First Apartments

holy sh*t!
what a terrible landlord/​management company First Apartments/​Trophy properties LLC VIII is. It took them over 4 months to complete basic repairs that we were told would be done before move in. I had to hammer call/​email them and had to be a little rude to get their attention. They always had some excuse but their actions speak pretty clearly to the fact that DO NOT CARE at all about their tenants. And looking over the lease again recently, we really signed away our rights to do anything.
Shame on them. I will forever be more vigilant for myself when signing another lease. Thanks First Apartments/​Trophy Properties for making me more cynical about large management corporations.

This property management organization is TERRIBLE! One of the most unprofessional organizations I’ve ever dealt with, and I’m a technology professional that has lived in 20+ apartments from NYC to LA over the last 10 years. I was at the property at 1895 Jefferson in the Marina for a total of 3 months until I reached my boiling point.
A few of the highlights:
— The apartments are not cleaned at move in (they make you arrange this yourself)
— The building is not maintained, there is pet hair, dirt and trash all over the place and the onsite manager doesn’t bother to do anything about it.
— With the recent «tech bubble», raising rents daily in San Francisco, the management openly told me that they’d be willing to help me out with minor fixes because I was paying market rate, but that their goal is to evict/​get rid of anyone that moved in prior to 2010 as they are paying rents well below me and part of the strategy is to make the place so awful to live in that people will move out. Completely ridiculous.
— The building smells of mold
For any relocating professionals from outside of the bay area that think you’ve found a great place in the Marina — go visit the property BEFORE signing a lease. ‘
It’s really a money pit that you will regret later.

My studio was rather small… and construction started going on next door.

Let me start out by saying I have never had been treated so badly by anyone. The Management office at Skyline Realty/​Citiapartments/​first apartment and Lem Ray Properties. They have multiple names because of there unfair business practices.
I moved in the middle of March 2010, and ever since then I’ve had nothing but problems, the guy who showed me the apartment was a fast talker. and I asked if they had any insects or rodent problems. He told me no. which was a lie, Roughly after a week of moving in I killed mulitple roaches, then I went to the manager and told him the situation and he said am I sure that I didn’t bring them in. I looked and said, no it’s this shitty apartment and you will not be getting next months rent, if its not taken care of. He Laughed and said he’ll deal with it. do you think it got dealt with, I think not. 935 geary was filled with a bunch of ex convicts if you don’t believe me check
I’m going to fast forward for one not only are they are trying to sue me because I broke my lease which was technically month to month arrangment but they withheld my security deposit saying they needed to repair the carpet for a mini micro burn that is $ 750 dollars. I have the estimate. There slumlords.
Do not rent from these people you will have problems and headaches all the time. Get yourself a lawyer and have them on speed dial like I have mines, I’m waiting for them to try some more underhanded stuff.

Negative stars would be so much more appropriate in this case.
I have lived in many apartments with corrupt landlords including some apartments overseas where the law is not necessarily on your side, and I can honestly say that this was the worst experience as an apartment dweller that I have experienced.
I put in at least a dozen requests for maintenance which were never followed up.
I also had the misfortune of getting bed bugs and it took months to get all of the treatments done after hounding the building manager. He mentioned to me that several other people had treatments throughout those months but it seems like the whole apartment has had them and he didn’t see the need to treat any more than the apartments that complained.
It sucks that they can’t pull it together because they do have some beautiful buildings.

Normally I take Unilocal with a grain of salt. People tend to review things more when they’re angry with a service.
But I should have listened to all of these reviews. We moved into a stunning apartment in November through first apts. The building itself is lovely, and if it weren’t for the upkeep nightmares we may not have any issues.
But in less than two months we’ve had the power go out twice, we still don’t have a heater in the kitchen/​living room, we have mold growing throughout the house, they changed out the nice light fixtures the previous owners put in with walmart like painted plastic, two windows leak (which ruined a brand new dining room table) and soooo much more.
I hate the fact that I have to live here for another ten months.

