Equity Residential Reviews 1,091

The walls of my apartment are like paper. I could hear my previous upstairs neighbor farting and belching every morning. If anyone in an apartment near me slams their front door, my door rattles. At times it sounds like someone is trying to break in but what I’m actually hearing is my own door reverberating from another slammed door.
A family lived downstairs from me, and on an almost daily basis I would hear the children a screaming, singing, playing. That noise would sometimes continue at 3 or 4 am and startle me awake. The apartment management did nothing to stop it. When dogs bark in adjoining apartments, the noise is so loud it sounds as though the animal is in the same room with me.
Again, apartment management does nothing. When I complain, the leasing manager would send generic emails reminding residents of the county’s quiet hours and that they should clean up after their pets. The noisy neighbors wouldn’t stop being noisy.

Charging absurd termination fees that were not stated on any documents and agreements. No such thing as “good faith”. Bad faith is more like it. Stay away and go small locally owned apartments. Don’t waste your time or money on Potrero 1010 San Francisco.

Unsanitary
Not as advertised
Zero professionality

Avoid at all costs. We lived at Equity for 1 year, and they took more than $700 from our deposit when we moved out (deposit was $1300). Below is a picture of the condition of the apartment taken before we moved out.

When we moved into Cleo a year ago, we were informed by Tenicia Mapp, the on-site manager, that we would not be charged for normal wear and tear, and that we would only be charged for $300 for the cleaning of the apartment.

When we did the pre-move out inspection. I made sure to ask if there's anything that we should clean. The inspector said the apartment was in good condition and said there's nothing specific we need to clean. He even said that we shouldn't expect to get charged for more than $200. 

Also, under california law, when a tenant moves out of a unit, the landlord may deduct from a tenant’s security deposit to repair damage to the premises that is caused by the tenant, but only for damage beyond ordinary wear and tear (Cal. Civil Code § 1950.5(b)(2).

Before we moved out, we did a thorough clean out too because we didn’t want to get charged. They charged us for normal wear and tear. If you are interested, I can send you pictures if you dm me.

Talked to Meaghan Thompson, she was pretty rude to us. Interrupted me the whole time. At one point interrupted us by saying “No no no no no no” ten times.

Also, from March, their office in the building has been closed, and you can’t even reach them. They are not very prompt with email responses (it took them 11 days to reply to my email about my deposit).

If you live there, don’t expect to get your deposit back.

For my first experience in US it was a really bad one.
I chose this community (Vantage Hollywood) because it mentiones to be "Smoke Free" in the web page and there was a smoke-free addendum in the contract.
But this community is far from smoke-free, it is smoke-full.
The people smoke everywhere: in the roof top terrace, in the entrance hall, in the apartments balcony, inside the apartments.
They do not hide for smoking, they smoke freely and they discard the remaining of the smoke in the floor.
They smoke everything, I have no idea what, just guessing from the smell and the health issues that I had due to second hand smoke.
This happened sporadically from the beginning October 2019, but it got worse after March 2020 when everybody were at their apartments due to covid-19.
What did Vantage Hollywood do to make the things right?
They did absolutely nothing.
There is not a single poster anywhere that states: smoke free area, or something similar, and they did not add anything even after all my complaints and evidences.
They found out that my neighbour was smoking inside the apartment and they offered me to move to another apartment since they could not make the person to stop.
But of course, the problem was not only with this person, but it was with the whole community.
After 3 months of sending evidences of what I am describing above, plus having lots of health issues because of the poor quality of life that I was having, I told them that I must follow my doctor´s advise and leave the place.
They charged me for leaving the place, it is difficult to believe but is the truth. They were failing to the contract and yet I had to pay.
Not to mention the difficulty of finding a new place at this time of covid-19 and how much more I had to pay for moving and paperwork.
What I learned? I have to see evidences of what is written in the contract, the contract is just a defense for the company, but not for the renter.
The renter has no defense unless he/she has a lot of money and power.

Charging me an insane amount of money for rent, then they closed ALL of the amenities even though it is not required by law. They are now refusing to negotiate a rent concession even though my rent is $3,500 and I have no access to any outdoor spaces or the gym that I PAID FOR! To break my lease, which I just re-signed on March 1st not expecting to have ZERO amenities, they are going to charge me $7,000. Remember, tenants, WE HAVE LEGAL OPTIONS!

