ActivSpace

I rented from here for two years. The whole place — and my room — always had a funky smell I could never get used to. So I didn’t want to hang out there, and ended up wasting money.
The place seriously nickel and dimes you.
Be prepared just to give up on your security deposit. If you made modifications to your place — paint, flooring — just leave it there, they will keep the security deposit no matter what.
Also, I had a bike stolen from the garage (no security), so don’t keep your bike there!

I had an awesome experience in this building. I only stayed 6mo because I moved to Seattle, but I liked Activspace so much I’ll probably start renting from another one of their buildings here. I was shocked to read the poor reviews, so I thought it worth sharing my own experience. I rented my space when I was done to another massage therapist via craigslist so I could leave my lovely paint job. Worked great, and the management made the transition easy and returned my full deposit. I was on the 4^th floor. It was always super quiet. My clients regularly commented on how cool the building was, how welcoming the space was, how beautiful the view over twin peaks was. The intercom was great once I got it going (this is the phone to use folks:
) And great to have a sink in the room if you’re doing bodywork. It’s not a fancy building. It’s simple, basic, not a lot of frills, but still friendly and classy enough. Quite an amazing community of practitioners there. Two thumbs up!

I ran a small nonprofit organization out of an office in ActivSpace for a couple of years. I love the neighborhood, and loved all of the people who also worked out of the space (especially Café 99 sqft!).
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the management of ActivSpace. This was among the worst experiences I’ve ever had with a property management company.
My colleague and I spent three full days cleaning, painting, and re-​painting the space. After three days of constant work, we were rewarded with not only $ 0 of our security deposit back, but an **additional** bill for maintenance work their «cleaning staff» performed. We had even checked with their management about our cleaning job, and — to echo other comments here — we were told our paint color wasn’t exact. Of course, the exact color of paint was not available anywhere in SF, and the paint looked identical to when we moved in, and looked identical throughout the room. Additionally, the ActivSpace management, on their second inspection of our unit, told us we needed to remove the flooring in our unit, which was in place when we moved in. This was never communicated to us prior to their second inspection of our unit, and just doesn’t pass the smell test. I’m sure that, had we removed the flooring, we would have just been billed for failing to «polish the concrete» or «paint the concrete» below the floor. It’s nuts.
These people are scammers. It’s as simple as that. If you’re okay with completely losing your security deposit and dealing with frequent, random accosting by their management staff, by all means, rent from ActivSpace. But know that you’ll be supporting a company that does not care about the well-​being of their tenants.
I’ve attached an image showing the state of the space before our move in, and then after our cleaning prior to moving out two years later. Judge for yourself.
Apparently ActivSpace feels no remorse in continuing to rip off tiny community-​funded nonprofits, artists, and other people who don’t have the time, energy or resources to take them to small claims court. I really hope someone nails these people with a class action lawsuit. If you’re organizing such a thing, please get in contact with me.

ActiveSpace could be a great alternative for those looking for affordable rent but it’s nothing but a scam run by young, inexperienced, and dishonest managers. My advice to everyone it is to avoid renting at this facility. This building is good for tenants who do not mind losing their deposit. Sadly, the managers will just make up excuses to keep the tenant’s deposit. Once that happens do not bother to call the corporate office because they have no interest in getting involved due to obvious reasons.

Yes, they are scumbags. They will take your deposit no matter what you do or how far you go to appease them. They’ll be very nice and accommodating to lure you in, but It’s basically a clip joint that preys on very small businesses. Exactly as every other legitimate review says… DO NOT RENT FROM HERE unless you too would like to be a sucker, like me.