I had a wonderful experience living in a beautiful Russian hill apartment (part of First Apt) — place was well maintained, repairs were done quickly, and the onsite manager was nice enough.
But when it came to get back my security deposit — no luck! When I moved out, I did a walk through with the manager who said everything looked great. Months later, no security deposit, and no one will return my phone messages or respond to my letters. BEWARE!

They don’t even deserve one star. I have no idea how this company is still in business or how the people that work there sleep at night.
The apartments are in shoddy condition because they can’t find a contractor willing to do business with them (hmm, I wonder why) and the staff is incredibly rude.
Be ware of CitiApartments and the companies associated with them (First Apartments, Greg Apartments, etc). If you have to change your name to hide your identity from customers in order to get them to do business with you, it’s time to really evaluate your business practices.

I have used Unilocal for over 3 years and have never contributed. I know it’s bad — there just hasn’t been an experience I have felt passionate enough about to go through the process.
That is until now.
This morning my fiancé and I went to sign a one year lease for a 1BR apartment (starting in a week). We noticed our first month’s prorated rent was $ 100 more than we were expecting it to be.
When we tried to talk to someone about the issue the general attitude was «fuck off.» We finally spoke to the manager who’s response was, «sign it or leave.» We left out of fear of dealing with these people for the next year.
Stay away!
=========
Why am I leaving a «First Apartments» review under this CitiApartments listing? I suspect «First Apartments» is just a front for CitiApartments. They share the same office space at 2099 Market St and appear to share the same back-​office staff. My guess is that they’re operating under «First Apartments» due to the CitiApartments lawsuit.

FYI — several Lembi Group companies filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. More information, including a list of the buildings owned by the companies that filed for bankruptcy, is available here:

I’m a resident of one of the apartment buildings owned by CitiApartments (now named «First Apartments») and our building is a decent building downtown and we like the building manager.
However, since before Christmas 2009, our building’s elevator stopped working. My partner and I both made calls to CitiApartments about this after a week and a half had gone by and it still was not working. They always would say they’d pass the message along, but nothing came of it.
Two weeks pass… three weeks pass… four…five…other tenants wou ld leave notes on the elevator door about it, some saying not to pay rent until the problem was fixed. However, the notes always mysteriously disappeared within a day or two. We know it was not the manager because he is just as upset by this.
By the fifth week, I wrote a very detailed and professional letter to the San Francisco Building Maintenance Inspector. So, earlier this week, there was a Notice of Violation on the front of the building indicating that the elevator needed to be fixed, as well as repair of a broken step between the first and second floor and other things that needed to be maintained. I saw this notice when I got home from work at 3:30pm. My partner got home at 6:00 that evening and somehow the notice had disappeared. We’ve concluded that someone from CitiApartments has been coming by to remove the notes and the Notice so they wouldn’t scare off prospective new tenants that they could gouge for high rent.
We’re now going to be starting week 7 and still no work has been done to the elevator, the step still feels like it’s about to cave in. Also, about 6 months after we moved in the service of having someone spray the building suddenly stopped. The washers and dryers break down often and are not repaired sometimes for weeks.
What I would like to know is with all of the high rent CitiApartments charges, why on earth can they not afford to pay for the repair of our elevator? Aside from other very disgruntled tenants here, my partner has a bad knee and I have horrible back pain and having to go up and down 3 flights of stairs with heavy grocery bags, trash and laundry is making our pain much worse. Today, my partner has to have a heating pad on his knee and I’ve been having to use a back massager every single day because I’m in so much pain.
CitiApartments, or First Apartments, you need to get your act together and take care of your tenants. This building is full of good tenants, some who have lived here for many years and have paid your income. You can change your name all you want, but until you stop acting like slum lords, your image will always be tarnished.

Boo.
They owned our building until recently.
They fired anyone who came to vacuum and clean and pretty much stopped doing anything to maintain a fairly nice building as soon as they bought it. The previous owners were great, but not this multi-​named mystery.
Boo.

