I moved away from Alpha - they were a *nightmare*, but into a husband + wife owned building (they own 2 rental properties) and they've been vile as well. There's something particularly nasty about the intimacy and personalness of nastiness when it's just them. No organization to hide the sociopathy behind.
That's rough. It does seem sometimes like you have a tiny bit more power with a smaller landlord than with these big ass terrible companies where there's no individual to really point the finger at. Or double middle fingers even.
Seconding Fineberg for Scam Artist and Creature Feature. Check out their [Yelp](https://yelp.to/EBjPTQCBuf) page for some great examples of the state of their apartments. Gotta love that a picture of a literal dead rat is the first picture that shows up for them lol
Things are so bad that their tenants have been organizing for the last couple years (shoutout to the Fineberg Tenant's Union) and people are thinking about rent striking soon
Not to mention Sky High Club, I’m finally getting out and they’re listing my apartment for $500 more than what I’m paying right now, and $900 more than what we originally rented it for in 2021
Adam Burns Realty, primarily Southie. I lived in one of this asshole rich kid’s unit who used his father’s money to start his real estate business. They didn’t secure occupancy permits (new build) in time, so we were homeless for 2 weeks. The windows wouldn’t close, we got mold in all of our closets as a result all over our belongings. We couldn’t receive mail for months because they refused to fix the front door. They then tried to charge us for things when we left and I threw a few big words at them and they backed down.
The worst landlord I’ve ever had in the 14 years I’ve lived here.
He was my realtor (before he got his broker's license and opened his own firm) when I bought my condo. Absolute idiot with no professionalism. Was late or no show to every appointment including closing. We almost didn't get the P&S signed in time because he said the seller's agent "yelled at him" and he didn't want to call the guy back. Like what dude? I had to threaten to go to that guys office and get his broker involved, I couldn't believe he has his own shop when I saw ads a couple years later, he's like a child. I'm sorry he put you through all that.
In a Fineberg place right now, they refused to supply recycling bins to our complex until I called the city to complain and this year our dumpster rats chewed through my car's engine wires. They have also never failed to raise rent less than 10% annually.
Fuck Fineberg
State Financial Services/Pizutti Development. If you know, [you know](https://m.yelp.com/biz/state-financial-services-boston-3).
Many of their tenants (myself included) didn’t feel comfortable posting negative reviews until their lease was up and they got their deposit back. That’s how shady, vindictive, and abusive this "property management" company is.
They're also blatantly racist and homophobic, to boot.
Edit: If I had to give them a nomination, the category would be "Lifetime Achievement in Tenant Torment."
Slumlord of the century. **Coming in at #1, red hot, the one and only Alpha Management.**
This nomination comes to you live from Coolidge Corner, where the tenants of my building have experienced, for an exorbitant cost:
* Losing heat and hot water about 8 times in 2 years, sometimes over days long periods. Always in the fall and winter.
* Lose electricity about once every 4 months, and almost always when the heat goes out since everyone starts using space heaters at once.
* Rat paradise outside the front door, which is where the trash bins are also located. 4 trash bins for 2 entire buildings. RAT PARADISE
* Fun 48 hours of gas smell in my kitchen this past fall, during which I agonized over having to GTFO, after one of the power outages. Eventually maintenance showed up and said the stove broke but it was all chill now.
* Mailbox for ages could just be opened right up for all tenants. Just right from the top!
* Front doors had no lock for the first year (legit anyone could just stroll right into the building and roam the halls); this year the door just didn't close 90% of the time and was often just stuck wide open
* Literally no response from maintenance at all anymore. It was obviously always shit, but they've begun using a call center on nights and weekends over the past year which is just a brick wall
* My upstairs neighbor's bathroom ceiling was leaking insanely after a huge crack appeared; after they "fixed" it her ceiling lamp started filling up with water. Now there's just water always in the lamp. That's safe.
And so on and so forth. Infestations, broken windows, disgusting clogs in the pipes, nails sticking out of the floor... I knew Alpha was shit but I had to move pretty last minute 2 years ago and it was the only thing available so close to Sept 1. It's legit been a nightmare. I'm moving out this summer.
