I say under no threat of over-exaggeration that living here was hell, and I moved to New Haven from a slumlord in NYC, so I am used to a lot.
The following is a review of my two year experience renting from Mod Equities in the Upper State Street/East Rock/Jocelyn Square area:
1. The unit was not cleaned or painted when I moved in, even though I was assured it would be. It was so bad maintenance even remarked on it when they saw it. The bedroom carpet was filthy, there were fleas left from the previous tenant, the fixtures/fan in the bathroom were dirty/broken, the shade was broken, the central air vents smelled horribly when the AC turned on and I could smell everything that my neighbor did in the bathroom (I am sure they could also smell when I was in the bathroom). I also didn't have gas on my stove for almost 2 weeks after I moved in but somehow was paying for it.
2. There was an ongoing mice issue in the apartment that took them months to fix and that recurred yearly. Though maintenance eventually came, the property manager never offered to sanitize or replace the stained carpet, even after I showed them the numerous mice droppings scattered throughout my bedroom and on my clothes. Mice droppings can carry a whole host of diseases so this was not okay. I still hear mice in the walls at night and wouldn't be surprised if next winter they found their way back into the unit.
3. The walls are incredibly thin and you can hear everything your neighbors do/say (e.g. phone alarms, conversations/coughs/sneezes, music/TV, the laundry machines). Also, because this bears repeating, the vents are shared, so you can smell EVERYTHING the neighbors do. The management company also does very little to enforce the no smoking policy.
4. The building is poorly insulated and my bedroom was consistently 5-10 degrees below the thermostat temperature, even with the heat on high.
5. The management was willing to work with me and keep me happy until I discovered that all of my utilities were shared and persistently complained to them to get it fixed and repaid. They then would be mostly unresponsive with the occasional response when things got very bad (e.g. power outages, major problem with heating/cooling). They still have not repaid me.
6. They never sent me a lease renewal, perhaps because I kept complaining about the utilities for the past year. As far I know, the plumbing/wiring for this unit has not been rectified, so if they switch ownership of the utilities to you, you will be on the hook for the entire first floor.
7. My first summer the city proceeded to do major construction on our sidewalk and we weren't notified by the property manager until our sidewalk and street were dug up and milled. It also resulted in our garbage not getting picked up for almost 3 weeks. In July.
8. The neighborhood is not the best, you constantly find empty alcohol bottles and garbage/illegal dumping (mattresses, appliances) near the building and by the underpass. Then my tires and wheels were stolen while parked near the underpass. Then people started drag racing on State Street, this lessened at the height of the pandemic but is resuming.
I am a graduate student so I was barely ever home, paid my rent on time, and tried my best, along with my neighbors, to contribute positively to the building, but honestly it was all for naught. I left because paying market rate to live in, essentially, a worse version of my old, rent stabilized apartment isn't worth it. The only reasons we ever had decent things is because of our super, who was kind and good to me, and some of my neighbors, who tried their best to make the building nicer than it deserved (cleaning the sidewalk during snowstorms, taking out the building's garbage, renovating and planting flowers in the backyard), hence the one star. Perhaps this unit was cursed, however, I don't want to move into another unit to find out if this is standard treatment by Mod Equities.
Good luck to whoever rented this unit after me. You will need it. read more