From the outside looking in the place is really corupt. someone should be going to jail for our elevator not working, because any reputatable service company will not service CitiApartments because they do not pay their bills. Oh yea– how many deposits have they not refunded in order to pay the bills. and is the city attorney doing anything at all– NOOOOO. they city lawsuit is two years old? or older. Does Citiapartments pay into the city health plan or employees— most likey not… and why not aren’t building managers employees?
Where are you Herrera? fundraising for you next campaign?
They are all crooks— Dave Raynal, Walt Lembi, …

WARNING– Citiapartments is now known as First Apartments at
Citiapartment’s former site at
is now shutdown. Their website now automatically refers you to a travel website; I don’t know why.
BEWARE–
Just wait until Citiapartments screws you too.
MOST OF THEIR BUILDINGS ARE IN FORECLOSURE.
They are not repaying ANY security deposits right now as they are going through bankruptcy.
KISS YOUR SECURITY DEPOSIT GOOD BYE
In my building alone:
–The blood in the hallways from a crime was never cleaned up.
–Used condoms sit for months in the garage (from hookers)
–My window has been broken for 3 months.
–My neighbor’s stove has been broken for 2 months.
THEY ONLY WILL REPAIR A SAFETY HAZARD IF YOU REPORT THEM TO THE CITY — (415) 558‑6220
Citiapartments just told me that they are now called First Apartments at

It’s about time I reviewed this place. After almost 5 full years of taking my rent check every week, these jokers are now almost 3 months deep into not giving me back my deposit of $ 2300. Needless to say I’ve contacted them many times via email and voice mail messages. It’s now come to the point where they have admitted they are illegally holding my money and have told me I can take them to court if I wish. SFAppeal was nice enough to hear more of my story and wrote it up at the link below. I urge you not to rent from this shady business as they have no morals and are the worst realty company I’ve ever dealt with…

UPDATE: .a class action law suit was filed today (7÷13÷2009) on behalf of those who have yet to receive their deposit back or were delayed beyond the legal 21 days in receiving it. If you did not sign a settlement waiving your rights you could join the suit. If the case is successful you could receive twice the amount of your deposit in damages.
Success! Not only did I get my deposit back but their check cleared the bank when I cashed it. Then I went back and protested on principle and to educate others. To my surprise there was an NBC news crew to cover my one person protest. The People need to be heard and heard they will be! :)
Watch the film clip here:

CitiApartments owns the buildings it claims to «manage» and they are currently having a number of their building foreclosed upon, and not returning deposits to their tenants. Steer clear of these people. They engage in illegal and unethical behavior on a regular basis. It would not surprise me in the slightest if it was revealed they have connections to organized crime (actually «organized crime» could describe their business practices.)
If you are curious about their «Best of San Francisco» rating, this was simply a write-​in done by them (they grabbed every SF Weekly they could find and had their employees write-​in their name.)
They are liars, they are evil, and hopefully they will be out of business and out of our city for good before too long.

Finally I got hold of the person who «takes care of legal matters» at Citiapartments. According to him, the specific legal entity that purchased the building that I resided is currently facing a foreclosure, and per court order, the defendant’s assets are claimed by the plaintiff, such that I can only get my deposit back when the matters clear with the creditors.
I am uncertain about the validity of his statements but I am suspicious. I know that I had been misinformed by the company before, and he did not provide any written statements, no document, nothing, despite the fact that the company owes me money, and it’s two months overdue beyond the 21 day window period. In response to my request for written statements, he told me to search on the California superior court website for applicable filings.
OK, I’m not a legal clerk working for you. I’m your client and, unwillingly yet practically, now your creditor. Why don’t you have your staff download that goddamn document, save it in PDF, and forward it to us as an attachment to a memoranrum explaining the circumstances, if your claims are for real?
«Why don’t you call back in a week to follow up? Feel free to exercise whatever rights you think you may have.»
Wow.

Part of CitiApartments. Stay away from these people, if you like to keep your credit, and your good name.
Sleezy business people.

«Without any doubt the worst and most abusive landlord in San Francisco»
– San Francisco Tenants’ Union (
)
«Egregious pattern of illegal business practices… Skyline’s illicit business practices do not merely victimize tenants… it is pervasive, it is illegal, and it will not be countenanced in San Francisco’s rental marketplace.»
– City of San Francisco, Office of the City Attorney (
)
Yup.
– Me