I’ve been at the ActivSpace building now for about 2 years. I honestly didn’t bother to give much credence to the reviews on Unilocal because having been in property management before myself, I know it’s not an industry that people leave positive feedback for. Mostly just the negative stuff. All I really care about is that they are responsive and that they fix things promptly. The answer to both questions is YES.
Jennifer and Chris are not only just wonderful people, they are wonderful managers. I can tell they work hard and bust their butts to keep up the property. They have always been responsive to me and fixed any issues as soon as possible and with a smile.
I recently moved out and in response to others who complain about the deposit — I GOT EVERY PENNY BACK. The key is to do it ahead of time and ask them to check on it to give you some feedback before you just hand in the keys. Here’s how I did it:
1. I painted the space and had them come check it. They stated it wasn’t good enough and that there were marks on the ceiling and some slight old paint that was still showing through. They were right. WARNING: they are particular about the paint! I ultimately ended up with one coat of primer and two coats of the white glidden paint. I used this guy for part of it —
. $ 15/​hr — very reasonable!
2. They also mentioned the blinds needed cleaning and so did the sink. The blinds were kind of tedious, but doable. For the sink, you need to use a razor blade to remove all little bits of paint that are left. I’m glad I saw Jennifer cleaning and she showed me or I wouldn’t have known how to do it.
And 15 days later, I got my full security deposit back in the mail. I urge you not expect to do the move out a few days before you leave and get your deposit back! It leaves no time to have them check and for you to make any corrections.
The only thing I’m not too happy about is the annual 10% increase in rent for the past two years. The rent on a whole is reasonable, but the price per square foot is a little high compared to market comps for non-​street-​level space. I hope they don’t do it again, but that’s not Jennifer or Chris’ call. Regardless, I’m super happy to be here and will continue to enjoy my time at ActivSpace.

RENTER BEWARE: If you rent from ActivSpace, expect yearly rent increases and lease changes. You have to leave the space better than you got it. No matter how much you paint it and fix it up, if it doesn’t meet their standards, they will take your deposit and charge you on top of that. After all, it’s likely in their lease agreement or amendment with you. This is not a place for artists. There is no community. No events. Used to be when they first opened that there was more of a community as evidenced by the older reviews here that were good. No longer. Parking is also awful in this area and they now charge you for the parking lot by the hour. They act so nice when you move in and they want your business. Not true when you move out even with ample notice and attempts to do your best to clean up. The reality is that there are other places for rent out there that have more of an artist community. Keep looking folks. Do not rent from these people.

First off, know that I have never written a review, positive nor negative about anything. I feel compelled though to now do so. Also know that I have worked in the customer service sector for about 15 years and know that in the end, the only thing that truly matters is how you treat people. With that, here is my story.
I am a massage therapist and have been looking for my own office space for about 6 months now. I have visited Activspace 2 – 3 times checking out their various offerings but never found the right one. I was looking for a large space, on what I was told is the quiet floor, and in a corner so not around too many other tenants. Never have I found this. I primarily spoke with Jennifer and always found her very personable. Yesterday I found a craigslist posting
(it’s still up by the way as of 1:30pm 1÷3÷13, over 24 hours since I first saw it and called them), for a space on their top floor (the quiet floor), which consisted of three separate rooms that were converted into one and just so happened to be in a corner. This space had one wall with a passthrough up so that I could have a little waiting area as well. This was amazing and just what I wanted. I called immediately and spoke to Jennifer and she confirmed it was free and that I could some see it. Since their showing hours were about to end that day I said I would come the next day right at 10am when they opened. Jennifer said she wouldn’t be there but Chris, who was standing right next to her and presumably listening to the conversation, would be there to help me. I hung up and was so excited about this.
The next day, today the 3^rd, I got there right at 10am. I walked in and introduced myself to Chris and told him I spoke to Jennifer about the space and was there to see it. Here is where it all goes bad. He first told me that Jennifer should never have told me the space was available. Mind you the ad is still posted on craigslist. Word to the wise, never blame someone else either rightfully or wrong, as it only goes to make you look like a fool and pisses someone else off. I felt that was bad form. So, with my hopes quickly turning into despair, he told me the space wasn’t free and instead they had promised it to someone else in the building. I guess they have a wait list for other people in the building that want a new space. Really, you do, then why didn’t you check that so called wait list before posting the ad on craigslist and telling me on the phone it was free? So they decided to give this space to another tenant in the building. Chris then said he wanted to help me make this work. I told him this space had everything I had wanted and I didn’t think they had anything else. He said yes, the space in question was the other one of it’s kind in the building. It then started going downhill more from there. I mentioned that I had particularly wanted the 5^th floor as I was told it was the quiet floor. Chris told me well yes it is but not really. When questioning him he continued that if someone wanted to make noise on the 5^th floor he would rent them space up there since the building is called Activspace after wall. Really Chris, so you tell people the 5^th floor is quiet so you can rent to them but when you need to fill a room you will forget that and rent to someone that makes noise? I hope your current 5^th floor quiet tenants are happy with that. He also told me he wasn’t going to rent the 5^th floor to just all massage therapists. What, who said anything about that? All I said was that I wanted the 5^th floor since they had told me it was the quiet floor.
At this point I had enough. Chris was less than apologetic, was rude and arrogant and was starting to feel combative with me. The service I received there was awful and I will recommend everyone to do your research before renting in this building. I for one will never go there again and if anyone asks me, I will be giving bad reviews of my experience.
Mark

