Complaint Review: Hamel Real Estate - Albany New York

I have been getting the run around for months too, waiting to receive money that is owed to me. I should've known not to get involved with this company after reading reviews! I have received the same unprofessional treatment from him and his minions..won't pick up calls, when they do they hang up. I tried the nice approach to get my money returned and just ended up getting demeaned and belittled.

His employees claim he is fair and returns security deposits in a "timely manor" Then why am I still fighting to get mine back?? Seriously cannot wait till this is behind me, so I can move on with my life. In the mean-time I will be warning potential renters about this awful agency. It is no wonder that the only clients satisfied with Hamel Real Estate are filthy college guys who are too stoned to realize the deplorable conditions that his rentals are kept in.

Correction, the employee's name is: Sarah Shrader.

Moving on, there is a 2nd post for Hamel Real Estate and Bill Hamel on Rip Off Report. You can find it here:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/hamel-real-estate/real-estate-services/hamel-real-estate-bill-hamel-f2210.htm

I'll also post the text in this post. The truth behind Bill Hamel's business practices will be revealed. 

This was posted by Chris:

Stay away from Bill Hamel... he's dishonest and will "yes" you to death without ever meaning a word he says. If you do HAVE to work with him, make sure you get everything documented on paper.

I've been fighting to get my money back (which he agreed to and I have written proof) for over a month after he falsely advertised an apartment online and on the phone. He has a glossy website for the Albany Real Estate market and I mistakenly trusted him to move in without seeing the place. He claimed it was in great condition, had a washer & dryer and a dishwasher. Instead, it had a dishwasher that was broken for a year and no W&D, not even W&D hookups! It was also filthy - covered in dust/dirt, with a prior tenant's gross furniture still in the unit when I moved in.... another surprise. The pictures were about 5+ years old on his website.  

After 5 days of complaining, he decided I was too much of a nuisance. Bill Hamel agreed (in writing) to have me move out and he promised to return my deposit less the 5 days I spent in the apartment. Like another complaint here, he offered to transfer me to another apartment but I rejected that offer and wanted my cash back instead.

For 4 months, I was told the cash was on its way. He claimed it had been mailed several times, never actually meaning it. He knew I was located in Albany for a short period of time and he was obviously trying to wait me out. Fortunately, I kept escalating my issue and sued him in Small Claims Court.

I then ended up spending 2+ months chasing Bill for the security deposit after the court ruled in my favor. He constantly ignored my calls, would hang up if he picked up, or would promise me it's "in the mail" - this guy is a joke and he has no ethics. 

After 6 months of dealing with Bill, I involved a lawyer, contacted the Better Business Bureau, and had the Albany Small Claims court rule in my favor. I received my 2 month security deposit ($1600) back only after I filed a report with the Albany Police Department following the court ruling.

Do yourself a favor and avoid this man! 

http://www.ripoffreport.com/hamel-real-estate/real-estate-services/hamel-real-estate-bill-hamel-f2210.htm

Sarah Scrader and Mike Germano are Hamel Real Estate (Bill Hamel) employees.

The truth is that I've contacted every Bill Hamel complainant online and they have a lot to say in this post and the truth is clearly damaging if not damning.

All I have to do is sit back and let the complaints roll in, because there are clearly more complaints than Hamel Real estate employees.

Stay tuned. The public records from Hamel Real Estate's Court losses will be posted next month. They take time to organize and scan.   

Funny, none of this was mentioned in original post from June 2011??

I have worked for Bill Hamel for just about 1 year. I have to say that I love coming to work everyday. Bill Hamel is the absolute best person I have ever worked for, he is very caring and compassionate to his employees, tenants and just in general.  

We have rented to thousands of people, based on conversation with current tenants they are very happy. We do not have issues returning security deposits, we never have. All maintenance issues are handled in a timely manner, we also follow up to ensure that they are taken care of.

I'm so glad someone else decided to post the truth Bill Hamel is a despicable human being. At first he complained that he would not fix anything because we were "annoying" and "whiney," however as time passed Bill began to come by to "fix" things whenever my girlfriends weren't home. 

Bill Hamel would tell me how annoyed he was with his wife and how he was looking for someone new, "someone like me." He also told me that if I was unhappy with the apartment he could find me one of his better 1 bedroom's if I was willing to move away from my roommates. He would constantly make weird gestures and offer favors to me whenever I was alone.  

It came to a head when we had a complaint about our constantly malfunctioning toilet and Bill Hamel came to my apartment when my girlfriends were gone and I was in the a shower. He entered the house without knocking and walked into my bathroom smiling and telling me "I was gorgeous." I screamed and told him I would call the police, and he walked away saying , "your crazy" I just wanted to fix your toilet. 

I moved out the next weekend. Nothing Bill Hamel says can be believed. He's a dirty little man that takes advantage of women and runs property into the ground. I was sexually harassed and most likely stalked. I can't imagine anyone being happy with his service. Unless the post above was made by Bill Hamel himself. 

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I'm so glad someone else decided to post the truth Bill Hamel is a despicable human being. At first he complained that he would not fix anything because we were "annoying" and "whiney," however as time passed Bill began to come by to "fix" things whenever my girlfriends weren't home. 

