Beautiful building and location — awful corporate owners
Pros
The building is beautiful and nicely renovated. Loved the location close to trains, grocery stores and entertainment m.
Cons
The owners are awful and deceptive. It’s impossible to directly reach the owners - everything needs to be done through the vail of the management company. Made improvements to the unit (new built in shelving) that were approved by landlord and then was charged for not removing despite having explicit approval to keep them in. If you have an issue, you will not get a direct response. Typical evil corporate landlord. Save yourself the trouble and stay away.
Advice to the owners
Be transparent and honest — the shady practices are frustrating.
Neglectful gentrifier LL
Pros
The neighborhood & location; friendly neighbors; superintendent Trevor is great; when new LL bought the building, they did not raise rent for the first year; the building itself is lovely
Cons
The ownership is very opaque — and therefore there is little accountability in terms of problems at the building. The landlord that you sign with is Sirin Monroe LLC— from what I can tell from publicly available info— this is a company created for an investor whose business is renting units at this townhouse. You will struggle to learn the individual identity of the building owner. Sirin Monroe LLC hires a firm named Citrin Cooperman (James Grimaldi, Patricia Musto are the only employees we dealt with). The firm deals with the day to day biz of collecting rent. They have an email but we had to hound them for a direct line you can reach them at by phone. They told us to communicate with them through the super, and then would generally ignore us. Rat infestation went largely ignored by LL and their management company for years after reports by multiple tenants. City DOB installed their own traps eventually. Unreliable Washer/dryer (by the time we left they’d been awaiting replacement for some time). They take quarters. Garbage cans were cracked so you couldn’t really keep trash in or rats out . Front door mechanism was sticky or broken on multiple occasions which led to people being unable to readily exit the building. We (and other units) had to report it over and over again and eventually to FDNY before it was appropriately addressed . In my opinion and experience, the LL and their reps were careless with respect to safety and health/hygiene, and were unscrupulous in their dealings with us. They for the most part responded only when threatened with withholding rent. I would never rent from these people again. I would also not do business with Citrin Cooperman Firm because of how unprofessionally their employees conducted business.
Advice to the owners
My advice to the property owner would be to hire a company more experienced in proper building management. We would have stayed and rented at a higher price if the building were even remotely properly managed. And give a damn about your neighbors, and your elders. Long time Bed Stuy residents do not need to be walking past “the house with the rats” (literally what I heard kids calling it!)
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