I might as well add my one-​star rating to the mix.
Pros:
Good space (able to fix it the way I wanted to)
Reasonable rents
Cons:
Management not very competent. I asked them to change email for correspondence twice and they just couldn’t pull that off and send several several messages leading up to possible eviction to the wrong email address. The notice was regarding a rent increase.
Management rude, particularly CW (I’ll refrain from using the full name, but those at ActivSpace will know to whom I refer) I noticed other people wrote about him on the reviews as well.
Policies are bordering on the absurd. I left my space in FAR better shape than when I moved in. Had dry walled the bumpy walls, put in a new expensive floor, hired professional painters for the move out. Place was immaculate. After moving out a notice from management that there was dust on one of the pipes under the sink and I would be charged for that. Really??? I received back $ 550 of the original $ 850 deposit. Normally I would talk to management about something like this, but with ActivSpace it’s just not worth the frustration of dealing with them.
I loved the space once I had it all set up, but never had a good experience with the management team. Time and time again for various reasons, they were very, very, very disappointing. I feel relieved to be out of ActivSpace.

Activspace is a convenient and cheap place to work, full of independent businesses, a great café, salons, barbers, artists, and healers. If you’re looking for a, ‘hot-​desk’ or a really tight-​knit community then this is probably not your jam. If you are looking for a safe, clean, secure, quiet place to get your work done or conduct your business, then I can’t see it getting much better than this. Chris and Jennifer, the managers, are charming and always interested in what you’re doing or explaining the rules.
Keep in mind that this place is not a college dorm. There are rules and if you don’t follow the rules then you have to pay. I should add that I moved out of Activ-​Space at the end of August. Before moving out I worked with the managers to figure out exactly what needed to be done to get my security deposit back. All in all it took about 8 hours worth of work to dial the place in. However, last week I got ever-​single cent of my security deposit back, so I’m very pleased.

The space is okay, but don’t expect that your security deposit would be returned to you even though you try everything to make them happy when you check out. They will make some excuse why you get the penalty and no refund. I also tried to report at the small claims court but there is nothing to do since they refused to accept the letter from court. I felt I was in the space of mafia business for over 2 years.

yes indeed, this place’s business model sucks, as noted in MANY of the realistic reviews here.
my studio mate and i moved out in June, both having found better spaces for less monthly rent in better buildings within three blocks of 18^th x Treat. all-​artist buildings w/​responsive management… what a concept, apparently.
we gave notice in late May that we were terminating our lease effective 01 July. we received immediate response to this, mostly focused on current onsite management and the mysterious «corporate offices in Seattle» having summarily changed the move out requirements from those to which we agreed (and signed) when we moved in. at move in, the rental agreement noted to return the space to the state it was when occupied; the studio we rented had what amounted to one splashy and uneven coat of powdery white wash over a previous tenant’s grey paint and an unpainted concrete floor. new move out requirement changes included a particular type and color of Glidden paint not readily available, painting the concrete floor which was raw when we moved in to the space 3 and ½ years ago, and «strongly» suggesting the hiring of professional painters.
and so, yeah, we take it as a given that we will see not a coin of the $ 600 security deposit paid when we moved in, way back in January 2010. and frankly, that’s a wash for us given the additional cost, greater than the security deposit, that would have been part of moving out.
the super drag, and a large part of our decision to leave ActivSpace, was the change in managers and management style. when we moved in, Tama was the manager and she made the application and move-​in process as smooth as glass, reviewing the rental agreement IN FULL, almost line by line. as our tenancy proceeded. Tama was very active in cultivating community amongst artist tenants, getting ActivSpace on the ArtSpan open studios list for 2010, organized food vendors for one of the afternoons of open studios weekend, helping keep the building open and accessible to open studio visitors and such like. Tama was way invested in the bldg being focused on artists, sent emails regularly about arts events, open studios guides, et c.
then suddenly, Tama was gone.
mind you, i love the internet, love having a website on it, love buying stuff over it, i just love it…
BUT with Tama’s departure came an almost overnight and total shift in focus from artists and similar tenants (hairdressers, tattooists, et c.), to internet based businesses. and believe you me, ActivSpace’s current management LOVES the internet! when management was asked about easier access to the building during the two days of both Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 open studios weekends, the response was that this could not and would not happen in support of the concerns of «the security of our business tenants.»
in hindsight to May, when we gave notice, i can only wish i had come up with an answer to the question that followed the ridiculously changed move out requirement we received via email, a question that asked politely if we’d share the reason we were leaving. i have one now but screw them, they wouldn’t have cared then, don’t really now and won’t in future.
RENTER BEWARE!

