Complaint Review: ApartmentsNiagara.com

Niagara Falls Properties LLC

ApartmentsNiagara.com (http://www.apartmentsniagara.com/)

Lewiston Management Group

Silver Lake Apartments 8235 Buffalo Avenue Niagara Falls, NY 14304 (716)283 - 2800 tgariano@verizon.net

SUMMARY OF COMPLAINTS

Office staff refuses to repair or service items that require maintenance, citing harassment of office staff by tenents who request repairs, threaten eviction of tenent over a pizza box disposed of in trash receptacle in the laundry area.

Office staff claims as such that the tenent is obligated to pay entire year's lease, vacate premises after residing at the unit for 30 days, and also to forfeit one month security deposit along with 11 months of rent based on alleged "Harm" and "Violation" of lease terms as a result of "Harassing" the leasing office and of course the pizza box event.

Office staff refuses to service and clean washing machine provided for tenent's use for 5 days after other staff cover the unit in compost material and dirt and despite numerous requests to have the unit cleaned and made usable. Staff claimed the unit was clean when it was not and then cited harassment over voice mails left that they claimed they never received and failed to act upon. They then indicated that I should not have used the online service form, should not have called maintenance, or left voice mails, but instead visited the office so they no doubt could claim I never spoke to them.

Office staff failed to make my apartment ready for occupancy as agreed, leaving walls improperly repaired and spackled, not painted, and the carpet not thoroughly cleaned.

Despite the fact that the property's web site says otherwise and the fact the unit has a thermostat, there is no provision to control the heating in the unit since it is done by computer. The temperature is measured in the hallway and not in the apartments, making the system useless in the winter, wasting fuel, and forcing resident's to open windows to cool the apartments. The heat is turned off completely from May 1 to October 1 each year leaving apartments as cold as 50 degrees or colder during cold nights during that time.

Hot water is improperly supplied, with insufficient capacity to handle ten units, as a result staff turns the units up so hot that the water is scalding and still runs out easily and quickly.

Apartment wiring and outlets are dated and beyond serviceable life, most outlets are NOT grounded, date from 1950's, and are so badly worn that plugs fit so loose they risk falling out and arcing during load. Kitchen wiring is improperly made using a cheap plug strip to power the dishwasher and fridge.

Apartments are not weather tight with no door seals allowing rodents and large black ants easy access from hallways who's outer doors do not shut tight and are always left ajar.

Office staff regularly stands outside the back of the buildings and smokes, directing their second hand smoke so it follows the prevailing winds right into my kitchen.

Other residents and staff are now strewing sales literature and other paper and plastic printed material in, around, and on the stairwells and steps inside the apartment.

Sign board (Cork Board) that said "No Solicitations" had a laser printed advertisement for someone offer "Hair Cuts" from a "Florida Barber".

Kitchen cabinets are not properly hung, are loose, ready to fall off, and not level. From left to right, the right side of mine are about 6 inches lower then the left.

Exterior lighting is nonexistant or not working with parking light lots not working at all and front lights flashing on and off.

Office and maintenance staff is hostile and evasive, taking the fact that tenent's ask repairs to be made personally, and becoming defensive, nonresponsive when spoken to, sarcastic, and rude. Completely unprofessional and confrontational.

Maintenance staff speeds in the parking lot skimming the rear of the building with their 3/4 ton truck within inches of the building nearly hitting residents who are forced to exit there using the outward opening entry door.

Office staff retains credit card information illegaly since it was never provided again to make my first month's rent and deposit from the old application. There should be no record of these accounts between purchases.

Building B has a roof collapsed into one apartment and foundation problems causing easy access for rodents and insects, as well as water damage to propogate throughout other apartments. This condition has persisted for years I am told.

Apartments and hallways are filthy, my closets have residue from where people have spit on the walls in them. Carpets in the living areas and bedrooms are filthy, worn, stained, and burned from cigarettes.

First off all let me say you should NOT rent from these people and that extends to any Lewiston Management Group property as shown by their website or otherwise:

 http://www.apartmentsniagara.com/SilverLake.html

I'd have to expect since I lived adjacent to the leasing office, anyone in these properties will be treated as badly as I was. You would expect this to be their "Showcase" property, well suffice it to say you have a slumlord with these people.

I rented my apartment at 8235 Buffalo Avenue Bldg B, the office is in Bldg A, over the internet and was told the following (From Rent.Com):

"Updated kitchens...Large rooms...Great neighborhood...

 Newly renovated 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments located in LaSalle.

Silver Lake's designer floor plans boast extra large Bedrooms, ample closet space and gourmet eat-in kitchens.

All units come equipped with new custom cabinets, stove, Refrigerator,Dish Washer, Wall-to-Wall carpeting and blinds.

There are extra storage units and laundry rooms located in each building.

Silver Lake is located on Main Bus line, convenient to shopping, dining, schools, and the I-190."

