I would not recommend renting a property managed by Watts group if your rent is less than $2000 a month. Very poor customer service and management. They state in the lease that they clean public areas, but in over 2 years, the stairwells, hallways on 400 1st Ave were filthy. Never cleaned. They are quick to ask for rent but should you have an issue such as AC not working, broken hot water heater, or leaks, they do not care. Be ware if you're moving into a unit with carpet. Some units were flooded but the management did nothing about it. They may likely have mold. When I finally decided to move out, about 10 tenants were moving as well (not students). This is a big red flag..... My apartment became the show room, yet there were over 10 units available for rent. read more

I have lived in a Watts Group rental for 3 years and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. They are amazing people who care about good tenants and respond to maintenance requests in a timely manner. Their office staff are friendly and very customer service oriented. As a senior citizen I appreciate all that they do read more

Terrible company- you are a profit maker for them and they do not look at you like you're human. They refuse to compromise, listen, go to the bare minimum of meeting any level of standards that's on par with the devils. Moved into a trashed apartment... having standards I asked for it to be cleaned up to living standards... he told me 'I'll give you a free out of this lease' since you are asking for too much. Terrible. Highly recommend you avoid them for builds or renting. Find a human company, this one's gutter level. read more

The Watts group apartments on #5 Woolf Avenue have asbestos especially apt #9 in the basement. I want to move out early due to the asbestos in my apartment and I am told I have to pay until the end of July. HELP! I feel trapped. As a nurse and a United States Air Force Veteran I feel that I deserve better service from the Watts Group Rental Service. read more

Would give zero stars if I could! Highly advise against this company. We have them for our HOA, was told our glass door was covered by the HOA, then 48 hours after, was told that it would not be covered after the service ticket was submitted and their team had been out. We are now out over 500 dollars- the team member we spoke to also claimed my partner and I lied and was never told that. They do not record phone calls, and have zero accountability in terms of their service. Their customer service is extremely poor and I would not recommend using Watts if you do have another option. Or be VERY careful- record conversations, keep records of any email conversations, etc. read more

This one star means ZERO. Liar. Don't do any business with them, even though they make fancy website. Any means Any! Once they get your money, you are shit to them. I moved in one of their managed property 4 days ago. Before I signed the lease, the leasing agent told me they will wash the carpet, but they didn't. Traffic dirt and stains are obviously visible. Faucets are broken, blinds are broken. Also, the microwave is full of grease.It's ironic that the apartment building still stands there. Pictures are taken for evidence. Wonder how many law suits they have each year. They handed out tons of sheets informing you how they are gonna CHARGE you if you don't do balabala. They charge for Smoke Detector, garbage disposal....So why should we pay rent to them if they themselves don't do anything to earn these money?! Well, they lie to rob money. Customer is not their God. Instead they are vampires sucking blood and money from us. read more

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I have lived in the Villas for 5 years now and I have not missed a single rent payment, excluding when I very first moved in and my credit card information was stolen and my card was canceled. I did however get that settled that same day with Olivia, the original property manager. I have always notified Watts Group of any issues in the building or my apartment. In these 5 years, we have had my car broken into in the garage and two floods in the building (one of which affected my apt). The first flood was the first day Watts took over the management. The fire chief told them to install heaters in the stairwells to ensure we do not have the sprinklers freeze in the future. They did not do it and the following year we flooded two nights in a row on both ends of the building. The workers stole some tires out of my parking space which I should not have stored there, but my fiance had just moved in and I needed to put them somewhere for one week until we could take them to my now FIL. The security panel kept alarming for two months after because the fire detectors in the garage were not installed for that long after the fire. It went off multiple times a day. It was to the point I called the office so many times, I figured out the panel was not locked and muted it myself since you could hear it in my apartment. We also have monthly pest control visits that often are not the day they say it is because the guy just shows up. They have let themselves into my apartment multiple times without telling me and I did catch them on camera and confront them. They did not seem to care. One time they even thought I was moving out and did the walk thorough of my apartment. They thought it was weird all my furniture was still there. Maintenance: I had a lighting issue and was told it was a fire hazard. it took over a month for them to fix it. I also have been waiting for them to come and finish fixing my front door for the better part of 2 years now. I put in the request WAY before covid and had to do it multiple times. The guy shows up three different times and says "oh I need to go get a tool" and never comes back. I still have a partly repaired door. It took over a month to have my dryer fixed. It wasn't drying and apparently there was a bird nesting in the vent. The key codes on the outside doors often have issues. Honestly they probably need to be complete replaced because sometimes you can't open the door by pulling the handle down you have to pull up. Our car was broken into in the "secure" garage. The garage door opener was taken. The police officer told us that they were going to suggest that the code to the garage be changed. There was apparently no footage, even though we are parked right by the camera. I wouldn't be shocked if I found out they have been broken since the flood. They did install new cameras, now, a whole year later. I know because a pile of screws were left right behind my car and discovered what they were from. They also did not change the garage code. Probably because it is an inconvenience and they still wanted to appear safe. Most crimes like these involve getting the opener to obtain access to steal packages etc. Apparently I never signed a leave for one of the years I lived here. They never changed the date on the old lease so apparently I resigned it. Whoops. I also had a huge hassle getting my fiance added to the lease when he moved in. The manager I was working with left and never finished the paperwork or something and never told anyone. It got to the point I finally emailed them and was very blunt about it wondering if he needed to be added and how that was going to be handled. They did get us a hotel for a long weekend after I complained for the flood and did give me free parking for a few months after the tires were stolen. My apartment was in the 90s while they were drying it out and was unlivable. That was nice. I believe the owner also apologized to about the flood. Even so with that all being said I would never recommend a Watts Group Rental Property to anyone. read more

