Do not rent an apartment from this management company. I lived in Treehaven Properties (2523 Ridge Rd) my second year at Cal, and my dealings with the landlord were a mess. Besides the fact that the prices are high for VERY old buildings with old pipes and fixings, the landlord is careless and irrational. The manager is the reason this place gets at least one star because he is very courteous and prompt, but the landlord just kills the deal.
A couple complaints. First, we've had troubles with our sink and draining at least twice during the school year. My roommates and I would come home from school to an overflowed kitchen or bathroom sink full of dirt, sludge, and god knows what. We would call the manager and file complaints, but no one would come to fix the pipes (unless they entered when we weren't home), let alone help us clean it.
Secondly, our landlord was very irresponsible about Berkeley's rent policy on interest on security deposits. He didn't give us the interest by the deadline (some date in January), so we left him a formal note saying that we were going to deduct the 10% as stated by the law. He later said that he actually did leave a note while we were gone during winter break, which none of my roommates or I saw. Also, he technically entered without leaving a 24-hour notice. I asked at least 7 other rooms in the building if they had received their security deposit interest, and only the tenants that had resided there for more than a year had received it (2 out of 7 rooms). That definitely is not part of the policy, and I was shocked at how irresponsible Joseph (landlord) was. All of my friends who lived in other apartments had said they had promptly received their checks or some notification from their landlord.
Lastly, the cost of the utilities we had to pay (water and sewage) irritates me. Treehaven uses some third party payment system, and I eventually figured out that our utility bill stayed the same, no matter how much we used or saved. During winter break, in which we were gone for more than half of December, our utility bill for that period INCREASED by a couple dollars. It seems that this third party billing company takes the water usage of the entire building and divides it by the number of tenants living in the apartment. What's stupid is the idea that, assuming half the tenants are Cal students who go home for winter break, the other half of the tenants managed to consume enough water to go past twice the normal usage. Plus, I'm pretty sure most of the water and sewage utilities would come from the city of Berkeley, so I'm guessing there's some shady business going on.
All in all, my very long rant will hopefully convince you to stay away from Treehaven, if not JD Management in general.
Oh, and to top it off, they lost the form that my roommates and I signed to split our security deposit. And then when we turned it in again, they deducted $125 for cleaning even though the manager had said it was amazingly spotless (definitely cleaner than the previous tenants had left it before). This place just drives me crazy thinking about it. read more