Bill Hamel would tell me how annoyed he was with his wife and how he was looking for someone new, "someone like me." He also told me that if I was unhappy with the apartment he could find me one of his better 1 bedroom's if I was willing to move away from my roommates. He would constantly make weird gestures and offer favors to me whenever I was alone.  

It came to a head when we had a complaint about our constantly malfunctioning toilet and Bill Hamel came to my apartment when my girlfriends were gone and I was in the a shower. He entered the house without knocking and walked into my bathroom smiling and telling me "I was gorgeous." I screamed and told him I would call the police, and he walked away saying , "your crazy" I just wanted to fix your toilet. 

I moved out the next weekend. Nothing Bill Hamel says can be believed. He's a dirty little man that takes advantage of women and runs property into the ground. I was sexually harassed and most likely stalked.

I can't imagine anyone being happy with his service. Unless the post above was made by Bill Hamel himself. 

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I have been renting a house from Bill Hammel and his company for about 2 years now. I have had nothing but a great experience renting from him. He has decided to sell the house I am living in at the end of my lease. He informed me with plenty of time to make a decision on what to do next. He also has very kindly agreed to allow me to rent the house on a month to month basis until it sells. I am looking at this point to purchase a house of my own. Bill offered to sell the current house I'm in to me at a good price. I declined for it's not in a location I desire. Bill has then further assisted me in looking for and at other houses. He also has spoken with the bank I am working with on a few occasions to help me further with getting a loan approval. He has been very helpful and more importantly honest through out the entire process. Not to mention that he even dropped off a bottle of wine to my boyfriend and I with a card for the holidays thanking us for being good tennants. I did not know Bill at all before renting from him but have come to know him as a professional person.

Mr. Germano,

I'm glad you're a loyal employee. But you are en employee and clearly bias. The small claims court records and online reviews paint a much different and more factual story. I thought we were making headway and I was going to refrain from posting them online, perhaps I was wrong. Moreover, before you claim that someone hasn't followed their lease please review:

New York Real Property - Article 7 - 232-B

The lease was illegally terminated when I did not receive one calendar months notice and payment was demanded for the entire month of August. I suggest you do your homework. 

I have known Mr Bill Hamel  for years and see he is very amicable and flexible with tenants.  He always tries his best to keep tenants happy. In my dealings with him I have found him to be very fair and reasonable with tenants. He manages over 200 units and some of them are under Management contract with an outside owner which means he has a responsibility not
only to himself and tenants  to do the right thing but for the owners as well and I feel the owners would agree that he is an excellent property manager. I find this article very hard to believe and always there are two sides to every story. This sounds like a person that cannot get their own way  ir-regardless of the lease they signed and they are creating a problem and bash a persons reputation. Another thing is he is not a violent person would never hurt anyone.     
 
 

YOU, sir, are the one who gave the renter a deadline to get out of the apartment, and it seems unreasonable to me that you would penalize him for following through quickly and finding a new place to live within a couple of weeks of being told he would have to go.
What did you expect him to do? Wait until August 27th maybe and then take whatever he could find with 2 days to spare? He was forced to act on his long term needs and get what he could when the opportunity presented itself.
Give him the dad blasted bloody deposit and be done with it.

On 6/06/2011 Becky S logged into Yahoo and wrote: "Absolute worst and rudest landlord I have EVER come across! Words cannot explain how negative Hamel Realty made my living situation for me and my room mates."

http://local.yahoo.com/info-42501404-hamel-william-hamel-realty-albany

On 7/06/2011 natasho logged into Yahoo and agreed

On 8/24/2010 Chris D logged into Yelp and wrote: "Stay away from Bill Hamel... he's dishonest"

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hamel-real-estate-albany-2 

Why is the general consensus on the web that Bill Hamel is dishonest? It's clearly more than just me. To further prove this, I'm going to pull all of his cases from small claims court in New York and publish them online.

They will be at hamelrealestate.co and hamelrealestate.biz

Damon Lipscomb has lived in 2 of our buildings in a beautiful neighborhood in Downtown Albany.  There was never a mention of any mold problems in the 1st unit he occupied.  We routinely get a month and a half security deposit.  We have been managers for 19 years and must protect ourselves from unpaid balances and damages.  Damon has been on a monthly agreement since his lease ended in May/2012.  We were gracious to allow him a monthly arrangement.  We chose to not renew his monthly lease 7/15/12 to be effective 8/29/12.  He decided to move 7/29/12 but is demanding his security deposit after giving a 14 day notice.  I explained we needed time to fill the unit and his security will be at risk if the apartment goes vacant in August.  Damon has paid his rent late many months and we had a tremendous amount of patience throughout his tenancy.  Unfortunately,  unreasonable people do not see situations from the other side's perspective.  We are proud of the record we have returning security deposits and will be happy to verify security returns to anyone interested. 

Sincerely,

Bill Hamel
518-857-9251

Bill Hamel just read my report. He knocked on my door, pointed in my face and called me a scumbag and a dirtbag. I'm now worried for my safety and will have to call the police. He was so angry. 

If anything happens to me between now and 7/31 it may be because of Bill Hamel. Work with Hamel real estate at your own peril.