Pros:
Had a nice first three months. Calm block.
Cons:
This building is managed by slum lords. They hire unlicensed contractors to put bandaids over serious issues with the building, if they ever show up. They are hostile to tenants and will gaslight you.
They do not manage trash pickup or even provide tenants with adequate bins to manage it themselves. There is a horrible smell and a persistent pest problem. You can hear animals moving around in the walls of the apartment at night in the fall.
After I noticed a persistent leak and mold growing in the common area of the apartment, they sent someone to paint over the mold. They ignored me when I told them this was insufficient to fix an issue like this.
Leaks started coming from the ceiling in my bedroom, onto my bed and in the middle of the floor. Management didn’t respond quickly, and workers they said they were sending never showed up. I filed an HPD service request, and when management was notified of this they freaked out. They became indignant and acted like we were overreacting to want ceiling leaks in a bedroom to be fixed within a week. This is not a luxury request. It is basic apartment maintenance. They intimidated us into closing the complaint, even as leaks worsened and they sent no one.
Then, on Christmas Eve, the ceiling collapsed. The steam that heats the building is not contained properly, and steam was floating freely through the walls and ceiling cavity of my bedroom, eventually finding its way out of a steam vent in the roof. It is hard to overstate how nonsensical and incompetent the construction of the room was/is. Over time this problem weakened the drywall, and created a massive mold problem in the wall and ceiling. The way this was built is totally unacceptable. I’m not sure if this management co. is responsible for this negligent, corner-cutting construction but I would not be surprised if they are.
The open ceiling continued to deteriorate, and the disgusting mold made the room uninhabitable. I had to move out all possessions from my room. Requests for a mold inspection were of course, ignored. We opted to hire our own mold inspector who confirmed the serious presence of mold. Of course, management did not like hearing this because any paper trail that exposes their negligence or indicates their requirement to remedy serious problem disrupts their agenda of cutting corners and intimidating tenants.
After a catastrophic incident such as this, management has begun to show some signs of life. They announced their intention to remediate mold, fix the common area leak, and repair leaking radiators that spread huge pools of water across the floors of two rooms. Their repair work on these issues is of course, terrible, slow, and would be embarrassing for any landlord with dignity or an understanding of their obligation to tenants. Radiators are still leaking, and the mold still remains even as they patch up the walls (creating a legally unsafe environment for future tenants).
Through all of this they maintained that we should pay full rent. Only after much negotiation, and with us citing conditions of our lease which entitled us to rental abatement in the event of inhabitability, did they agree to a paltry, insulting discount. We are thrilled to be breaking this lease with this incompetent, terrible company.
When we moved we were thrilled about the neighborhood and the spacious living room. Perhaps these things are drawing you in too. I want to say as emphatically as I can that you do not want to live here. Avoid these awful people. In the interest of brevity I have not included many instances of underhanded dealing and incompetence, like surging power, pooling water in the dilapidated circuit breaker room, a disintegrating ceiling in the kitchen, and contract workers who do not follow covid safety procedures. Again, do not live here. Do not put yourself through this ordeal and let this disgusting property, and disgusting company, fall apart on its own.
Advice to owner:
Get out of property management and study holy texts to learn to be a good person.