“Pros: Conveniently located in a lovely neighborhood Cons: Water boiling hot Buzzer doesn’t work Front door is sometimes broken Fire alarm always going off Landlord/super can be hard to reach directly Pests (BEDBUGS)”
— 537 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan“Pros: Recently renovated kitchen and bath. Cons: Heat and hot water are inconsistent.”
— 541 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan“Pros: Lots of space in unit, somewhat responsive super. Cons: Literally never any hot water, barely any heat, incredibly noisy neighbors/area, trash in hallways constantly, stolen mail, and terrifying “basement” laundry room that is frequently broken. Once, the front door handle to the entire building broke, the super taped it so anyone could enter, of course people ripped said tape off, this continued for several days until the broken handle was taken off and replaced with string for another several days. Advice to landlord: Fix your boiler and lower the rent if it’s going to be this unkempt.”
— 541 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan“Unit 23 Pros: Cheap rent, nice space, no issues with heating, friendly neighbors Cons: It should have been clear before we moved in that the halls smelling faintly of rotting fried chicken was a bad sign, but unfortunately we missed the red flags. The halls are filthy, and as spring came, every pest in New York started to appear. We’re talking roaches by the hundreds despite cleanliness and extermination efforts, mice, bedbugs, centipedes… just became impossible to deal with. Horrible response from management and took months to get official exterminators in. Frequent lack of hot water to boot. This place became an unsanitary nightmare and management made it worse. Advice to landlord: Get proper exterminators in and maintain the cleanliness of hallways”
— 537 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan“Unit 22 Pros: The apartments are nice and relatively affordable considering what you’re getting and the location. Cons: The management is awful. Heat and hot water are hit or miss. Advice to landlord: Respond to your tenants and fulfill your obligations under state and city law.”
— 537 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan“Pros: -Location. That was honestly the only nice thing. Cons: -Heat seemed to never be on, especially during the day -Had roach problems -Took forever to get anything fixed and then it’s done poorly -Trash area was always full and very dirty -Neighbors mostly kept to themselves, but there were a few disturbances -Had packages stolen from mailbox area Advice to landlord: Stop cutting corners and actually just fix things right.”
— 541 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan“Pros: Location and proximity to Subway. Hallway didn't usually smell like urine. Cons: Repairs never addressed to the point of illegality. Manager even came to check. Stated to us that he wanted to do the repairs but only after we moved out since the lease was expiring. Mold is not something you put off. Trash was also locked at times forcing us to place the trash on the street which is a hazard to pedestrians. Advice to landlord: Expedite repairs. Overall, expect the same standard of treatment from tenants that you afford them. Follow guidelines set by the city. Make sure your managers treat the tenants and building as if YOU yourself lived there. THAT should be the standard afforded to loyal tenants and as well as new tenants.”
— 541 WEST 158 STREET · Manhattan