Hayes Properties
2811 N Mildred Ave
Chicago, IL 60657

Review Date: 8/2/2007
Review: I rented with Hayes Properties for only a year and I wish that financially I could have afforded to stay with them. They were great landlords! Some examples: Our furnace broke and there was someone there to fix it that day. Our dryer broke and we were able to use an alternate location until they could have a new dryer shipped. Hayes properties were very flexible, professional, and personable. Problems are always going to occur when renting, but the important thing is how they are corrected.

The maintenance guys were a bit awkward and spoke in a foreign language the entire time they were doing maintenance, but they still did a good job in a timely manner.

I would definitely rent with Hayes Properties again!

Review Date: 7/21/2007
Review: I have just read the above review and the disparaging remarks about Hayes Properties. I have lived in the building in question, 4203 N. Ashland, for five years. The person who wrote this review is nuts! We have never had a break in; the laundry room has eight brand new machines and they just spent fours weeks completely rebuilding the back porch system. I have no idea what my neighbor is talking about re: rezoning. Are porches even subject to rezoning? Every time I have had a maintenance request the maintenance staff has come out the next day to repair it. Occasionally, we have had to call back on an item but they come right back out and fix it. This is the second building I have lived in with Hayes Properties and they are by far better than any other landlord I’ve rented from.

Review Date: 5/22/2007
Review: I feel the need to warn people to avoid doing business with Hayes. I have been renting from them for three years now. Initially I was content with their service. The apartment is decent, the rent reasonable, and the staff was for the most part pleasant. The maintenance was slow and somewhat shoddy, but that is no worse than most landlords I’ve done business with.

The first major infraction came when the building had a break-in. Burglars got past the building’s “security” door, which is just a wooden door with several small windows. The burglars bent back a metal plate that was supposed to protect the door jab from being crow barred. They went to each apartment in the building and tried to crowbar the door open, doing a good deal of damage to each. Eventually, they got one open by splitting the wooden door frame. That apartment was cleaned out and the burglars got away.

Hayes refused to replace the security door, fearing a secure door wouldn’t be as attractive and might lower the rent they could charge for the apartments. Instead, they just bent the metal plate back. Now even I can easily break through the security door with my bare hands by pulling hard enough. Several tenants have complained about this, but Hayes refuses to act. Hayes also refused to property fix the apartment doors that were crow barred. Even though the door frames are visibly damaged, the wood chipped and the frame pulling away from the wall, they will not fix it. To fix the apartment that was actually broken into, Hayes just screwed the strikeplate back onto the broken door frame and said it was now secure!

Then came the mold. Some tenants began having respiratory problems. They suspected mold because the building has had a history of problems with radiators exploding and other water leaks. Hayes wouldn’t look into it until one of the tenants threatened to send a mold sample from their wall into a lab to be analyzed.

Next came the rodents. A tenant in the building complained about finding rodent droppings in their apartment. Hayes sent their exterminators, who they claim found nothing. After finding more leavings, the tenants complained again, and again Hayes sent the same exterminators. Finally, the tenants bought mouse traps with their own money and within 24 hours had caught 5 mice. Still, Hayes refuses to act and the tenants are left battling the rodent infestation themselves.

Despite several complaints about the washers and driers not working, we still have to cross our fingers and hope that the machines don’t eat our money, destroy or clothes or just not start at all. Instead of fixing the machines, Hayes actually raised the price!

Now, there is less than a week before Memorial Day weekend. We have been told that we must clear out the back porch in order for it to be repaired. Most of the tenants have grills, tables, chairs and several have spent a lot of money on plants and flowers. All of this must be moved, and since we are not allowed to use the common area, chances are it will have to be put into a separate storage area and the plants will have to be thrown out. We were given less than 24 hours warning. Now we are being told that they may rezone the porch as a utility area and not recreational. The beautiful porch was one of the main selling points for this apartment. Will Hayes reimburse us for our grills, porch furniture or plants? Will our rent be adjusted for the reduction in space?

This is my last year renting from Hayes. I will not be doing business with them in the future, and I recommend everyone avoid them if possible.

Review Date: 1/18/2007
Review: I’ve been in my apartment for 3 years now and I haven’t had the problems these reviewers had. Unlike other management companies I’ve dealt with, they are always available, and they fix any maintenance requests the day after calling it in. Also, they were a huge help when I lost my keys.

Review Date: 8/7/2006
Review: Rents are all over the place in this building, with the more established residents getting hit with big rent increases upon renewal–in effect financing the empty units.

Maintenance has gone downhill. When I first moved there, hallways were cleaned weekly and problems in public areas addressed quickly. I am now embarassed to bring people up the stairs to see the chipped paint and filthy red carpet.

