Well, here I am eight years later updating my review. In 2015 I was on the hunt for my first apartment, so I didn't know what to look for, and missed A LOT of things that should have been red flags at the time. Buckle in, this is gonna be long.
The first couple of years at this property were alright. It got progressively worse over the years. By the time we were looking to move, we could not wait to get out. This place felt like a hell hole. The "slumlord" claims people made in the past, I thought they were lies or exaggerations. I believe those people now.
I will be fair in saying that *mostly* when we had a maintenance issue, it was solved in a timely manner.
I lived at a property in Belmont Heights (E 7th St) and this structure is completely infested with termites. One day I fear the building is just going to collapse in on itself. In the 8 years I lived there, I never once used the balcony because it's sunken in, and feels like you will fall through with just a little extra added weight. The apartment itself has no insulation whatsoever, the gaskets/seals on all of the windows are completely eroded, so anyone could honestly walk by the front living room area and pop the window frame out with little effort. When we removed everything to move out, we noticed there was a literal hole in the wall where termites had eaten through. We'd reported the termite issue a few times, and nothing was ever done about it. The summers here are absolutely unbearable, and because there is no insulation and no AC, you have to keep the windows open for air circulation. Couple that being near an oil refinery, and the fact that the stove duct literally filters INTO the apartment (so we never used this either) you can expect anything in your house to become covered in a thick greasy film over time. Something is dusty? Swiffers won't work because all those dusty particles are now stuck to everything and it makes it nearly impossible to keep clean/free of dust. Keep in mind this is an "updated" luxury style apartment too. The stairs are rotted through, and instead of replacing them, they just filled them in, and repainted them. The garage ceilings are literally rotting from the inside, and there are constant leaks and pieces of the ceiling falling on the ground.
To cut a long story short, there is no AC, we inquired about having one installed, and they lied to us about a tenant paying for one, when they didn't, so one unit has AC while the rest do not.
People let their dogs urinate and defecate all over the property (this was and still is a chronic issue) and nothing is done except a threatening email and a sign posted, but the behavior still persisted. When we reported the culprits, they asked for a photo lol. So much for anonymity.
The area is just point blank no longer safe. The entrance to the garage is in the back alleyway, and there are lot of transients and crime that happens in this alley. The trash problems were infuriating. Constantly there was trash all over the ground, trash bags just thrown from the top of the stairs into the dumpster, with no concern whether it actually made it into the trash or not. We asked for locks for the dumpsters, and that was never done. My husband took it upon himself to manage the trash situation himself, and got a lock. This system worked, or at least mitigated the trash issues for a few months, until the locks started getting cut off by maintenance. I called the city several times, and we were told no requests for locks had ever been made.
Everything in the apartment is poorly constructed, and you can tell the contractors who did the update cut a lot of corners. Overall I didn't get the vibe this PM company gives a shit about their tenants. The building is not cared for whatsoever.
We didn't get our deposit within 21 days, and when I threatened legal action, they sent the check/statement certified mail. (Why wasn't this done in the first place?) They claimed they sent it last week of December, but the check was dated 1/2/23. We were hoping to get back at least 75% of the deposit, and we did, thankfully, even though there were claims on the statement that weren't true. We deep cleaned the hell out of this place but they charged us for cleaning, and I think the termite eaten hole lol. Wasn't worth the effort to fight because we just want to be done with this place.
I write this review not out of spite, or to be petty, but to genuinely alert potential tenants to what they could be getting into. Maybe if the PM company sees this review they can take another look at the urgent repairs and updates that need to happen with this property. I would not rent from EPM again, overall the experience and what you get, for what you pay for is just not worth it. If you do decide to go with EPM make sure you do a THOROUGH inspection of the place, and make sure it is well documented, and that they have proof of these documentations, so that culpability doesn't fall on you when you leave. read more