I lived in Cortland from 1/2019 until 11/2021. From the beginning, I was told my unit came with ALL appliances. Upon moving in, there was not a washer or dryer in the unit. I called and chatted with Brittany Wallin (property manager). She was nice about it and said she would look into this matter. Didn't hear anything back, so I called and called. Then finally she had enough of me calling and got rude. "Well, the owner said he is not supplying the appliances, so you have to figure it out". Okay, I was pissed. Then we would get these random water and gas bills that were back dated for like 8 months. Not only that, but the bills would be due within 15 days after I didn't receive it for months. When asked why the bills are coming in this way, they told us it's because the owner did not send them the bill to bill me. I was so confused. Then when it was time to move out, they had all kinds of damages and charges. They not only kept my 1250, but charged me an extra $1900+ for painting, labor, and $210 worth of unexplained damages. I would suggest for you to definitely not rent here. They also have an attitude whenever you make a request for service or have a question about your bill. Its always Brittany who answers the phone and has the worst attitude. JUST DONT DO IT...!!! Spare yourself the agony and headache. read more

I looked at 2 units in dekalb,il and applied for the one I liked. After waiting 3 weeks I found out I was approved for the unit. Upon signing the lease I asked was this the unit I looked at and applied for I was told it was. I brought them the security deposit and first months rent received my keys and headed over to the building with my uhaul to find out the unit was not the same unit I looked at and applied to. I immediately went back to the office and expressed my concerns just for the lady at the desk to tell me all she can do is ask if I can violate my lease and terminate it. I was so upset, it's not like I had another apt to move to right away. So I am stuck in a 12 month lease with a unit I never seen or liked. There are damages to the unit that I wouldn't have agreed to if I would've seen the unit. They just threw me in a unit and had no consideration. I am going to make the best out of this 12 months and be grateful to have a place to stay but I give them a 1/10! I do not recommend them because of their lack of consideration for tenants. read more

Worst HOA management company ever. All they do is attitude when you asked why things are not being taken care of in your break down. When you try to get ahold of the property manager. She is never in. But when you do get ahold of her All she does is give you attitude. Saying your money don't pay for her salary read more

Townsend Management Dekalb was the original property managers of the home in which I rented. When I initially begin the contract I was told that I would need to put down 2500 plus first months rent. Well 5 years later (property management change hands) come to find out they stole monies. The owners sold the property and the new owner claims they only received 1250 and the former management company states they only received 1250. Now thankfully I saved EVERY receipt from the security deposits to each months rent. Because I now have to go to court to sue to for my monies back and at this point I'm tempted to included Townsend as well or just allow the former owners to sue them and be their witness and provide them with all my receipts and my copy of the lease. read more

This review is for their HOA services. Charges way too much ($150 a month!) to do absolutely nothing useful. Today the useless landscaping company they hired killed my garden in the backyard that's supposed to be my property and my responsibility. According to the landscapers, Townsend was the one who ordered this because people were complaining that some of the backyards looked "ugly." I had a three-year-old blackberry bush that was finally going to bear fruit for us this year, and now it's dead and hauled away in a Huerta Landscaping wheelbarrow. Including before and after pictures - clearly they did not make my yard look less "ugly." read more

Townsend Management - Berry bush before Townsend apparently told Huerta Landscaping to chop down "ugly" backyards. - Apartments Near Me - DeKalb, Illinois

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SLUM LORDS, LIARS AND THIEVES...I have no positive words about the Townsend Management Company in Dekalb,Ill on Sycamore rd. they are attempting to screw me out of my deposit.I already have a lawyer, (know that you can sue for 2 x the amount of your security deposit). I recommend video when moving in and moving out of ANY rental property. They tried to charge me for endless things, some of the things were there before I moved in(video shows it). Including extra water and garbage bills. They tried to charge me for painting and cleaning carpet when they didn't do it when I moved in, because they where short maintenance staff. I'm not even waiting for them to reply I just filed the complaint in court. And if there is anyone else out there that needs information on taking them to court please feel free to ask read more

I had exactly the same experience as Former D. Described in their review. I was charged for all kinds of non-existent damage, after they staff was conveniently unable to schedule my final inspection around my only final exam during the summer semester. I wasn't able to be there for the inspection, they kept my deposit for shit that was never broken in the first place, and if you call them about it, they "have a policy about not discussing security deposits over the phone." Let me be the first to tell you that they clearly have a policy against discussing security deposits through the mail, as well. My experience ended last August, and I'm still upset with this company. read more

