building at 308 West 82nd Street

I have a friend who lives there. The studios are comfortably sized. Two good-sized closets. The windows are great -- each apartment has exposures on three different sides, and the main set of windows on the wall in the main room takes up most of that wall. The ceilings are high. The building is pretty quiet. Each studio is basically a corner apartment (four per floor), so you have just one same-floor neighbor who is close to you. There are some tenants who have been here for over a decade and some newer ones; the age range is pretty wide.

There are a couple apartments that have had bug problems, but my friend has had only had one spider and two silverfish in the four years that she's lived there. No roaches ever.

The one bad thing: the laundry room. Two of the three washers have been out of order for over three months. The landlord is taking his time in replacing/repairing them. Not sure what is taking so long, but the tenants aren't thrilled about it. Also, it looks like the laundry room flooded due to the washer situation -- the carpet got soaked and stained and has mildewed, and the smell is terrible.

Thanks JaneRain! I really appreciate all the info that that you provided.

You rock; thanks again -

Hey there, I just noticed this discussion and figured I'd chime in. I'm a current resident and can confirm the ongoing laundry room issues. They did install a new washer a few months back, but the overall filth of the basement has kept me from going down there unless I'm bringing down the trash or recyclables.

Along with the terrible smell, there is an ongoing rat infestation which dates back at least 6 months. I see live rats over half the time I go down to the basement and have come to expect them to jump out of the trash cans as I approach. I've seen a couple of dead ones as well. One was in a trap and another was sprawled out in front of the elevator.
Other than a few traps and perhaps some rat poison, I've seen no evidence that suggests the landlord has done anything to seriously address this issue. I hope they have a plan because the infestation will inevitably get more widespread if nothing is done. At its worst, the basement smells so rancid that it wafts up to the street level floor.

With that said, I've never seen any rodents inside my apartment. There have been a few ants and a few cockroaches, but nothing out of the ordinary when compared to a typical rental in an older building. Basic necessities are met. My apartment has good water pressure and the heat works fine.

Dealing with the management can be frustrating at times. You need to be a squeaky wheel. A leak developed in my ceiling on a rainy day in Spring 2011. On a good note, they patched up the source of the leak right away and there hasn't been a new leak in the two years since. On the other hand, they have yet to repair the damage in the ceiling. Another time, the shower had an issue which required access to the pipes behind the tiled wall. The issue was resolved quickly but it took another 6 months for them to patch-up the hole and re-tile the wall.

Despite these issues, the rent is a good deal for the area. The trade-off is a minimal response from management when issues arise. My biggest concern is the continuing rat infestation in the basement and a general sense that the building isn't being maintained as well as it was a few years ago.
Later on guys.

Thanks so much for all of the info, resident77!
I really appreciate it.

Best regards -

hi, i would like to add comments regarding lack of landlord's management.
I am also a current resident in that building.
My refrigerator (manufacture in 1989) was very noisy that I had to put my noise cancelling headset almost all the time.
Since my first attempt to address this issue in November 2012, landlord finally brought a new one with increased rent (!!!) on March 2013. I experienced such a hard time to deal with him.

Unit itself is decent but as resident77 mentioned, i don't go down to basement because i got too scared to confront with rat.

Wow. I hadn't checked up in a while. Resident00, sorry to hear you had such a hard time getting them to resolve you refrigerator issue. I'm not surprised at all. Just to update my situation, I have recorded several videos of the rats running around in the basement. Not sure what to do with them, but I have them in case they are needed. I have filed a complaint with 311 and a few other residents have told me they did the same. I think the general filth of the building, especially the basement is an attractive place for the rats and any other pests to congregate. There is a major filth fly infestation that is still going strong in late September. They fly up through the back door to the basement that never closes all the way and then spread out into the rest of the building from there. These are not little flies. I'm talking huge house flies and blow flies that feed on filth. There is bug tape in the back of the lobby that quickly fills up with these massive flies. I've had a few in my apartment and it really ticks me off. If you swat them, it gets messy. Vacuuming them works best for no mess.
On a possible good note, the hole in my ceiling might be getting repaired soon. The super entered my apartment with some contractors so he could show them the hole. I'm assuming that the next time these contractors are in the building to fix something else, they will also fix my ceiling. The super explained that they don't hire a contractor to repair just one job because it would be too expensive.

There has been serious work done on this building in the last 1-2 years. I moved in early 2015 to a brand new renovated unit. Since then the basement was partially renovated, they got rid of a big room that was full of junk and replaced it with a gym, it has great equipment an airconditioning and even a bathroom. They also changed the washing machines close to the gym. The rest of the basement is still in bad shape though.

I've never seen rats in the basement, so I think it's fair to say the rat infestation is now under control.

I did experience the fly infestation. It happened once, and lasted for about 3-4 days. Big flies come from downstairs and creep in the corridors and even enter the units. I got 5-10 flys in my apartment in total, but counted over 30 in the corridor. This was back in the summer, haven't seen them since.

The rooftop has also seen some improvements with new chairs, tables and general cleanup, it's now a nice place to hang.

The corridors and entrance hall are still undergoing renovations. And they also already started working on the elevators.

For me the biggest problem with this building are the elevators. In the 1+ year I've lived here they didn't break much, maybe about 2-3 times, and only for a couple days (except for once when it was down for a week). But keep in mind that even though the building have 2 elevators, only one is usable by residents, which means that when the elevator is down you have to take the stairs. That's a hassle for some since this is a 13 stories building. The elevator is just old, very old and I don't feel safe in it. I don't know if they plan to make both elevators available after the renovation, but I sure hope so.

Renting price also increased a lot as you can see by streeteasy renting history.

elevator has been out of order for several weeks now and there is no announcement from management company. And they did't even reply to my request on clarification of situation. REALLY BAD.

CONS: CONSTRUCTION! There has been scaffolding in front of the building for all of the #A and #B apartments since July 2016. 7 months later, there is still facade work ongoing. They start at 8 am promptly (a few times a week M-Fr) and the noise is incredibly disturbing with drilling and workers shouting at the top of their lungs. Forget about sleeping past 8 if they are working! The main elevator has been out of service/under renovation? for about 4 months now. The super has to take residents up in the service elevator if they don't take the stairs. The walls between apartments are thin (e.g hearing a neighbor coughing or sneezing next door) and you can hear noises in the hall very clearly through the apartment entryway. PROs: The building and lobby are undergoing renovation (at a snail's pace), but are turning out very nice. They have made significant improvements to the basement gym, laundry room, and hallways. I never see pests AT ALL (no roaches, mice or flies), and the super is very kind and willing to help out with apartment issues. The building is pretty clean and the trash room doesn't smell. A rooftop is always a plus, however it's tough to access without the elevator functioning at one's leisure. The residents are quiet and polite overall.

still no elevator working on bldg.