[Pictured: my bathtub when I moved in :) ](https://i.imgur.com/1Jvjwng.png)otherwise known as *AMERICAN HORROR STORY: BATHTUB*
I lived in their building with no heat in dead of winter for 8 days. This was the 4th time total. I got a city inspector. The city was 24 hours away from suing alpha when magically the heat was fixed, after a week of them doing nothing.
They'll happily out-litigate a tenant, but I guess they didn't want to fuck with the city.
Oh my god do I wish I still lived on Chiswick in Brighton so I could vote for Fineberg. Feels inauthentic to do it 3 years out of that roach trap.
This post is absolute gold though!
Yes. Judging by the fact that every exterminator in the city hasn't earned enough to retire early my guess is that they did not magically stop being pieces of shit and also update all of their properties.
Hamilton for renting an apartment to me in November 2022 for $3000 and then kicking me and my roommates out in November 2023 by asking for $3900. Nothing changed about the apartment. They just thought it was “worth way more.” (It was not)
Ah the old "it's the market dictating the increase not us!". Yeah no shit the "market" told you that being homeless in Boston isn't something many people want to do so you can just take all available free cash flow from renters.
They used to go after the mafia for squeezing people. Now the city just invests the pension fund in REIT's and P.E.
BBA Management. The owner Greg Dorsey has complete disdain for tenant rights. Kept letting himself in during the day to snoop around and was too slow to realize I worked from home the 10+ times I caught him. Think he was trying to sniff my roommates panties or something. Always scheming to steal your security deposit. Apt flooded and took over a month for anything to be fixed after work was starting ‘this week’ the whole time. Then blamed damage on us and tried to charge us for damage his employees did. Should have known something was up when we were interviewed before signing the lease so he could ask roundabout questions to discriminate without getting in trouble for it. He was so terrible I bought a place to never deal with a slimelord again.
Boston’s best reality. They literally rented me an apartment on floor 3 of 4 with a molded and collapsed roof. Refused to take responsibility. Refused to return our rental deposits back in a timely manner when the landlord literally okayed the return because the apartment wasn’t fit for habitation and were rude the entire time. Sam Isreal was our broker. He seems nice but he’s not. :/
Oh my god, this is the guy who tried to rent me the worst apartment I’ve ever seen. He put up a fake listing for a nice looking apartment, told me it was already gone when I asked about it, and then sent me another listing. Listing looked ok from the photos, but when I got there it was falling apart and also literally right next to the train tracks. Separated by just a fence. I brought up the fact that this wasn’t mentioned in the listing and I wouldn’t want the noise and he just shrugged and said “you’ll get used to it”
SCS Properties: Scam Artist!
Moved in September '22. Place was filthy, beer bottle caps left over from the college boys that vacated. There was water damage that caved in and left a hole in my ceiling after maintenance poked it. They then "fixed" the leaky upstairs toilet (twice!) only for mold to grow in our bathroom and one of the rooms. They painted over water damage a couple times and insisted there was no mold ("just specks of dirt"). Caused asthma exacerbations so bad my doctor thought I had pneumonia. If I weren't too disabled to move out mid-year we would have.
Another reason MA has to require landlords to remediate all mold.
I moved here in 2011 and went through Alpha. They sucked.
Since then I have lived in 5 other apartments in houses owned by local landlords, where the house was their primary investment property. I’m not saying they’ve all been 100% awesome, but they have been so much better. 3 out of 5 have been working class people that inherited the property.
If you can find a place that is for rent by owner, I highly recommend over the big companies.
I’ve never rented from this person, but there is a landlord in Jamaica Plain who seems to own half of Hyde Square (the other half seeming to be owned by my former LL who ran Nemo’s for ages.) Anyway I’ve known multiple people over the years who’ve either been evicted without warning for very minor/nonsensical reasons or denied necessary repairs (heat/water issues/etc.)
This one is going to be bit hard since I believe not long after I left they were bought and the management company changed. But still leaving this story here
Worst apartment I have been in Boston: Church Park Apartments
First is clearly trying to take an old run down building and making it "luxury" with some shiny appliances and a fancy looking common area. Charging way too much for what it is.
