Avoid Wickfield like a plague, my roommate and I had a nightmare ROACH situation (809 E Kingsley) that never was addressed fully. We ended up both having to move out because we never could be comfortable in our apartment we were paying nearly 1600 a month for. We made sure they were very aware of how bad it was, but they offered very little help for our situation. We had to continue paying for this empty infested apartment for months. At the end of this lease, I returned to clean out the rest of my things I had left in a hurry. The roach situation had only gotten worse, this time we were seeing dead roaches in the halls outside or our unit. While cleaning out the apartment, I was told that the next tenant would be moving in a few days after me. This was shocking as the apartment was infested with roaches and the company hadn't attempted to fix this during the months it was empty. I feel for the people who had to deal with this after us. The roaches were the main issue but I need to point out how filthy the apartment was when we moved in. After the first day moving in and living there I found crumbs on the counters, popcorn scattered in the living room, and the floors were so dirty they turned the bottoms of my socks black. It was as if it hadn't been cleaned at all after the previous tenant lived there. This was also during Fall 2020, when the situation with Covid should have prompted them to take extra care to clean after the last tenants. Extremely disappointed and disgusted with this experience and I hope no one has to go through this again. read more

I lived with Wickfield in one of their older homes on Main St for one year, and then moved from Main St to another Wickfield location closer to central campus for the following year. In my experience, Wickfield did a good job. My first apartment with them was older, and prone to some problems. Any time I submitted a maintenance request, I saw a tech within 24 hours. The turnaround was helpful and prevented any serious problems from occurring. Another perk of living with Wickfield for 2 years was that when I transferred apartments, they let me stay in my first place until my new place was ready. That way I didn't have to find storage for my stuff. They also took the time to get to know me, which is so unusual for a larger company. I would go to the office to pay rent and the same rep would ask me about details in my life since the last time we saw each other. Overall, I was happy with their management! read more

Overall, my experience with Wickfield has been negative. My housemates and I have encountered our fair share of apartment issues at our property. Some of which include: leaking shower, overflowing toilet, worn-out peeling kitchen floor, broken air unit, majority of windows in house not having screens, and outlets and lights losing power for no reason. The one up-side is that Wickfield is timely in having their maintenance workers come to the apartment. I had sent an email to Wickfield expressing my frustration with the state of the apartment for the steep price we are paying per room, and was completely ignored. Staff seems to be generally unprofessional. For example, when we were touring the apartment before leasing it, we had to reschedule several times because the Wickfield rep simply "forgot" that we had scheduled a tour. All in all, I wouldn't recommend renting from this company. Next year, I am planning to rent from Nob Hill Apartments, which already seems to be more considerate and professional than Wickfield (but only time will tell). read more