This company is disgusting. They hit you with the most absurd fees that are no where to be found in the lease agreement. I was moving out a small dining table I replaced and got hit with a bulk trash fee which was over $100. None of this was ever told to me, but I found out when I went to pay my rent online. Management had no reasonable explanation for the fee. Oh and btw, I pay for trash already every single month. Thanks for the one-two to the face.

Also, I'm suppose to live in a luxury apartment, but the soundproofing between units is awful. I have pretty quiet neighbors, but I can hear very mild mannered conversations on both sides. So you can imagine when one of us plays music, it's an unwelcoming party to the other. No one ever told me I was loud till my first and only noise complaint via email where I was threatened with lease termination. Yes, I feel right at home here.

Stay away from equity residential. They are named equity because they try to take everything you own. The lack of respect and appreciation for their residents which makes their business viable is incredulous, but true and sad. Equity has much improvement to make. I wish I had read the reviews before signing my lease, but the rooftop pool got me really excited. Hopefully I get to enjoy it after this corona stuff shakes out. Otherwise, this place just stinks of poor stewardship and greed.

This BILLION dollar company does not help people during this terrible pandemic. They are still charging rent, charging fees for using credits even though that’s all someone has to pay and setting up residents for failure and massive debt. They reduced their hours by a lot and aren’t even doing service requests. They aren’t reducing rent. No one is asking for free rent but a reduced rent would help tremendously. DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY, they do not care about you.

They are a large corporation and take advantage of their tenants. From the outside things look nice and they do hire nice front desk staff, but that’s where it ends. Some of the issues I have had are heat breaking in the middle of the coldest night of the year, elevators never work (make sure to add an extra 10 minutes to your commute), they add water/sewer/boiler as extra limes in your monthly bill, 8%+ of renewal rates and mess with you for months that they are trying to reduce it for you but don’t.
You could do worse, because the staff and online portal are ok, so they get a 1* for that.

BEWARE OF FEES: BEFORE you move in ( the boiler, trash and sewer are divided amongst the occupants by Sq footage) if they have high vacancy rate your bill is higher. So expect $100-$165+ on top of your rent and YOUR utilities (electric & cable)

AFTER: You move out, I'm sure it's in the contract but I turned in keys 2 days early and got CHARGED $168 Early termination fee even though I had already paid for the full term of the lease and gave them keys 2 days early.

WHILE living there our AC unit went out, they had to TRY to repair it 3 times we didn't know it was running 24 hours because we have pets and not there the entire day and thermostat was set at 78. Our electric bill was CRAZY high because of this. At FIRST Elaine and Meaghan were very helpful and accommodating to get a utility adjustment... This is AUGUST. Cut to EVERY MONTH getting the run around from MEAGHAN the property manager about the adjustment.

Elaine and Dale in the front office were great well at least Dale... Elaine is great until she's NOT. Maybe she hates her job or is trying to emulate Meaghan :(

STILL NO ANSWER. Meghan seems to be helpful but it's OBVIOUS she is just giving the run around. I really thought she was an HONEST person and would make things right or she could have said I'm sorry nothing I can do.

MOVED out in Feb 22...2 days before our lease ended and got the EARLY TERMINATION CHARGE.

YES all the other review about the elevators breaking down, kids in the jacuzzi and noise... Sketchy people in the garage are on par.

Was PLEASED at least the move out costs were honest and feel that wasn't a RIPOFF......with the exception of The early termination fees (I'm sure it's in the contract the fine print)

AND DON'T TRUST MANAGEMENT or at least the current management Meaghan.

Equity residential is the 3rd largest rental corporation in the country owned by Billionare Zelle who's a tyrant and a crook. They charge late fees even if you're on time there are 15 concurrent major law suits at any time. They never pay your deposit back and when you take them to small claims court they refuse to pay the judgement. Narcissist trump has bought their shares. If you see any rental research who owns it. If it's EQR RUN...

I had been a tenant for few years now. The property was bought out by Equity little bit ago. We could see the change in service level right after that. Equity Residential does not care much about the service. It cares a lot about money though. My service request sit there for weeks at time. lot of times they get closed without completing properly. The front office has no control over the maintenance.
Complaining to Corporate results in nothing. Corporate office doesnt even bother to contact you. If you are looking for any level of decent service then please do not rent at Equity residential.