DO NOT RENT FROM HERE! REALLY… JUST DON’T. (Unless you want to count your entire deposit towards «move in costs»)
Moving in everything was all gravy. The managers were perfectly wonderful, helpful people. The space seems promising and creative. The rent is affordable. You’ll read the Unilocal reviews and probably think, «Well I’m not like those people. I will move out correctly and make sure everything is perfect.» I have only written a HANDFUL of negative reviews in my life and I felt compelled to let the world know that THIS PLACE IS A TOTAL SCAM.
In my case I was charged for «painting & prep» for my 9×12 space and received $ 88.00 back from $ 715.00. Infuriated, I spoke with Jennifer who said, «Well, that doesn’t seem right, maybe they charged you for that hole in the wall we caused from repairing the leak.» She then spoke with the mystical «corporate» who NO ONE can ever get ahold of and got me an additional $ 144.00 back.
So where does that leave me? Oh yes $ 483.00 to re-​paint (mind you I hired somebody to paint the room) and clean it. According to them, that little 9×12 room costs $ 50.00 to clean and $ 433.00 to paint.
Read below for Copied and Pasted E-​mails:
This is what I received back after trying to get an itemized invoice (which is within my legal right) to see:
«…and ActivSpace up-​charges all work done by outside contractors by 20% to cover our overhead of managing the invoices, payments, etc.»
«It’s unfortunate the way things turned out, but if you want any kind of contractor cost breakdown, or anything else, you will have to take us and the contractor to small claims court.
Sincerely,
Chris Wood
Manager
Customer Services
ActivSpace LLC
(415) 355‑1515 for Mission ActivSpace»
Chris and the mystical «corporate» know that I do not have the time or energy to fight them in small claims over $ 400 bucks.
If I can save just ONE person from these monsters that pray on small businesses, then this review will have been worth it. Be smart future tenant — if there are THIS MANY reviews saying this place is a scam, then it is definitely a SCAM.

Activespace #260… we rented this space for 5 months, only to have floods on our floor. We were blamed for this, told that it was condensation from our mini-​frige and told that we could well be held responsible for charges… the floor next door was ruined and neighbors were complaining of mold.
It wasn’t out fault… it was the sink of the business next door. We received no apology, no offer to help clean… when we moved after 5 months, completely downtrodden by the experience they charged us half our deposit for moving one month early. Yeah, it ws in the contract we signed… but given the horrific experience we had you would THINK they would do something to mitigate the bad feelings. They also charged us $ 258 to repaint the entire room… we had touched up all spots and repainted the floor. Mind you, the floor was scratched when we moved stuff in the flood. Activspace told us to have the business next door do the cleaning, as THEIR sink had caused the damage.
It was a completely bad experience, all the way around. They disconnected our sink after the third flood, so that no more water would come up into our space… but they reconnected it when they were showing the space to prospective tenants. I feel sorry for whoever goes in there, coz I think it’s bound to happen again.
MONEY FIRST seems to be the policy of Activspace… no human kindness…

BUYER BEWARE! It is soo not what it seems. Seriously read the reviews, all the negative ones ARE accurate. I have heard worse stories that are not printed here. If you are cool losing your whole deposit for no reason, then you might consider it, but even then, its not what it seems.
I get that small business are in need of spaces here in SF rental hell, but this place is a mistake. This is why Unilocal can be such a great tool — I wish I had read the reviews. I lost my deposit and it was not fair.

