802 Beverley Road,

Brooklyn, NY 11218

beautiful beautiful space, thats literally it

everything was falling apart, the back gate consistently fell off the hinges, the front metal gate would not lock and often cut our hands as we tried to use it. dead rats filled the bike storage area and no one would come to remove them. additionally the plumbing failed and gallons of disgusting sewage filled water filled the unfinished basement, which we had to clean. we were also required to empty the boiler once a month or risk losing our heat, and if we did it wrong we were chastised by the owner. furthermore there were dozens of pieces of low quality furniture throughout the apartment that tenants were required to keep by the landlord. if tenants did not want to use them, the landlord required them to store them in the basement, which tenants were also paying rent on. these are just the worst issues, there were tons of other minor ones that are classic for any brooklyn apartment, including horrible drainage in the bathrooms, drafty windows, and more.


this is not to say anything about the landlord. at the time of our lease renewal we were told that our rent would be raised less than 400$ if we found people for the apartment upstairs. we found friends to fill the apartment. the day they signed the lease, with one month left on our lease, john hetherman told us he would not be renting the property for any less than a $1000 increase. when we disputed this, he refused to acknowledge that he said this. he also refused to allow our friends to back out of the upstairs lease. most of the tenants had no way to leave the apartment within the month, as we were anticipating staying for an additional year with an increase of less than $400. when we asked for extra time to leave the apartment, john hetherman legally threatened us, verbally harassed and intensely threatened us. he sent many prospective tenants to the apartment while several tenants had covid, and threatened to "make our lives miserable." the tenants decided to stay for one month past the end of the lease in order to make arrangements to leave, and john hetherman sent us a bill for $27000 AFTER keeping the security deposit. all of the charges were for minor issues like wall scratches of dust. he also charged exorbitant fees for damage to things like an ikea dresser or an old couch, which were already unusable when we moved in. after managing to get in touch with previous tenants who lived in the apartment, we realized that john hetherman had sent an IDENTICAL bill to them, down to the number of alleged damages to the apartment and damages to the furniture. we were able to get the same lawyer that they used to send him a cease and desist but it was one of the worst experiences of my life. he was also consistently racist and insulted the largely non-white neighbors over and over again.

renovate your apartment

Beautiful neighborhood and street. Friendly neighbors. Some space for gardening in front. Old brownstone building with character. Landlord upgraded the dishwasher.

Note: these apartments came furnished in 2020/2021.

John Hetherman is the scummiest individual my roommates and I have ever had the pleasure of renting from. He owns several properties in Brooklyn, and leverages his tenants (typically young, broke students or young professionals) to tour and maintain his other properties for small dollar payments. Guess which sort of profile tends to rent multi bedroom units that are furnished? Students and transplants.

He *consistently* stole tenants’ security deposits & additional fees through intimidation, drawing up long bills full of false charges the end of the lease for “wear and tear” and “stains” on 5+ year old IKEA lamps, sofas, etc. in the apartment. It was honestly hilarious to see these “statements”. I’ve included it in this review.

Every single tenant we spoke to who previously lived in the building or lived in a different unit went through the same experience.

He lies about the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in his building. The listing originally stated the apartment had 3 bathrooms (that was important given we were a group of 6). When we showed up to the property, there was no third bathroom.

We ended up suing and got our security deposit back.

People know what you’re doing. We can’t save your soul, but we CAN save other people from their *misery*.

This man is truly delusional and he believes he is a saint who is giving job exposure to broke young professionals and students to tour and maintain his other apartments.

Keep operating this way and people will keep suing. People know what you’re doing.