I was the tenant of this apartment for the past two years, my lease term expires at the end of the month. I have had (and am having) a very tough time with the landlord(s) so I would caution prospective tenants that, while the apartment is nice and reasonably priced, our experience indicates that you should not expect the landlords will follow-through on promises to repair or maintain the... [more]
I was the tenant of this apartment for the past two years, my lease term expires at the end of the month. I have had (and am having) a very tough time with the landlord(s) so I would caution prospective tenants that, while the apartment is nice and reasonably priced, our experience indicates that you should not expect the landlords will follow-through on promises to repair or maintain the apartment (among other things). I have relayed my feelings to the current broker (who was also the broker when we rented the apartment and represented the landlords to me as diligent, attentive and responsive) so please feel free to ask her about our experience.
I am not interested in getting into a fight with the landlords but also think that prospective tenants should have an accurate idea of what they’re signing up for (I now know that I didn't); as such, I am going to try to limit this to a cautionary statement of facts and a brief explanation of my feelings about the experience and how it could be improved. First to the facts about the listing and then to our experience as tenants:
The apartment is not 1,200 square feet as it is repeatedly advertised. It is roughly 800 excluding the patio (which is less than 150 and outdoor spaces are typically excluded from square footage calculations). The entire floor of the building seems to match to 1,200 square feet including the hallway, elevator and exterior walls.
The second bath is not a full bathroom. It is a half-bath.
Unless they are planning on fully renovating the apartment in the 5 days between 3/1 and 3/6 the apartment is not "totally renovated and in mint condition" it hasn't been renovated for at least 3 years (I'd guess more like 7). The kitchen is also not "brand new" but maybe they're going to put in new appliances though I doubt it.
As to our tenancy:
The landlords repeatedly showed no respect for our privacy. They would routinely enter the apartment without any notice (except maybe a knock which we frequently couldn’t hear) and without any good cause (no emergencies etc.). In an attempt to balance an understanding of the difficulties of scheduling repairs in a small building with our right to privacy, I asked them repeatedly to at least call me before they entered – even this rather small request was to no avail until the final months of our tenancy. In one instance, one of the landlords entered our bedroom while both of us were asleep for no better reason than to show some guys how to install a W/D in the apartment above us; this transpired with no warning other than (I assume) a knock on the door which we didn’t hear because we were asleep! Needless to say this experience was incredibly discomforting but the worst part was that, despite discussing the ridiculousness and inappropriateness of this instance of intrusion with the landlords this wasn’t the last time they entered without any warning.
When we viewed the apartment, the deck had a number of broken or rotten boards leaving large holes in the floor and boards which would collapse if stepped upon. Both the broker and the landlords said these would be fixed. They were only partially repaired 18 months later. More boards rotted and were never replaced. If you see the apartment you may notice some boards on the deck that don’t fit (unless they repair the deck after our lease is up) – we finally gave up on trying to get the deck repaired and, after waiting several weeks for the boards to be brought up from the basement, put them down (and removed the broken boards) ourselves. This was just one of a plethora of promised repairs that never materialized. I would strongly recommend any prospective tenant get agreed upon repairs written into the lease (preferably with required deadlines as simple repairs frequently took weeks or months).
During my tenancy, I found it incredibly difficult to get in touch with the landlords. They routinely “didn’t get” E-mails (which isn’t really how E-mail works - it’s pretty reliable), didn’t return calls they promised to return, ignored text messages etc.
I understand that managing the building is not a top-priority given their occupations but when you are taking money as a result of making promises you are placing a legal and/or moral duty on yourself to see those promises through – if they were upfront about what to expect and didn’t make promises they didn’t intend to follow-through on I probably wouldn’t have a problem (though the no-notice entries would still be upsetting) but in my experience they were deceitful, dishonest and I felt taken advantage of. As I have previously suggested, I feel they should hire or contract someone to manage the building for them – I can’t imagine it would be particularly expensive and it would certainly be a more sensible use of time (a super would undoubtedly cost less than their time is worth, do the job better and do it in less time).
I would urge caution to any prospective tenant who would be put off by the behaviors detailed above.
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