WARNING: DO NOT LEASE SPACE HERE! THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF.
If I could give a negative rating I would. Please read all of the reviews if you are thinking about leasing space here. They continually keep all of the tenants deposits when moving out regardless of condition, what they agree to verbally etc.
I have now moved out and the same has happened to me. They kept large portion of my deposit even after management (Chris) looked at the space after I had cleaned and painted. We had set up a walk thru for the sole purpose of looking it over before I moved out and he didn’t say that anything else needed to be done. He even complimented me on my hard work. Then when I received the deposit check back they had subtracted $ 480. When I questioned why the deposit had been kept the management (Chris) was threatening and hostile to me in the process.
WARNING: DO NOT LEASE SPACE HERE! THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF.
I have written the corporate office twice and have been completely ignored.
San Francisco will be a better place when this business is no longer here.
I am filing a court case against them and have invited others with complaints to join me. Please email me if you have something you would like to include in the filing.
Below is a portion of the letter I sent the corporate office. It gives a seemingly typical account of how they deal with tenants.
— — —
Since I had read the numerous Unilocal reviews stating the problems around getting deposits back I wanted to follow everything I needed to do and I requested that Chris the manager do a walk through with me to make sure everything check out as stated in the move out directions. -«Let us know when everything is completed and we can take a look to make sure everything checks out».
I asked him to check everything out so we would have no surprises and so he could tell me what else I needed to do. During the walk through he clearly agreed that the walls in 404 had been painted the wrong color by the previous tenant thus making the correct paint that I had purchased and used not match. The paint was fine for 405 but obviously did not match for 404. He said 405 looked great. I asked him if it was all good and he made me believe that it was. He did not tell me anything else I needed to do. It was clear to me he agreed that I had done what was necessary to uphold my part of the move out process and that it was the responsibility of ActivSpace that the previous tenants had used the wrong paint.
When I received the deposit refund check a fee of $ 240.00 for painting and prep of unit 404, along with the fee of $ 240.00 for painting and prep of 405 were being charged.
Thinking that there was just an oversight I called Chris to see what I needed to do to correct this. Chris literally said, «How is it my fault that the previous tenants used the wrong paint?» This is incomprehensible to me since as manager it is his responsibility to make sure the correct paint is used before someone else moves in. He went on to say that I had left the space un-​rentable and I am at fault for that. When I asked him about the walk through we did he completely changed his story and said he never agreed to anything. This response was shocking and more than a bit upsetting. I was afraid to confront him any more since the last time I spoke to him about an issue he aggressively said, «You don’t want to make me angry.» It was obvious this was a threat and after having read the numerous Unilocal reviews of people having severe difficulties moving out I did not want to put myself at further risk financially or otherwise.
I feel Chris has been highly emotionally unstable and threatening towards me. This is further supported by the fact that while I was a tenant other tenants had told me stories of him being angry and abusive to them also. I am telling you this to protect myself and as a business owner I would want to know if one of my employees is threatening my customers. At the very least, Chris needs to work on anger management and customer service communications in resolving conflict. He seems to feel free and justified in threatening and being angry with tenants. I would think that it is the manager’s role to keep a cool demeanor.
As stated before, I believe I did everything I was required to do to move out and that during our walk through Chris verbally agreed that unit 405 was in good condition and that unit 404 had been painted the wrong color by the previous tenants. He made me believe that I had done my part and that everything checked out. When I asked him if everything was fine he gave me no further instructions to make me believe otherwise.
——
I have yet to receive any response at all.
WARNING: DO NOT LEASE SPACE HERE! THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF.

So I’m back to being irritated with this place. I love my little studio, even though I can TOTALLY hear people’s personal business during their therapy sessions next door. My issue is the new management. There is no communication, unless they are hounding you for the $ 15 you owe them.
I used to store my bicycle in my studio and would put it outside, next to the fence, out of the way, while I was working. The new manager would come and tell me that I had to put it down in the garage. Fine. I locked it up downstairs with an onguard u-​lock. But whatta ya know, my bike disappeared! I figured that the new management took it. So when I started getting hounded for $ 15 that I was late with, I wrote and said why don’t you take it out of the cost of my bike and lock ($ 200 for the bike, $ 60 for the lock). I know, a little passive aggressive, but whatever. He wrote back saying he was sorry to hear about my bike and asked if I had filed a police report… Funny thing is, I saw my bike at the bike shop downstairs and when I asked the bike guy where he got it from, he said the manager gave it to him. SHOCKING! Not really.
I and a few other people had blinds up outside our studios, because it gets freakin’ hot! It never seemed to be an issue and nobody ever told us that we couldn’t have them. But whatta ya know, one morning they all disappeared! I talked to one of the other people and she said she went down and asked and he said he had left us all notes. Not ONE of us ever saw a note. She asked why he didn’t send out emails and he said because people don’t seem to read their emails. So… When they want their $ 15 they will write you email after email, but when they’re planning on taking your stuff, they leave invisible notes.
They also totally screwed over the last manager (Not Susan, the manager who was screwed over before… But the most recent, Tama) who was AWESOME! She was very good at communicating and worked her ass off. If she had an issue, she wrote an email and talked to you directly. She loved working there and I miss her presence. But who knows, maybe the next manager will be awesome. Which should be soon, since they usually only last about a year.