Never. Ever. Again. This was the worst experience I have ever had with any company. The level of unprofessionalism and carelessness that they displayed is astounding. I was a tenant for 3 years in their Rushmore Dr Condos. During my tenancy, they never fixed the blinds that I asked to be fixed during the first year, took 2 weeks to fix my AC while outside it was hotter than 90 degrees, and to top it all off it took them a whole week to come and fix my leaking toilet after I made multiple phone calls and maintenance requests. On the final call that I made, the person proceeded to tell me I don't know what I am doing and that I need to turn the water off. Let the record show that I only had one toilet in the entire unit. After they "fixed" my toilet the first time, it started leaking again, and again I had to call them and get it resolved. Also, from the start of November of 2022 I have been trying to let them know that I would be moving out 2 months early. I have went in multiple times to try to schedule a final walk through. They told me to my face that they don't do that anymore, and that I should just leave the keys in the unit and leave the unit unlocked, because they are so busy and will do it whenever they have time. When we told them that we have pictures of all previous damages, they dismissed us and told us that they might take into consideration the sheet that we filled out at the beginning of the lease. Aside from that, despite being notified that I would be moving out two months early, they have made no attempt to find a new tenant. Now they are threatening to sue us because we told them that they can keep the deposit to compensate for the last month of rent. We have sent countless emails and have went to their office countless times since November to try to resolve this issue, and absolutely nothing was done. I would never ever rent with Watts Group again, and I highly recommend that everyone find another company. The workers are rude and disrespectful on all accounts, they do not care about their tenants, and they don't uphold their end of the contract. Completely disappointed, and in my opinion they don't even deserve one star. read more

Just stay away from Watts groups. They are definitely not professional. People pay a deposit for mutual appreciation, but the Watts groups take advantage of it. They charge you for cleaning and painting but never providing you the details of charges. So they charge you unfairly to get your deposit. Overall, definitely not a good option to rent a house from this group! read more

My grad student daughter lived at the Dodge St apartments for 3 years. She moved in with a hole in the wall, several nails in the walls, unfinished painting, a towel rack removed, and a closet door off the hinges. She documented the damages with a time stamp and submitted with the $1000 deposit and lease. After immaculately cleaning the apartment, the Watts Group REFUSED to return ANY of the deposit and CHARGED her $102! She tried to reason with management with no resolve. In addition, in mid-winter over break, the FURNACE broke over the weekend and they REFUSED to repair until the next week! Also, the water heater was BROKEN for 2 WEEKS, causing her to have to shower elsewhere as she trudged along in her internship, just trying to graduate and MOVE OUT! read more

Don't move into the Madison on the IRL unless you want to step in dog urine in the elevator every day. And I'm not talking just a little accident (although ANY pet accident of any size should be cleaned up by the owner), someone's dog has a massive piss every day in our elevator. Watt's has received dozens upon dozens of complaints regarding the urine, and won't spare an extra dime for a camera in the elevator. Thus, a nice apartment building is ruined by the daily pee puddles that smell foul, end up drying and turning the whole floor sticky. Skip this place, it's not worth the price when the building is treated like a dump and complaints aren't handled. read more