Wickfield Properties exemplifies all negative stereotypes of Ann Arbor property management companies. I had so many concerns with their business practices that during my time as a tenant from 2015-2016, I secured the services of a lawyer to help ensure that they were compliant with Ann Arbor housing code. My friend and I went looking for apartments in November for the following August because, as anyone who has lived in Ann Arbor for any measurable amount of time will tell you, if you don't start looking 10 months ahead of time most of the prime rental apartments within walking distance to the University of Michigan campus are taken. Our leasing agent took us to a few properties they had available, ultimately showing us a cute apartment nestled into the top floor of a house in the Kerrytown area which we signed for. Move-in week was a disaster. Wickfield had allowed us to move in early, and let us know this meant that some of our housing requests would need to wait for repair...little did we know that this meant we would wait nearly 3 months before every issue was fixed. Upon arrival there were paint issues, random junk left all over the apartment (including a massive window A/C unit tucked away in one of the closets), broken blinds, mold in the bathroom, a broken doorbell, a leaky sink, broken pipes (which eventually flooded the apartment of my downstairs neighbor), and an overflowing dumpster out back. You name it and it was likely broken or damaged in some way. Yes, we did move in early, but we never assumed this would mean that the whole property would be in disarray. The maintenance was exceedingly slow and unprofessional. There were seemingly endless emails exchanged. At one point I was emailing them every week for over a month to check on the status of various repairs. And the maintenance staff was frequently rude and often acted in ways which I interpreted as passive aggressive. For example, rather than repairing the doorbell system in the house, they installed a cheap temporary unit, placed the receiving speaker in the middle of living room wall when I was not home, screwed it in, and then in sharpee the maintenance person scrawled "Door Bell" onto the unit, as if it wasn't ugly enough in the middle of the living room wall to begin with. Another time, the kitchen sink was leaking. I was told in person by a slovenly looking maintenance guy that, because water was included in my rent, little leaks were "tolerable." That's crazy bad for the planet, and also just crazy bad management. I had to fight for this repair too. When they finally fixed the kitchen faucet, they installed the 'H' and 'C' handles reversed and upside down. It took another email to get them to come back out and reverse this. Finally, we get to the story of why I got student legal services involved: a cracked bedroom window. At some point during the winter, one of the bedroom windows cracked, which is totally normal in old houses where windows hang outside of the building. I let Wickfield know and they repaired the window within 2 weeks. But, then the next time I paid my rent, with no prior notice, I received an email stating that I had an unpaid balance on my account. "Unpaid balance???," I thought to myself. I was very confused. I had always paid my rent and utilities on time and in full. After I requested information (not before) I was told that the amount was the cost of the window repair parts AND labor to fix the crack, the crack that I did not cause. The property was over 100 years old and the winter was brutal, and I wasn't busy in 0 degree weather fooling with my windows to the point that they would break (I wasn't touching the windows at all), so, after a bit of back and forth I got student legal services involved. The case continued to escalate until I decided to pay the fee to avoid litigating the issue as I was potentially leaving Ann Arbor. At one point during this debacle we had to explain what would have caused a window to crack in winter. After providing the opinion directly from a Pella Windows informational site, it was argued that this was not expert testimony... Consistently with all issues, the response from Wickfield is not to apologize, but rather to avoid the issue as long as possible, then to escalate the issue by involving their Master of Public Policy legal advisor BJ, to state why they shouldn't do anything, rather than actually addressing simple issues. There are other issues and examples, but suffice to say, they really are bad enough that I didn't renew my lease. And honestly you shouldn't rent from them. For real. They are actually *that* bad. This isn't a casual complaint, it's truly serious and you aren't going to have "better luck." If you are already stuck, the Housing Code is your friend. Read it, and cite it to them: https://www.municode.com/library/mi/ann_arbor/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TITVIIIBURE_CH105HOCO Good luck in your housing search! read more

This is the worst property managing I have ever seen, and far surpasses any stories my friends can tell. In the span of two weeks, the fire alarm went off over 10 times due to malfunction. The alarm loudness is also at ~120db instead of the standard 75db. To solve this they decided to TURN OFF OUR FIRE DETECTORS and have someone on "fire watch". The fire department suggested we get some lawyers on retainer. Also the lift constantly has what looks like bodily fluid in it! Also the furnishing the supplied included a sofa that was peeling more than a sunburned Irishman. read more

Hands down the worst property management company I have ever dealt with. If there were a zero star option I would select it. If you have any other options for renting or managing your property, go with literally anyone else. Wickfield consistently fails to communicate anything with its tenants, which wouldn't be the worst thing if it weren't for the abundance of ghost charges that consistently appear on the account. If you contact them about the charges, there is either a response of 'eh, too bad' or, more likely, no response at all Their lobby clerk/secretary that sits at the front desk of their office is bad tempered and dumb as a brick. She's next to impossible to get any useful help from. The one helpful person in the entire company is a guy named BJ. There's also a rep guy named Matt who's pretty nice but he's super flakey. If i were either of them I would jump ship right now. It's not worth being part of the mess as Wickfield inevitably goes down hard. If you want a better option for property management, management of my house was just turned over to Cribspot. They're really cool guys and when we expressed concerns about the switch (because of Wickfield, not them--and of course the day before the switch we were hit with $75 of ghost charges from Wickfield) the CEO called us personally to insure that they were going to work with us and make sure we were taken care of. Now that's good business. read more

Very poor service. The leasing process is non-transparent with this company and the staff communicate poorly. I had a very unpleasant experience with Wickfield. Would not recommend read more

