Flatiron 18

What kind of building were you hoping for? It is a rental in a non-family area.

I think that is a family area - Madison Square Park and Union Square are both very family. I don't know this building at all but I wouldn't expect it to be a frat house.

when i lived there, there were a few families with young kids that resided there ... cops showed up every fri, sat nites to break up parties, tenants found others having sex on the roof deck ... nice!?! and paying $6/month

Hi. I have questions for u guys.. my landlort at hakimian is charging 6month security deposit.. i havent sign the contract yet but desnt this sound rediculous??? p.s. i do have guarantor.

it does to me okioreo. do you have ssn, good credit history or steady employment?

i do have ssn, i do have amazing credit history, and im student now so i have guarantor.

ive lived in 3 diff apt before. and all of them only charged 1 month security deposit. so i just think 6 month sounds super sketchy. i cant really trust the landlord anymore

exactly. given that many landlords are in trouble (can foreclose themselves and kiss your deposit goodbye), why risk it? with the higher vacancy rates you should be able to find a more down to earth landlord. i'd pass on this one.

yaaa. if my landlord ever run off, it will be impossible to catch him. esp because it is 2 BR $4990.. thats a LOT of money for 6 months. He can also make some excuse not to return it to us.. like inner water pipe broke and it cost a lots of money to fix it.. or something like the owner ship is switching to some other landlord so u have to deal with him.. kind of bull shit. I thought he was giving us good deal when he said he wont charge for 1st month rent but than he mentioned about the security deposit now.. its like wtf. im not that damb.

oh btw, does 2 BR $4990 sounds reasonable??? include large living room and kitchen and 2 bath room.

ok my real estate was soooo crazy.. like he has to run credit check.. for 4 ppl *me and two other roomies and one guarantor. and he is asking for $900... isnt that like $100 per person so totall $400??? wtf is going on? so we decided to drop the apartment.. if i cant trust the agency, i cant live in the apt.

walk away--sounds like the whole situation is infested with leeches--plenty of decent rentals these days

What the heck do you expect in a "luxury" rental building in the Chelsea area? It caters to 20 something frat people and "single men"

TKen, it is a total group for nasty lewdness and shouting in the hallways, and meth and other party drugs and trance houce music. how do those two groups g et along or have room for normal couples or families?

Another realwhore, what is your problem with rentals? Your probably bitter that your apartment is falling in value and no one wants to hire you.

Avoid this building and management company (Hakimian)!!! We put in an app this Sunday on a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment (asking $3,750) in this building only to be told that unit had already been taken (which was weird since it hadn't been listed and we only came to know about it through a current tenant). The management company then offered us a more expensive unit on a higher floor, also a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit. They wanted $1,000 more a month for the unit (Hakimian was asking us to pay $4,750, note that current 2 bedrooms, 2 baths on high floors in this building go for $4,850 -- before concessions!). Also, the $4,750 unit has significantly less closet space than the $3,750 -- their are way better apartments out there for $5k.

We agreed to the deal because we were very excited about the neighborhood, very tired of looking for apartments and got a little carried away. They then asked us for our tax returns, after which they upped the price on us again!!!

Brokers, if you want to waste your time (and your clients) negotiating for apartments that aren't really available at rental rates that don't really exist (Haikimian will retrade on you!), then this is the place for you!

Last night we saw the original #3,750 apartment listed on craigslist for $3,695. When we asked management about it, they said that it was in fact available for that price (note they were unclear that it was the same people asking about the apartment). A total waste of time. There are no units here, just a management company trying to do price checks on their units.

Bed Bugs! I overheard a guy in the lobby talking about how he had bedbugs and had spent close to five thousand dollars of his own money trying to get rid of them because Hakimian wouldn't fix the problem. That's outrageous and I don't doubt his story given my own interactions with Hakimian. I have heard from staff and other tenants that many of the units in the building have had a bed bug problem - not mine yet, thankfully. BEWARE!

I've had many bad experiences in the past two years of living in this building. I'll start with the good and then move on to the bad.

GOOD:
The apartments are beautiful and well-designed. The doormen are great (especially Leo, but also Charlie, Santiago, and Jerry. They're all very friendly). The location is unbeatable.

BAD:

1) They pulled the same trick on me as someone else mentioned: I was all ready to sign a lease, and all of a sudden, the apartment was unavailable and they wanted me to take another, more expensive one. Basically, the advertised price is not what it really is when you shop with this building. We negotiated the price down, but it was not easy.