Perfectly fine buildings and they keep up appearances, but as soon as you run into a problem and need to deal with management, it's a mess. They don't care that our locked bikes were stolen from their "secure" garage, and Jerod is petty and childish when dealing with issues. Do not recommend renting from Watts Group, even though it looks nice at first!! read more

Wish I could give them 0 stars. Honestly thee worst people to rent an apartment from. Something was wrong with our water and they claimed it was our problem and they did what they could. Paid $300 for a water bill after they claimed they fixed the issue. We just moved out and spent a whole day cleaning and making sure we did our best to make sure it was clean. Cost them $900 to clean our carpets after we cleaned them. Tried to get more of explanation and got some BS response. All they care about is there money. Please look elsewhere if you want to rent. Glad we moved on and never looking back. read more

I have been disappointed with my experience overall. Customer service was quite poor. I didn't ever ask much, but I emailed the management team a number of times about things like lights in the parking lot not working (making the whole parking lot pitch black, and in my mind creating a safety hazard for people passing through) and never heard any kind of reply. This was an ongoing issue for several weeks and there was never an acknowledgment that it was being worked on or even known to be a problem. The places were brand new when I moved in so appeared nice, but the build quality was fairly low. At about 18 months in, none of my windows will lock, and some of the walls are cracking at the corners. I have heard neighbors talk about gaps under the doors to their patios where snow could blow in during the winter. They called to have it fixed and apparently the person came and put Saran Wrap under the door's threshold?! General upkeep was not that great, lots of scuffs and things like that in common areas, but that probably comes with the territory when college kids are living there. Neighbors who have moved out talked about how they try to screw you out of every last penny of your security deposit during the move out process. The final thing that made me write this review was my renewal process. The option was given to either renew, decline, or defer decision. I responded that I would like to defer (and of course, no reply from that). Also in the email, it stated that your unit would be shown, but you would be contacted prior to a new party signing a lease, giving you right of first refusal. I called a few days ago and asked for a lease extension and was told they would send me the contract. Several days later, they called me back and said they thought I lived in another development when they told me that (despite me telling them right away in the call what my address was), and that they had already rented my unit without giving me the promised forewarning. Now I'm stuck having to move in the middle of a surgical fellowship... UPDATE: another person in our surgical fellowship program had the exact same thing happen--asked them to renew her lease, then they told her the place was rented by someone else. Now she has to move, too, despite being told that she had the option to renew. NOW, after they are pulling the rug out from under her already, they emailed her and asked if she could move out a week before her lease ends because it would make the move easier for the next person coming in. It's not like we are a bunch of punks destroying their property that they want to get out, we are young doctors working hard and paying rent on time. Very disappointing business practices. read more

My lease will be ending with Watts Group Ripoffs here at the end of July 2020 and they are very very unprofessional when it comes to us moving out...they demand such petty repairs/maintenance when we leave that pretty much every other landlord would take care of themselves and dont bother calling maintenance for anything because they CANT not wont but cant fix anything right and they will charge you to fix it especially charge alot from a handicapped individual to fix things thats Watts responsibility. Never EVER rent from them because they are blood sucking scumbags who only care about their bankroll instead of their tenants read more

Be extra thorough on your check in sheet. Good luck getting a security deposit back with the turnover unit fees they charge.

DO NOT RENT FROM THESE PEOPLE! They will threaten to evict you at every chance they get. My husband and I rented a condo in North Liberty from them for 3 years. Always paid our bills on time, took great care of the place, and were great tenants. But in the last couple months of us living there, a service guy had to come and fix our garbage disposal, and he heard a dog bark. My mom was in town that week and had brought her dog. The next day we got some mean voicemail messages saying we better get rid of our dog or we'd be evicted! ... Wasn't even our dog And speaking of the garbage disposal, we had to get it fixed 3 times because it kept breaking (it was a worthless cheapy one), and finally they told us to just not use it! Which was pretty irritating considering we paid over $1000/mo for this place. read more

Beware!!! What the others say is correct. The buildings are poorly kept, they will not return your full deposit, the elevators do not work. The dryer did not work properly, but was finally fixed when I threatened to call the fire department. They are inept except at keeping your money. Tread carefully. read more