit rather than providing stable and respectable living conditions for their tenants. read more

Had issues with my heating. Maintenance team came that day and fixed it. Great job!! And friendly ppl

I just recently moved into a Lykens Companies property. My experience was seamless. Nikki was the employee that assisted me and she was so responsive and helpful to me. My apartment is great, too! read more

I just relocated to Columbus from LA over the weekend and couldn't be happier. I'm renting in the WonderBread lofts, and my experience has been great from start to finish. I worked with Nikki (Nicole) who has been a pleasure to work with through a complicated process in different time zones. I would highly recommend Lykens, the WonderBreads, and Nikki to anyone looking for a place to live in the short north area. read more

I've lived in a Lykens Companies apartment for over two years. The first year was great, no issues. The second year and on has been hell. The company was great to work with until someone broke into my apartment while I was out of town. The break-in occurred when the maintenance man was cleaning up some mold growing on the wall. Lykens' swears their employee locked the door and blamed me for the whole theft. The second break-in occurred on July 3rd. When someone smashed my window and I came home mid-burglary. I had to chase the burglar out of the house with a hammer, luckily no one was hurt. Lykens didn't answer their emergency maintenance line so I had to hire a contractor to board up the broken window. Lykens refused to do any corrective work on the apartment other than replace the window. No security bars, exterior lighting, reinforced window locks, or anything else. They told me everything met building code so they weren't going to do a thing about my safety concerns. The third burglary was attempted in October when someone tried to walk into my apartment while I was making dinner. I chased him off with a cleaver. Even after three burglaries or attempted burglaries in less than 7 months, Lykens still won't do anything to enhance the security of my apartment. I've called, emailed, have multiple police reports, insurance claims, and still nothing. Aside from the crime, here are some other negatives: The apartment isn't well maintained The floor is beat up and breaking apart The walls constantly grow mold on them The basement has standing water The windows rattle when the wind blows The company's office hours are awful NEVER RENT HERE, LYKENS DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOU read more

I specifically signed up for Yelp to write this review. The short version is that I've never been more astonished at a total lack of professionalism and common courtesy. Ever. I called the office on a Monday to schedule a viewing for Wednesday that same week. On the morning of the appointment, I tried to confirm the time and location. No one picked up and I left a voicemail. As my call was not returned, I tried again in the afternoon--again, no response but I did leave another message. I showed up to the office (to keep what I assumed was still my appointment) to find the doors locked and lights off. Again, no one answered the office phones. 15 minutes later, the receptionist showed up to let myself and another prospective tenant in. I was told the realtor who would be showing me the property was running a little late and would be right out. That's ok--people run late I thought naïvely, misguided in my faith in the professionalism of this company. Another 10 minutes later, the realtor came and told me in fact the receptionist would show me the apartment. Ok, sure. Only when we had left the building did the receptionist inform me that the unit had been off the market as of the previous week. To clarify: they scheduled a viewing of an unavailable unit, obviously had no foresight to cancel, ignored all requests to confirm the appointment, and then only admitted the error after a 30 minute wait and we had left the building. My frustration is not with the unit itself--I fully understand units come on and off the market quickly. I also can appreciate that sometimes wires are crossed and miscommunication occurs amongst colleagues. However, it is the height of unprofessionalism to ignore calls, arrive late, and unremorsefully waste others' time. I took an afternoon off work to keep this commitment--not only could the staff not be bothered to cancel despite my multiple attempts to reach them, but the main realtor didn't even have the common decency to apologize for the miscommunication and total lack of organizational skills and instead forced the poor receptionist to cover up the office's incompetence. Maybe this is a silver lining--if this is how prospective customers are treated, I wonder how badly the renters fare. At least I know who not to rent from now.... read more

Lykens was one of the worst landlords I have ever dealt with. I had water leaking through my in my unit and they were negligence in trying to deal with the situation. It became so unbearable that I had to leave the space and then they threatened to slap me with fees for breaking the lease. I had everything documented and so they didn't follow through, but now they are trying to clean up their image and sending out emails for tenants (and previous tenants) to review on them on Yelp and Google. I got one of these emails and was thinking about what a bunch of incompetence managers that would actually have the audacity to email a tenant that they screwed over. Then suddenly my year old review suddenly got deleted from Yelp because it lacked detail. Ok, so Yelp, is this detailed enough for you? I have emails documenting when I first filed to repair the leak and when they finally showed up which was days later. And they didn't even ask me where the leak was so it ended up leaking again. read more