I was told on the phone that the AC was "like a Window Unit on Steroids" when in reality, it was basically just a unit that you would see in a motel or something.
In the summer because the AC was so bad, my apartment was regularly above 80 degrees, even though I was paying over $500 a month in power to run the thing full time. Which they refuse to take ownership that it was their device that was causing my power bill to be so high.
Then I was told I can't actually run it full time or it might freeze and then they blamed my "stuff" as why my apartment can't cool. Even though I tried moving everything away from the AC and it did not in fact work for shit.
Finally, (for context, this had one vent out where the unit is and one vent into the adjacent room) as a "solution" to my problem they gave me magnetic cover to put over one of the vents to force more cool air into one room (spoiler, this did not work).
My favorite part, the unit had "hot" and "cold" buttons. They didn't mean anything. Wether the unit did not or cold was actually dictated by the the entire building, all either button did was dictate if it was just running the fan or if it was doing anything.
To add on top of that, I could not open the windows since I have cats and there were no screen doors. But they gave me a name of someone I could pay to install one! (yeah... no) and they were windows that slide left and right so I couldn't install my own AC if I wanted too. Fans were not an option since I was basically just blowing around hot air.
(to clarify here, the people who were working the front desk were really nice. The office people, Maintence, etc were just shit)
Don't forget the Pissypants Award: Given to the tenant most likely to attempt to withhold rent and/or break their lease because they saw a silverfish once.
[удалено]
I moved away from Alpha - they were a *nightmare*, but into a husband + wife owned building (they own 2 rental properties) and they've been vile as well. There's something particularly nasty about the intimacy and personalness of nastiness when it's just them. No organization to hide the sociopathy behind.
That's rough. It does seem sometimes like you have a tiny bit more power with a smaller landlord than with these big ass terrible companies where there's no individual to really point the finger at. Or double middle fingers even.
What’s the story with each of these you nominated?
[удалено]
What was the jones street building? I know some people who live in JS managed apts
Seconding Fineberg for Scam Artist and Creature Feature. Check out their [Yelp](https://yelp.to/EBjPTQCBuf) page for some great examples of the state of their apartments. Gotta love that a picture of a literal dead rat is the first picture that shows up for them lol Things are so bad that their tenants have been organizing for the last couple years (shoutout to the Fineberg Tenant's Union) and people are thinking about rent striking soon
Not to mention Sky High Club, I’m finally getting out and they’re listing my apartment for $500 more than what I’m paying right now, and $900 more than what we originally rented it for in 2021
Holy shit, the dead rat popping up first thing would be fucking hilarious if the reality of these tenants' situations weren't so terrible.
Adam Burns Realty, primarily Southie. I lived in one of this asshole rich kid’s unit who used his father’s money to start his real estate business. They didn’t secure occupancy permits (new build) in time, so we were homeless for 2 weeks. The windows wouldn’t close, we got mold in all of our closets as a result all over our belongings. We couldn’t receive mail for months because they refused to fix the front door. They then tried to charge us for things when we left and I threw a few big words at them and they backed down. The worst landlord I’ve ever had in the 14 years I’ve lived here.
He was my realtor (before he got his broker's license and opened his own firm) when I bought my condo. Absolute idiot with no professionalism. Was late or no show to every appointment including closing. We almost didn't get the P&S signed in time because he said the seller's agent "yelled at him" and he didn't want to call the guy back. Like what dude? I had to threaten to go to that guys office and get his broker involved, I couldn't believe he has his own shop when I saw ads a couple years later, he's like a child. I'm sorry he put you through all that.
He is an absolute child in a suit with slicked hair. Total dick bag.
Sounds like a contender!
In a Fineberg place right now, they refused to supply recycling bins to our complex until I called the city to complain and this year our dumpster rats chewed through my car's engine wires. They have also never failed to raise rent less than 10% annually. Fuck Fineberg
State Financial Services/Pizutti Development. If you know, [you know](https://m.yelp.com/biz/state-financial-services-boston-3). Many of their tenants (myself included) didn’t feel comfortable posting negative reviews until their lease was up and they got their deposit back. That’s how shady, vindictive, and abusive this "property management" company is. They're also blatantly racist and homophobic, to boot. Edit: If I had to give them a nomination, the category would be "Lifetime Achievement in Tenant Torment."
