This is an absolutely terrible company, and the worst apartment, no, the worst place period, I've ever lived in, with the most terrible service I've ever had the misfortune to be at the mercy of. I would advise everyone to never, ever, rent from them. I dream about creating a "BTPropertiesistheworstpropertymanagementcompanyever.com" website. I wish I could go on a crusade to warn the poor souls who are considering renting from them, as I never want anyone to suffer through what I, and apparently many other people, did living in one of their apartments. Living in one of their apartments SIGNIFICANTLY decreased my quality of living for the 6 months I lived there.
The apartment (2591 Alma St.) I rented was extremely expensive and not at all worth the price, but I was desperate for a place to live as I was soon to be homeless. That's not their problem, of course, but I want people to be informed: Palo Alto is expensive, but it's not as expensive as what they charge.
My apartment looked nice on the surface, but after moving in, it became such a hellish place that I tried to spend as little time there as possible, even if it meant staying in SAN FRANCISCO and commuting to class at Stanford, a 45+ minute drive. My shower handle broke off the first time I tried to take a shower, I could never get the heater to work, the stove was missing knobs, the walls were paper thin, the hot water was constantly running out, the doors would not shut properly. A crew doing construction on my street once knocked on my door to ask if they could power their machines with my electricity. Seriously. I didn't receive my mailbox key until A WEEK BEFORE I MOVED OUT.
When I moved out, I was given a long, long list of things I had to clean or else I'd be charged a cleaning fee. I spent close to 4 hours cleaning every single corner of the apartment until it was cleaner than before I'd moved in. I've never been so proud of a cleaning job I've done.
I didn't receive my security deposit until a month after I moved out, even though the policy stated that I'd receive it within 21 days. They fixed their mistake and sent me my check when I called to inquire about it, but I've finally received it and have been charged $110 for "locks". I have no idea what that could possibly mean, there's no mention of a charge anywhere on my contracts, and I returned my keys exactly as they instructed, so I'm extremely angry about this. There's no explanation and probable cause for this, and I can already tell that the property manager will probably not answer my call regarding the matter. On top of that, they're charging me $70 for cleaning, after I spent hideous amounts of time cleaning the place. If I'd known they were just going to charge me anyway for cleaning, I wouldn't have bothered cleaning behind the refrigerator, it looked like no one had cleaned there for at least a year. I wouldn't have bothered to clean at all.
I had hoped that after I moved out I would never have to think about that horrid apartment or the horrible people who own it ever again after I moved out, but here we are, a month later, and I'm still dealing with their shady business practices.
They employ rude, unresponsive property managers, have little concern for tenants, think they can just charge you for anything they want (and maybe they can) with no information or reasoning, and are the worst business I've ever interacted with. I'm so angry I don't even know what to do with myself, there are few times I've been this angry in my life, but I'm trying to remain calm and do the only thing I know how, which is to leverage my online voice to try to warn people. In a world that is increasingly user-experience oriented, companies can't keep ignoring their customers and their wants and needs, and BT Properties needs to learn this, and the only thing I can think of to do is spread the word and hope that the power of the Internet will inform at least one person thinking of renting from them. I'm hoping that the power of speech and the social web will someday encourage this company to change their ways. read more