I arrived after making a deposit and first month's rent payment of $1200.00 by credit card over the phone and found the unit was NOT ready as promised. The carpet still needed to be cleaned, the walls were spackled where the prior resident had an ample number of wall mounted items nailed and screwed to the walls. Some walls had a dozen holes patched, again, not painted for years. The maintenance guy was going to clean the carpet and did so while I waited and it took him about ten minutes to spray some perfume on it and move the dirt around, leaving it in as bad shape or worse than when he started. Now it was sticky, had hair piled up in clumps, and stank of perfume. Keep in mind I had travelled for 4 days to get there, I am disabled, and I expected this to get resolved. Boy was I wrong.

After attempting to live there for one month and battling to get things fixed, they finally demanded that I leave within two days, or they'd evict me citing "Harassment" since I complained about their failure to prep the unit. Office staff had the "Smoking Gun" in this case, a pizza box that was thrown in the basement trash that was presumed to be mine and this seemed to be the crux for the "Eviction" process with the office leaving a psuedo official looking paper with this drivel printed on it with the claim it had been "Served" upon me. Sounds like more vigilante slumlord tactics and extortion to get away with grand theft and fraud. The office expected me to foreit my deposit, and to pay the remaining 11 months of rent, which of course is NOT going to happen.

Other things you'd want to know about this dump are:

There are only three maintenance people to serve ALL properties, this is NOT possible.

The owner and other staff are too poor to fix these problems I will outline since they all own $70,000.00 SUVs and drive them so fast in the parking lot you had better jump since you DO NOT count for anything and they are far TOO IMPORTANT to wait for you. Oh, and you will realize this when a Silverado 2500 4x4 or a Suburban LTZ skims the back of the building within inches at 40mph as you swing open the outward facing metal door in the back of the building to take your pizza box to the dumpster. So the car show you will be sponsoring is: New Nissan Murano owned by the secretary, New Suburban LTZ by the owner, 3 New Silverado 2500 4x4s owned by the maintenance people. Suffice it to say this adds insult to injury, but read on, there is more!

Your wiring in the unit is not going to work well, the outlets have no grounds and are worn out. What few three prong outlets there are, will not be sufficient to do anything and MOST of the outlets are two prong ungrounded and are so old, dating to the 1950's that plugs will FALL OUT since there is no spring action to retain them. They can also arc and spark and start a fire this way.

My dish washer and fridge are plugged into and powered from a cheap plug strip screwed to the wall with the dishwasher being run from this strip to its location by a seven foot extension cord. You will NEVER see this in ANY residential wiring code book and NO professional would make this mess.

The building I was in actually should be condemned since it will cost too much to fix, and is sinking into the landfill this property is plopped upon. The upstairs unit across from me has no roof since it caved in and water and other things are allowed to enter leaking into the unit below.

I had frequent large black carpenter ants in bed with me and in my kitchen cabinets.

The walls were not painted, walls patched and spackled only, metal doors scratched, and NONE of this was noted on a move in inspection, really they should NOT have taken a deposit since they'd likely claim I caused the damage.

My outder door does not seal leaving a two inch gap at the bottom allowing mice and ants easy access.

The carpet in the hallway was filthy with years of grime and crud on it. Walking out in bare feet left them black!

There is either no hot water or too hot water that will scald and burn you since they need to crank it up to spoof capacity.

There are no GFIs anywhere as there should be in the bath and kitchen.

Inner carpet is filthy, stained, and covered in cigarette burns.

Kitchen cabinets are falling off the walls, loose, and not level. The right side of the run of cabinets was eight inches below the left and it was obvious just by looking at it.

The heat does not work properly and despite what the website says and the fact you have a thermostat on the wall, it is controlled by the office. They use a sensor in the hallway to close the loop and measure it there in the winter. Since those doors are left open exposing this sensor to the outside air, you will roast in your place. Heat is OFF entirely from May 1 to October 1 and if you know this area, you will get cold since I've seen snow in May in Buffalo before. When I was there in May, we had a cold spell making my unit get down to 55 degrees. Far too cold to live in.

Office staff has no time to deal with any of this but has time to (Depending on prevailing winds.) stand in the parking lot smoking so I have the benefit of breathing their crap as it comes in my kitchen window.

I actually had spit in my closets where someone had hacked onto the walls of them and left it to run down the wall onto the shelving, a nice touch that.

Burned and torn linoleum, peeling from the floor. My living room carpet had a spot on it where a hot iron was set on it leaving a mark.

Even two bedroom units only get ONE parking spot unless you befriend the staff and your girlfriend can take someone else's with the blessings of the most esteemed "managers".

Generally rude maintenance people, dishonest staff that cites harassment when tenents complain, and they'll attempt to extort, threaten, and do anything to swindle money out of you.

There are not enough locking storage closets for all apartments even though the one unit in our building was not inhabitable. Maintenance has a locker down there and often worked on "Projects" much to the chagrin of those of us who like peace and quiet where we live.

Run, do not walk, away from these people. You have other choices.