Fun fact about Gile Wine: the owner, Sean Galvin, owns the apartments above the wine shop (4 units), the apt building next door (which I think has about a dozen units?), and the apartment building around the corner right behind Leader bank (another 4 units), as well as at least a dozen other rent properties in Arlington (not to mention at least one other wine store in Medford and I am taking it likely other rental properties in other towns). The owner is rich and part of the elite who are buying up rental properties all over the area, making it so expensive for regular working folk to even afford to live here. I know this because I lived for two years (from 2012 - 2014) in one of the units above Giles Wine. I loved my apt, and for the most part, Galvin doesn't bother you, until he you have a code complaint or he wants to raise your rent. First, before I was told by the broker there would be parking, but then was told Galvin wouldn't be repaving the lot till several months into my lease term so wouldn't have a space till then. Since Arlington has an overnight street parking ban and I had a car I needed to get to work in Wellesley, that wouldn't work for me. The brokers (Rental Group--check out my forthcoming review of them) said Galvin had a relationship with the Baptist church across the street from the store and I could park there for a nominal monthly fee for a few months till the lot was replaced. "Great!" I said. "Can I be put in touch with them and get something in writing?" They hedged. This went on for about a week, till I went to the church myself, was promptly yelled at for assuming they would let me park there--said "I wish that guy (Galvin? The Rental Group?) would stop saying we do that!" I went back to the Rental Group and insisted they either compromise with Galvin to repave the spot now, or they needed to return my refundable deposit ASAP. They did, but my rent was then increased $50 more a month for having a space it advertised anyway. I was also told the windows in my apt were in bad shape but would be replaced before I moved in. They weren't. I was told in a week or so. I then asked every week for 6 weeks until the Town had a microburst in mid-July that blew out one of my bedroom windows, which was temporary replaced with some paper-thin sheeting. I was told they would fix ASAP. Come October, they still hadn't and the nights were getting cold. I finally had to threaten the BOH and they came and replaced the windows.
For awhile, things seemed better. Then in the winter, an alarm started going on overnight in the wine shop, right under my bedroom, depriving me of hours of sleep. The super didn't answer the phone after hours. Galvin had no contact info other than email. So I was stuck listening to it with no reprieve. I called the cops a few times finally. Then, only less than 2 weeks after I filed a noise complaint against his store for the alarm, Galvin proposed a $100/mo increase while I was still in my lease term, twice as high as just about anyone else in his tenancy on my block that I knew of. He backed off when I mentioned it was illegal to raise my rent within a lease term, so he let me know when it was over in a couple of months, I needed to agree to the new rate or move. It felt like spite. I have always been a good tenant--quiet and always paid my rent on time or early. He told me he didn't care because others would be willing to pay more. I finally broke down and agreed, but before the ink was dry on the lease and the new term even began, I was told my next lease term would be AT LEAST $150/mo. I told him I would be moving by then. I wound up taking him to court before the second lease term ended when he refused to show me repair records for the windows (by law, landlords need to furnish such requests up to two years after the repair or immediately give back a tenant's sec deposit). He refused even when I showed him the link to the MA law. "Take me to court!," he said. I did, for that and the window code violation. We did mediate, and I got my deposit back and a couple of hundred for the window. But it put a sour taste in my mouth about how landlords operate around here and how little they seem to care about their tenants.
I stopped shopping at the wine store downstairs when he raised my rent and I refuse to go there anymore. Menotomy Wine is much better and friendlier anyway. If you want to support small businesses who treat their people with courtesy, they are the place to go. read more
