What they did was illegal
Pros
Quiet, beautiful area. Clean and secure building with a live-in super who is more responsive than most (even though the people at the leasing office had an average response time that ranged from two weeks to never).
Cons
The folks at the leasing office refused to give me a copy of the lease or let me sign it, and refused to give me my own set of keys. (My roommates had the same experience with them regarding their keys). I paid full price for rent every month (well, 1/3 of the rent, the same as my two roommates) but was not treated like an actual renter. And it was not a sublet situation - I completed a renter’s application and went through the same process as my roommates, both of whom had been given actual lease agreements to sign. In addition, the landlord and leasing office were impossible to get ahold of throughout my time living there, and made my roommates and I pay for things that were essential to living in the apartment which were their responsibility to fix/pay for, without reimbursing us. Some backstory regarding not receiving a copy of the actual lease agreement: After I sent in my application for the apartment, without me having signed anything at all, they were like ‘okay great! You’re on the lease now :) thanks for applying!’ - I told them that not only did I never sign a lease agreement, but I needed to have a copy of the lease. They kept telling me ‘trust me, you’re on the lease. You don’t need a copy of it.’ After not being listened to over email (and receiving incredibly slow responses, when I did get them), I went to their leasing office in person to ask for a copy of the lease agreement. They told me they ‘couldn’t make a copy of the lease right now’ without giving me a reason, and told me to just photocopy my roommates’ copy of the lease document. But I had never actually signed a lease agreement, and wasn’t sure I was actually on the lease to begin with. I never found out if this was the case or not, for the entire year I lived there. Regarding the keys: I had to make duplicates of my roommate’s keys to be able to get into the apartment, because they did not give me my own. I paid for this out of my own pocket and was never reimbursed. The same thing happened to my roommates.
Advice to the owners
Do the bare minimum. Do not do illegal stuff to your renters. You have no right to refuse to let a renter sign an actual lease agreement, or to refuse to give them a copy of the lease. Give renters keys to their own apartments. Actually respond to emails.
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