653 Vanderbilt Avenue,

Brooklyn, NY 11238

The only good thing living here is the location. The landlord is a miserable person who is a bully.

The landlord will not give your deposit back and charge you for basic scuffs even on the hallways. Prepare to go on court.

I have been a renter for over a decade and make it a point to care for the units I have rented. I have never had a situation where I had to deal with a bully of a landlord.

Signing a lease with the owner is basically means you are letting go of that security deposit. Upfront- it sounds reasonable to have rules and regulations and I for one would like to live in a quiet and clean apartment building.

Where it goes wrong is how you get text messages from the owner when you don’t tell him you will be away for more than 2 days. Or when my boyfriend stays over the weekend- according to him, anything more than 2 nights is a sublease. Or how having a portable AC is not allowed when this apartment is extremely HOT in the summer.

The owner has security cameras all over common areas and it’s in his intention to make sure to find an opportunity where you as a tenant make a mistake and you will be texted immediately. This is how it will go for when you vacate the property as well.

I was very careful knowing how the owner is OcD by hiring a proper moving company with COI. I had informed movers to look into the walls and make sure nothing is touched on any of the poor quality walls because they will be charged.

The owner will want to go through a walk through after and he will put tape on every single scruff on the wall even if it can be wiped with a rag. There’s no arguing and at this point he will claim he needs to repaint the walls of the hall way.

He will also charge you for not cleaning the ceiling fans which are not reachable. He even charged me to “resand” the whole bedroom floor for a “scratch” which was left marking of a packaging tape that was there when I moved.

Read the lease too- the owner sttaes if you go to court you will need to pay for his legal fees. This is exactly the kind of tenant bullying you will expect in this apartment. Mind you- he is ready to raise the rent after a year too. There is no reasoning with this owner and he is only there to maximize every dollar he can get fr you.

Forget feeling like you are part of the neighborhood- you’re just a headcount he can make money from.

DO NOT RENT THIS PLACE. I am the second reviewer ssaying the same thing. A year apart. I wish I read the review above last year

Stop scamming people!

1. Central location, near bars and restaurants
2. Spacious studio (bedroom is sectioned off)

1. The landlord is exacting, rude, and monitors your every move. If you do anything that isn’t to his preference, he will send you verbally harassing messages either about how you are violating the lease or that you will be liable for damages. No professional conversation; straight to confrontation. For context, the landlord lives in the building and you would be the only residential tenant, so it feels like you’re renting a room inside someone’s house and you have no privacy. For example, he claimed that if packages are left in the stairway overnight, someone would break in to steal them and I would be liable for damages (legally this is BS because he is responsible for common areas and if he thinks people can break in, it’s up to him to not have glass on the front door.) If I had the window open when it’s raining, he will tell me I will have to pay for damages from the rain coming in. When I had friends staying with me for a few days, he immediately claimed I was subletting and using the apartment as a hotel. He also requires in the lease that you let him know if you’re ever more than 2 days away from the apartment and will diligently watch your coming and going if you don’t tell him. These are just a few examples. Living there is psychological hell unless you’re the type of person who stays home all day and never goes anywhere.
2. There are only windows on one side of the apartment so it gets really stuffy and hot, especially in the summer.
3. The stairwell is narrow, as they are in small buildings. Due to this, if you’re moving in or out any furniture, your movers will inevitably scuff the walls, which you will have to pay repairs for.
4. For your own sanity, just don’t live here.