I would never trust this company. I had an extremely, shockingly bad experience on the road with someone driving their company vehicle. He tailgated me aggressively, passed me, made an obscene gesture, and then slammed his brakes in front of me and proceeded to swerve all over road to intimidate me. I was going speed limit, if not over. You can't be drunk in the company car, guys. Their online reviews are not surprising: rude, unprofessional, and I'll add, perhaps psychopathic! Do not subject yourself or your property to anyone associated with them. read more

Wickfield is incredibly inconsiderate regarding many things. There was a notice on our building stating that it was not in compliance with the housing codes and we had to email the city of ann arbor to get any information as to whether or not we would be evicted or how unsafe the state of the building was. It worked out but we had zero communication from Wickfield about this. They have also been incredibly inconsiderate regarding COVID-19. We placed a maintenance request and asked that they didn't come into our unit if it wasn't necessary and someone came promptly the next morning, which is nice, but we could have been in class and specifically asked them to talk to us before coming. They also emailed us the day before classes started saying they were coming to show someone our apartment. They didn't ask if the times worked for us or if we were comfortable having strangers in our unit days after they told us they virtually showed our apartment and could have taken videos of it for future renters. They also took the lights out of our stairwells for multiple days leaving the stairs and outside area pitch black at night. As young women, we felt very unsafe coming and leaving our apartment at night, especially since the building is somewhat secluded. Overall the apartment itself is fine and they're timely with maintenance requests, however, they do not care about their tenants which is especially important during this pandemic. read more

I lived at Arbor Village, one of the larger apartment communities owned or managed by Wickfield. I enjoyed it so much that I renewed twice! The maintenance staff was always responsive and friendly. My bathroom shower tiles had seen better days. They sent a contractor in to re-tile the entire shower. It can be unsettling to have a stranger working in your home for hours while you're away at work, but this guy seemed trustworthy and was friendly enough. I've had previous experiences with other landlords sending over contractors who I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them. So shout out to the tub guy! Hopefully Wickfield continues to do business with him. As for the office staff, I always felt that they made time to strike up conversation with each resident. This is actually part of the reason I decided to lease here. The property manager always had dog treats for my pup. Oh yea, this place is pet friendly. So many dogs. Woof. The landscaping and overall condition of the property was impressive when considering it's age. I'm guessing it was built around the 70's? I do think that the apartments could use kitchen renovations in the near future. read more

I have to say this new management is more efficient and effective than the prior management. WP has improved their customer service and maintenance capacity to a higher level of my appreciation. They are more aware, attentive, problem solvers, and reliable than ever before. I say this with much amaze to how unreliable the management before handled things. read more

I never had any issues with Wickfield. Just moved out of my apartment with them today--hoping they don't try to take my security deposit like the other reviews suggest (considering I left the apartment much cleaner than I received it.) They were prompt with snow removal and good about taking the trash to the curb. Responded quickly to my roommates service requests. Shannon was helpful with the move out, kind and reasonable. Also, the receptionist complained about in other reviews has been replaced--the new receptionist (Megan) couldn't be sweeter. read more

Pros: - They can put a roof over your head Cons: - Scammed and charged on numerous occasions for pre-existing damages - Will find ways to nickle and dime you out of your security deposit - Hides charges that you will have to pay later (Pro tip: check your utilities [water, electricity, heat] and make sure all costs are in line and paid for, so you're not charged at the end. By check, I mean write to both Wickfield and relevant business provider) - Service requests take weeks to actual months - Shoddy living area Best fit: - If you don't have multiple options and need to sign something for the upcoming year, it'll get the job done. read more

Wouldn't rent from them again. They have the RUDEST staff, except for one gentleman who I never had a problem with, but our neighbors did. Pretty consistant with the other reviews, they completely ripped off our neighbors for thousands of dollars and kept their security deposit at the end instead of ever giving them an actual bill throughout their lease. The WORST customer service- I've NEVER had ARGUE with a rental company to PAY RENT like these jerks. The receptionist was the biggest b*. Don't know how these people are still in business. read more

