Lachman, Michael

Location to transit is good although it sometimes feels too close to the mall/dmv and all the traffic.

The landlords are actually the worst I've ever had in New York, and that is saying something. They'll try to woo you as a prospective tenant by saying "this is our home and we love it so much," during your initial Facetime call from Bali or Israel and then once that lease is signed you'll quickly learn it was all just to get you to think they care about you as a tenant. The reality is, neither of them have stepped foot on the property in nearly a decade, and couldn't care less about you as a tenant. They will message/email at 4am (they haven't learned about schedule send yet), and will always be condescending and threaten non-renewal if you are a "difficult tenant." Unfortunately being "difficult" to them means just asking for regular fixes. They called us "troublemakers" for filing a 311 report after they promised, and failed to deliver, a clean apartment on move-in (photos attached! our windows were literally infested with pigeons, we had black mold in the bathroom, and the walls were covered in grime).

Manlord even uses messages like "if you don't do X [example: rescind your 311 report, stop contacting me, etc], this will determine our decision to keep you as a tenant come renewal time" to control his tenants into submission. It's pathetic. And this is coming from the same man who publicly says he "left the rat race of making money" to focus on life's purpose.

We were told they would not be renewing our lease because a "family friend" was coming to stay in the apartment. We knew this was a lie, and sure enough, our apartment was listed at a 20% increase, one year after they had already raised our rent 15%. Remember, this is for a property that the owners claim is not an investment property.

The owners recently separated, so to compensate for them splitting profit, they've decided to jack up everyone's rent. You'll never know who is actually running things, because they are so incompetent. You'll end up sending rent to 3 different Zelle accounts depending on the month or who is in charge. They live internationally, so it takes them 12+ hours to reply to any messages, and the (ex)husband in particular will typically reply with condescending messages like "speaking to you is ruining my quality of life" or "please consider not replying to this email", as if he is peeved by having to actually pretend for 5 minutes to be a decent landlord while living on his all-inclusive commune in Bali.

To make a long story short, as the other reviews say, this place is just an investment for them, and they're running it into the ground to maximize profit so they can afford to live abroad. Did I mention the husband still claims it as his primary residence?

They even list "laundry in building" but fail to mention that it costs $4/load, so they're even making money on the "amenities" they provide. Just look at the price history of the units, keeping in mind there have been ZERO improvements to the building in years. The super is really friendly, but he told me multiple times about his own disdain for the cheap owners and how they always would promise him a certain amount of $ for repairs and then underpay him. So, now, the super does the bare minimum because he doesn't want to keep getting stiffed.

If you find this review after you sign with them, I'm sorry for what you're about to experience. Turnover in this building is extremely high, and every lease cycle is filled with uncertainty because you never know what these unpredictable landlords are going to try to pull on you (5% increase? 15% increase? A non-renewal out of nowhere? Who knows!) And god forbid you actually need to request a repair, they will just increase your rent by X amount next year to cover their loss or chose not to renew you because that $500 plumbing repair really ate into their profits.

More quick cons:
- Significant pet fee (which didn't exist for tenants prior to 2023)
- Daily loud trash pickup at the Shirley Chisholm State building next door (loading bay is two doors down). This leads to constantly idling trash trucks with exhaust, dust, and debris. This includes heavy rat and roach activity.
- No cleaning of communal areas, mail, stairwells, etc.
- Awful cockroaches & mosquitos in the summer
- Very heavy foot traffic from Atlantic Terminal & Barclays leading to constantly stolen packages and mail
- Finicky front door locks, no buzzer/intercom, broken doorbells and hallway lights
- Entryway light broken half the time
- Constant issues with heating in the winter
- Expensive laundry costs
- Super cheap cabinetry (including no drawers in kitchen)
- Cheap flooring (that they installed over real hardwood??)

Anyways, good luck! If you DO rent an apartment in this building, or if you are seeing this review too late, get everything in writing, and never speak to the owners over the phone. There hasn't been a single tenant from the building with a good thing to say about these landlords, and even the longtime neighbors having nothing but bad things to say about them.

Photos attached show how we received our apartment, after paying over $10,000 to move in. One last nail in the coffin is that the landlords will most likely stipulate in your lease that you need to paint the apartment yourself before you move out. This is because we rightfully pointed out to them that they are required to paint every 4 years. Rather than obey this law themselves, they now pass it on to their tenants. They do absolutely nothing when turning over apartments. No cleaning, no new toilet seats, no new paint, no new lightbulbs… nothing.

Consider yourself warned.

Sell the building so you can focus on yourself

Location was great

The landlord doesn’t live in the city and refused to hire a super. The stairs were never shoveled, the trash piled up for months at a time and created a rat problem.

Stop being so cheap and pay for a super