Good Neighbors / Poor Management
Pros
Location, Neighbors, Regular Pest Control, Rent Stabilized, Water pressure
Cons
-Tenants Clean Common Areas more than Property Managers- The tenants have cleaned the hallway floors, stairs, and front of the building more than the property management company, Brownstone, has. There has never been a true deep clean of the common area since we've lived here. -Spotty Trash Removal- The trash removal is hit or miss. Sometimes it isn't put out when it's supposed to be and it piles up in the bins. There are bin boxes at least. The trash cans are almost never brought back in after they are emptied. The tenants often have to do it themselves after the trash truck comes. -Building Maintenance is Reactive not Proactive- The common areas are in disrepair. Building issues are only fixed when multiple tenants complain. The walls are an outdated salmon pink with scratches, gouges, and scuffs all over. The building needs a deep clean and wall repairs/repaint. -Mail Delivery Issues- USPS told us they were having issues with delivering mail to our boxes because of the way the boxes were poorly installed. Sometimes they can get them open to deliver letters and other times they have to leave the letters on the end table in the vestibule, out in the open. -Basement is empty and unused- The basement of the building, which is the entire footprint of the building, sits empty. The owner and management company won't add storage or laundry or any access to the basement or back yard. -Power- Each of the units only has 2 / 15amp breakers for the entire unit. If they happen to trip the main breaker in the basement you have to wait for the management company to stop by to flip the breaker. A couple tenants used to have keys to the basement in case of emergency but Brownstone won't allow that any longer...and they aren't quick to resolve smaller issues like that if it's after hours. -Water Pipes- We have had water pipes break a few times over the years and it floods the floors below the unit that it starts in. With no live-in super we don't have quick access to the basement to shut off a main water pipe. One of the tenants who had keys before was able to shut of the water when a pipe burst because they had access. The fire department was called but didn't show up for 30mins. If we would have had to wait for Brownstone or FDNY to shut off the valve the damage would have been far greater that it was, and it was pretty bad.
Advice to the owners
Storage and Laundry in the basement, even if it's an additional cost to tenants. There needs to be someone who lives in the building that has keys to the basement again, in case of emergency. Brownstone never responds fast enough in-person for it to help in an actual emergency.
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