Cummings

UPDATE — The landlord and LISA their property manager KEEPS CALLING ME to ask me if i have moved out and if i have given my keys to a realtor yet. NO my lease is over on the 31ST, ten days from now. i will not give my keys away until i am done moving out. WTF!

Lisa is wonderful to deal with it. Just very pleasant.

I decided to share my thoughts on my LL and building now even though there are a majority of negative reviews, I do believe in the past years this company and building has changed significantly. I live at 41 now with 3 other people in a 3 bedroom and I have amazing rent for Boston, great location and Lisa is a little flaky but gets the job done. When we all first moved in, we made sure to take note of all issues and problems with walls, floors, sinks kitchen etc. And within the first week everything was taken care of. I claimed that one of the bathroom sinks had a crack in it thinking they would just take note, instead, the next day we received a brand new sink! Totally suprised because it could have easily been fixed. That put me in a great mood. We pay rent on time, but it we happen to miss it, it is never an issue and Lisa contacts us with ease. We found a new roomate recently since one of us is moving out and Lisa was so helpful and so understanding about the process. Our rent bumped up by $ 15/​person still under $ 700/​month per person. Its a great deal. Cummings LLC constantly makes sure the residents are warned about break ins and I believe its your responsibility as much as the landlords to make sure everything is locked and not out in the open. No matter where you live, breakins can happen. We do not live on the first floor and I believe that is a strong reason why we have avoided that problem. There are college students in the building but give a knock on the door and say «shut the hell up» and they do, if not we have called the police, they show up and the party is over. I believe this company has truly stepped up and I quite enjoy the building I live in, maybe we all got lucky but I am renewing my lease!

I would recommend not renting from here. There are several problems with the place. The biggest one is that they rent to a lot of college students, and the weekend nights tend to be very loud, with a big mess in the stairs in the morning.
The owner does not maintain the buildings at all. You can see pieces of trash around the hallways all the time. Also, the maintenance is very bad in general. We have been having problems with heat for over two months and there is still no action or response from them even though we have complained several times. They don’t really care about the renters.

My roomates and I lived in 17 A Cummings for three years 2007 – 2010. The apartment itself was pretty good, and Lisa is nice in the office. Any appliance issues were resolved in a timely manner. However, there was a mice problem that was never resolved while we lived there. You could here them in the ceiling running around while laying in bed at night. We caught 5 or 6 in the apartment on our own but there were always more that would show up.
Overall, good price, good location, timely resolution of most problems.

Unless you want to feel like you are living in a third world country but still pay thousands of dollars in rent, DO NOT LIVE in any units owned by this company. There have been SEVERAL issues that my roommates and I have experienced living in the 41 Egremont building and whenever we called the landlord to have them addressed, the responses were less than desirable.
1. COLD WATER– we have had sporadic no hot water, but now it is happening more and more frequently. Today has been day #3 without hot water. My roommate called the landlord a couple weeks ago and all she said was that the ONE maintenance man they had was out of the country and that she would try to speak with the «powers that be» to get the hot water issue resolved. That was over 2 weeks ago.
2. LEAKING ROOF/​FLOODED APT– our unit is on the top floor. In March, we noticed a leak in our kitchen ceiling whenever it rained. The cabinets were starting to mold. When we called the landlord, we were told the maintenance man was on vacation for 2 weeks and it would be addressed when he came back, and «hopefully it wouldn’t rain.» However, being spring in Boston, there was no such luck. We were told the roof was fixed, but it continued to leak. A month later, on a Friday night, there was a huge thunderstorm and water came POURING into our unit and the unit across the hall. We called maintenance, who showed up with a large trash can and a shovel. Realizing the situation was more serious, they told us everyone had to leave the building and no one would be reimbursed for any hotel or accommodations. It was my roommates and I who called 911 to get some professionals in there. When the firemen came, they evacuated the entire building. Meanwhile, the landlord was MIA to answer any questions about reimbursement and when we could move back in. When were allowed back in on Sunday, My apartment did not have electricity in most of the apt, including the entire kitchen (no stove, no dishwasher, etc), the living room, and a couple of the bedrooms, for over a week. The answers to the numerous phone calls inquiring about the status were all «whenever the inspector feels like coming to let us know when we can turn on the electricity.» There were huge dryers in the apartment in the outlets that did have electricity and we footed the extra $ 20 jump in our electric bill. Then there were the holes in the walls and ceiling for weeks.
3. The general maintenance of the building is pathetic. I am aware that there are college students who live there and Cummings may feel that they can just ignore the buildings, but that is unacceptable. roommates and I are working professionals and model tenants, and have treated our unit and the building with respect. The front lobby is disgusting, the stairs and landings are rarely mopped/​vacuumed, the glass front door is filthy, and the yard in front of the building is disgusting. I don’t expect 5-​star living accommodations, but I got really sick and tired of apologizing to my family and guests for the general appearance of the apartment. You would think that paying almost $ 3,000 a month would get you something, but it absolutely does not in this place. You get a roof over your head– if that.
4. The lights in the stairwell run on an automatic timer and in the fall the lights would not go on until after 8 or 9, i.e. the stairwell was pitch black. Coming back from work at 6 or 7 and having to walk up 3 flights of stairs in the pitch black is pretty treacherous.
All in all, this was the absolutely WORST living experience I have ever had.