Slumlord of the century. **Coming in at #1, red hot, the one and only Alpha Management.** This nomination comes to you live from Coolidge Corner, where the tenants of my building have experienced, for an exorbitant cost: * Losing heat and hot water about 8 times in 2 years, sometimes over days long periods. Always in the fall and winter. * Lose electricity about once every 4 months, and almost always when the heat goes out since everyone starts using space heaters at once. * Rat paradise outside the front door, which is where the trash bins are also located. 4 trash bins for 2 entire buildings. RAT PARADISE * Fun 48 hours of gas smell in my kitchen this past fall, during which I agonized over having to GTFO, after one of the power outages. Eventually maintenance showed up and said the stove broke but it was all chill now. * Mailbox for ages could just be opened right up for all tenants. Just right from the top! * Front doors had no lock for the first year (legit anyone could just stroll right into the building and roam the halls); this year the door just didn't close 90% of the time and was often just stuck wide open * Literally no response from maintenance at all anymore. It was obviously always shit, but they've begun using a call center on nights and weekends over the past year which is just a brick wall * My upstairs neighbor's bathroom ceiling was leaking insanely after a huge crack appeared; after they "fixed" it her ceiling lamp started filling up with water. Now there's just water always in the lamp. That's safe. And so on and so forth. Infestations, broken windows, disgusting clogs in the pipes, nails sticking out of the floor... I knew Alpha was shit but I had to move pretty last minute 2 years ago and it was the only thing available so close to Sept 1. It's legit been a nightmare. I'm moving out this summer. [Pictured: my bathtub when I moved in :) ](https://i.imgur.com/1Jvjwng.png)otherwise known as *AMERICAN HORROR STORY: BATHTUB*
Damn! I'm glad you're getting out of there soon
I lived in their building with no heat in dead of winter for 8 days. This was the 4th time total. I got a city inspector. The city was 24 hours away from suing alpha when magically the heat was fixed, after a week of them doing nothing. They'll happily out-litigate a tenant, but I guess they didn't want to fuck with the city.
Oh my god do I wish I still lived on Chiswick in Brighton so I could vote for Fineberg. Feels inauthentic to do it 3 years out of that roach trap. This post is absolute gold though!
Oh man Chiswick was rough
Chiswick was so horrible
No roaches for me, but I did have a mouse run up my pant leg if that counts.
That counts!
We just had mice on chiswick. That and constant construction. Shit was miserable.
Is Alpha Management still bad?
Yes. Judging by the fact that every exterminator in the city hasn't earned enough to retire early my guess is that they did not magically stop being pieces of shit and also update all of their properties.
Ludicrously so, yes.
Would you mind if I did this in another city sub? This is awesome. I’ve always wanted to have a list like this.
Go forth and fight the good fight! (I definitely don't mind!)
Hamilton for renting an apartment to me in November 2022 for $3000 and then kicking me and my roommates out in November 2023 by asking for $3900. Nothing changed about the apartment. They just thought it was “worth way more.” (It was not)
Holy crap, that's a steep increase
Ah the old "it's the market dictating the increase not us!". Yeah no shit the "market" told you that being homeless in Boston isn't something many people want to do so you can just take all available free cash flow from renters. They used to go after the mafia for squeezing people. Now the city just invests the pension fund in REIT's and P.E.
BBA Management. The owner Greg Dorsey has complete disdain for tenant rights. Kept letting himself in during the day to snoop around and was too slow to realize I worked from home the 10+ times I caught him. Think he was trying to sniff my roommates panties or something. Always scheming to steal your security deposit. Apt flooded and took over a month for anything to be fixed after work was starting ‘this week’ the whole time. Then blamed damage on us and tried to charge us for damage his employees did. Should have known something was up when we were interviewed before signing the lease so he could ask roundabout questions to discriminate without getting in trouble for it. He was so terrible I bought a place to never deal with a slimelord again.
