Beach Lane Management

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT. NOT. NOT. NOT. NOT. RENT FROM ANY BUILDING OR APARTMENT ANYWHERE THAT IS OWNED BY BEACH LANE MANAGEMENT. The staff is extremely rude, unresponsive, and either foreign or not very intelligent, and the moment you point out their lack of professionalism, they tell YOU that you are the one with a problem. There should be negative stars. The full back story is: in summer 2011, my two roommates and I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and found building 274 West 19th Street and found a great apartment in an area we loved. 1) We were told we were signing a July 1 lease. When the lease came, it stated June 1 (this may have been the broker's fault, but I am still listing it here), 2) We were told the apartment would be fully cleaned/renovated, with the floors waxed, cracks fixed, walls painted etc. by June 5. This was different than what they had initially told us, which was everything would be ready by June 1, which is what we had told our respective subletters as we scrambled to find subletters for the first month, after we got a heck of a surprise from the lease. 3) The floors were dirty, bathroom tile cracked, doors didn't lock when my roommate and I moved in July 2011. We were starting to get upset at this point. We then nicely reached out to the "account manager", Terrance, at Beach Lane asking him to make the fixtures the Company said they would. Not only did it take MONTHS for the bathroom tile to be replaced, lights replaced, doors and cabinets fixed, they eventually told us they couldn't do the floors unless we moved out all of our furniture for 3 days. So our floors never got done, even to this day. 4) I was having technical problems with my direct deposit at BofA and called Beach Lane's "rent department", which apparently consists of 1 person named Desmond. He openly told me "there are so many checks every month...I lose a few every now and then". I thought that was completely unacceptable. 5) My roommate kept smelling cigarette smoke coming from the vent in her room. When she got an ear infection and the doctor told her a main cause could have been second-hand smoke, we contacted Terrance and Beach Lane about this. Not only did they completely not care about her well being/health and were unresponsive for weeks, they said nothing could be done about it and that was that. 6) Our third roommate is moving out, so we kindly asked if only her portion of the deposit could be mailed back to her, but this very rude and incompetent woman named Dana Schwartz said that no, all of the money has to be returned to her because when we sent in our deposits she got the "luck of the draw" and they put her name on their bank account. I became very upset and told her that we were never informed of this, and that I did not appreciate this lack of professionalism, especially after everything we had been put through. When I told her this she said "I am not communicating with you anymore" and forwarded our correspondence to someone named Mitch Rothken, who was equally if not more rude, saying "Every single piece of correspondence from you is self-serving, truculent, sarcastic, insulting, demeaning but, frankly, otherwise impertinent." I have the emails to attest this is false, and anyone reading this who doesn't believe me and is interested in reading the emails I will send to you. I cannot believe this company is functioning the way it is. Though people may still unknowingly sign leases and rent with Beach Lane, I know that word of mouth will help anyone who has to deal with these complete baffoons to never rent from Beach Lane ever again. Their company WILL go down for this. Maybe not today, but in the near future yes, and I hope Dana and Mitch and this entire company pays for their nasty actions. Karma is a bitch. more

If I could give this management company Negative 5 stars I would. They are absolutely terrible. If you live in any of their buildings, MOVE. If you are thinking of living in any of their buildings, THINK AGAIN. I live at 137 E 29th St, which luckily has an amazing and attentive super who has taken care of most of my problems and I have not had to deal with Beach Lane much. However ANY time you call them, no one answers the phone let alone returns calls. They jacked up my rent 10% and I've been trying to call to negotiate but to no avail. The building has been broken into TWICE in the past year but no extra security measures have been installed or tended to. If I have to move this summer I will be telling every person who comes to look at my apartment just how god awful this company is. more

