Renters beware - AVOID 416 Bergen Street

Let me first say that my girlfriend and I are pretty level-headed, easy-going people. We are not ones to go out of our way to leave scathing reviews of a product or service, let alone a PERSON, online... but this is a necessary exception... This property owner is a big-time jerk and you should avoid his building at all costs. We lived here for 1 year, April 2022-April 2023. The entire building has... [more]

Let me first say that my girlfriend and I are pretty level-headed, easy-going people. We are not ones to go out of our way to leave scathing reviews of a product or service, let alone a PERSON, online... but this is a necessary exception... This property owner is a big-time jerk and you should avoid his building at all costs. We lived here for 1 year, April 2022-April 2023. The entire building has issues with heat, but especially our unit on the top floor (unit #4). From November-February we had plumbers coming into our apartment about once a week at odd hours (11pm on a few occassions), often multiple times in one week. The landlord chose to put bandaids on the issue, even as the plumbers he hired told us the entire building needs new lines installed and probably a new boiler. Our patience hit a breaking-point on Christmas morning when we woke up and could see our breadth. We called 311 to file a formal complain and 3 things happened next: 1) the property owner showed up at our apartment (on Christmas), came in to our apartment unannounced and verbally threatened me; 2) he instructed his plumbers to jack-up the heat and build a cage around the thermostat so it couldn't be adjusted, which made the building unbearbly hot (particularly for our downstairs and basement neighbors); 3) he sent letters of non-renewal to every tenant in the building because we were all complaining about the heat at this point. Moreover, this entire building a pig with lipstick. Everything looks okay at first but on closer inspection you'll see everything has been done with the cheapest materials, most of the appliances are very old and heavily used (our dishwasher had a horrible odor), and the building is a total mess. The front of the building probably looks nice right now because all of his units need to be refilled but once people move in it will go back to being a sty. This landlord is such a jerk, he hired a nice guy to look after the property (take trash to the curb, clear ice/snow, etc) but then he stopped paying this guy for MONTHS, so of course that guy stopped coming by (I would've done the same). This guy is unfit to be a landlord and his property should be removed from StreetEasy. Short of that, this is the best we can think do to, so, I repeat: AVOID THIS PROPERTY AT ALL COST (and tell your friends). Good luck with your apartment search. [less]