14 West Elm
14 West Elm Street
Chicago, IL 60610

Review Date: 5/31/2010
Review: The building is pretty nice, though it is VERY LOUD!!!! The bar on the first floor is very loud and open until 4 am. The door man, Michael is fantastic. Management recently changed b/c the company wanted it to be run by family. The management now really sucks. I love the building strictly for the location and even as much as i love the building, i moved out because of the management.

Review Date: 11/3/2009
Review: I lived at 14 west elm for 4 years, in a studio apartment overlooking Rush/State street triangle area.

Positives:
1.Location – it is situated in a great area, I really liked my studio – got plenty of light and had great view. The best units are the studios 01, 02 units – the bigger units in the building get a view of the alleys!
2.Building staff (Sam, office manager) & doorman (Mike) – Sam the manager, is a good guy and will do his best to keep you happy. However, he does not have a lot of power, the owners just don't care and run the place on bare minimums. So unless upper management/corporate changes, the office managers can't really do much for you.

Negatives:
1. Old building – in 4 years I lived there there was absolutely no improvements, and there was a great need for them in the common areas and actual apartment units. Elevators (only 2) are always breaking, on weekends it is impossible to get in the elevator because they are mostly used by people moving in/out.
3. Rent price – yes it is gold coast and the rent was not too bad but every year they would try to raise it. Yes sure you can raise rent, but not if you have made 0 improvements in 4 years!
4. Accounting/collection people – SUCK! Rent was due by 5th every month. One month I was out of the country and paid on the 6th instead of the 5th. late fee – you would assume that after 4 years of living there, paying rent on time, they would waive the charges – NOPE. This TAMMY lady had the audacity to call me at work and try to collect the , when I asked to please waive the charges considering my record, she said no and threatened to send the account to collection (for ). Results: lease was up in 2 months and I moved out, they offered me a free month rent etc to renew – NO THANKS, I was treated like trash over , when in 4 years living there I have spend over k in rent. Great job Tammy, keep your , I'm sure they are better than keeping a tenant, getting another, ,000 for the year in your empty building!

I stayed 4 years because of the location, didn't want to move and because I'm not a high maintenance type. I did have other friends in the neighborhood who lived in worst buildings. In retrospect I would have probably paid an extra – 0/mo for a better building.

Review Date: 12/26/2008
Review: I would give them ZERO stars if I could!!!!!!

Review Date: 7/27/2008
Review: Resposive friendly management. Great location!

Review Date: 11/16/2007
Review: As a place to live, the building isn’t compleatly horrible, especially if you’re a student. It can get loud at times, from both tenants and from the fun going on outside. That’s not really a problem if you know you’re living in a building with bars downstairs, and around the corner, that go till 4am.

There are two problems that should warn a renter away from this apartment building:

1) Electricity, elevators and water. The building is old and there is a weird dust made of small red and blue strands that you’ll find all over your clothes and bed, but the problems it experiences with water and electricity go beyond that. During the time I lived there, the power throughout the entire building went out on multiple occations. And stayed out for hours at a time. It is so bad that on one occasion, a fire was reported in the building, and people were forced to evacuate. The emergency lights in the stairwells did not work, and I was forced to use what light I could from my cell phone to get down to the exit. When the power goes out, the elevators go down too, so if you want to live on an upper floor, be prepaired to return from class and walk up a dark and steep stairway.

Speaking of the elevators; even when the power is working, the elevators stop working on a regular basis, and can take days to repair. Additionally, be aware that there are only 2 elevators in the building, as one doubles as a frieght. Expect multiple nights returning from work or class only to find someone moving in/out, and half the building waiting for the one availible elevator. That’s especially fun in the summer.

One last item about the elevators to be aware of is that they are very small. Moving larger furniture is much harder than it should be. Don’t be fooled if the management suggests it wont be a problem because they will simply put the item on top of the elevator and move it for a small fee. The small fee when I lived there was 0, and only certain items can be put on the top of the elevator.

Moving on to the water, I’ll be brief. Hot water comes and goes (sometimes for days at a time), sometimes its brownish-orange, and leaving any of it in your glassware leaves an unsettling and tough to remove hard white substance. After my first week at 14 W. Elm, I never drank the tap water again.

For the amount of money you’ll be paying, you deserve a place that’s not a disguised superfund site.

2) The management company. I do not mean Sam or Mike, the night security guy. I do not mean the pleasant and quick maintenance crew. I mean the company that actually runs the building. Make no mistake: They are there to profit off you, and they do not care about your problems. The quick maintenance crew is there only to keep tenants from becoming dissillusioned and looking at the building’s problems a little too closely. This company has been sued in the past for violations relating to renter’s money. Keep that in mind.

