Showing 1–2 of 2 reviews
Anonymous
1 years ago
Pros: Large, spacious apartment layouts, garage is available below the building. Also there are currently two internet service providers so there is more potential for a good deal on internet service. Neighbors are mostly quiet. I was given fresh appliances when I moved in. Winter heat is mostly reliable via steam radiators. Cons: This building is barely managed at all. It seems the super, who lives across the street, manages most issues, and management is not in the 21st century yet so they do not update tenants via email on anything going on in the building (ie repairs). If you run into an issue you will need to call the super or management. Note that the building across the street, is owned by the same company and is where the super lives, and it is much better maintained. It is brighter and actually kept clean. Management doesn't pay to have a separate super in this building and it shows. I'll begin with the cleanliness - I have only seen the hallways cleaned ONCE this year (it is now summer). The 'lobby' and elevator are also consistently FILTHY, never mopped or wiped down. I have never encountered such an unclean building. In addition, there is an apartment right near the entrance where the tenants have a strong odor emanating from their apartment, which is an awful way to enter the building where you live. Hallways also have horrible lighting, which combined with the dark hue of paint the hallways are painted in, makes for a grim environment. Landscaping outside is surprisingly cut on a regular basis but the 'grass' is mostly a collection of weeds. Garbage management is also bad (Surprise, Surprise). Everything is collected in the basement, but someone only comes to deal with it every few days, so the garbage quickly piles up and the odors get very strong. There are also rodents by the trash. I have found mice in my apartment, the building also has roaches. Kitchen layout is bizarre with bottom tier appliances, there is no ventilation fan installed with the stove so kitchens are poorly ventilated. Consistent issues with hot water in this building, during the winter there were periods where the water was completely off and no communication of any kind was provided or posted in the building. Right now I typically don't have hot water at least one day a month, and no communication from management on why this happens so frequently. Electrical in apartments is ancient, so there are not enough outlets, especially in the kitchen, and the breaker will trip easily. No way to pay rent online other than having your bank send a check. My move-in experience was not stellar, either. The broker was fine, but the apartments are handed over to you 'as-is' and in my case that was in filthy condition. The floors were freshly finished, as well as the bathroom tub re-lacquered, but the kitchen required a 3-day deep cleaning that included removing the leftovers of a severe roach infestation. I had to assemble the kitchen appliances myself. Some neighbors are nice, but a few are pretty dirty, for example someone was just throwing food on the floor of the compactor room for weeks, until another neighbor got annoyed and wrote a sign asking them to stop. There is another neighbor who uses random items for window shades, such as pizza boxes and dirty fragments of foam, which you can see at the street level, very visibly unpleasing. Another red flag - there was a *minor* apartment fire in an apartment here; after the FDNY left it became apparent that all of the fire extinguishers in the building were NOT current on their inspection-the fire extinguishers were all piled in the basement for a few weeks and you could see the expired tags on them. It took some time but eventually they were updated, however I truly wonder-had there not been a fire (and thus FDNY firemen all over the building) would this even have been discovered? Although this apartment building might seem like a good deal due to lower than average rents for the area, I would highly recommend avoiding and looking for a building thats a bit better maintained, rather than saving a couple hundred bucks on rent and going with this building. With rodents, roaches, unclean common spaces, poor maintenance, poor hot water availability, and outright safety issues (apparent with the fire extinguisher issue), this is not worth it. The building is a walking violation. Advice to landlord: I understand with many rent controlled units there is only so much you will do but maybe invest just a little bit to avoid fines/DOB complaints? Perhaps get a super for this building rather than being stingy and overworking your one super for multiple buildings. Getting tenants email to have a mailing list for maintenance updates might be nice.
Anonymous
2 years ago
Pros: Nothing to be honest Cons: Garbage is always full, it’s inside so there’s so many bugs it’s an old building and has pests