“Pros: The building is kept reasonably clean, but old & quirky & cute. Regular pest management, they come by once a month and if you want them in they come in, otherwise they just maintain the building. The handyman is amazing & fixes everything quickly & well. Landlord is responsive & negotiable with honestly very reasonable rent raises. The worst pest we saw was the occasional waterbug, although more than one every few months usually meant a leak, and then there were a lot of them and they were extra big. Not Germans tho. But again, old building, these things happen, and they do fix everything quickly. Cons: A few kinda loud neighbors in the building. Things do go wrong here & there with plumbing, electric, etc. If”
— 72 SCHOLES STREET · Brooklyn“Pros: It’s close to the L train, and Grand St has a wide range of businesses. Cons: Feel unsafe across from the projects. Top floor tenants filled hallway with their junk, and wouldn’t let in the exterminator or plumber, so a leak developed and yup, the apartment below theirs got a shit ton of roaches. *My* apartment. So fuck them, and fuck the landlord for not putting his foot down. Advice to landlord: If you like it when tenants break leases, keep doing what you’re doing.”
— 219 MAUJER STREET · Brooklyn“Unit 3R Pros: proximity to L train. Cons: There is no email for the landlord, he uses simple phone only with voicemail and cannot accept videos and or pictures. I’ve had quite a bit of issues where video and pics are helpful to understand the issue. Feel like this is a way to not have a paper trail of apt or building issues. He is however very responsive to phone calls/message. On move in day; apt was not cleaned AT ALL - everything was dirty!! No fresh paint, so many nail holes in the wall. Previous tenant's cat hair and her own hair and faux nails were everywhere, seemed like she moved out the only the day before. When I called super/landlord about this, they sent someone to patch up the holes, but they filled them with kitchen caulk, messily!!! I have never once moved into a space where it was not cleaned, or a fresh coat of paint was applied. Hardwood floors are very beat up, looks like they have been reglazed over many times, capturing up other people’s hair, glitter, paint and dirt into the finish – making them forever dirty. Just about 80% of the power outlets are installed either sideways or upside down making this centuries plugs not stay in. Huge lack of outlets in bathroom, kitchen and 1st room area. Built in cabinet/drawers have been painted over so many times you they do not close. There are roaches and silverfish, there is a man who comes unannounced and just knocks on the doors to spray pesticide (I have a huge problem with this – you can’t come spray in someone’s home when they have pets, we need time to move things around and keep them away while the areas are treated). When I asked the older polish looking man to create a schedule so all of us tenants would know, didn’t seem like he understood technology enough to do it. He does give you sticky traps, but overall, I feel like the spray is not safe for my cats so I really don’t like him coming in to spray. In the summer had a huge ant issue, they were traveling from back of the building up floors and getting into apt from small cracks on the back wall. I had to fill up every crack with sealant – this did helped. I have not seen any rodents, but they can be heard scratching inside the walls. Very loud street, projects are across the street, ppl always outside mostly thurs ~ sunday playing radio loudly day and evening, holiday weekends expect music and drinking to go on till 1 or 2am. Last year 2 kids were shot in daylight around 3pm in the project courtyard right across my living room windows (some school altercation traveled to the apt building), i think they survived (according to the citizen app) but was very alarming!!”
“Pros: The units are huge and there are only 6 units in the building so it’s quiet. My apartment has new appliances. Cons: The building is old meaning the hardwood floors are really beat up and have been refinished a bunch of times. I can never get them to look clean. The cupboards are painted with white paint 100 times and won’t even close. There are occasional mice or roaches and I’ve never seen any regular pest control.”
— 219 MAUJER STREET · Brooklyn“Pros: Very hands off management. We could pretty much get away with anything in this building! Big parties, using basement space, rooftop space. Seems like the man who came to fix things was effective and professional, but scarce. Cons: Our unit was not excellently maintained, especially the bathroom. Management is really hands off, so expect to handle things yourself. No major problems while living here, though Advice to landlord: None”
— 25 KINGSLAND AVENUE · Brooklyn“Pros: Well priced apts. nice roof. Common areas kept clean. When we had issues people were responsive Cons: Outside apt can get a little rowdy. A couple roaches but nothing crazy”
— 21 KINGSLAND AVENUE · Brooklyn“Pros: Proximity to subway Allowed dogs Landlord had exterminator visit monthly to spray for normal bugs (roaches) Cons: —Bedbugs! Before signing the lease I saw an online review on bedbugregistry.com that said it had bedbugs. Tried to back out, landlord swore up and down it wasn’t true—offered to sign a legal document stating that, and if bedbugs ever were a problem that I could break the lease. Lo and behold, we got bedbugs after a few months, and when I told all my neighbors (bc treating just one apt is ineffective—the bugs move to others) not only did one other apt have them, but the older tenants confirmed that tenants prior had had them. Bedbugs often go dormant for months so I’m sure the landlord playing whack-a-mole with them and only treating one apt at a time was the culprit. —gross block with rats and roaches—the projects across the street would pile all the garbage for multiple buildings out in a bus-sized pile, then trash pickers would rip the bags open, so pests ended up taking over the block —so loud (inside and outside). —on my move in day the outgoing tenant still hadn’t packed and moved out fully and didn’t clean. It was FILTHY with cat hair and cat piss. I literally vacuumed an entire vacuum canister worth of cat hair out of just the radiator in the kitchen. Every surface was filthy and the walls were painted black and hot pink by previous tenant. Landlord didn’t help except to send somebody after my lease had begun to paint and “clean” but I had to spend a week and hire somebody to help deep clean so I could use the fridge and bathroom without puking. Such a nightmare Advice to landlord: Stop being a slumlord. Don’t lie about your building’s history. There is no 311/NYC record or bedbugs because of bureaucracy—if I had wanted to get my bedbugs reported officially, I would have had to wait ONE MONTH for a city inspector to come, find actual bedbugs, AND THEN exterminate. That was obviously not a tenable solution so I opted to immediately have your exterminator come and treat the apt for bedbugs (which made me very ill for 2 weeks, btw), so no official report. You lied to me and I know you are lying to other prospective tenants as well.”
— 219 MAUJER STREET · Brooklyn