My company, Nerd Busters, just moved in to a sweet new double-​wide space at ActivSpace and love it! The space has terrific lighting, easy street access and walking distance to fun Mission restaurants and bars. The building has tons of energy from a very diverse group of people ranging from massage therapists (seems like a quarter of the tenants) to a bike repair shop. Kafe 99 sqft is the on-​site corner café and the friendly folks there make delicious espresso.
The leasing process was a breeze and aside from my move-​in being held up by the previous tenants delayed departure, the entire experience was painless. Chris and James were extremely organized and easy to work with. The operation as a whole is very professional, but laid back and personal, so you don’t feel like you’re dealing with some over processed corporation.
I signed up for Internet with
and opted for their VDSL service at 40/​40Mbps. At $ 100/​mo, it’s way cheaper than Comcast or other business providers. The regular service is rated at 10/​1Mbps and runs $ 35/​mo I believe. They do have a fairly high $ 250 setup fee. Other than that, all utilities are paid for, including the water for the in-​unit sink.
ActivSpace is perfect for my growing business as I know I can get up and leave or add another space as needed, all with very simple, up front terms. The parking situation is hit or miss on the street, but I plan on walking at least half the time with my dog… yes, dog’s are allowed on leash in common areas. When I do need to park, it’s only $ 2/​hour during weekdays and just a $ 1 after hours and weekends.
If you need a clean, simple space without a long-​term lease, ActivSpace is hard to beat.

I just got stung with the same security deposit scam as so many posters here. Before I get into the gruesome details of my particular experience, let me just announce that I am contemplating legal action — not so much for the sake of my own security deposit, but in order to put a stop to ActivSpace’s abuse of their former tenants at move-​out time. Get in touch with me via Unilocal if you’ve had your security deposit unfairly withheld, and hopefully we can force them to change their ways, and maybe even get our security deposits back.
I was at ActivSpace for about a year and a half, using it as an art studio, and my experience had been mostly positive — ActivSpace provided a low-​end, no-​frills space at a price I could afford. Like many other posters, my troubles began at move-​out time.
Once I announced I was moving out, ActivSpace managers Chris Wood and James Sipe came to my space to do an inspection, and told me I’d need to patch and paint over a few nail holes, and clean or repaint the floor. Easy one-​hour job, right? They’d even specified the paint to use. Unfortunately, it was the wrong color. When I came back the next day, I could see that the paint didn’t match. When I complained to James Sipe about being told the wrong color paint to use, he told me I’d now have to repaint the entire studio.
None too happy, I spent around $ 80 and the next two days painting the entire space. Once it all had dried, I asked Chris Wood to come look at it, and confirm that it was a good job, which he did.
Three weeks later, I still hadn’t received any accounting or refund check. I emailed Chris Wood to see what was going on; I was shocked to discover that a day or two after I’d shown Chris Wood the completed painting job, a seperate «inspector» had come to the space and deemed my painting job as «insufficient», and ordered a repaint of the space. (Though I don’t know how much this supposed repaint will cost me, Chris Wood had told me earlier that they typically cost around $ 300.)
There was no phone call at the time of the inspection to give me a chance to view the supposed deficiencies in my paint job, or to make it right. I am deeply suspicious that there were any deficiencies — I was painting white over white, and I did a good job of it.
When I confronted Chris Wood about this, he reacted in an extremely defensive and aggressive manner. Eventually he agreed to «see what he could do», but after reading about the numerous similar stories here, I can see that he is just a pawn in ActivSpace’s ongoing pattern of security deposit scams, and that I shouldn’t expect much.
So if you’re considering moving in to ActivSpace, be warned about what might await you at move-​out time. If you’re already at ActivSpace, cover your ass when you move out — take lots of photos, get everything in writing, and do a color match on a paint chip before you buy any paint.
If you’re like me, however, and have already been through the wringer, please get in touch so we can fight this and prevent ActivSpace from taking advantage of other artists and small businesses in the future!

I had pretty much the exact same experience as Tom L. I repainted and cleaned and did all of the things they asked me to do to get my deposit back, but they took it all without explanation. Complete rip-​off and an overall bad experience, which is why I moved out in the first place –my spot was ridiculously hot in summer and they kind of just shrugged it off.
And why do they charge this much when there’s no meeting or communal spaces in the whole building? Crap business, don’t rent from them.