These people will give you the kind of nightmare stories you think couldn't possibly be true when you hear them. Do not think you are the exception. If you move into an apartment with Beach Lane and miraculously have 12 months of bliss with no need to reach out to Beach Lane, great, you're very lucky. However, if you have a minor maintenance problem or worse, a major maintenance problem, you will be ignored and your life will become a living hell for the months that follow. Beach Lane does not care about your quality of life. They will not pick up the phone if you call and they have no sympathy for your apartment problems. I remember finding this page on Google and thinking "well, only the people who have bad experiences write reviews, I'll be fine." That's often true, but I cannot emphasize enough what a huge risk you're taking signing on with these scumbags. They get away with murder because they rely on high demand, and no matter how many bad reviews/press they get, there will always be some naive 20something willing to shell out $1400 without thinking twice about it. If you're smart -- THINK TWICE. You don't want to get involved with these people. more

Mark Scharfman & Beach Lane Management is the worst landlord I've ever had in the 20 years I've lived in New York City. I looked at an apartment that had stainless appliances/ granite countertops/ was a gut renovation. I immediately put an application in to hold the apartment when later that day Beach Lane claimed that it had been rented. They offered me another apartment at a comparable price and since I really needed to move I took it. WORSE DECISION of my life. I moved in and the first 2 nights there I couldn't even stay because there was no heat in January! I quickly learned that the super ONLY cleaned the lobby. He never swept or mopped the upper floors. Tenants routinely left bags of garbage and dog feces in the hallway where it stayed for days. The laundry room was infested with rats. I called management several times about the heat and trash and they would fix it then a month or 2 would go by and it would be right back where we started. Beach Lane Management is a greedy slumlord that only cares about MONEY. I paid my rent late ONCE by only ONE day and they hauled me into court. When I called them the two rude women I spoke to said they had no control over the matter and that it was generated by "the computer." It took me a month to rectify the matter AND they still tried to charge me attorney fees. After being in the apartment for 12 months (as a good tenant) I found out my 86 year old mother had Alzheimer's. I tried contacting them 5 times in the month of December to see if they had a larger apartment for my mother and me to share. They NEVER returned any of my phone calls. THEN they tried to evict me because I didn't sign a lease renewal. I tried to explain that even though they were an awful landlord I would rather move within their properties so I wouldn't have to go on an apartment search in this city. THEY REFUSED to even speak to me and took me to court for staying over my lease. The court gave me 6 months extension and after only 2 months Beach Lane tried to evict me a third time. Keep in mind I HAVE NEVER BEEN LATE paying rent. Beach Lane is a disgraceful, greedy, money hungry outfit that should be avoided at all costs. They are evil. Please do not rent from them! more

I have been living in one of Beachlane Management's buildings for a while. I can tell you straight out that Mark Sharfman does not care who moves into one of his buildings as long as they pay rent. As far as he's concerned, Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and John Wayne Gayce can move in as well as long as they all pay rent. That's because rent payment is all he cares about. He does not care about the quality he provides or even about bad reviews such as this one. He really couldn't care less. All he cares about is the rent that the tenants pay him. (I wish I could be so carefree at my job and get away with it). You will wind up having neighbors that will bring the quality of your life down, mark my words. My personal experience - some kids in their 20's moved into the apartment below me. They would bring drugs and prostitutes into their apartment in the wee hours of the morning. (The smoke from the weed would come into my apartment). They would also talk so freaking loud that I literally heard all of their conversations as if they were both in the same room. Since I work full time and go to school in the evenings, this became a living nightmare for me. The kids would party all night long during the days of the week from 12am - literally until 5:00am in the morning. I normally have to get up at 6am so you can imagine the amount of sleep I'd get. First, I tried to write the neighbors a nice letter but to no avail. Second, I contacted Beach Lane Management by both email and phone and all I got was the building manager, "Jane" who pretty much said that I'd need to sign an affidavit in court if I want them to do something about it. Well, I agreed to do even that, but when I followed up, that;'s when I started being ignored. Jane said that it is all out of her hands and that she has given it to the attorney and there's nothing else for her to do. But I smelled serious BS at that point, and boy was I right! Three months later, nothing changed. I think Julia mentioned "court" and "affidavit" because she thought these things would intimidate me, I dont know. But what I do know is that someone I know who used to work for Beach Lane told me that it's the Building Manager's responsibility to follow up with these things. Apparently, Jane wasn't following up. So I called and emailed, but nothing ever happened. The noise and sleepless nights became unbearable. I was arriving late to work and not following up on my reading. And 311... well that too is a joke. If 311 sees on their computers that you call in too many "noise complaints" (they track you by your phone #) they will avoid you as well and kindly suggest that you contact the Landlord's office directly instead. They will lodge in the problem but that's as far as it will go. The cops will arrive literally 8 hours after the noise complaint has been lodged. (But that is a different story, but just as a small FYI to those who think that calling 311 will remedy the problems with Beach Lane -don't even think about it - 311 is useless and should only be used as evidence to document that you called for court) Point is, BeachLane has started to avoid me like the plague. So now I am weighing whether I should avoid paying rent until the problem is rectified. In the meantime, I am taking video footage of the noise (that shows the time taken from NY1 - so they won't say that I'm making the time up) and I'm also keeping copies of my 311 lodges and the two email exchanges that I had last year between Beachland and myself, where they spoke about the affidavit, so that when the court date comes up, I can show my evidence. It's too bad it has to come to this. This management company needs a lesson in management and customer service! more