I live with Erin S and would like to echo her comments, as well as add on ANOTHER issue that she missed. NO HEAT.
The Tenants’ Rights states that the apartment must be kept at 68 degrees from Sept-​June. My room and another room in the apartment had no heat on several occasions in November and December. I call several times and got no response. Only did the heat stay permanently on when I threatened to report them to the City of Boston for having no heat.
The management of these apartments on Egremont and Cummings is absolutely pathetic and the worst I have dealt with of the 3 apartment managment companies I have worked with in my 6 years in Boston. Cummings LLC should not be in business. STAY AWAY. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. If you do, you will regret it.

I lived in one of there apartments for a year and have nothing but praise for these guys. I’m sorry everyone else had so much trouble with them but they were nice, friendly and courteous from the day I moved in to the day I move out. They responded fairly quickly to work requests and didn’t mine if rent ended up a day or two late. I’ve been through plenty of terrible landlords around Boston and they by far were one of the best.

I agree with Amanda S– I’d give it NEGATIVE zero stars if possible. I lived at 11 Cummings and the apartment, while seemingly nicely renovated, was horrible. It was infested with mice and we made countless appeals to the management for help. An exterminator came twice, nothing changed. We filed a complaint with the Boston Board of Health, who came out and found droppings EVERYWHERE. They instructed Cummings LLC to send an exterminator again– sent the same one and we still had rodents. I saw multiple mice run across our living room floor at one time! We finally broke our lease and got the hell out of there. In addition the building was super noisy, the exterior lights were never on at night and there was trash always piled high in the dumpsters. Disgusting. Maybe passable living for college-​age kids, but young professionals steer clear!!!

After living at 41 Egremont for a year, I’ve got mostly mixed feelings about this management company. They’re seemingly decent for Boston, with its dearth of good landlords and all, and if you’re looking for a flexible rent schedule, this is the place to do it.
Being the scuzzy college kids we were, we consistently paid rent days, weeks and even a month late a few times and these people could’ve cared less. The most we’d get was a note from Lisa, the crazy accountant saying «Don’t forget your rent!» with a huge smilie on it.
Our apartment had been recently renovated and seemed nicer than most of the others on the street (Cummings owns most of the ‘hood on Egremont and Cummings Rd. in Brighton) with new appliances and floors, fresh paint etc. Parking was easy, and the price was only $ 125 a month which is about right for the neighborhood.
We only had one maintenance issue the whole time we lived there, a minor problem with the heat. It was fixed promptly.
I’d give the place a better review if we hadn’t been broken into on Christmas Day and had computers, DVDs, cash, cameras, etc. stolen, though that wasn’t the management’s fault. We were a little perturbed with their lack of action as far as installing bars on the windows or having stronger locks put in.
Overall, not a bad apartment and definitely one of the easiest management companies I had to deal with during my time in Boston.
And hey, maybe you’ll luck out like we did and they’ll give you back 500 percent on that security deposit … we paid $ 500 and they gave us back $ 2500. Go figure.

I would give zero stars if I could. I also had to take Will Smith to housing court. We had multiple violations when the inspector came to look at the apartment and he told me he knows Will Smith well. Basically the man would rather pay the fine from court than fix anything whether its the leak in your bathroom or the mice chewing a hole in your ceiling (which results in pieces of ceiling piling up on your bed at night until one morning you realize the bed you had been sleeping in is covered in mouse droppings and pieces of your ceiling.
Do not be fooled by his nicely renovated apartments. This man is scum.

Heed the warning from Brittany.
One star b/​c I do have a roof over my head.