I live at the "Residences of Bexley Woods" here in Columbus, Ohio. When I moved into my apartment, in November of 2011, the property was owned by a company called "New Life Properties". The property was NOT in good condition, however it wasn't in as bad of shape as it is today. New Life may not have been the best of landlords, however they were not the worst. On July 1, 2012 a bankruptcy judge placed the property into receivership with McKinley out of Michigan. When I spoke to the manager at the beginning of December, she stated the following, "...the property is now owned by C-III, out of Texas...". When I came home and investigated this "new" owner, I found out that C-III has NO properties within Ohio. When looking further at the tax records, it lists C-III as a division of US Bank, whom is the actual owner of the property.
When I moved in the ad in the "Apartment Guide" boasted a 24/7 fitness center, 24/7 security, two pools, two tennis courts, basketball court, a sand volleyball court, playground, plus tanning facilities.It also boast that the property is on a public transportation line, when in fact it isn't. The pool has not been opened since 2010, yet the management company did not pro rate any of the tenant's rent for the pools not being operational. In July of 2012 the property was place in receivership. It was placed with McKinley, a "management" company. Well they do not know the definition of the word management. Mediocre management at least handles the safety issues on a property without having said property sited numerous times by Franklin County Code Enforcement.
The posted office hours are posted at M-F 9:00a.m. - 6:00p.m., Saturday 10:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., and Sunday 12:00N - 4:00p.m. If the office staff has ever adhered to this schedule I would be very surprised. I have been at the office at 9:00a.m. with no one there.Throughout the day when calling the office you get the after hours voice recording, many times the office staff never stays until the posted closing time. The "rental specialists" have no idea what "good customer service" is, let alone how to handle maintenance requests or complaints from the tenants. If a property manager cannot handle the office, how are they supposed to handle a property with 600+ units.
The first manager (we are currently on #3, the last one left after "the office staff torpedoed him at every corner", a GOOD property manager would have fired the office staff and hired new), spent tens of thousands on "beautification" around the office so anyone looking to rent within the complex saw the "beauty" but not the true "beast"; i.e. furnaces that are original to the property (a/k/a "blue bombers"), holes along the fence line where others have crossed over the Norfolk-Southern railroad tracks to cut through to James
Road and points beyond; stairs leading to and from apartments are crumbling, when replaced they have been replaced with woods that becomes slick when rained or snowed upon, exposed electrical wiring where the carriage lights meet the ground, and other numerous things that have to be seen. When approaching the management this past spring about the pools being opened, their excuse was "we don't have the money", well when I called the attorney that was handling the bankruptcy and receivership it seems that money flowed into the place to get the pool closest to the office open, equipped with $10K worth of patio furniture, the pool opened the second Monday in September, after a summer of extremely high temperatures, however NO notice was made to the tenants that the pool was up and running.
Let's not even talk about "lawn maintenance/snow removal", both just aren't worth what they were paid. Per the management we have a new lawn maintenance/snow removal company.
In early November, the security which was on the property from 8pm to 4am, then 10am to 4pm daily, NOT the 24/7 that they boasted in the apartment brochure, or promised the tenants that there is; quit without notice. That left the property open to vandalism, handicap parking spots not being monitored, and juveniles roaming the property causing havoc and destruction. So for the last month and a half there has been no security and promises of next week, for weeks. This is NOT how you run a property. There have been numerous tenants that have broken their leases and moved out; and the next month the management company takes them to court for failing to pay their rent, thus leading to a court eviction being placed on the tenants record and credit report. Wonder how those ex tenants will feel when the next time they go to rent or to buy a home are giving the word on that eviction for nonpayment of rent. The property management put up a handicapped parking sign and marked out a handicap parking space. Needless to say the parking space does not meet ADA standards in that it is only 84inches wide when it is suppose to be a minimum of 96 inches wide.
Well that destruction hit home yesterday. For the past six or seven months I have had a bird feeder outside my window. Last Thursday I put a suet cake out for the birds. Both were on stakes, to be honest no one ever touched them, not even the lawn maintenance company which came once a week to mow and trim ever touched the shepherds hooks. Yesterday, someone smashed the feeder, breaking it and spilling the seed upon the ground; the person then took the suet cage & cake and left it close by. I tried repeatedly to call the office about this, but no one was in the office to answer the phones. I called Columbus Police whom told me that there was nothing that they could do because this is "private property". Needless to say when I spoke with the "manager" this morning (17 Dec 2013) I was told that there would be security on site either Wednesday or Thursday. When I stated what had happened to my property I was told, "well they cannot watch your apartment 24/7" no they cannot, but when security is on-site and known, there is less vandalism and vehicles properly parked (NO handicap violations).
Another problem is that we supposedly have a subcontractor that is suppose to come around once a week and clean the foyers outside of our apartments. This is to include sweeping under the stairs and removing the cobwebs that are found all over the place. Well we are lucky if the said company shows up every two weeks. When they do show up they do a half assed job and most of the time they do not remove the cobwebs or sweep under the stairs. This is suppose to be part of what my rent covers. I had to clean my own foyer this past weekend as I was having a holiday party at my apartment for some of mine and my fiance's friends from his school. I couldn't allow them to come here and see the mess in the foyer. I informed the property manager that seeings how I had to do someone elses job that I was taking twenty dollars out of next months rent.
AT the time that I am writing this, there are a few things in my apartment that still need to be fixed: I have cove base that is not installed properly, a toilet seat that is missing a bolt, other 1/2 bath still has not had cove based installed. Needless to say, I am NOT signing my new lease without these things being completed to my satisfaction. After all I am the one paying the rent.
The property is in complete disarray and for some unknown reason the property management company does not or will not do what needs to be done to bring it up to the level that it should be at. The property management companies constant excuse is that they don't have the money or that they have only taken on the property recently and these things take time. Well they have had the property for a year and a half so far, but apparently all they care about is getting the rent in to them on time and the hell with the quality of life here at the property.