I have been living in one of their buildings for 8 and a half months. The experience has been nothing but horrible. The Super doesn't answer his phone or return messages for days. When I call the management company I am disconnected the moment I say I have a complaint. I went 3 days with no power, 2 with no hot water, my plumbing had backed up and the super never showed with a plumber. My boyfriend ended up fixing the pipes. Four months have now gone by and as far as Beach Lane is concerned I still have no plumbing. I have no learned I have roaches. When calling to ask for an exterminator I was told it was unnecessary to call one and to just spray Raid. NEVER rent from beach lane. I wish I had seen these reviews BEFORE signing my lease. I will be leaving as soon as possible! more

I read the below reviews and thought that it couldn't be all true...I was wrong. The people working at this management company are THE rudest I have ever communicated with. As a customer you think they would talk to you with respect (at the least) but they cut you off when you are speaking, talk in a miserable tone, give one word answers, do not listen to you, and hang up without the slightest salutation. Rebecca is who I have had most contact with and she is the worst person to be working in customer service on the face of the earth. Rebecca should get fired and realize she never needs to work in customer service. After, on the phone I told her she was being extremely rude she softened her tone and was SLIGHTLY better but still did not listen to me. Every job is basically customer service and having had to work with customers before I understand it can be frustrating but I would NEVER talk to someone the way she talks to people (clients of the company no less!). Worst management company simply because of the fees the try and tack on as well as the worst customer service people in America. STEER CLEAR. more

RUDE people and NO communication. I applied for an apartment paid the $100. application fee and then was told two days later the rent for the apartment I applied for went up $700.00 per month!! BAD BUSINESS! They did not return the application fee and barely apoligized for this error. Even worse, I have been living in one of their buildings for the past two years paying rent every month on time and this is how I am treated imagine how they treat strangers. They just don't care STAY AWAY rent from someone else!! more

Do yourself a favor to avoid this management. Too many things to say but if I say one, it is impossible to get things fixed, even the ones that they promised to fix before moving-in. more

Beach Lane Management is a horrible management company. Simply, the WORST management company ever. The staff are incompetent. They can't handle even the simplest of tasks, such as arranging a repair of an appliance or having an apartment cleaned before you move in. They also will not communicate with you. Their emails will bounce because the staff changes over on a weekly basis. If you experience a problem, you will struggle to resolve it because you'll never communicate with the same person. If you're lucky to speak to a human people, chances are the person will be rude or a bad listener and not understand your complaint. No one needs the headache of dealing with this management company and the slum king himself, Mark Scharfman. more