Lake Meadows Apartments
501 e 33rd st
Chicago, IL 60616

Review Date: 9/22/2006
Review: I came to visit and apply for the apartments on around July 17th. I talked with a leasing agent and explained to him i was moving to chicago for school and I dont have a job lined up yet. I had brought a person with me to cosign just in case I needed one. My leasing agent told me its fine about the job situation and to just use my current income i have from my job back at home. I also gave him my loan information to use as a source of income. A week later he calls me and says “Do you have a job lined up in Chicago yet” I told him no and that i mentioned that to him already. He then goes on to say that i would need some sort of income otherwise i cant get the apt. I respond “well u knew that from the beginning why didnt you tell me this” I then ask him was loan information considered. he says ” Loan information what loan information did u give that too me” I’m like yes. He like so you will be attending school. I’m like YES. He then says no that won’t work still you would need to have a job.lSo then i inquire about a cosigner since he dont mention it. He agrees that would work and we go from there. No to go into too many details we basically go back and forth for an entire month because he would forget to tell me paper I needed to have in and he would forget things I told him and would call me to ask the same repetitive questions over and over. I finally send an email to management asking why this processs is taking over a month and why is the leasing agent so remedial. The next day I am approve. The day of move in I get to my apartment after signing the lease and the bathroom wall is falling apartment. I asked to me moved to another apartment. Every apartment I was shown had a problem with it. One the entire living room wall was falling apart, one the front door wouldn’t open. I finally just settle for an apartment. I feel out a inspection sheet listing things wrong with the apartment. 3 weeks later still none of the things are fixed. I also find out that only one jack works in the apartment. The other you would have to pay the phone company to get it working. For me that was an incovienience considering I had my computer hooked up in the living room but had to run my phone cord to the bedroom . I tried to contact the building manager to find out if their was a way they could switch and make the living room jack work instead. I left her messages for two weeks straight, finally when I get in touch with her I say to her “I been trying to contact you for two weeks now” she rudely replies “concerning what” she doesnt seem to care that for the last two weeks i’ve been leaving her messages. I simply say “nevermind it doesnt matter” I ask her if someone can come fix the things wrong with my apartment because i have been here for three weeks now. She claims I am schedule for someone to come out on Friday, which was two days away. Of course Frideay comes and no one comes out…There is so much i can say about this place. There management and leasing office is so rude, uncaring and unprofessional. They charge entirely too much to treat tenants in such a way…

Review Date: 7/15/2005
Review: I moved in as my friends had been living there… The management of the building needs to be trained…

One of the roommates left. I replaced him. I want my name to appear on the lease. It has been 60 days. I keep telling that one of the roommates left. I paid 50 bucks to be on the lease. However, the lease hasn’t changed. I have been calling the management office for 30 days. Here is a typical conversation.

Someone over there: Hi, Thank you for calling Lake Meadows. How can I help you? – I want to talk with Tina (Our Agent) Tina is not working today. – Can I leave a voice message? Sure After 20 seconds,

Hi Tina, This is …. I want to be added to the list. Here is the apartment number… Could you call me back at ….

I called them 5 times. No response…

If you are going to live here, you should tolerate an employee cleaning the sideways at 8 am… The machine makes so much noise that you will never sleep after 8am any more.

There is plenty of parking space. The maintanence people are very friendly.

However, the people in management office don’t understand English. Here is another conversation:

-My roommates told me that they got 50 bucks application fee back. Why don’t I get it back?

Agent: It is our policy to charge 50 dollar.

- It was also policy when they signed the lease a year ago. However, they got it back.

Agent: She becomes angry. I am telling you it is our policy. What do you want me to do?

-Let me talk with manager

Agent: She is very busy. She can’t talk with you…

What she simply says:is that: Your friends signed the lease. You will do too. You are locked in. You have to pay 50… We want it…

If I found someone to sublet my room, I will leave this place. I haven’t seen so rude people in my life.

Review Date: 1/5/2005
Review: I lived at Lake Meadows one year. After I moved, they made me wait longer than the 30 days for security deposit accounting and the 45 days for return of the deposit. I retained a law firm and they are collecting statuatory penalties of twice the amount of the deposit.
Don’t let Lake Meadows push you around!

Review Date: 11/4/2004
Review: I lived here a year. It is a convenient location with many apartments overlooking Lake Michigan. There is no air conditioning. There is hardly a minute that goes by without a car alarm blaring on end. Management is usually pleasant, but can be disorganized. They will basically clobber you if you are an hour past due on the rent. Security deposit is the highest in the city, but five weeks after moving out, I haven’t received my refund or an accounting for it. I think you’re better off in the suburbs and commuting in.

Review Date: 1/21/2004
Review: At first I was concerned because the buildings look like housing projects on the outside. But now I love it. There are no noise problems, you would think that 10 apartments to a floor that that would be a concern. Everyone mainly keeps to themselves. There is a small shopping center thats very convient and lots of public trnsportation. They redo every apartment with new appliances, carpet and paint before you move in and there is laundry in the building. I only had to call management once. The guy I spoke to was a little rude, but my problem was fixed in ledd than 12 hours. This is great for my first apartment.