If I could give zero stars I would. I looked at an apartment they had listed two days earlier. I called and asked them to show me the apartment. I spent half my day looking at the apartment and then taking time off from work to drive over to drop off my application for that property. Only after I wasted half my day and showed up at their office did they have the decency to tell me that the property was already spoken for--i.e. They had someone who had applied and who had their application already accepted. It's negligent and disrespectful to not inform potential customers of this fact before they take time off from work and waste their time looking at a property that is unavailable. Please avoid wasting your time too!! read more

I highly recommend against Townsend Management of DeKalb. This company bought out my previous management company (Autumn Creek) halfway through my lease. In 6 months, it became obvious that this is a very poorly-run business. I have lived in DeKalb for a while, and can vouch for either Mason Properties (a previous landlord), or CLA (current). Townsend Management took over all of the properties from Autumn Creek in December 2013. This was a pitiful exchange of management. A notice on the closed office door said to visit the new Townsend office. Townsend's webpage at the time wasn't working properly. I called Townsend, there was a message that the office was closed for two weeks for the holidays. They just made a major purchase of a lot of properties, and they took a two week vacation! I left a message that I would meet with them after their break to make my payment, they replied that I should drop off a payment at their office. They actually wanted me to drop off a check at the office of a company that I had never met, that just opened in a new strip mall. Just after their purchase, we received a letter stating that we owed $1090, more than a month of rent. They stated that it was an overdue amount from before the management change. I brought all our receipts to the office to show that everything had been paid. I was told to leave the records and the office manager would go through them. After not hearing back, I made an appointment. The manager kept insisting that we had to pay, even after going through each of our receipts, month-by-month. Finally a lawyer dealt with them, eventually dropping the bill. The next problem came when DeKalb said that the water would be turned off in several days if a late water bill was not paid. We lived in a duplex which shared a single meter with the neighbors. Under AC, the water bill would be mailed to the neighbor who would bring the bill and pay his half of the payment to Autumn Creek. AC would then pay DeKalb, and bill us for our half. Townsend dropped the ball when the neighbor brought the bill and his payment to Townsend. Townsend kept his money and did not bill us. After DeKalb's notice, a phone call to Townsend was not productive. The employee kept stating that we should have had the bill in our name. I tried to explain that only one name can be on the bill, but she just kept saying that it was our fault, and they had nothing to do with it. I then brought a copy of the neighbor's bank statement showing that Townsend cashed the check, which finally made one of the employees listen. Once they realized what happened, they sent me a bill for my half of the water bill, not including late fees. I assumed that Townsend was going to cover the fees since the whole fiasco was their fault; however they then deducted those fees from my security deposit. I paid the bill the next day, and the manager told me that Townsend would no longer be the "middle man", that I would have to work something out with the neighbor for now on. Thanks to their refusal to manage their properties, I wrote a check to the neighbor for the final water bill only to find out later that he didn't pay it. Townsend added that bill from my security deposit too. It took 15 months after we moved from that property, to get a good portion of the security deposit back with the help of a lawyer. They kept nearly all of the security deposit based on the above mentioned reasons, as well as for cleaning and painting the entire place. I made the mistake of not taking photos when moving in, or out. Other than normal wear and tear, there were no problems with the carpet. The lease we signed with Autumn Creek did not state that there was a mandatory steam cleaning charge. Do not rent from Townsend! This is a company that should not be in business anywhere, especially in a college town where many young adults are living on their own for the first time. If already with Townsend, take many photos and save all of your receipts/e-mails. read more

Horrible, rude, liars. Steer clear. If you already live in one of their buildings, BE THERE when they do the final walk-through and GET SIGNED PAPERWORK, THEN AND THERE if they tell you you're getting a full refund. TAKE PICTURES of the condition of the apartment. Basically, get as much paperwork on file to protect yourself as you can, because they rest assured they WILL screw you out of your security deposit. So glad to have nothing more to do with them. read more

Townsend Management charged me, out of my security deposit, for damages that did not exist. They claim to have a policy against discussing matters of securoty deposit refunds over the phone. They also have not responded to any of the written letters that I have sent them, attempting to dispute the bogus charges. It has been more than sixty days now, and I am going to be contacting a lawyer next week, on general principal. read more

This is by FAR the WORST management company, PERIOD. If you're looking to have them manage an association, steer clear of these clowns. They are complete liars, and have NO integrity whatsoever. They will tell you one thing, and then do another. They do a piss poor job managing issues in the complex and don't address issues on the buildings that are their responsibility to attend to. You'll get a great promise of things, but STAY AWAY from these lying thieves, you'll be sorry you hired them. read more

