Complaint Review: UDR Realty - New York New York

I have lived in several buildings downtown and this has been by far the worst experience I've had. I would seriously not recommend this building. Don't be fooled by the opulent lobby, this development company, UDR, has tried to run before it even crawled. Most basic necessities in this building are non existent. First of all, it can take up to a half hour for the water to turn hot in the mornings, and sometimes through out the day. Second, the elevators are consistently slow, and breaking. Third, the windows in the building are leaky and faulty. Not only do the windows leak air (heavy drafts, which make apartments cold in the winter and hard to cool in the summer), they also leak rain. When it rains heavily, water will seep through the caulking on our windows, and damage any goods that we have on the window sills/floor. When it is windy, the windows will blow open, exposing our entire apartment to the rain in the storm. And if we're not home during a storm, it is highly likely we're be exposed for the duration.

On top of that, the management of packages is abominable. They have lost upwards of 5 of my apartment's packages and laundry service items, some lost permanently. The woman who runs the package room, June, is rude and has an inability to problems-solve (ie think in outside of the box to ensure that her most basic responsibility, getting people their packages, is achieved). June also has a communication gap- with a thick foreign accent, but rather than trying to understand what people are saying she is more likely to hang up on them. I've never experienced worse client service. While I've notified the building management of this, they don't do anything to rectify it (or at a min ensure their building's occupants have access to their property). The "luxury" they do provide is suspect at best, the doormen rarely do an effective job screening visitors, the machines in the gym are consistently broken, and any handyman service is frequently backlogged.

Additionally, the management of the building is terrible.. Specifically Tara. She can't solve a problem to save her life. She has no oversight over her staff (clearly, given the misgivings of June and the utter failure of the doormen to do their job). She also is totally unwilling to see the side of the tenant, her client, and is totally unable to empathize. Why she hasn't been fired is a mystery to me because she's clearly a failure. In my opinion the window situation is supremely intolerable. They visited my apartment several times, moved things around, left things dirty, and were unable to solve the problem. This seems like something the management should reimburse for, or permit lease termination, but no. They're so far from client oriented, they couldn't careless about their tenants, and given the supply of people needing housing in Manhattan, they are not afraid to lose you-- which results in your loss. They will also scam you. They make you use their online portal to pay rent (you can pay check but they highly discourage this) and if the system is down-- its on you (which it has been for me for the last 3 mos). If you raise it to them, they'll conveniently not respond until its past due time, and not even entertain that their system is the root of the cause. You'll be hit with a $250 late fee- and again because all they care about is ringing a profit out of you, good luck fighting for Justice. If you refused to pay, you'll fee will just continue increasing. The only thing I can comment management has successfully done is prevent pests-- I have not seen any bugs or rats in the department, but that is the bar I hold for them now. Don't be fooled by the jazzy entrance and sophisticated looking shell-- this place is nothing more than a mill for renters in manhattan, and all they'll do for you is take your money.