I would not rent again in the Wonder Bread building. The apartments are beautiful. My apartment was beautiful. It had a ton of square footage. It is in a great location. The Wonder Bread sign makes for great pictures. HOWEVER Some things in the apartment were not well done. The insulation was poor. I know it was a polar vortex last winter, but there was frost inside our apartment for weeks. The electric topped out at $400/month with conservative use. Similarly, the apartment was not soundproof at all - could hear word for word conversations by my softspoken neighbors. I could hear their microwave beep, etc. In addition to high electric, the average community charges were $20/month for electric and water. This will go up as occupancy decreases as well. Secondly, the management company needs customer service training. Kevin Lykens is great, and I have to assume he knows nothing about how the staff treat his tenants. He should start figuring it out as turnover increases. Things the management company did that were unneccesary: The dumpster was designed to be too small, and was not arranged to be emptied enough, so it would overflow. Instead of getting it emptied more often, or finding any other solution, we were emailed and told that if we put anything outside of the dumpster, they would watch video footage and fine us $100. Maintenance requests were ignored, never followed up, and in one case, it took 9 days to get a response at all. A maintenance request about a leak in the roof, which had happened before and we were assured had been fixed - was NEVER responded to. Luckily it stopped raining eventualy. There was never any proactive communication or communication at all from the staff. The staff changed constantly without notice as well. Undelivered promises were a big theme. Even though our lease specified reserved parking spaces - this never happened. The elevator doesn't work. With all the new apartments in the area, I wouldn't chose Wonder Bread. You are overpaying for what you get - no ammenities, no reserved parking, and you get headaches that you don't have to endure. read more

Do not live in their units. I lived in one of their town homes and had a fine experience while living there. When I had moved in I noticed the floors had paint splatters all over them and there had been too many coats of finish on the wood floors without sanding it down, so that was all peeling up. The floors were also a scratched up mess. They floors always look dirty because of this. I made sure to make note of that on the walk through papers. Also, I had to go through and clean the whole unit before moving in; it looked like it hadn't been touched by any cleaners. So fast forward to after moving out. They have until the last day of the month after your lease ends to send your deposit check. Of course they waited until the very last day to send it, so I did not receive it until well into the next month. Then, I see that they took $250 from it. Now, I scrubbed that house spotless before I left. It looked 1000x better than when I moved in (as stated above.) They claimed the $250 is for fixing the floor damages(pre existing) and for them doing extra cleaning(I made the house spotless.) Then, they had the nerve to not even respond to my email about the situation. They are unprofessional and crooks. Take your money somewhere else because that's all they care about. read more

I leased an apartment on the second floor of the Wonder Bread Lofts from 2015-2016, after my job transferred me to Columbus, OH.. First of all, I had looked at various apartment communities in and around the downtown area over the course of 3 weekends while I was in town.. Based on the location, finishes I wanted, I feel I got what I paid for (they didn't charge extra for washer/dryer and parking was included with the one bedroom I rented, although they did charge $50 for an additional parking permit for my g/f's car).. The management worked with me on my exact move-in date, I started my new position at work in the middle of January and picked keys up then even though my lease started at the beginning of January.. The only reason I moved was because I purchased a home in Italian Village, my stay at the Wonder Bread for that year went well (considering I really didn't know much about Columbus, OH).. It was nice to be able to walk down to the Short North during the Spring & Summer.. read more

I would NEVER rent from this company again. I subleased my apartment to a friend of mine. When it came time to get our deposit back, i received the smallest fraction and my friend received nothing. They double dipped and charged us for the exact same things. They charged me hundreds of dollars worth of damages that i had documented on my move in check list before move in. They also charged me TWICE for my water bill and also charged me for my friends water bill. And vice versa for her. After being caught and demanding to see previous tenants charges (to see if they had been charged the same, and if so these damages should have been fixed, thats the point of SDs right?) and demanding a full refund, i stopped getting email responses and then got accused of harassment. I wouldn't recommend this company to my worst enemy if i had one. If yelp would let me give this company a ZERO rating i would, but i am forced to give them 1 star. read more

Lykens Co is the worst in Columbus. We live in an apartment at the WB lofts, off of one of the 2 courtyards. The WB Lofts are absolutely terrible for how expensive the rent is. The management is rude after the initial move in is over. The exposed cinder block walls have been confirmed by maintenance to have NOT been water treated. This has caused water to seep into the apartment and create a moldy basement smell that persists for days after it rains. The door leaks water, alot of water. The door also freezes completely shut in the winter, my fiance was unable to open the door by herself. The dog/cat owners here do not clean up after their pets. You will often encounter poop, pee, and spilled kitty litter in the shared hallways. The walls are paper thin, so much so that we can hear our neighbors flush their toilet, close cupboards, and hear their private conversations. After 6 months of 1.5 feet deep potholes in the parking lot, they are finally fixing them in mid July. Property Manager Betsy Curtis is a liar and has told us conflicting information regarding the security of the apartments. Prior to moving in we were informed by her that the premises were under security camera surveillance. After a recent vehicular vandalism that occurred directly in front of several security cameras, in the well lit lower parking lot, we were informed by her that the security cameras were simply a deterrent and could not be used to identify any one. In fact, we were informed that the cameras were so inadequate that they could not even be used to identify anyone in broad day light, committing a crime 5 feet away from the camera. The failure to disclose this information to tenants is simply misleading and a lie. They are creating a false sense of security that does not exist here and that is honestly just sickening to me. The potential that the WB Lofts has is great, but there needs to be some major changes. ALSO something to consider, my friend moved out 2+ months ago, she has not received her security deposit yet, and now the WB Lofts have stopped contacting her....?? DO NOT MOVE INTO THE WONDER BREAD LOFTS !!!! BEWARE !!!! read more