This is the worst company I have ever done business with. They slapped me with an illegal $1000 fee for handing my keys in 50 minutes late. When I went there and they told me I had to pay them $1000 out of my security deposit, I cried. Their representative, BJ, argued with me and said that it actually cost $1000 to delay a house cleaning by an hour. A year later, I was outside their offices, volunteering, handing out flyers about renter's rights. BJ saw me in the parking lot, and without missing a beat shouted "Are you going to cry on the lawn again?" He repeatedly threatened to call the police over the next two hours. When I went into their offices to let them know I was leaving, he started yelling at me and didn't stop for over five minutes. He mock-cried the entire time. He shouted that because I had taken a lower fee, he had won, and I was a loser. He shouted that after that day a year ago, I disgusted him so much that he went home and told his children that his love was conditional. He said he told them he would never respect them again if they acted so childish, so idiotic. And so on. After more than five straight minutes of abuse, his coworkers tried to drag him away. They managed to pull him into a back room, which he kept shouting at me from while his coworkers told me to leave. I had been nothing but polite. As far as I know, he still works there. The company is rotten to the core. Don't give them the opportunity to defraud you out of your money. read more

Truly the worst rental company out there. They will not pick up your calls or respond to your emails. They will leave your driveways literally looking like treacherous ice rinks in the winter, and do not bother to treat any of the snow surrounding your property. They sell the parking spots that belong to your house and leave you with a crappy spot on the side of the driveway instead. They have terrible customer service and are incredibly impolite, AND their rent is insanely expensive, not including utilities, which they don't pay for. AVOID this company at all costs. read more

You won't sleep. They do construction here everyday and do not care if their other tenats get sleep or not. The manager is never available to speak to either. Worst complex I've ever lived in. read more

A lot of people only feel compelled to leave reviews when they have negative experiences. However, I think Wickfield deserves at least one solid, but honest, review since this is the best property management company I've had in Ann Arbor (been here since October 2015 and have moved apartments 4 times, each with different landlords/companies). Why I'm giving them 4 stars: - They appear to be well established and well managed compared to most other property management companies (especially around the downtown area, which is almost completely infested with slumlords). - Emergency maintenance is highly responsive. We left them a voicemail about an issue (upstairs neighbor flooded their bathtub, which lead to water pouring through a vent in our bathroom ceiling), they called back immediately and showed up within 20 min - on a Sunday night! The guy was very pleasant, and even complimented/petted my cat on his way out the door. - They are very on top of keeping walkways/steps well-salted and cleared. Better than any other place I've lived at. I haven't had to break out my own bag of salt even once all winter. - Online bill-pay is convenient. - They are generally very responsive to emails. - The people from Leasing are very laid back, friendly, easy to speak with (at least in my experience). - No extra charges for furnishings. - Nicest laundry room I've ever had (at 125 Hill) Why they don't get a 5th star: - Their contracted-out cleaning company didn't do a great job. The apartment wasn't horrifyingly messy, but there were a lot of areas they obviously didn't clean at all (especially the furnishings and window sills). - They chose not to fix shredded areas of the carpet before we moved in (likely caused by a pet of previous tenants). - A couple of light bulbs were already burned out when we moved in (and the contract states tenants are responsible for the bulbs once you move in). - They forgot to replace the drip pans on our stove before we moved in, so we had no drip pans. When we notified them of that, maintenance replaced them the next day - but they did not give us any notice prior to them entering the apartment, which was very annoying. We asked them not to do that again, and since then, they've been much better about that. - During a showing, they left the door open to my roommates room (which she keeps closed to keep my cat out since she's not a fan of cat hair)...and also, muddy footprints everywhere. We explained we were displeased by the lack of consideration with those things, and they apologized and promised to avoid that next time. - One of the receptionists has come off as passive aggressive a couple of times in response to questions, particularly through email. I try not to take it personally since it can be hard to gauge tone in writing + Ann Arbor often seems culturally passive aggressive in general (like Minnesota nice, but less nice). However, I also have a job where people ask me annoying questions all day and do my best not to make them feel bad or dumb for asking them - that's the job. While yes, there were enough annoyances for me to subtract a star, all of those annoyances are very small potatoes compared to what I've been through in all the other places I've lived in around downtown Ann Arbor. If I wasn't offered a job out of state, I would definitely consider resigning my lease with them for another year. read more

These people are the WORST. Absolutely DO NOT rent from them. I would never recommend them to anyone. Worst staff possible. Ignore emails and voicemails. Nickel and dime the security deposit refund. read more

