As someone who consistently relies on internet reviews for choosing businesses, I think it's vitally important to give honest, well-considered reviews and not simply angry rants. Nevertheless, I have to give Hasbrouck Realty one star for their downright awful customer service and simply shady behavior. I was a tenant in a Hasbrouck property for one year while in college. As our lease came to an end, my roommates and I were given a vague description of the cleaning and move-out process. We were told to hire a professional cleaning service, and did so. The apartment was clean when we left, and I personally spent an entire day scrubbing the place down myself just to make sure.
A few weeks after we moved out, we were notified that we would not receive the majority of our security deposit back. A large portion of our deposit was taken out to cover a general cleaning of the apartment and carpet cleaning. I called Hasbrouck to figure out what had happened and tell them the receipts for both of those services had been submitted with our keys.They were never able to locate the receipts in their files so I was told that I, along with my three other roommates, would have to submit the receipts along with a dispute form explaining the situation.
I was already irritated that I was having to do additional work for something that seemed like Hasbrouck's mistake, but it got worse. They sent an email telling us that the carpets would be refunded, but not the general $400 cleaning. They attached a receipt from a woman who they use to clean their properties, saying that one of my roommates had hired her to clean our apartment. This was completely false. None of my roommates had never spoken to this woman and for Hasbrouck to even accept this receipt on behalf of their tenants is absolutely ridiculous.
After many phone calls and a personal visit to their office to express frustration, we then received an email saying that only $300 of the $400 would be returned to us because of the cleanliness of the apartment-- citing things such as the counters, floors, and top of the fridge. When I requested to see pictures of the apartment showing these things, they attached about 15 blurry images, almost none of which were of those areas they cited us for. I then sent back my own images to show the state of the apartment on the day we moved out.
After many voicemails and a formal demand letter, Hasbrouck finally agreed to return all of our deposit. Never once were they apologetic. Never once did they take the initiative to investigate the issue when they had two contradicting receipts for the cleaning of our apartment. Never once did the property manager return our phone calls after we had left numerous voicemails insisting to speak with him. We were only ever able to get in touch with the secretary via telephone. Never once did they attempt to explain the situation to us and when I asked the secretary, she told me that it would be handled internally.
My recommendation: do not give them your business, but if you do, insist that your property manager inspect your apartment with you present before you move out. Otherwise, you will be scammed out of your money. read more