2) (August) When I was moving in, I was shocked at how dirty the apartment was. I asked the super and he said, "Wait, you're moving into that one? Oh, I've made a terrible mistake. We cleaned another apartment!" I was appalled but didn't want to get angry. He promised me a cleaning person would come, "the best of the best," and she would clean up. She came a few hours later with a swiffer used in someone else's apartment (it was already black) and wiped the floors a little. I told her to get out and that I would take care of it. It was the first of a long series of problems, on the very first day. [The management has terribly communication skills]

3) (December) A few months later, I woke up early on a Saturday and was brushing my teeth. I heard my neighbor turn her shower on and noticed something in the corner of my eye: my bathtub started filling from the drain with a soapy, yellow water. Her waste water was coming into my bathroom. I called downstairs immediately, and they sent up a porter, Juan. Juan is the worst porter I could ever imagine dealing with (but he's very nice). He began plunging the bathroom drain; I watched as gunk flew all over my bathroom, dirtying everything. He turns the water on, stares at it backing up in the tub, and says: "It's good?" This is Juan's classic phrase. But it's never good. I said no. He plunged some more, and the water still barely went down, but my bathroom was more and more of a mess. At this point, I told him to get out and I'd take care of it. I had to clean the whole bathroom and aggressively pour drano down the drain each week forever thereafter.

4) (July) I wake up one night and need to use the bathroom. When I flush the toilet, it doesn't refill, and then the sink didn't work to wash my hands. I call downstairs. Immediately, Charlie answers the phone with, "No water in the building." Oh. What happened? Improperly maintained water pumps; one had failed, and the other, under so much strain, gave in that night. The water pumps weren't replaced until the following night.

5) (October) Several months later, I came home after a long Saturday at work, and couldn't wait to cook myself a meal. I was scrubbing some vegetables in the sink, and I noticed I was standing in a puddle of water. I called downstairs, but the doorman said the porter wasn't around and that the super was on vacation. I lividly washed my vegetables in the bathroom sink. On Monday, I asked again, and Luis, another porter, came up to take care of it. The gasket of the drain needed to be replaced, because, as Luis, in his own words, said, "This building bought cheap shit; I'm tired of replacing these." I had to spend hours hanging around watching Luis fix this (I don't trust people in my apartment, and thank goodness I don't; more on this later).

6) (The following March) I had thought there couldn't be anything else that would go wrong. I had been free for so long. One night, I'm sleeping, and I hear a dripping sound in my dreams, but assume it's just a dream. The dripping persists and gets so loud, that I get concerned enough to wake up and check. I look around the apartment, but don't see anything, until I enter the bathroom. The entire bathroom is flooded in a yellow liquid, and it stinks, bad. The liquid is dripping from a soaked ceiling, possibly my worst nightmare. I call downstairs and say there's a terrible flood. The doorman comes with a plunger... not that kind of flood! He wakes the super up, another Luis (who has since left), and this Luis was so rude. I never could stand Luis (especially after that first day when he cleaned the wrong apartment), but now that he was giving me attitude because he needed to be woken up in the middle of the night to do his job, I'd almost had it. He left after realizing it was something he needed to handle upstairs, and I tried to cope with the smell. I closed the bathroom door and opened the window, enduring 30 degree weather to try to not smell that foul smell. After 2 hours or so, it was fixed, Luis came and vacuumed the liquid, and left. The bathroom was in terrible, disgusting shape (stained, smelly, all my belongings (shower curtain, bath mat) ruined). This was by far the worst experience in this building. And the worst was coming down and telling Charlie, the doorman about it, and he said, "Yeah that happens all the time. People flood their bathrooms and then it comes down. They're so stupid; usually they're drunk.” That’s not okay!

On top of that, there are persistent things about this building that drive me crazy. The people here are so rude; never once has anyone held the elevator for me. My neighbors blast music and have loud, violent fights regularly. They'll come home drunk and scream and yell, then take it to the hallway, even hitting each other, until one throws the other out. Once, they were rolling around in the hallway hitting each other, and then their door slammed and he stood up and said, "SHIT! I forgot the key!" He was in his underwear, and had to go down and get the spare. Charlie and I had a good time joking about it a few days later (Charlie had to give him the key that night).

But it says a lot that when I come down in the morning the doormen often say to me, "Oh boy, I know you got no sleep last night. I read the logs about your neighbors." The people in this building are awful. (Note: some are very nice I'm sure, but I've had pretty bad luck it would seem. And it agrees with what others have said about the building.)

And, about Luis the porter, when I read this article a few weeks ago, I was so glad I always stayed in the apartment to watch him: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140710/flatiron/woman-uses-camera-catch-handyman-breaking-into-apartment-police-say

And Luis the super? He was fired, rightfully. The new super, Mirek, is much nicer, but I luckily haven't had any problems that require me to deal with him.

On to the management, Hakimian. Evil. They put on this profesional, friendly demeanor, and they cheat you like crazy, the definition of evil (a nice front with an evil core).

I've had many bad experiences in the past two years of living in this building. I'll start with the good and then move on to the bad.

GOOD:
The apartments are beautiful and well-designed. The doormen are great (especially Leo, but also Charlie, Santiago, and Jerry. They're all very friendly). The location is unbeatable.

BAD:

1) They pulled the same trick on me as someone else mentioned: I was all ready to sign a lease, and all of a sudden, the apartment was unavailable and they wanted me to take another, more expensive one. Basically, the advertised price is not what it really is when you shop with this building. We negotiated the price down, but it was not easy.

