The bad reviews are not an exaggeration. I've waited 5 years to write mine, here are my two cents...
Background: I lived in one of their Weehawken NJ rentals on Park Ave for 5 years. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was to save money, as their prices are low and do not increase significantly each year.
Management: The super was nice/good, but the management company was offensively dismissive. They do not respond to maintenance requests except to cancel them. It became routine to open a maintenance request through their portal and immediately follow up with an email, because that was the only way they'd respond. That said, often it would take two emails to elicit a response. When they finally did respond, it was often curt. Calling was a lost cause, as they never answer the phone.
Issue 1: I lived in a top floor unit. When it rained heavily, the ceiling would leak rainwater. Every time, at least twice if not three times a year, I would open a maintenance request and ask that they repair the roof to stop water from entering the building and creating leaks. Instead, they would send the super to patch up the inevitable hole/cracks that manifested in the ceiling. They never addressed the source of the leak, so it continued for years. I had to adjust furniture placement so nothing would be damaged if it started raining while I wasn't home. If the forecast predicted heavy rain, I would preemptively leave a bucket under the known leakage areas. After four years, I finally called the Weehawken Building Department and filed a complaint. After that, the super came and patched it one last time, and management supposedly did something to the roof. My final year thankfully there were no leaks.
Issue 2: My unit did not have major bug/mice issues, thankfully. I would see a mouse or two when the weather started to get cold and they were looking for somewhere to nest for the winter, but with traps and keeping the floor clean it was never a major concern. I only saw three cockroaches in five years, so also not a concern. Management does have pest control visit once a month to address any concerns, which was enough for my unit. Except for one major issue - the cavity between the ceiling and the roof was home to pigeons, and management would not address it. The pigeons entered through the ventilation holes on the side of the building where my unit was. At first the birds stayed close to the opening, but as the years went on, more pigeons came. They ventured deeper into the ceiling cavity, and the noise got louder. If you've ever had wildlife in your ceilings - you know how much louder/bigger animals sound overhead than they really are. I asked management if they could plug the holes, or cover the opening (with something like chicken wire) to prevent the coming and going of birds. They said no.
Issue 3: The buzzer never worked. Living on a 5th floor walkup, this absolutely sucked. Again, I put in many requests to have the buzzer repaired, to no avail. They always assumed/blamed my telephone, and would send a technician to reprogram my number in. That was never the problem, so it never got fixed. I tried to explain on more than one occasion that it was the buzzer not having a dial tone and therefore unable to make outbound calls to our phones. I continued to get dismissive responses, if any at all. Ironically, the final day I was there to return my keys after moving out, I saw they had installed a new buzzer box. Five years too late, unfortunately.
Issue 4: Although rent was never increased more than 1-3% a year, they did not provide sufficient notice, if any notice at all. Every year I would see the rent had increased on the portal for the following month, without having received any letter or notification about it. One year I emailed them asking about the lack of notice, and a letter showed up -- clearly hand delivered (no postage) -- a few days later. This of course was around the 1st of the month, not 30 days prior as legally required in New Jersey. The following year, same thing happened, but this time they simply emailed me a copy of the letter that was supposedly delivered but never received. I suggested they start mailing rent increase notices via certified mail, which has a tracking number, as proof. They did not respond to this suggestion. The third year, yet again the same thing happened, and when I asked for a tracking number they said they were not required to mail letters certified mail and therefore did not have a tracking number. Of course I never received the letter, and yet again they emailed it after the fact. I wish I had had more time and money to take them to small claims court -- since they had no proof of providing the legally required 30 days notice, it'd have been an easy win.
Overall
Pros: Cheap, Great Location, Online Payment Portal
Cons: Rude Customer Service, Low Quality Rentals, Poor Effort to Repair, Insufficient Heating read more