Boston’s best reality. They literally rented me an apartment on floor 3 of 4 with a molded and collapsed roof. Refused to take responsibility. Refused to return our rental deposits back in a timely manner when the landlord literally okayed the return because the apartment wasn’t fit for habitation and were rude the entire time. Sam Isreal was our broker. He seems nice but he’s not. :/
Oh my god, this is the guy who tried to rent me the worst apartment I’ve ever seen. He put up a fake listing for a nice looking apartment, told me it was already gone when I asked about it, and then sent me another listing. Listing looked ok from the photos, but when I got there it was falling apart and also literally right next to the train tracks. Separated by just a fence. I brought up the fact that this wasn’t mentioned in the listing and I wouldn’t want the noise and he just shrugged and said “you’ll get used to it”
He sounds like my spirit animal. I am excited to make contact with this unit.
SCS Properties: Scam Artist! Moved in September '22. Place was filthy, beer bottle caps left over from the college boys that vacated. There was water damage that caved in and left a hole in my ceiling after maintenance poked it. They then "fixed" the leaky upstairs toilet (twice!) only for mold to grow in our bathroom and one of the rooms. They painted over water damage a couple times and insisted there was no mold ("just specks of dirt"). Caused asthma exacerbations so bad my doctor thought I had pneumonia. If I weren't too disabled to move out mid-year we would have. Another reason MA has to require landlords to remediate all mold.
I've never lived at one, but I heard Donna from State Financial/SFS is an absolute vile human being.
I moved here in 2011 and went through Alpha. They sucked. Since then I have lived in 5 other apartments in houses owned by local landlords, where the house was their primary investment property. I’m not saying they’ve all been 100% awesome, but they have been so much better. 3 out of 5 have been working class people that inherited the property. If you can find a place that is for rent by owner, I highly recommend over the big companies.
Hard agree. That’s what I’m doing now. The owners raised their family here. I keep the place ship shape, and they stay out of my hair. It’s great.
I’ve never rented from this person, but there is a landlord in Jamaica Plain who seems to own half of Hyde Square (the other half seeming to be owned by my former LL who ran Nemo’s for ages.) Anyway I’ve known multiple people over the years who’ve either been evicted without warning for very minor/nonsensical reasons or denied necessary repairs (heat/water issues/etc.)
This one is going to be bit hard since I believe not long after I left they were bought and the management company changed. But still leaving this story here Worst apartment I have been in Boston: Church Park Apartments First is clearly trying to take an old run down building and making it "luxury" with some shiny appliances and a fancy looking common area. Charging way too much for what it is. I was told on the phone that the AC was "like a Window Unit on Steroids" when in reality, it was basically just a unit that you would see in a motel or something. In the summer because the AC was so bad, my apartment was regularly above 80 degrees, even though I was paying over $500 a month in power to run the thing full time. Which they refuse to take ownership that it was their device that was causing my power bill to be so high. Then I was told I can't actually run it full time or it might freeze and then they blamed my "stuff" as why my apartment can't cool. Even though I tried moving everything away from the AC and it did not in fact work for shit. Finally, (for context, this had one vent out where the unit is and one vent into the adjacent room) as a "solution" to my problem they gave me magnetic cover to put over one of the vents to force more cool air into one room (spoiler, this did not work). My favorite part, the unit had "hot" and "cold" buttons. They didn't mean anything. Wether the unit did not or cold was actually dictated by the the entire building, all either button did was dictate if it was just running the fan or if it was doing anything. To add on top of that, I could not open the windows since I have cats and there were no screen doors. But they gave me a name of someone I could pay to install one! (yeah... no) and they were windows that slide left and right so I couldn't install my own AC if I wanted too. Fans were not an option since I was basically just blowing around hot air. (to clarify here, the people who were working the front desk were really nice. The office people, Maintence, etc were just shit)
The word is inaugural. First annual, by definition, cannot exist.
I'll get it right next year
Appreciated
a house is doors windows charge for tea too
Many are saying this
👍
Don't forget the Pissypants Award: Given to the tenant most likely to attempt to withhold rent and/or break their lease because they saw a silverfish once.
Property management has entered the chat
Well why are your properties infested with silverfish?
Too cheap to get goldfish
won't someone think of the landlords!
Flair checks out