Wickfield Properties is the singular worst property management company in the city of Ann Arbor. Their customer service is unbelievably terrible- I have been trying to reach their office for weeks between the hours of 9-5 and nobody has picked up, nor called me back, despite leaving multiple voicemails. I had to change one of the names on the lease for the property, and having heard nothing back for almost 3 weeks, I bombarded their office with calls until I was remarkably able to get someone to answer the phone. Turns out they had forgotten about my request completely, despite the fact that we had submitted everything online and it was available to them in a matter of seconds. Now I'm waiting on them to send out the revised lease, and thus haven't been able to reach anyone. They are unprofessional, unintelligent scam artists who prey on clueless college students to stay in business. They skate by on band-aid repairs, take away your parking spot with no notice whatsoever, don't answer their phone no matter when you call, and never check their emails or voicemail. There are plenty of awful property management companies in Ann Arbor, but whatever you do, stay away from Wickfield. read more

Ruthless. Dishonest. Cheats. Thieves. They do not respond to tenants. They do not remove snow. They do not fix gaping holes in roofs. They are only about the rent check. They will find a way to keep your deposit. Ask around town, not one person has had a positive experience with this company. Stay far, far away. read more

This company is absurdly terrible. Let us count the ways. Some cosmetic details have been changed to protect our identity. It should speak ill of the company that we have come to feel this need. MAINTENANCE Upon move-in, the house was fithy. There was broken glass on the floor, and rusty nail heads sticking out of the floorboards where the wood had rotted away. When I mentioned the nails to the maintenance guy, he said, "Well, feel free to knock them in yourselves. You know, I can't have my boys crawling all around the floor just looking for nails and whatever." We are paying in excess of 40K a year for this property. FEES The hidden fees have amounted to thousands of dollars. They charge a "prep" fee for incoming tenants of $600. They charge an "application" fee of $50 per tenant when you apply for a lease. They encourage you to pay rent online, but charge 3% of total rent to do so. I think these figures are correct, but they are so hidden that it is impossible to see them before or after the moment of payment. They are not posted on their website. They are not even mentioned at any stage of the online payment process except for the confirmation page. Afterwards, they do not appear on the transaction history that Wickfield keeps. A perusal of the lease reveals more. A $75 during working hours or $100 otherwise fee for being locked out and calling to be let back in. A $35 fee for every check that doesn't cash, even if delivered well ahead of time. Wickfield charges a $100 fee per subletter for subletting. To quote the tenant's rights, "Your advocate sections differ on the validity of such lease clauses. Money sent to Wickfield is applied to six accounts, starting with the first. In order, late fees, repair charges, "other charges provided for in the lease", Wickfield's legal fees (in the event you tried to challenge them in court, you must pay their legal fees before they will accept rent), utility bills, and, dead last, rent. Clearly, the stacking of every possible payment before rent maximizes the probability that the tenant will be late on rent, and charged, yes, a late fee, of 5%. What strikes me as particularly awful is that, if you sue Wickfield and lose, if you are made to pay Wickfield's legal bills, they will not accept rent, and prevent the late fee, until their legal bills are paid, to the extent "allowed by law". There is a $100 fee per invoice, per utility, for not putting a utility in the tenant's name. No "relative, friend, boy- or girl-friend, fiancé, dog, cat (?), or other entity" is to use the washing facilities. They justify this, in the lease, with what I can only imagine is cruel irony, by stating "It's hard enough to find time to do your own laundry, and even more difficult when someone who shouldn't be there is using the machines." (As though it's for our own protection! And that our "boy- or girl-friend ... shouldn't be there"!) SECURITY DEPOSITS This company has a very bad reputation for withholding security deposits for spurious reasons. We heard about this and took a lot of photos of house when we moved in. I am certain that if we left it for them as badly as they left it for us (after charging us $500 for "prep"), without evidence of how it looked before, that they would keep our over $6000 security deposit. Wickfield Properties has become synonymous in our minds, as well as many who have rented with them, with a company whose purpose is to extract as much from its customers as possible, through all means possible, some of which are explicitly illegal (such as withholding security deposits for a house in the same condition as it was at the beginning of the lease). They prey on students who have never rented before, who have no frame of reference, and who fall into their dozens of expensive traps. They are shockingly awful. read more