If I could give them zero stars, I would. I HIGHLY recommend finding ANY alternative to this company. Between my roommates and myself, we had lived with 4 different housing companies over our two years of Grad school work. We all easily agreed that Townsend is the worst, by far. It starts with the people that you actually deal with in the office. These people are rude and disrespectful by all definitions of the words and they tend to make any minor concern you have into a major concern with the way they handle it. The term 'Customer Service' appears to mean nothing to these people as any issue you may have seems to be the biggest hassle to them and it shows that they don't care about your concerns. Absolutely no personal skills and a COMPLETE lack of any sort of business skills. To make matters worse, talking on the phone with these people is 100 times harder than talking with them in person. I have been hung up on, ignored, cut off, disrespected verbally, and never called back on MULTIPLE occasions when trying to handle concerns. Adding to the list of issues is that if you try and discuss any matters with someone who has authority, they are always conveniently never in the office and not contactable by any other means of communication. This means if you have a real issue, good luck getting it resolved. Don't let the nice reception desk and big conference room fool you! It is clear that they have extremely poor business management and are very unorganized in office. They are also not afraid to disregard you as a lessor and refer you to take up any issues with their attorney, making no attempt to find a solution to concerns you have. We had this happen with our security deposit. We had subleased to other people for the back half of our lease, which expired Aug. 31. Its now going into the second week of September and they are still giving us the run around about getting the security deposit back despite no longer being under contract (We left the property in good standing with no major damage and very minimal wear). Overall, I have absolutely nothing good to say about this company. They are only interested in leasing all their properties and taking your money. Once they have it, there is no concern about treating you as a customer. As I mentioned, the biggest problem is with trying to resolve any concerns or actually communicate with them as its the biggest hassle to try and actually get answers from anyone at the company. I just hope that at least one person sees this review as to save themselves a year of hassle dealing with this company. read more

Townsend Management is probably one of the worst leasing companies in the Dekalb area. My two roommates and I signed a 1 year lease, and that one year couldn't have been short enough. First, when we moved in NOTHING was clean. The kitchen needed a deep cleaning right when we moved in, the tile floors were filthy, and we weren't able to walk on the carpeting without shoes on, unless we wanted the bottoms of our feet to become blackened by the filth from the company not steam cleaning like they were supposed to. The sliding door on our balcony didn't latch correctly, which was a safety concern, as well as a energy problem. After their "handyman" couldn't figure out how to fix it, we figured out that all you had to do was stuff paper in the latch hole to get it to lock. One bedroom came with blinds that were broken, and it took them over a month to get them fixed. Every other maintenance issue took over 48 hours for them to even get us a date or time they could come and just look at the problem, not to mention how long it would take to actually fix it. The washer and dryer downstairs was disgusting, so everyone from the first floor would constantly be using the 2nd floor washer and dryer, which left little time for anyone to get their laundry done. When we moved out, I spent 2 days cleaning my room and the main parts of the apartment (including behind the fridge and oven, and inside the oven, fume hood, etc.). They then charged us for steam cleaning the carpets at $180 (which wasn't done before we moved in), $35 for some supposed "wax drip" which I would have cleaned had it actually been there (and why would it even cost 35 dollars, when it could have been scraped up for free?) and then $25 for "damage" in the hallway (there was no holes, no scrapes, and the paint was NOT anywhere near new when we moved in). When winter came, they snowplowed, but only down the main ailse of the parking lot, which left many cars blocked in by the snow (and who thinks to bring a snow shovel to an apartment when the landlord is supposed to take care of ALL building and parking maintenance) After promising us our security deposit back within 30 days of checkout, we finally received it after TWO MONTHS after checkout (and repeated phone calls and visits), and were only awarded 550/825 we paid. Overall, I wouldn't rent from them again, their properties are dirty and parking lots have tons of broken glass. The inside of the building smelled of urine all times of the year, which was disgusting, and something I had to warn guests/family members about when they would visit. read more

If I could rate this management company a 0 I would! They have terrible hours and sometimes close the office for weeks at a time. Don't bother leaving a message as they will not return your call. They only answer phone calls from 11 to 4. When they do answer the phone they are very rude and are clueless to everything. Instead of listening to you they over talk you and tell you that you need to email them if you more than one concern. The property is very poorly run. Heaven for bid you need to have a repair. It takes weeks for them to even address the issue regardless of how severe it is. They will cry there is no money to make the repair. My question to them is where do my association fees go since there is no maintenance being done on the grounds. My guess is that they pocket all the money. Bills that they are responsible to pay out of the association fees do not get paid and if you rent from them you run the risk of not having running water. Everything that each of the past reviewers said is exact and everything has been a concern with my property as well. If you do rent from them invest in a big truck because they dont believe in plowing. I have worked with multiple management companies and I have never had to deal with such an incompetent group as Townsend management. It's a shame they are able to take advantage of people as they do. read more