175 Kent Apartments

The 175 Kent management gets 0 star, the apartment itself plus front desk people get 3 star, and their parent EquityApartment gets 4 star — please see the update at the bottom.
The people and apartment itself are good, but the management is like a hell (just like the other reviewers said):
1. Before we moved in, we asked specifically about dogs and TV wall mounts, and the manager Wanda Richardson said they are all good without further charges. AFTER we moved in, she tried to charge me $ 700 for dog fee (which she never mentioned before), and treated the TV wall mounts as damage in security deposit.
2. We took over another person’s lease as a sub-​lease, and there were some conditions on the floor she said was OK, but after I leave said these conditions were not there and charged TONS of money off my deposit.
3. We did give the vacancy notice 70 days before our move out date, but she insisted that we didn’t give enough notice time and charged $ 690 for the fee — ridiculous.
4. After the first time I complained over the phone, they’d never pick up my phone again. It ‘s not until I told her both in phone and email that I’d complain to EquityApartments higher management and sue them, that she replied rudely.
I am going to complain to the EquityApartments to see if the higher management cares more about the customers; if that doesn’t work we’d have to sue Wanda Richardson.
If you happen to experienced the similar issues (which is likely to happen if you left the apartment), please join me to file the lawsuit.
For potential new residents, please think twice and try to avoid this apartment as much as possible. See the photos I uploaded about our email communications.
UPDATE on Dec 24 2013: After submitting complains about the security deposit issue, EquityApartment higher management contacted me and discussed & coordinated documents several times to settle the issue. Eventually they made up most of the mischarged fees, and I am feeling much better. Hopefully 175 Kent could learn from this and get better as well.

The building management is awful. It has been 3 months since I have left the building and I still don’t have my security deposit returned to me and to add insult to injury I received a call from a debt collector agency telling me I owe the building money for an unpaid electricity bill of just over $ 100. They have almost $ 3000 of my money!!!
Wanda Richardson is building manager and she is rude and unhelpful and incompetent. I have had to personally direct her on the phone to find the relevant papers in my file to show her what we had agreed when I left.
None of the issues are resolved and she never returns the phone calls as she promises when I get hold of her.
I only reason why I am giving this building 2 stars rather than the 1 it deserves is Jon the maintenance guy who has been great for the 2 years I have lived there. Always turned up when he said he would, fixed things quickly and cleanly, and always with a smile.
Regardless, DO NOT MOVE HERE.

The management here doesn’t care AT ALL about residents. They will also rob you when you leave. We hired a professional cleaning service and left the apartment in pristine condition, and they took $ 300 off of our deposit because they knew we were moving to San Francisco and would not be able to go to housing court. Wanda is the rudest person I have ever had to deal with in a management office. Also, the 24 hour doorman service the original company advertised

My wife and I were among the first tenants to move into 175 Kent. Within 6 months of the building opening, the original developers sold the building to a publicly traded company that owns buildings throughout the country.
We only stayed in our apartment at 175 Kent for 1 year and left the apartment in pristine condition (despite a small burn on the floor that came at the hand of the building’s own maintenance crew.) Despite having our apartment professionally cleaned and us paying every cent of our rent to the last day, the management at 175 Kent Avenue apartments decided to illegally withhold most of our security without any explanation as to why.
My wife and I both have made numerous attempts to reach out to management for an answer and they will not offer any response.
While the location is nice and the building is new, you need to ask yourself if it is worth dealing with a management that is capable of shady business.
I filed suit against 175 Kent Avenue just this week and plan on taking our case before a judge.

About a week after this post, prices for available apartments dropped significantly and today we secured a great transfer apartment with no fees — exactly what I was hoping for! Wanda and Alex have been great in getting us sorted out, so thank you. Our new apartment has fab views and the rent is more than reasonable for the finish and location. Much happier!