When you move out .watch it !! You won’t get your full deposit back they are untruthful and liars !!! they charge for painting and cleaning even though I had it cleaned before moved out . I asked to see pictures what they cleaned and they sent me other apartment pictures and said it’s mine and was dirty !!
I have to bring them to small claims court to get my whole deposit back .. really unfair to waist my time .
So take pics when move out ! They lie .. and they were so nice on everything else what a disgusting shame they are worse than 1 star
.would never recommend them anymore !

I have been renting at Skycrest Apts, for 10 Months. This is a smoke free apartment complex. I have an infant which was born with lung problems. The marijuana smoke has leeched into my apartment on many occasions. I have filed a complaint every single time which is over 30 times. They have yet to handle the problem. Things have gotten phyiscal with the other tenant and threatened the livelihood of my family. I have asked repeatedly to simply move him or move me more than willing, I was assured that wouldn't be necessary. MY MISTAKE! It's been 2 more months past this point I tell them I'd like to leave at this point after filing numerous complaints and dealing with this for over 5 months. They hit me with a breaking the lease fine, I understand this but after so many complaints and trying to work with them will be seeking legal action for the health hazard created with no genuine attempt at resolvence.

This is my first time getting my own place and they have made it a breeze! From the very start they made it a point to make myself and my family feel at home. Mind you, we actually checked out a few places before we decided. They aren't pushy and are extremely considerate to different families. Not once did they make us feel that attaining the perfect home was out of our reach! We're going on almost half a year and they have been very prompt in providing great service at whatever time of the day! Will definitely be looking to them for my housing needs for the years to come!

Do not rent from any apartments run and owned by Equity Residential. They bully tenants and engage in illegal practices. They refused to return our security deposit even if the place was in perfect condition when we left. They were charging us for cleaning and painting and for normal wear and tear which is completely illegal! They have been in lawsuit many times in the past and this is another class action lawsuit waiting to happen. I am trying to sue them. They bully you in the hopes that you give up. They also get you in with specials but once your yearly lease is over, they raise the rent by as much as 25%. PM me if anyone is interested to file a class action lawsuit.

This property was presented as safe, quiet, in high demand, building were tenant concerns would be addressed quickly along with wonderful amenities. None of these promises ended up being correct. There was crime in the streets (drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes), the fire station made noise at all hours (understandable, but I was told it couldn't be heard in the unit I was renting), neighbors were noisy (complaints to building management went unanswered), elevators were consistently down for service/out of order, the pool, hot tub, and sauna were constantly under repair. When these concerns were brought to the building management, my messages were either not returned or they said "we're working on it". Nothing ever got rectified. After giving them multiple warnings to fix the issues or I was going to void my lease. When they continued to fail on all accounts, I vacated my unit.

I heard nothing from them for nearly 4yrs, and then out of nowhere I find that they are garnishing my wages with a two-bit collections agency (gatlawfirm.com) out of Oregon. I was never served with a summons contrary to what both parties claim. And for some reason they state they were unable to fill my unit for nearly 8 months.... So apparently not as in "high demand" as they stated. Neither entity will even negotiate a lump sum pay off of the amount.

Stay away from Equity Residential (Centennial Tower) and their poor service. Nothing more than a slumlord with a nice jacket and a pocket full of excuses when you live there.

These apartments are clean and ell cared for. If there is a problem they will immediately send a repair man to fix it. The office staff is friendly and always helpful. The grounds are well kept and have a good sense of nature. This corporation does not believe in recycling garbage so they provide 2 large commercial bins where everyone dumps everything. Some of the residents just dump their garbage outside the bins. It would be nice if there would be proper education for the foreign residents how to put garbage in a bin, how to fold boxes so there is room for everyone, and the value of recycling. Here they just post signs no one pays attention to. Thrown garbage on the ground can attract rats & animals. All of the people I have met who live here are friendly so it is a comfortable place to live. It could be a great community if residents were educated as to how to recycle, how to place garbage and if there were some place with bulletin board to share community events and interests.

I am upset because this parking situation isn't good. I can't never go out anywhere because I have to stay home to reserve my parking ! It's better when you assign a number to each apartment like another communities

This is a great hospital I defeneteily recommend it to everyone great service!