2) (August) When I was moving in, I was shocked at how dirty the apartment was. I asked the super and he said, "Wait, you're moving into that one? Oh, I've made a terrible mistake. We cleaned another apartment!" I was appalled but didn't want to get angry. He promised me a cleaning person would come, "the best of the best," and she would clean up. She came a few hours later with a swiffer used in someone else's apartment (it was already black) and wiped the floors a little. I told her to get out and that I would take care of it. It was the first of a long series of problems, on the very first day. [The management has terrible communication skills]

3) (December) A few months later, I woke up early on a Saturday and was brushing my teeth. I heard my neighbor turn her shower on and noticed something in the corner of my eye: my bathtub started filling from the drain with a soapy, yellow water. Her waste water was coming into my bathroom. I called downstairs immediately, and they sent up a porter, Juan. Juan is the worst porter I could ever imagine dealing with (but he's very nice). He began plunging the bathroom drain; I watched as gunk flew all over my bathroom, dirtying everything. He turns the water on, stares at it backing up in the tub, and says: "It's good?" This is Juan's classic phrase. But it's never good. I said no. He plunged some more, and the water still barely went down, but my bathroom was more and more of a mess. At this point, I told him to get out and I'd take care of it. I had to clean the whole bathroom and aggressively pour drano down the drain each week forever thereafter. The drain still doesn’t work well but at least I don’t have my neighbors backwash.

4) (July) I wake up one night and need to use the bathroom. When I flush the toilet, it doesn't refill, and then the sink didn't work to wash my hands. I call downstairs. Immediately, Charlie answers the phone with, "No water in the building." Oh. What happened? Improperly maintained water pumps; one had failed, and the other, under so much strain, gave in that night. The water pumps weren't replaced until the following night.

5) (October) Several months later, I came home after a long Saturday at work, and couldn't wait to cook myself a meal. I was scrubbing some vegetables in the sink, and I noticed I was standing in a puddle of water. I called downstairs, but the doorman said the porter wasn't around and that the super was on vacation. I lividly washed my vegetables in the bathroom sink. On Monday, I asked again, and Luis, another porter, came up to take care of it. The gasket of the drain needed to be replaced, because, as Luis, in his own words, said, "This building bought cheap shit; I'm tired of replacing these." I had to spend hours hanging around watching Luis fix this (I don't trust people in my apartment, and thank goodness I don't; more on this later).

6) (The following March) I had thought there couldn't be anything else that would go wrong. I had been free for so long. One night, I'm sleeping, and I hear a dripping sound in my dreams, but assume it's just a dream. The dripping persists and gets so loud, that I get concerned enough to wake up and check. I look around the apartment, but don't see anything, until I enter the bathroom. The entire bathroom is flooded in a yellow liquid, and it stinks, bad. The liquid is dripping from a soaked ceiling, possibly my worst nightmare. I call downstairs and say there's a terrible flood. The doorman comes with a plunger... not that kind of flood! He wakes the super up, another Luis (who has since left), and this Luis was so rude. I never could stand Luis (especially after that first day when he cleaned the wrong apartment), but now that he was giving me attitude because he needed to be woken up in the middle of the night to do his job, I'd almost had it. He left after realizing it was something he needed to handle upstairs, and I tried to cope with the smell. I closed the bathroom door and opened the window, enduring 30 degree weather to try to not smell that foul smell. After 2 hours or so, it was fixed, Luis came and vacuumed the liquid, and left. The bathroom was in terrible, disgusting shape (stained, smelly, all my belongings (shower curtain, bath mat) ruined). This was by far the worst experience in this building. And the worst was coming down and telling Charlie, the doorman about it, and he said, "Yeah that happens all the time. People flood their bathrooms and then it comes down. They're so stupid; usually they're drunk.” That’s not okay!

On top of that, there are persistent things about this building that drive me crazy. The people here are so rude; never once has anyone held the elevator for me. My neighbors blast music and have loud, violent fights regularly. They'll come home drunk and scream and yell, then take it to the hallway, even hitting each other, until one throws the other out. Once, they were rolling around in the hallway hitting each other, and then their door slammed and the boyfriend stood up and said, "SHIT! I forgot the key!" He was in his underwear, and had to go down and get the spare. Charlie and I had a good time joking about it a few days later (Charlie had to give him the key that night).

But it says a lot that when I come down in the morning the doormen often say to me, "Oh boy, I know you got no sleep last night. I read the logs about your neighbors." The people in this building are awful. (Note: some are very nice I'm sure, but I've had pretty bad luck it would seem. And it agrees with what others have said about the building.)

And, about Luis the porter, when I read this article a few weeks ago, I was so glad I always stayed in the apartment to watch him: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140710/flatiron/woman-uses-camera-catch-handyman-breaking-into-apartment-police-say

And Luis the super? He was fired, rightfully. The new super, Mirek, is much nicer, but I luckily haven't had any problems that require me to deal with him.

On to the management, Hakimian. Evil. They put on this profesional, friendly demeanor, and they cheat you like crazy, the epitome of evil (a nice front with a mean core). They will never answer your emails, and if they do, it takes weeks.