Tenant Reviews for 439-445 W. MELROSE STREET

not worth the price and outdated.

I lived here for two years, from 2008-2010. It was OK. Love the layout, HUGE for a one-bedroom. Location is perfect- express buses right at the corner and the Belmont el stop pretty close by. Tons of bars, shops, and restaurants. But I moved in right before the economy crashed in 2008, and got locked into a horribly not worth the price rent. I would've stayed if the landlord had brought the rent price down to a more realistic range for what apartments are going for right now. I saw the Alat ended up going for $135/month less than what I was paying, so I don't see why they couldn't have lowered it for someone who had been a good tenant for two years. Its also extremely outdated. No dishwashers or garbage disposals or central A/C. Gas-forced heat, but that's expected in the city. It did break at least three times that I recall while living there, and each time I had to go a day or two without heat in the middle of the winter. Hot water was always constantly breaking and I had to shower at the gym. If anyone in the building flushes while you're showering, you'll be subject to scalding hot water for about 5 minutes. Maintenance and mgmt always tried to be polite and helpful, but there's only so much they can do without actually investing money to improve anything. You can't plug many things in without blowing a fuse. For example, the space heater I bought to use whenever the heat would inevitably break didn't work because the fuse would blow within five minutes of turning it on. What I hated was to get to the laundry room/storage area/fuse box, you had to go outside and down the back steps to get to the basement. Imagine your heat breaking, plugging in the space heater you bought and blowing the fuse, and needing to run outside on a freezing January night to reset it. Not fun. Also can't do laundry in inclement weather because it will all get ruined when you try to carry the basket back inside. Basically, you're paying for the size and location, NOT the amenities. One more thing- three times I got rent demand notices stuffed under my door even though I never paid my rent a second late. Imagine having some people over and getting to your place and they see a rent demand notice on the door- kind of embarrassing. Also terrifying when you try to figure out why the money is gone from your bank account but they're saying they haven't received it and you better pay within 5 days. Kind of annoying, you'd think they could get their act together a little. Every time I spoke with the mgmt they tried to be helpful. The first time I put in a maintenance request nothing was fixed after two weeks so I called mgmt directly to complain, and since then I haven't had a problem. Limited parking is available for about $200/month, but otherwise street parking is impossible, especially during summer. Never had a problem with neighbors are loud, but could definitely hear everything the people above me did- luckily they didn't seem to be home the same times as me often. Safe neighborhood but going out back to the laundry room or the walkways from the back to the front of the building can be scary at night.

I lived here for two years, from 2008-2010. It was OK. Love the layout, HUGE for a one-bedroom. Location is perfect- express buses right at the corner and the Belmont el stop pretty close by. Tons of bars, shops, and restaurants. But I moved in right before the economy crashed in 2008, and got locked into a horribly overpriced rent. I would've stayed if the landlord had brought the rent price down to a more realistic range for what apartments are going for right now. I saw the apartment ended up going for $135/month less than what I was paying, so I don't see why they couldn't have lowered it for someone who had been a good tenant for two years. Its also extremely outdated. No dishwashers or garbage disposals or central A/C. Gas-forced heat, but that's expected in the city. It did break at least three times that I recall while living there, and each time I had to go a day or two without heat in the middle of the winter. Hot water was always constantly breaking and I had to shower at the gym. If anyone in the building flushes while you're showering, you'll be subject to scalding hot water for about 5 minutes. Maintenance and management always tried to be polite and helpful, but there's only so much they can do without actually investing money to improve anything. You can't plug very many things in without blowing a fuse. For example, the space heater I bought to use whenever the heat would inevitably break didn't work because the fuse would blow within five minutes of turning it on. What I hated was to get to the laundry room/storage area/fuse box, you had to go outside and down the back steps to get to the basement. Imagine your heat breaking, plugging in the space heater you bought and blowing the fuse, and needing to run outside on a freezing January night to reset it. Not fun. Also can't do laundry in inclement weather because it will all get ruined when you try to carry the basket back inside. Basically, you're paying for the size and location, NOT the amenities. One more thing- three times I got rent demand notices stuffed under my door even though I never paid my rent a second late. Imagine having some people over and getting to your place and they see a rent demand notice on the door- kind of embarrassing. Also terrifying when you try to figure out why the money is gone from your bank account but they're saying they haven't received it and you better pay within 5 days. Kind of annoying, you'd think they could get their act together a little. Every time I spoke with the management they tried to be helpful. The first time I put in a maintenance request nothing was fixed after two weeks so I called management directly to complain, and since then I haven't had a problem. Limited parking is available for about $200/month, but otherwise street parking is impossible, especially during summer. Never had a problem with noisy neighbors, but could definitely hear everything the people above me did- luckily they didn't seem to be home the same times as me very often. Safe neighborhood but going out back to the laundry room or the walkways from the back to the front of the building can be scary at night.